Year's Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 3

By: Scott Smith, Nathan Ballingrud, Brian Hodge, Robert Levy, Tim Curran, Ryan Harding, Matt Shaw, Tim Waggoner, Annie Neugebauer, Dani Brown, Adam Howe, Octavia Cade, Bracken MacLeod, Nathan Robinson, Various

Narrated by: Angel Leigh McCoy

Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

It was a killer year for horror fiction of the harder kind. Authors, editors, and publishers presented readers with some startling works of horrific imagination, stories graphic in the extreme yet with subtleties suggesting larger meanings, tales that explore humanity by plumbing depths of soulless inhumanity and, in some cases, outright depravity. The stories here represent the best of them, disturbing tales that dig deep and take you into the dark heart of horror itself, unrelenting and unapologetic.

• “So Sings the Siren”, by Annie Neugebauer, takes us onto a dark fantasy stage for a one-night-only performance of mythological torture.
• Ryan Harding’s “Junk” gets right to the hardcore stuff with the ultimate dick-pic horror tale.
• Robert Levy’s “The Cenacle” is a literary cemetery feast you may have a hard time stomaching (Tums won’t save you).
• Luciano Marano made his first pro sell when he sold “Burnt” to DOA III, and the tale has its own fiery fetishistic twist.
• Tim Waggoner’s “Til Death” is Lovecraftian post-apocalypse horror at its absolute best.
• “Letter from Hell” comes with that special delivery you only get from Matt Shaw.
• Dani Brown gets down and very dirty in her “Theatrum Mortuum”, which may be the most extreme thing you hear all year.
• In “Bernadette”, Ramiro Perez de Pereda gets medieval in his tale of a djinn summoned by a desperate priest.
• Brian Hodge takes you on a trip to Mexico you will never forget in “West of Matamoros, North of Hell”.
• Bracken MacLeod’s “Reprising Her Role” takes us behind the scenes of a porno snuff film for a gut-wrenching reprisal and unexpected bonus footage.
• A real-life death threat inspired Doug Ford’s “The Watcher”, and we think it shows.
• “Scratching from the Outer Darkness” showcases Tim Curran’s descriptive prowess and gives you a tale of hardcore Cthulhu mythos.
• Brace yourself when Adam Howe’s “Foreign Bodies” takes you deep into the bowels of a nasty abyss.
• Sean Patrick Hazlett introduces us to “Adramelech”, an ancient demon with a taste for broiled children.
• Scott Smith (A Simple Plan and The Ruins) wraps up this year’s fat package of the hard stuff in a big bloody bow with “The Dogs”. The canines in this tale are not "man’s best friend" variety, nor are they woman’s besties, as you will see.
• And many more!

Thanks for coming along into this year’s heart of hardcore darkness. We hope to see you on the other side.

©2018 Comet Press (P)2018 Comet Press

Horrifying

Disturbing, disgusting and delightful, I really enjoyed this collection.

Let me warn you before you run out and purchase this audiobook, it’s supplies what the title implies, hard-core horror. There are some extremely disturbing stories in here that contain violence, mutilation, pornography and a little beastiality thrown in for good measure. The easily triggered or offended should stay away.

I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author in exchange for my unbiased review.

Excuse me now, I need to search for volumes one and two.

Something for everyone, for better or worse.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This is a hard collection to review as it definitely goes for breadth in what would be considered 'hardcore' and the arrangement of the stories within the volume diminishes the overall experience.

Quite a few stories are nothing more than a character introduction followed by splatter/gore, which is OK in small doses but presented back to back gets very old, very fast as the formulaic nature begins to stand out. There are a couple good longer pieces in here as well that go the complete opposite direction and actually build character before bringing out subtle lingering horror. A lot of people I know who read horror tend to favor one heavily over the other, so unless you really enjoy both types you're probably going to wind up irritated with several of the stories included, although exactly which ones are up to interpretation. Personally I favor the longer pieces and the ones in here are good, although you may have heard them before - be sure to check the chapter list before purchasing.

Technically there are no problems with the collection and the narration is clear and has none of the usual issues.

Great collection

One of the best in the series
Plenty of great stories with my top picks being
Burnt one girls pursuit of love
Letter from hell a letter written Albert fish style
Reprising her role about an actress in a snuff film
Ultra a VR gamers addiction
The dogs a dog sitting job from hell
Well narrated and a great way to discover new authors highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

A Great Horror Collection!

In this collection you'll find a story or several to make your skin crawl and your mind want to hide. I didn't care for all of the stories but enough of them to make it worth having. If you enjoy extreme horror stories then you really should add this collection to your library! Narration was well done and added to each story!

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A solid horror short story collection

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a great collection of horror short stories. I thought they were well narrated and very entertaining. I didn't love all of the stories, but I found I enjoyed more than I disliked. All in all, if you you want a good horror anthology, this would be a good one to go with.

15 hours of greatness!

From the first story until the very last story with the exception of two of the stories I thought they were great. I won’t mention the two I didn’t like because someone else might like them and I don’t want to disparage any rider they work or and or talented that’s why they are published so here we go. The rest of the stories were freaking awesome I recommend the Stanley one who likes aura and sci-fi mix with horror. This would be the book for you. I can’t wait to get the best of 2018 and 2019 if there was half as good as this book was it’ll be worth it.

enjoyed

struggling to finish some of the stories. no specific authors mentioned here. I don't remember the least interesting ones. :(

Holy crap what a ride.

This book doesn't pull any punches that's for sure. Right from the start you are going to be assaulted by some of the creepiest, grossest, and most shocking things you've ever read. Unfortunately as with all body horror some of them cross over into the realm of trying too hard to shock you and kind of spoil the story a bit but other stories are really well written and thought provoking.

Most were pretty good

I really enjoyed a lot of the stories, but the sci-fi I really don't get into. But I did really like 👍 a lot of them. It's worth a read or listen I guess you can say.

Fantastic Collection of Truly Horrific Horror

I've definitely enjoyed my fair share of hardcore horror since being exposed to the genre a while back. So the appeal of a year's best for it is pretty straight forward for me. This incarnation was a great collection with a couple of stand out pieces such as Brian Hodge's western horror masterpiece. The rest of the pieces are solid as well without any let downs and the narration does a good job of keeping up with the varying styles of horrific subject matter. I definitely highly recommend this series, and this version in particular. It's also a great chance for someone who wants to follow extreme horror without supporting torture porn. Some of these pieces might tread the line, but there's a lot of thought behind these works.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.