When things get dark Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson has always been there, haunting high-school textbooks with her tales of lethal lotteries. But it's hard to dispute that there's been a genuine resurgence of interest in her work in recent years. We've seen Ruth Franklin's acclaimed biography, Netflix's Haunting of Hill House series, and films based on Jackson's work and life, so the timing seems perfect for this compendium, inspired by her work. As with all anthologies, readers will find some stories more effective than others; there's also some variation in terms of how Jackson-esque each entry feels. Cassandra Khaw's "Quiet Dead Things," with its exploration of rural paranoia, probably channels Jackson's flavor of dread most effectively, but there are plenty of other gems here. Good luck sleeping after reading Benjamin Percy's witchy trip tale "Hag" or Karen Heuler's monkey's-paw--ish "Money of the Dead." That's not to mention acclaimed writers like Joyce Carol Oates and Kelly Link, who also contribute memorable stories. Readers with a taste for the macabre should find plenty to enjoy in this inspired collection.

Winner of Multiple Hugo Awards, Datlow (Final Cuts) brings together 18 outstanding, atmospheric horror shorts from some of the biggest names in the genre--including Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, and Joyce Carol Oates--in tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson. A trio of women explore a house with a bizarre secret in Elizabeth Hand's "For Sale by Owner." Cassandra Khaw's "Quiet Dead Things" traces the fall of the sleepy township of Cedarville following a rash of inexplicable deaths. In Karen Heuler's "Money of the Dead," a grief-stricken woman buys back the spirit of her son from the afterlife. Benjamin Percy's "Hag" tells of one woman's reckoning with a cult on an isolated island. Each of Datlow's chilling selections successfully honors the spirit of Jackson's writing, suffused with both the darkest of human emotions and the terror of the supernatural. Any fan of Jackson's oeuvre will delight in this anthology. (Sept.)