Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology

by Vince A. Liaguno, Rena Mason

Overview

An anthology of original horror stories edited by Bram Stoker Award® winners Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason that showcases authors from historically excluded backgrounds telling terrifying tales of what it means to be, or merely to seem, “other”

Offering new stories from some of the biggest names in horror as well as some of the hottest up-and-coming talents, Other Terrors will provide the ultimate reading experience for horror fans who want to examine fear of “the other.”

Be they of a different culture, a different background, a different sexual orientation or gender identity, a different belief system, or a different skin color, some people simply aren’t part of the community’s majority—and are perceived as scary. Humans are almost instinctively inclined to fear what’s different, and there are a multitude of individuals who have spent far too long on the outside looking in. And the thing about the outside is . . . it’s much larger than you think.

In Other Terrors, horror writers from a multitude of underrepresented backgrounds have created stories of everyday people, places, and things where something shifts, striking a deeper, much more primal, chord of fear. Are our eyes playing tricks on us, or is there something truly sinister lurking under the surface of what we thought we knew? And who among us is really the other, after all?

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: Tananarive Due, Jennifer McMahon, S.A. Cosby, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Michael Thomas Ford, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Christina Sng, Denise Dumars, Usman T. Malik, Annie Neugebauer, Gabino Iglesias, Hailey Piper, Nathan Carson, Shanna Heath, Tracy Cross, Linda D. Addison, Maxwell I. Gold, Larissa Glasser, Eugen Bacon, Holly Lyn Walrath, Jonathan Lees, M. E. Bronstein, Michael Hanson

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358658894
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/19/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	289,940
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

VINCE A. LIAGUNO is an award-winning writer, anthologist, and editor and an occasional poet. He is the Bram Stoker Award–winning editor of Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press, 2008), an anthology of queer horror fiction, which he co-edited with Chad Helder. His debut novel, 2006’s The Literary Six, was a tribute to the slasher films of the ’80s and won an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for horror and was named a finalist in Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards in the gay/lesbian fiction category. Vince currently resides in the mitten-shaped state of Michigan, where he is a licensed nursing home administrator by day and a writer, anthologist, and pop culture enthusiast by night.
 

RENA MASON is a three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author of The Evolutionist and East End Girls, as well as a 2014 Stage 32 / The Blood List Presents: The Search for New Blood Screenwriting Contest quarter finalist. She’s had nearly two dozen short stories, novelettes, and novellas published in various award-winning anthologies and magazines and writes a monthly column, often featuring special guest articles. Her debut novel, The Evolutionist, has been used in creative writing workshops to teach Southeast Asian students how to write minority characters as metaphors. Rena has also helped spearhead the Horror Writers Association’s Diverse Works Inclusion Community that now runs a website feature titled The Seers’ Table, hosting and promoting diverse authors and their works. Born in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, Rena is a Thai-Chinese American and frequently incorporates Asian characters and mythos into her stories. A retired registered nurse, avid scuba diver, and world traveler, she currently resides in Reno, Nevada.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction Vince A. Liaguno Rena Mason ix

Other Fears Christina Sng 1

Idiot Girls Jennifer McMahon 6

Waste Not Alma Katsu 29

Night Shopper Michael H. Hanson 46

Scrape Denise Dumars 63

Mud Flappers Usman T. Malik 78

Churn the Unturning Tide Annie Neugebauer 87

There's Always Something in the Woods Gabino Iglesias 100

The Turning Hailey Piper 118

Help, I'm a Cop Nathan Carson 131

Miss Infection USA Shanna Heath 141

All Not Ready Tracy Cross 155

Illusions of the De-Evolved Linda D. Addison 166

Black Screams, Yellow Stars Maxwell I. Gold 167

Kalkriese Larissa Glasser 171

The Devil Don't Come with Horns Eugen Bacon 198

Invasive Species Ann Dávila Cardinal 215

The Asylum Holly Lyn Walrath 229

Tiddlywinks Stephen Graham Jones 242

Where the Lovelight Gleams Michael Thomas Ford 251

It Comes in Waves Jonathan Lees 267

The Voices of Nightingales M. E. Bronstein 278

What Blood Hath Wrought S.A. Cosby 295

Incident at Bear Creek Lodge Tananarive Due 314

Acknowledgments 341

About the Editors 343

About the Contributors 345

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/09/2022

Stoker Award–winning editors Liaguno and Mason cleverly subvert the common horror trope of the monstrous other in this powerful anthology that spotlights 24 writers with marginalized identities. In these stories, LGBTQ and BIPOC people take center stage in both terror and terrorized roles. Jennifer McMahon’s “Idiot Girls” pits older immigrants against teen lesbians in a supernatural whodunit. “Night Shopper” by Michael H. Hanson offers a satisfying revenge fantasy as vampires and ghouls protect a trans woman as one of their own, while generational revenge against a bloodline of enslavers takes center stage in S.A. Cosby’s thrilling “What Blood Hath Wrought.” Denise Dumars twines the rise of anti-Asian racism during Covid-19 with medical body horror in “Scrape.” Gabino Iglesias’s “There’s Always Something in the Woods” puts a Latinx twist on a classic creature story. With impactful writing and authentically embodied characters, this anthology succeeds by lifting up a diverse and skilled group of authors and letting them dive deeply into the horror that sits next door to their own lived experiences. The result is unmissable for horror fans of all backgrounds. Agent: Alec Shane, Writers House. (July)

Publishers Weekly

[A] trailblazing anthology in which LGBTQ+ characters and people of color are both feared and preyed upon in jolting, haunting, sometimes funny, and/or graphically violent tales . . . . The face of horror fiction continues to be enhanced, both in representation and in relevance.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Powerful . . . Impactful writing and authentically embodied characters . . . unmissable for horror fans of all backgrounds.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“There is a wide array of types and genres of horror on offer in this collection, which should more than satisfy any reader interested in exploring the fear of otherness, in life or in fiction.” — Booklist (starred review)

“What a great collection of horror tales, and one that expands the picture of who writes the stuff we love so much. This book serves as proof, if it was needed, that chilling, blood curdling and disturbing work can come to us from all quarters. An absolute delight. Curl up with this one and tremble.” — Victor LaValle, author of The Ballad of Black Tom

“This timely and groundbreaking anthology offers up a wickedly talented pool of diverse perspectives who know that the best of horror is here to unmask difficult truths, chainsaw oppressive systems, interrogate notions of ‘the other,’ claw and gnaw at cultural and political unease, and—yes—scare the hell out of you.” — Benjamin Percy, author of The Unfamiliar Garden and Thrill Me

“An extraordinary and very welcome showcase, Other Terrors brings us darkly wonderful and beautifully hideous stories from some of the best authors working in the genre today. Some will gravitate toward this volume due to the diversity of voices included, while others will be drawn by the reputations of some of the writers within, but however you come to Other Terrors, you’ll be rewarded. Don’t miss it!” — Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and Ararat

“[A]n ingenious collection of frights by marginalized identities.” — Chicago Tribune

“From Tananarive Due’s story of familial horror and shame to the interesting method of survival developed by Usman T. Malik’s Pakistani islanders, horror fans will be hard-pressed to find a story that they dislike. On the contrary, stories from this collection will disturb readers long after they’ve been read. In the best way, of course.” — Book Riot

“Trailblazing . . . . Fans of horror will appreciate "Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology" for many generations to come.” — Bay Area Reporter

"A delightfully sinister mediation on what we all fear most: difference." — Harper's Bazaar

"Each story is much more than the surface-level creepy-crawly-feeling induced by good horror. In fact, the real chills arrive when you realize that while fictional and fantastical elements litter each page, the truth of these experiences is the actual evil of a world in which they can, and do, exist." — Lightspeed Magazine

From the Publisher

★ 2022-05-25
Horror writers representing varied cultures, genders, and sexual orientations contribute stories cataloging anxieties of, and toward, “the other”—whatever that “other” may be.

The subtitle, An Inclusive Anthology, hammers home what Bram Stoker Award winners Liaguno and Mason have assembled: a trailblazing anthology in which LGBTQ+ characters and people of color are both feared and preyed upon in jolting, haunting, sometimes funny, and/or graphically violent tales. Dramatizing fears, anxieties, and phobias held by and against those perceived as socially marginal can be a delicate, even dicey process. But the stories here are mostly tough-minded and emphatic in such provocative variations on this theme as Jennifer McMahon’s tautly woven, wickedly ingenious “Idiot Girls,” about teen lesbian lovers whose secret trysts pit them against the immigrant groundskeeper of their apartment complex—and put them in the path of a serial killer. Then there’s “Night Shopper,” Michael H. Hanson’s revenge fantasy in which a Muslim trans woman with a penchant for Wittgenstein’s aphorisms finds unlikely salvation from hate crime in the shut-ins to whom she delivers groceries. Similar if subtler gratifications are available in Usman T. Malik’s “Mud Flappers,” which reaches further afield to an island off the Karachi coast whose residents have sustained an effective—and grisly—way of resisting would-be exploiters. A different, if no less bizarre, act of retribution is submitted for our approval by the crime writer S.A. Cosby in “What Blood Hath Wrought,” in which a Black history professor calls upon otherworldly powers to seek out from among a motley collection of Pancake Shack diners the homicidal descendant of a sadistic slaveholder. The terrorism of anti-Asian racism aroused by Covid-19 swells into more widespread and profoundly transfiguring scientific phenomena in Denise Dumars’ “Scrape,” while in Hailey Piper’s “The Turning,” adolescent girls are swept up by a plague that transforms them into prehistoric mammals, thus creating newer, scarier forms of “the other” that frighten the grown-ups—and resist any efforts to change back to whatever they were before. One could go on and on citing stories by such writers as, Alma Katsu, Gabino Iglesias, Nathan Carson, and others.

The face of horror fiction continues to be enhanced, both in representation and in relevance.

Kirkus Reviews

12/01/2022

Bram Stoker Award—winners Liaguno (editor of Unspeakable Horror) and Mason (The Evolutionist) offer an anthology that does its best to make sure all listeners can find themselves within. Authors and characters come from a wide array of backgrounds, covering religion, ethnicities, gender, abilities, and more. While this diversity applies to villains and victims, it also applies to heroes and survivors—and to narrators. A single narrator would never have worked for this anthology, so it was a wise decision to cast this extraordinary group, including Jeanette Illidge, Catherine Ho, James Fouhey, Tim Chiou, Neil Shah, and Blessing Mokgohloa. Each is matched perfectly with their stories, performing with equal skill to the writers. The stories and poems, as well as their narration, run the gamut, moving from terrifying to disgusting. Stephen Graham Jones delivers a surprising literary twist in the slasher tale "Tiddlywinks." Michael H. Hanson offers a bloody, yet heartwarming story with "Night Shopper." Jennifer McMahon's "Idiot Girls," a story of young love and prejudice, will appeal to fans of the latest season of Stranger Things. VERDICT An inclusive and thoughtful collection that will leave listeners with a list of new authors and narrators to seek out.—Matthew Galloway

Library Journal - Audio

An ensemble of talented narrators performs a unique horror anthology that subverts tropes to examine the feeling of being “other.” The collection is composed of 24 stories that focus on marginalized identities. Each work is brought to life by a talented narrator who imbues it with pathos and an appropriate tone. Some stories are oddly funny, while others venture into graphic violence. All elevate the horror genre with thoughtful social commentary. The viewpoints are diverse and wildly engaging, especially as delivered by the narrators. Sometimes it’s difficult to hit pause at the end of a story, as the next catches one’s attention seconds later. The plot twists and disturbing conclusions make for spooky listening, yet most offer a different take on standard horror fare. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile

An ensemble of talented narrators performs a unique horror anthology that subverts tropes to examine the feeling of being “other.” The collection is composed of 24 stories that focus on marginalized identities. Each work is brought to life by a talented narrator who imbues it with pathos and an appropriate tone. Some stories are oddly funny, while others venture into graphic violence. All elevate the horror genre with thoughtful social commentary. The viewpoints are diverse and wildly engaging, especially as delivered by the narrators. Sometimes it’s difficult to hit pause at the end of a story, as the next catches one’s attention seconds later. The plot twists and disturbing conclusions make for spooky listening, yet most offer a different take on standard horror fare. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile