• Title: Dark Delicacies II: Fear; More Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World’s Greatest Horror Writers
• Author: Del Howison (Editor), Jeff Gelb (Editor), Ray Harryhausen (Foreword)
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (November 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786719516
• ISBN-13: 978-0786719518

I really enjoyed this book – this is the second of three volumes (so far) of horror anthologies from Dark Delicacies, a great independent bookstore in Burbank. You can read my review of the first book here.

The first book had more famous authors, but this book had a theme, fear, and that somehow gave this anthology more strength – the stories had fewer traditional horror villains and much more raw, often unexpected, fear. For example, the story “Dog” was amazing – it’s about a guy on a bicycle followed by a large dog. But of course the story is much much more than that. “The Unlikely Redemption of Jared Pearce” was surprising and, in a slightly sick way, wonderful. And the twist at the end of “First Born” is, um, to die for.

I think these books make an excellent introduction to the craft of horror fiction; if you like this genre you should get a copy of these books and read them.