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Year's Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 1 cover art

Year's Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 1

By: Cheryl Mullenax, Randy Chandler, Kristopher Triana, Jeff Strand, Jack Bantry
Narrated by: Joe Hempel
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Publisher's Summary

Excerpt from the introduction: 

Editors Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax put the call out to horror writers and editors of extreme stories, the hardcore stuff that breaks boundaries and trashes taboos, the transgressive tales you can't "unread" (as Chuck Palahniuk says). We staked out our territory and nailed this to the wall to guide us: 

Year's Best Hardest Horror 

Not your mama's best-of horror annual. This stuff comes from the edge of the abyss, stories you read at your own risk because you feel the abyss looking right back into you through the tainted lens of each twisted tale. 

Some of the stories you'll find here are loaded with very graphic descriptions of violence, sex, and depravities, while others may contain only one shocking moment of brutality. In others, the hardcore aspect may be less graphic and subtler than you might expect. Some of these quieter tales offer the listener some time to recover from the more disturbing ones preceding. 

Most of the stories collected here are from small and specialty press anthologies, with a few from periodicals, like the prestigious Splatterpunk Zine in the UK and Thuglit here in the US. Bizarro is also represented with a couple of tales from the unlikely anthology Blood for You: A Literary Tribute to GG Allin from Weirdpunk Books. (If you're not familiar with the late GG Allin, you can find snippets from some of his outrageous and obscene punk shows online, which will increase your appreciation of those two tales.) 

So for now, forget about that neighbor you suspect is a serial killer, don't worry about the drunk driver that could take you out on your next trip to the store, push those troubling news stories to the back of your mind, and immerse yourself in the imaginary horrors at hand. 

But don't be surprised if you sense something dark staring back at you from between the lines. That is to be expected when you enter these forbidding realms. With any luck, you may find something useful to help you survive the approaching Apocalypse. 

Full list of authors includes Adam Howe, Robert Essig, Adam Cesare, Clare de Lune, David James Keaton, and Monica J. O'Rourke.

©2016 Comet Press (P)2016 Comet Press

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What listeners say about Year's Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 1

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If you’re a sensitive wee flower with a nervous disposition... move along. Nothing to see here!

On the other hand... if you’re a depraved fiend like me, look no further for your next read. Packed with explicit sex, offensive language and Themes. Plus plenty of gratuitous violence. It does just as advertised on the box. Both volumes, 1 and 2, are equally capable of scratching even the deepest horror itch.
Daniel Inwood.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Great variety, amazing narration

As the introduction says, these aren't the most amazing horror stories you'll read, but they'll stay with you. They are really brought to life by the stellar performance. Sometimes it felt like someone else was reading each story.

Even the weakest stories were fun and enjoyable. A very well put together collection.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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The most unscarred I’ve ever been

I listened to this during a long drive and I must say I’ve never done so much eye rolling in my life. This anthology has been compiled by someone who believes that in depth descriptions of incest, rape, torture and gore is enough to make something scary.
Many stories don’t even follow horror tropes to the point where I had no idea what was meant to be scary about them until the end.

One might say the book is smart for avoiding all the horror tropes but I seriously disagree. There is nothing scary or subtle for that matter about anything that’s meant to be scary. When they say Hardcore Horror that just mean that the stories contained some of the most heinous subjects they could think of.

For example I couldn’t believe someone had seriously written a story where two people are trapped in a train that is stopped in time that are forced to fill out each other’s sexual desires however one of them is a sadist. And then they fall in love. The dialogue was cringy and the only notable part was how visceral the detail of the sex and the fire was. Waste of time for people who like psychological horror or scary horror for that matter.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

the multiple organisations had me cringeing

you can tell some of these are women written by men with porn as their main source of information.
kinda had me laughing at what otherwise are good stories.

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