Books Read in 2013

This post follows on from Books Read in 2012, which I posted at the end of January 2023.

And for 2013 I read one hundred and forty four books, six down from the previous year, and again the majority of them were for review in Black Static, though I also served on one of the British Fantasy Award judging panels, which added a bit of fantasy as fibre to my literary diet.

On this day in 2013 I was reading Haunted by James Herbert, while on the day I turned 59 I was reading Rupetta by N. A. Sulway. Looking down the list no writer stands out as an important new discovery, and for best book it’s a toss up between Roger Clarke’s riveting A Natural History of Ghosts and The Wide, Carnivorous Sky & Other Monstrous Geographies, a wonderful collection of stories by John Langan. Fifty Shades of Grey was a gift from a friend and so I felt obliged to read it (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it). She gave me the next two volumes as well, but we fell out so I gave them to a charity unread.

Here’s the list:-

A Feast of Frights From the Horror Zine – Edited by Jeani Rector

The Best Horror of the Year Volume Four – Edited by Ellen Datlow

A Season in Carcosa – Edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Snr

Coldbrook – Tim Lebbon

Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis – Wendy Cope

The Fox – Conrad Williams

The Late Great Creature – Brock Brower

Trinity – Kristin Dearborn

Stalking You Now – Jeff Strand

Black Wings II: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror – Edited by S. T. Joshi

Darker Minds – Edited by Ross Warren & Anthony Watson

The House That Death Built – John Llewellyn Probert

The First Book of Classical Horror Stories – Edited by D. F. Lewis

Danse Macabre: Encounters with the Reaper – Edited by Nancy Kilpatrick

Vampyric Variations – Edited by Nancy Kilpatrick

Fifty Shades of Grey – E. L. James

Unhallowed Ground – Daniel Mills

Children of No One – Nicole Cushing

Girls & Monsters – Anne Michaud

Adamtine – Hannah Berry

Weaveworld: 25^th Anniversary Edition – Clive Barker

Long Shadows, Nightmare Light – Mark Morris

Spin – Nina Allan

Vampire Circus – Mark Morris

Dark World: Ghost Stories – Edited by Timothy Parker Russell

F9 – Michael McBride

In a Season of Dead Weather – Mark Fuller Dillon

It Sustains – Mark Morris

Abarat: Absolute Midnight – Clive Barker

House of Rain – Greg Gifune

Haunted – James Herbert

Creakers – Paul Kane

Whitstable – Stephen Volk

Axe – Terry Grimwood

Dr Black and the Guerillia – Brendan Connell

A Haunting of Ghosts – Maynard Sims

Hauntings – Edited by Ellen Datlow

In Delirium’s Circle – Stephen J. Clarke

The Tainted Earth – George Berguño

Path of Needles – Alison Littlewood

This House is Haunted – John Boyne

The White Devil – Justin Evans

An Antique Land – John Shire

The Demeter – Martin Jones

The Shadow Out of Time – H. P. Lovecraft (adapted by I. N. J. Culbard)

Little Red Transistor Radio from Trieste – Dragan Todorovic

A Natural History of Ghosts: 500 Years of Hunting for Proof – Roger Clarke

The Flight of the Ravens – Chris Butler

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – James Rose

Roadkill – Joseph D’Lacey

Burnt Island – Alice Thompson

Shadows Edge – Edited by Simon Strantzas

In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair – Cate Gardner

The Great God Pan & Xelucha – Arthur Machen & M. P. Shiel

The Descent – James Marriott

Helen’s Story – Rosanne Rabinowitz

The Castle – Franz Kafak (adapted by David Zane Mairowitz & Jaromir 99)

Microcosmos – Nina Allan

Spin – Nina Allan

Stardust: The Ruby Castle Stories – Nina Allan

Where Furnaces Burn – Joel Lane

Everything Is Always Wrong – Graham Tugwell

Touch Me With Your Cold, Hard Fingers – Elizabeth Stott

The Jungle – Conrad Williams

The Lighthouse – Alison Moore

A Pretty Mouth – Molly Tanzer

Shift – Kim Curran

Hair Side, Flesh Side – Helen Marshall

The Alchemist of Souls – Anne Lyle

Throne of the Crescent Moon – Saladin Ahmed

Emergence – Gary Fry

Dogs With Their Eyes Shut – Paul Meloy

City of the Lost – Stephen Blackmoore

Visions Fading Fast – Edited by Gary McMahon

Blood and Feathers – Lou Morgan

Lord Horror: Reverbstorm – David Britton (graphics by John Coulthart)

Let’s Drink to the Dead – Simon Bestwick

The Condemned – Simon Bestwick

Soul Masque – Terry Grimwood

Nightsiders – Gary McMahon

Shadows – Isla J. Bick

The Bones of You – Gary McMahon

Financial Accounting for Dummies – Steven Collings & Marie Loughran

Shifters – Michael G. Preston

Fair Coin – E. C. Myers

Mechagnosis – Douglas Thompson

Mayhem – Sarah Pinborough

Charm – Sarah Pinborough

Countess Dracula – Guy Adams

Hunger – Melvin Burgess

The Revenge of Frankenstein – Shaun Hutson

Don’t Stand So Close – Eric Red

The New Flesh – Keith Deininger

Uncommon Places: A Collection of Exquisites – W. H. Pugmire

La Squab: The Black Rose of Auschwitz – David Britton (illustrated by Kris Guido)

The Wide, Carnivorous Sky & Other Monstrous Geographies – John Langan

At Fear’s Altar – Richard Gavin

Corrosion – Jon Bassoff

Revenant Road – Michael Boatman

The Sea Change & Other Stories – Helen Grant

Written by Daylight – John Howard

Hell Gate – Elizabeth Massie

Darkscapes – Anne-Sylvie Salzman

Stoker’s Manuscript – Royce Prouty

Getting Out of There – M. John Harrison

M – Hilary Scudder

As Dead As Me – Ralph Robert Moore

Chalk – Pat Cadigan

Bloodstones – Edited by Amanda Pillar

Midnight and Moonshine – Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter

Lurker – Gary Fry

Shades of Nothingness – Gary Fry

Emergence – Gary Fry

Menace – Gary Fry

In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair – Cate Gardner

Conjure House – Gary Fry

Rupetta – N. A. Sulway

Prickle Moon – Juliet Marillier

The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories – Joanne Anderton

Razorjack – John Higgins

Flying Fish – Randall Silvis

The Reparateur of Strasbourg – Ian R. MacLeod

Broken Sigil – William Meikle

The Black Church – Toby Tate

Whom the Gods Would Destroy – Brian Hodge

The Fading Place – Mary SanGiovanni

Love & Zombies – Eric Shapiro

Nightmare Man – Alan Ryker

Small Animals – Alison Moore

Puck – David Rose

Remains – G. A. Pickin

Sullom Hill – Christopher Kenworthy

Hell’s Door – Sandy DeLuca

Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide – Joseph A. McCullough

Messages from the Dead – Sandy DeLuca

Veins and Skulls – Daniele Serra

Sow – Tim Curran

Worm – Tim Curran

Shattered – C. S. Kane

Monster Massacre – Edited by Dave Elliott

Dead Five’s Pass – Colin F. Barnes

Mock the Week: Scenes We’d Like to See – Dan Patterson

Field – Tom Fletcher

Lexicon – Christopher Burns

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