The Devil and The Deep
Horror Stories of The Sea
by Ellen Datlow, Editor
Night Shade Books,2018
336 Pages
ADULT
Take a look at this horrific collection of fifteen short stories edited by the queen of horror anthologies, Ellen Datlow. All the stories are related to the sea, the deep, the close, unknown frontier that haunts our dreams as we wonder, what lies beneath in the unseeable dark?
With four Oscar Awards going to The Shape of Water in 2017, this is a timely collection and seems to set the theme for this year. But this isn’t just a re-hashing of an inter-species, forbidden love story. Each short has a unique approach to the theme of an endless, bottomless world beneath and its effect on the humans that live by its side.
The stories:
Deadwater by Simon Bestwick
This warm-up horror-mystery shows what happens when a woman’s lover is found dead, handcuffed below the pier. She knows it isn’t suicide, but she can’t tell the police… the local sheriff is her boyfriend. So she takes justice into her own hands, uncovering who the dead man really was and just why he might have been killed.
Fodder’s Jig by Lee Thomas
One of my favorite of the collection, a Cthulhu Mythos yarn told by a man whose partner is seized by an unknown virus that spreads when strange meat-like lumps wash up on the beach. The virus makes people start chanting in tongues in a St. Vitus-like seizure, and the infected begin to disappear in large droves.
The Curious Allure of the Sea by Christopher Golden
A woman discovers an abnormally compelling symbol on a piece of jewelry discovered on her father’s boat when it is found abandoned. She becomes so infatuated, she has it tattooed on her arm… then realizes she’s not the only one drawn to it as people from all over begin to follow her. Even the crabs are coming up to meet her… and more than that.
The Tryal Attract by Terry Dowling
A whispering skull mixes with The Red Room (H.G. Wells) as a man spends a night in an attic loft with an ancient skull that needs to tell him something. It wants to be returned to its body in the sea. Sigh. Such promise. Oh, and there were two spirits haunting the skull, not just one, by the way.
The Whaler’s Song by Ray Cluley
A Ship of the South Wind by Bradley Denton
What My Mother Left Me by Alyssa Wong
Broken Record by Steven Graham Jones
A man stranded on a desert island begins to receive the things he once filled out on a magazine questionnaire: What would you want to have with you if you were lost on a desert island? The story seems like a setup for a big punchline until we discover one of the things he wanted with him… was somebody who’s now dead.
Saudade by Steve Rasnic Tem
A Moment Before Breaking by A.C. Wise
Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show to You the Sea by Seanan McGuire
A woman wakes to find her jealous sister drowning her in the sea. A water spirit comes to her and makes her an offer she finds difficult to swallow. But she returns from the dead. A story of revenge that reminds me of Creepshow’s “Something To Tide You Over” in a very good way.
Deep Sea Swell by John Langan
A woman who gets seasick downs some dramamine and thinks back to the tales told by her husband’s college buddy as she ferries the North Sea from Scotland to the Shetland Islands. He told of a certain place where the sea got rough… and a deep sea diver once died in a gale. She is pursued by an unstoppable barnacle-encrusted, angry diving suit housing what little is left of an explorer who discovered an ancient relic in the depths.
He Sings of Salt and Wormwood by Brian Hodge
Shit Happens by Michael Marshall Smith
Haunt by Siobhan Carroll
Some of the stories sing to me more than others, but Datlow does an excellent job of conducting the music from a gentle wind on the high tide to a rising swell, and on through a squall hinting of the hurricane. My favorites were those that blended the occult and witchcraft with an original sea shanty. A few were close attempts at something Lovecraftian, not always successful. A few were gripping mysteries, and a few transported me to a place of fear and a painful struggle against a watery, deadly, and utterly inescapable force of nature. This book is without doubt a great choice for a quiet night on a summer vacation… at the beach.
