A disturbing journey into the beauty that rests inside the very heart of darkness.From the Bram Stoker Award-winning Crystal Lake Publishing and the editing duo who brought you the critically acclaimed small-town Lovecraftian horror anthology Shadows Over Main Street, comes Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories.

Awe meets ache.Terror becomes transcendence.Regret gives way to rebirth.

Fifteen short stories and one poem span nearly every twisted corner of the horror and dark fiction genres:

A woman experiences an emotional reckoning inside a haunted house.A father sees his daughter rescued after a cold case is solved, only to learn the tragic limits of his love.A man awakens a vengeful spirit and learns the terrible price of settling scores.A boy comes of age into awareness of a secret universe of Lovecraftian scale.A young woman confronts the deathly price of existence inside a German concentration camp during the Holocaust.And much, much more…

Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories features the most celebrated voices in dark fiction, as well as a number of exciting new talents:

Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell, Paul Tremblay, John F.D. Taff, Lisa Mannetti, Damien Angelica Walters, Josh Malerman, Christopher Coake, Mercedes M. Yardley, Brian Kirk, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Amanda Gowin, Richard Thomas, Maria Alexander and Kevin Lucia. Edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward.

With a foreword from Cemetery Dance magazine founder Richard Chizmar.

Proudly brought to you by Crystal Lake Publishing – Tales from the Darkest Depths

Interview with the Authors:

So what makes Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories so special?

John F.D. Taff: Usually, horror stories tell us the dark side of dark stories, the bad stuff that happens during bad times. It's expected that there will be horrors in the kinds of stories horror generally tells. But Gutted explores the other side of things, the darkness that's there in moments you might not otherwise expect; those moments that touch our hearts or resonate more strongly with our other emotions. It's that beauty—that unexpected emotional resonance that can reside comfortably, side by side with fear, in a good horror story—that separates the stories in Gutted and makes them quite unique.

Tell us more about your story.

Ramsey Campbell: Occasionally I try to repay my debt to specific writers. Midnight Sun was my attempt to scale the awesome peak of Algernon Blackwood’s achievement, while The Darkest Part of the Woods clambered the Lovecraftian. “The Place of Revelation” goes for another giant of the field. If anybody guesses which one, I’ll count the tale some kind of a success. The naïve voice can be a highly effective way to tell a tale of terror, creating a tension between what’s told and how.

John F.D. Taff: My story is a distillation of my childhood. I grew up in the '70s, and I wanted to capture that time period as much as anything else. I also wanted to explore one moment during my childhood, when I got my first 10-speed bike—the freedom that bought a kid like me. It opened so many doors, the ability to go out on my own, far beyond my neighborhood. To explore the world, to discover new things. And then, of course, I wanted to explore the dark side of that, the dangers that same key also unlocked. It all boiled down, at least to me while writing it, to a central idea, that question of "How do you let go of things?"

Gutted eBook categories:

Horror AnthologiesGenre FictionShort story anthologiesUrban FantasyHorror Short storiesDisturbing psychological horror

2023 RONDO HATTON CLASSIC HORROR AWARD WINNER FOR BEST CLASSIC HORROR FICTION.Stories of famous monsters in a new horror anthology featuring Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, Ramsey Campbell, and many others.Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Moreau, the Headless Horseman, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, the Wicked Witch of the West—they're all here, in this collection of horror short stories that reimagine, subvert, and pay homage to our favorite monsters and creatures.Written by the biggest names in the genre—including Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Morton, Owl Goingback, Richard Christian Matheson, Maurice Broaddus, Dacre Stoker, Seanan McGuire, Linda D. Addison, Alessandro Manzetti, Tim Waggoner, John Palisano, Mercedes M. Yardley, Lucy A. Snyder, Gary A. Braunbeck, Rena Mason, and Monique Snyman.And monstrously illustrated by Colton Worley and Mister Sam Shearon.Proudly represented by both Crystal Lake Publishing and Black Spot Books.

New Year's Day: midsummer in Australia. In Perth, twin brothers Aaron and Matt have graduated high school and are enjoying their last few months of summer holidays before adulthood - while on the other side of the country, something has fallen from the sky, heralding the dawn of a new age.

As a terrifying plague spreads across Australia and the world, Aaron and Matt find themselves scrambling to survive, fleeing the city, refugees in their own country. Tormented by strange dreams and beset by violence, they must struggle to find the remnants of their family and survive the Rise of the Undead.

Selling his soul to the Devil was the best decision that Nick ever made.

He got the girl, saved the day, and settled in for a comfortable career at Devil Co. That means it’s the perfect time for God to have other plans for him– and guess who shows up to try and poach Nick for Their organization? Why have one complicated job working for a personified deity, when you can have two?

Caught between worlds, and moonlighting for the “good guys,” Nick learns his deal with Lucifer might not be what it seems. Uncovering a scheme to take advantage of the Devil himself rocks Nick to his core, and makes him question everything. The line between good and evil gets blurrier by the day, and Nick doesn’t know which shoulder angel to trust.

His partner Amy, a witch growing into powers of her own, warns him of the danger he faces, but can’t stop Nick from running headlong into it. Can Nick save himself, or will Amy need to make an ally of a former foe to save him from a fate worse than decaf?