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, including: 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. With a foreword from Cemetery Dance magazine founder Richard Chizmar.

    Also included are stories of ghost animals, haunted houses, vengeful spirits, guardian angels and much, much more. Many of the stories you are about to read will warm your heart, while others will leave you in a cold sweat. Sit back and relax. Make sure you are locked in safe and sound as you settle in for a scary read. Oh, and if you hear a strange noise in the hallway, don't worry, it's probably just the house settling. Well, maybe not.

    Where darkness never abates, and your deepest fears are just a few steps away. Travel to an old house in the country where something hungry waits just beyond the treeline. Watch as a young woman, whose life hangs in the balance, receives a visitor from the afterlife. Or, journey across an ocean on a romantic voyage that ends in the deepest kind of horror. This dark collection of the macabre is sure to chill the bones of even the most stalwart horror aficionado.

    A young woman waits for her father to come home from the place where no one goes intending to return. A single word is the push that may break a man and save a life. The end of a marriage unravels the world. And a still day beneath the sun illuminates the quiet sorrow of the last feather to fall.Bracken MacLeod is the author of Mountain Home, White Knight, and, most recently, Stranded, which has been optioned by Warner Horizon Television. He lives in New England with his wife and son.

    Includes: The Castle; The Trial; Metamorphosis and Other StoriesAlternate edition of ISBN-13: 9781840227260