Dark Bleatings, and Happy New Year! I read many books last year, and now I’m listing my favourites in each category for you. In today’s listicle (is that what you call this?!), I’ve got my Top 10 Anthologies and my Top 10 Collections of 2025 for you. These are in no particular order, except for the number 1 spots, and I’m including links for the books for you in case you’re interested in checking them out (I don’t use affiliate links).

There are also video versions of me babbling through these lists, so if you’d prefer them in that format, you can find my TOP 10 ANTHOLOGIES HERE, and my TOP 10 COLLECTIONS HERE.

Anthologies

10 Horror Tales from Wales is an anthology of – you guessed it – scary Welsh stories (written in English). You can expect each story to bring its own section of lore, legend, and myth, and all of them will make you think twice about exploring this beautiful country by moonlight!

Halloweird is absolutely delightful. This book is the rediscovered stories of ye olde times, and not only are the stories entertaining, but they’re also a glimpse into the horror story-telling of decades and centuries past.

Timeless: A Horror Anthology Through the Ages is themed, and each author wrote in a different decade (and even century for stuff way in the past or future!). Will humanity repeat its own atrocities, or learn from them? Find out in this book!

Great British Horror 10: Something Peculiar presents us with the usual high quality that Black Shuck Books offers with its fantastic author and story line-up. Enjoy (and be super creeped out by) horror in its various subgenres and tones. This is a book of all things…peculiar.

Darkness Beckons comes from editor Mark Morris, one of the best in the business, in my humble opinion. Every book in this anthology series provides a whole book of stories guaranteed to get under your skin and for me personally, there’s always one in every book that genuinely scares the bejeesus right out of me. My bejeesus is missing, you guys.

Pretend You Don’t See Her from Kandisha Press is a book of female-centric stories from female authors, and the horror contained within its pages is harrowing. There are people that might ask, “what difference does the gender of the author make?” And I’ll tell you – we move through the world differently, and there are dangers and fears inherent in the female experience that aren’t always considered or even known about otherwise. This book is chilling.

Mark Morris delivers for a second time on this list with Fever Dreams, the latest and greatest in this anthology series, which contains several of my favourite horror stories of the entire year. There’s a particular story in this one that rivals my favourite short from last year in terms of its scariness.

New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural Volume 3 is brought to us by Stephen Jones, editor and horror royalty. The calibre of story-telling across the board here is unbelievable, with consistently hard-hitting, truly scary stories.

The End of the World As We Know It was my most anticipated book of 2025 and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to love it as much as I do. Stories set in the universe of Stephen King’s The Stand, a book I love, written by authors that love the original novel. Not only are the stories generally excellent, but there’s also this real feeling of Constant Reader fandom running through it, which also made it weirdly wholesome for me.

The number 1 spot goes to Stories from the Motel Sick, which won out over the other (fantastic) anthologies because of its concept. It just tickles me. I’m a huge fan of horror with a little funny infused and this delivers – not in every single story (some of them are nihilistic and harrowing), but the overall feeling it left me with was extreme amusement. What is the concept then, I hear you ask? Every story is set in this particular motel, where every type of themed room imaginable exists. ANY. A room that constantly moves at 80mph, a room with a drawer containing a mini replica of itself, complete with guest, a room made of cold, hard cash. The guest will be tested and traumatised and no matter how, it’s intriguing at worst and hilarious at best.

Collections

A Graveside Gallery (Eric J. Guignard) is spectacular because of the range of the author. Good, old-fashioned horror, emotional and gut-wrenching horror, and even a whimsical horror about a rat couple. Fabulous.

Fever Dreams of a Parasite (Pedro Iniguez) offers cosmic, folk, and truly weird horror in stories that will twist you up, massage your brain, and leave you feeling something. Always something.

Shadows and Whispers (Michael Jess Alexander) is one of several collections I’ve read by this author and it’s of his usual high standard. Great writing and great, scary stories.

Fearsome Creatures (Aliya Whitely) is a micro-collection of creature-themed horror stories, but they’re not what you expect. Aliya explores the monstrous in beasts, people, and…well, yes…creatures, with themes that run deep enough to keep you thinking about this book long after reading it.

Unquiet Waters (Thana Niveau) offers up water-themed horrors that deal with things that lurk beneath the surface, reflections, and the flow of time as well as water. It’s excellent.

Scorpion Girl (Janeen Webb) isn’t exclusively horror, though there definitely is some. This collection serves up adventure, science fiction, grief, and some lighter horror, and each story has something different to say about the world.

Phil Sloman’s Broken on the Inside gives us mental health tales but in the most unique way I’ve had the pleasure to read. They somehow simultaneously respectful to the issues and characters, whilst also being extremely entertaining – so much so that through almost every story I forgot I was reading a mental health battle until the end. Great stuff!

Managing and Other Lies (Willow Heath) is a collection of queer horror stories that made me wince, curl into a ball, and then spend forever mulling over the questions and themes afterwards. Every story hit me in the gut and is extremely effective in its use of demonstrating issues through a horror lens. Fantastic.

Great Robots of History (Tim Major) is a phenomenal book of science fiction and horror that delves into the worlds of AI, robotics, and all things creepily mechanical. Reading this was like watching several episodes of Black Mirror. Great ideas and concepts and genuinely very chilling.

My favourite collection of 2025 is, without doubt, Benjamin Kurt Unsworth’s debut, Into Wrack and Ruin. Not only is this collection outrageously diverse in terms of subgenres, tones, and narrative styles, but Ben’s writing style adapts to more appropriately suit each story. His own voice every time, but parallel versions of it depending on the type of story being told. The stories themselves range from festive, maniacal folk horror, to first-person perspectives of the weirdest order, to classic gothic with a twist. I liked some stories more than others, naturally, but there are several things for everyone contained within these creepy pages.

Bleeeeeat!