by Valarie Thorpe

One of the toughest anthologies for an editor to assemble is the themed collection. June Hubbard's Cemetery Sonata pulled this off very nicely last year, with several stories garnering honorable mentions in the widely respected The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling).

If that's one of the toughest things to pull off, then a sequel to a themed anthology sounds like editor madness, and yet...

In Cemetery Sonata II, June Hubbard brings us a collection that very cleverly bends the rules of themed anthologies, stretching death and dying like so much silly putty, and in the process treating the reader to some topnotch horror stories from several writers we now rank highly on the Really Scary list.

I don't want to give the impression I'm knocking themes, anything that has to do with death, dying and cemeteries are clear cut horror fodder but it can get old fast. There are just so many times you're going to pull the "he's already dead" stuff on me. And although you will run across a couple of those in this collection, the majority of these stories have great takes that make this collection well worth spending your time with.

Anyone that's read my reviews knows I consider the pacing and placement of stories in an anthology critical. June was super kind enough to send me a pre-release copy of this anthology and the order wasn't fixed at the time I read it, so I'm not going to guess at the order effect here, although I will mention that there are great peaks and lulls in the pieces, and as the first Cemetery Sonata took great advantage of that, I'm certain this one will as well.

Let's jump right into the dead meat of the matter - which stories were the best of the bunch.

I really enjoyed AM by Dan Keohane, a cool little story about communicating with the dead and not in just any ol' traditional way.

Another great piece is Tina Jens' Children of Stone. This one gets longer treatment with great pacing and fantastic characters.

Grass Grows Back by Maren Henry has a truly creepy ending. I love those. It got me imagining ghosts and potential future hauntings in a whole new light.

When you read Another Couple by Susan Fry you're going to want someone else to read it so you can discuss it. I don't normally go in for that sort of thing but I really wanted someone else's take on this great story. Trust me, you will too.

I loved the idea behind Matrimonial Bliss by Kevin L. Donihe. The dialogue was a little rough but that will smooth out over time as Donihe writes more. The ending is worth it.

Fran Bellerive's Ticket to Arkansas has a Twilight Zone feel to it. I kind of felt like I'd been in this territory before but it was a great deal edgier than any other stories that might seem similar.

Counting Backwards by Gene O'Neill was outstanding. It's almost a ghost story deconstruction. Initially, you'll believe you've read this before...that's intentional - and the great part is, you definitely haven't read this before. Great piece.

There are even stories in this collection that end fairly upbeat (not something you run across often in a horror anthology). It works as a nice change of tempo and Denise M. Bruchman's The Passing is probably the best example.

I haven't gone into much story synopsis in these reviews, primarily because it absolutely would give too much away but I'm going to make an exception for this story. Cemetery Road by Christine DeLong Miller follows a couple of characters that are more fully developed than some I've read in full length novels. And the creepiness of this tale pops right off the Really Scary meter. Roadkill, dead bodies, car trunks, and an amazingly sinister mythical individual all make up the eerie visuals for this tale. I'd really like to see this fleshed out in a longer work; the premise is definitely there.

Other favorites include The Heart is a Determined Hunter by Thomas Smith, Suzanne Donahue's Lost, More than Music by Lenora K. Rogers and Secret Burial by Martin McGowan.

This book is loaded, and well worth the read.

The total pages of CS II is 220 with a price of $17.95 less 25 percent if ordered directly from Chameleon Publishing, 3430 Salem Drive, Rochester Hills, MI 48306.