I picked up The Darker Side with the hope of exploring new, young authors in the horror genre. Unfortunately, if these writers are representative of current horror trends, then the whole genre is on the verge of collapse. The anthology's first story was the best, and there were occasional authors who showed a flash of talent, but overall, the stories alternated between boring and horrible. There was nothing remotely frightening or disturbing in any story in the book. Instead, many of the authors seemed to devote their energy to creating "adult" (i.e. poorly written sexual) material or over-the-top and substandard descriptions of murder instead of creating a decent story. At times, I wondered how these stories could be a credit to an author's reputation. If you want chilling and effectively written horror, there's always Poe and Lovecraft. Unfortunately, no author in this compilation comes close to their abilities.