Speculative Short Fiction discussion

I know anthologists organize their books so that there's some benefit to reading them straight through ... however, I've tended to collect year's best anthologies at used book stores mostly to have available for reference. It's only been more recently that I started plowing through them and that's mainly because I know have a bunch sitting on my phone available to read whenever.

I'll start with reviews of the ones I've read most recently and then come back to the topic as I have thoughts on stories.

--30-- by Laird Barron
I'm trying to think if this is the first story I've read by Laird Barron. I've had the impression, reading ABOUT him that he writes a horror reminiscent of Lovecraft, so that's what I was expecting. Thinking back over the story, the most alarming thing is that I have no idea what the title means. I'm sort of worried I missed something and that something will worm it's way into my brain until I slowly go insane.

The foundation of this story is the WAY it's told. There are 2 main characters whose name we are never given. Their dialog is written using the Quotation Dash (maybe that has something to do with the title). It's not clear WHEN the story is set. It's also a novella, which uses its length to great effect.

The main characters are established as rational scientists with a romantic past isolated in the remote countryside. We slowly learn bits about the history of their relationship. We slowly learn about the history of the location they're observing. They know no more than the reader WHY they're observing.

This story describes a decent into madness and there's a long way to descend when your characters start out so rational. It also indicates that the characters are just the latest in a long line of people that have lost their minds on this patch of land. The underlying cause is hinted at, but never fully explained, which at least for me left the story gnawing at the back of my mind. Maybe I'm next.