CONCERNING THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP

A collection of ghost stories in which the ghosts are imagined, metaphorical, and sometimes even real.

In “Wren & Riley,” a group of friends reunite after one of them kills her abusive husband in self-defense. But when they spend the night at her isolated home in Wyoming, they discover that death wasn’t enough to keep him away. In “Immanuel,” an enslaved Black boy grows up intertwined in an intense friendship with the White boy whose family holds him captive, but as the Civil War drags on, all illusions about the true nature of their relationship fall away. In “Sleepy Things,” Magdalena worries about her adult son’s relationship with his comatose girlfriend, when suddenly the girlfriend starts visiting Magdalena in her dreams. Soto’s new collection, as suggested by its subtitle, explores ghosts. Or, rather, hauntings, which may or may not involve literal ghosts. In “Death on Mars,” for instance, after a person dies, their personal AI starts to carry on in their place, a haunting that doesn't feel very different than a ghost simply because it's carried out by a computer. Similarly, in "The Prize," two writers plan to use a dead man's identity to publish their own work but find it makes them feel less real themselves. Sometimes Soto drifts a bit too far into metaphorical territory in those more realistic stories or waits until the very end to provide clarity. But where there is a more direct approach, as in “Immanuel,” “Sleepy Things,” and the title story (which does feature literal ghosts), his well-drawn characters with their nuanced battles with grief and hope shine brighter.

Haunting and complex if uneven.