REVENGE

In this short story collection, characters find themselves in eerie, disturbing, and revenge-fueled circumstances.

Brantley Feldpausch, in the particularly memorable “Daddy Longlegs,” is quite fond of the spiders at his New York farmhouse. But when he inadvertently kills a beloved arachnid during a shower, the spiders see it as outright murder and plot their vengeance. Many of the tales here are equally dark, even when they don’t belong to the horror genre. In the case of “Soiled Utility: A Love Story,” a heart surgeon reluctantly falls for a maintenance worker at her hospital. It’s an unorthodox but romantic tale that takes an unexpectedly grim turn. Similarly, “Malapert’s Dilemma” is pure SF, following Valencia Malapert, of the planet Oxyplesbia, who may not be the only alien gathering information on Earth. Revenge, though a recurring theme, doesn’t propel every story. One example is the pre–World War II “Little Green Eye,” in which a radio show ultimately leads to an otherworldly—and terrifying—encounter for a Chicago retiree and his cat. Bachelder paints his tales with vibrant details: “The clapboards were warped and discolored from years of exposure to the rugged Vermont winters, and a portion of the roof over the wrap-around porch was caved in and near collapse.” At the same time, there’s a healthy share of gruesome imagery, like spewing vomit and cadaver-related acts. In the penultimate story, “The Doomsday Hour,” Reginald Conklin is a death row inmate in New Jersey. With his execution on the horizon, he can’t anticipate the surprising events unfolding in the prison, culminating in an especially gut-churning conclusion. This is unquestionably a collection readers won’t easily forget, with a cast that includes a freelance embalmer on the lam and a tankful of lobsters whose escape comes with retribution against a loathsome night-shift manager.

Vivid, pithy tales that are, by turns, amusing and appalling.