Fierce Pretty Things

Howard’s dark debut of eight noir stories is streaked with fantasy that deconstructs society’s lost and wasted lives. Parading a string of blue-collar losers and underachievers on whom redemption is wasted, Howard enlists themes of regret, dreams unrealized, and lives immobilized by apathy. “Better you don’t expect anything too fine from the world,” says the violent father in the title story to his shoplifting punk son, who tries to improve himself. In “Bandana,” the ghost of a gang member wannabe becomes the spirit guardian of the boy he beat up. The saddest story, “Hildy,” follows a teenage boy futilely trying to protect his younger sister as he succumbs to a global plague. In the near future in “The Magnificents,” a 50-year-old drunk enters into a contract to kill himself and leave money to his estranged son. An elderly man with dementia thinks he sees his dead children playing in the yard while his dying wife contemplates a murder/suicide in “Scarecrows.” Though not for the faint of heart, Howard’s stories depict his characters’ ruminations on abandonment, neglect, teen angst, and gun violence, making for an intense and effective collection. (Mar.)