Nightfall & Other Dangers

Mohr (The Unwelcome) demonstrates his range in his chilling debut collection of 15 horror shorts. The author’s love for building thickly spooky atmospheres and talent for never over-explaining his scares shine across the strongest tales. A standout is the revolting yet peculiarly elegant “A Real Likeness,” in which an art student chooses a dangerous muse and learns the truth about her horrifying beauty. Other winners put fresh angles on classic setups: the epistolary “The Panic” follows a reporter covering a mysterious mass drowning, “Mister Mickenzie” centers on a childhood game that awakens something sinister and unstoppable, and “The Machete at the End of the World” takes the unkillable slasher villain trope to an entertainingly extreme conclusion. This inventiveness, however, makes the collection’s low points feel lower by comparison: particularly stale is the fatphobic “The Last Supper,” which plays up descriptions of its characters’ appetites for shock value. Still, when Mohr lets himself loose, he proves himself a writer to watch. (May)