Fantasy Kit

McOmber (The White Forest) presents 35 well-paced, immersive stories, most published previously, that reflect a pervasively creepy tone. Each begins with a strong sense of place, settings readers will be confident that they understand. That is until McOmber twists it all, just enough to make the familiar strange, fully displaying a dread that was not there before readers started the first tale. The feeling will linger long after they finish the last. In “The Pool Party,” a group of teens is joined by an uninvited, ghost guest, one they all know. “Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood” is the “true” story of a darkness behind the much beloved A. A. Milne tales. McOmber’s storytelling prowess is accentuated by well-developed, sympathetic characters, many of them gay men, whose experience readers fall into immediately.