Fright into Flight

In this diverse anthology of horror stories, Fallon (The Warblers) offers up harrowing tales of women and flight; the protagonists include furies, witches, and flight attendants. Fallon has selected works with a broad range of styles and topics within the theme, some more successful than others. The best stories are the ones that are more creative with the theme. Damien Angelica Walters’s “The Floating Girls: A Documentary,” one of the standout pieces in the collection, tells the story of thousands of girls who disappeared into the sky and the people on the ground who covered it up. In Christine Morgan’s “The Silk Angel,” a surprisingly beautiful and poignant story amid the horror and gore of WWII, a paratrooper tries to understand what or who infused good fortune into the parachute responsible for his miraculous rescue. There are certainly places where Fallon misses the mark. Some of the tales of women wreaking vengeance on bad men are a little heavy-handed, and two appalling stories, Kathryn Ptacek’s “Bruja” and Nancy Kilpatrick’s “I Am No Longer,” feature Native American ghosts that rape women and steal white babies for sacrificial revenge. Despite these missteps, Fallon has collected some true gems that will be perfect for fans of horror stories centered on female power and dangerous women. (Sept.)