The Poorly Made and Other Things

Rebelein (Edenville) takes a novel approach to the small-town horror story in this collection whose 12 entries interlock to form a dark diorama of Renfield County, a Hudson River Valley community cursed by a historical episode of violent bloodshed. In “The Stain,” a frame narrative whose events are also interwoven between the individual stories, Rachel Durwood emails her estranged brother, Tom, a report cobbled together from “anecdotes and articles and newspaper clippings” about a local father’s inexplicable slaughter of his family in 1927. Blood and debris from the man’s blighted homestead have since been dispersed around the county, spreading the madness that fuels each tale’s horrors. “Red X” follows a young woman whose paranoid belief that she endured an alien abduction culminates in her horrific attempt at self-salvation. “Detour” is a Twilight Zone–esque tale of a motorist diverted down back roads to a destination whose signposts appear increasingly ominous. In “So My Cousin Knew This Guy,” a harried worker’s search for tranquility through meditation opens a window on a world of demons. Rebelein deploys gruesome physical horrors, including cannibalism and self-mutilation, in service to his elaboration of the haunting setting. There’s enough fear and mystery on offer here that horror fans will hope to return to Renfield county in future installments. (Feb.)