Goblin: A Novel in Six Novellas

Fans of creepy, eerie, and genuinely unsettling horror will devour (or be devoured by) this set of vignettes about the aptly named town of Goblin, Mich. In Goblin, it rains nearly all the time; the dead are buried standing up; the town park, Perish Park, holds a yearly recreation of the strangling of an early politician; and the original 60 founders were massacred by Native Americans. Malerman (Black Mad Wheel) makes this hair-raising compilation of horror stories an ode to the town itself, a place where people appear normal and have normal jobs, but are often influenced by some odd miasma or emanation from the grave. Walter Kamp has removed all interior walls from his apartment to make sure no ghosts can sneak up and scare him to death; Dirk Rogers, tour guide for the Hardy Carroll Goblin Zoo, has an affinity for the animals that leads in unexpected directions. Malerman’s work reveals the evil lurking just beneath the surface of reality, and he has a true understanding of the things that go bump in the night. Agent: Kristen Nelson, Nelson Literary. (Nov.)