Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories

Barb (Gargantuana’s Ghost) brings a hefty dose of the weird and uncanny to this collection of 18 intricate horror shorts, which sometimes bite off more than they can chew. The complex “And Our Next Guest...,” for example, in which a successful but unpleasant actor finds himself in a green room slowly filling with sand, doesn’t have time to fully realize its own ambitions. This story and others, including Barb’s foray into military horror, “The Other Half of the Battle,” about a group of teens playing in a junk yard as a war rages in the background, use drugs as an explanation for confusing and inexplicable happenings, which feels like a cop-out and undercuts the surreal scares. Far more successful are the tales that keep things simpler. The eponymous entry is a standout: a paranormal investigator discovers that a house is haunted not with the ghosts of the past but with the spirits of its future inhabitants—including the investigator himself. It’s a bumpy ride, but the breadth of tone and subgenre that Barb attempts is admirable. (Sept.)