My House Gathers Desires

This collection of short horror stories from McOmber (The White Forest) strongly recalls French decadent writers such as Théophile Gautier: several of the pieces are set in France at various times between the 17th and 19th centuries, and McOmber does not shy away from aimless young protagonists discovering beauty and/or horror in the world around them via suffering, a common decadent preoccupation. However, McOmber’s prose is uncompromisingly minimalist and spare, which sometimes heightens the effect of his baroque imagery (such as a giant assembling itself from living humans in the collection’s best piece, “Sodom and Gomorrah”) and sometimes lets it fall flat (such as the king of France’s confusing vision in the vignette “Versailles, 1623,” too sparsely described for any emotional impact). McOmber can produce a sense of claustrophobic dread, but also falls repeatedly into the use of themes and ideas already well-trodden—one can guess the conceit of “The Rite of Spring” from the title alone. The highs of this collection are high, and the lows are entirely too low. (Sept.)