Banal Nightmare
Halle Butler
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20, pp336
It’s taken thirtysomething Moddie a decade to acknowledge her arty boyfriend’s deep flaws as a life partner and as a human being. Exiting their shared life in Chicago, she heads back to the midwestern college town she grew up in, a place where the rents are cheap and the social scene haunted by high school. As Moddie contemplates what it means to be nearing midlife minus a spouse, kids or meaningful work, she riffs scathingly on everything from Facebook to Hillary Clinton. The comedy is necessary in this singular portrait of millennial angst, but the prevailing note of sourness isn’t altogether misplaced either.
Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us
Anna Bogutskaya
Faber, £16.99, pp256
“Horror films don’t consume you; they infect you,” writes Siberian-raised, London-based Bogutskaya, adding: “Horror is a full-body experience, a full-on possession that we invite.” Or don’t, if you’re the type to be found cowering behind the sofa. Her zippy, stimulating quest to locate the source of the genre’s peculiar allure is noteworthy for appealing to those of us in the quaking latter camp as well as self-declared oddballs like herself. Personal in tone and omnivorous in its frame of reference, it’s timely and deeply empathetic.
Burning Angel and Other Stories
Lawrence Osborne
Vintage, £10.99, pp352 (paperback)
Shrewdly manipulated tension thrums throughout this latest collection from the prolific late-starter Osborne, adding an irresistible edge to some classy prose. They’re globe-trotting tales, perfect for the season, their backdrops shifting with ease from Derbyshire to Oman, Manhattan to the Andaman Islands. Their characters’ interior worlds feel just as real, whether they belong to an entomologist, a poker-playing drifter, or a psychiatrist lured into a career-threatening affair. In each story, luck proves fickle, and a single misstep is all it takes to become perilously out of your depth.
• To order Banal Nightmare, Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us or Burning Angel and Other Stories, click on the titles or go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
