Among the Lilies

August 2, 2021
Mills (Moriah) delivers an impressive debut collection of 12 weird tales anchored by the novella “The Account of David Stonehouse, Exile,” whose unspecified time and setting—is it postapocalyptic or otherworldly?—contributes to the sense of strangeness of its narrator’s experiences. A similar calculated vagueness colors a number of the other stories, including “Below the Falls,” presented as a diary whose missing pages encourage the reader to fill in the gaps of its apparently supernatural events, and “A Sleeping Life” (a nod to the eerie expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) whose staccato of short sections represent the disjointed impressions of its somnambulist narrator. Mills grounds his stories in considerable realistic detail, lending even the more surreal moments both gravity and tangibility. His work is sure to find a readership among fans of macabre and outré fiction.

September 15, 2021
Aptly opening his new collection of twelve immersive, creepy stories with the line, "Gentlemen, I am tired of ghost stories," Mills is clearly ready to rethink horror conventions. Each tale is light on gore, but marked by an expertly controlled sense of unease, beginning with unsettling format choices and settings that immediately trap the reader in the story with its protagonists. Compellingly paced tales quickly close in on readers, as Mills keeps them dangling over a precipice where pure terror waits below, finally dropping them with a final line. "Lucilla Barton (1857-1880)," original to this collection, is a great example. It is the story of a woman around whom everyone dies, but it is told entirely through mundane newspaper accounts, census records, and court documents--and yet, it is clear from early on that this is not just bad luck at play. One deep breath after each terrifying ending and readers will dive back in to experience the rush all over again. Fans of Alma Katsu and Andy Davidson will find a lot to like here.

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