Through the night like a snake Latin American horror stories

Ten eerie stories by 10 writers (via 12 translators) comprise the ninth volume in boutique press Two Lines' Calico Series that showcases "the voices of previously inaccessible, highly innovative writers from around the world today." Series editor Coolidge highlights the term, "narrativa de lo inusual. Unusual, strange--however you translate it, the phrase points toward a new horror subgenre unique to Latin America." In Mariana Enriquez's "That Summer in the Dark," translated by Megan McDowell, two teens become dreamily obsessed with American serial killers during a sweltering season of electrical blackouts. In Mónica Ojeda's "Soroche," translated by Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz, a polyphonic coven of best friends deliberates the downfall by graphic sex tape of one of their own. Julián Isaza's "Visitor," translated by Joel Streicker, exposes a solitary old woman's symbiotic relationship with a Kermit-the-Frog lookalike. Antonio Diaz Oliva's "Rabbits," translated by Lisa Dillman, reveals a Rumspringa-like escape from a murderous cult. Notable title pages for each story in pixelated reds featuring the opening lines in original Spanish cleverly underscore each fright-fest that follows.

The chilling stories in this noteworthy anthology feature creepy houses, strange encounters, and body horror. In "Visitor" by Julián Isaza, translated by Joel Streicker, an old woman who lives a quiet, solitary life discovers a strange creature outside her house one night that resembles Kermit the Frog. She develops an ET-and-Elliot-like symbiotic relationship with the creature, who prompts her to take an unsettling action. "The Third Transformation" by Maximiliano Barrientos, translated by Tim Gutteridge, centers on a former metalhead who returns to his small hometown after he hears news that his childhood best friend Eduardo is in a coma. Piecing together accounts from Eduardo's mother, he realizes his friend had wandered into a house outside of town that was rumored when they were kids to be occupied by a former Nazi. Among the collection's standouts are Mariana Enriquez's "That Summer in the Dark," translated by Megan McDowell, about two bored teenage girls whose obsession with serial killers becomes a close-to-home reality when a neighbor in their apartment complex murders his family; and the dreamy, impressionistic "In the Mountains" by Lina Munar Guevara, translated by Ellen Jones, about a woman driving on a winding mountain road in the fog, following a car that might not be real. This eerie selection of exciting contemporary voices is sure to keep readers up at night. (Mar.)

The night that would unleash the strange series of events, I was reading in an easy chair in front of my window. I'm a voracious reader, and once I'm done with my household chores--cleaning, making lunch, and watering the plants in the garden--I devote the rest of the day to my books until well after dark. That warm evening, I was immersed in the fascinating story of the inhabitants of Atlantis and its relationship to visitors from other worlds, a subject that has intrigued me for some time: how they built the Egyptian pyramids, created the Bermuda Triangle, and made the strange signs that have appeared in wheat fields throughout the world. That's why, reflecting on everything in hindsight, I can't be sure that the unusual event was completely random, although I can't say that I was chosen, either. What I can state, without a doubt, is that since then my tranquil existence has been covered in a sinister cloak. --from "Visitor" by Julián Isaza, translated by Joel Streicker Excerpted from Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Monica Ojeda, Tomas Downey All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.