A woman who loses her baby during pregnancy is haunted by the mysterious cries coming through her baby monitor.

(from McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories)

At times, this story was difficult to read. Partly because I found the writing a little predictable, at least a couple times. Mostly though, the repeated mentions of blood and milk and aches and loss made me squirm a little. Like any good horror story, this one kept me uneasy and worried about what came next. Toward the final pages, I guessed the twist ending. But that doesn’t make it any less clever. Or scary.

You know, I’m still holding out hope for a happy short story. It’s tough to keep reading about the messed up lives of all these characters, day after day, when you feel like your own life isn’t going so well. I don’t believe in commiseration. At least not with fictional beings.