Hernandez employs highly emotive words to create a frightening atmosphere.
Dark turns and fiendish twists lurk behind every corner in Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr.’s collection of short stories, Twilight Perils. Meaty and macabre, the ghastly tales feature a myriad of evil characters that harbor dangerous secrets and ill intentions. Broadly horrific, this anthology dabbles in everything from science fiction to the supernatural, giving voice to some formidable foes and their unusual specialties. Although darkness prevails in this eight-pack of torment, there is no shortage of heroes trying to save the day, with brave souls doggedly taking up the fight against these malicious entities to mixed effect, though the line between good and bad is sometimes blurred. A determined detective with a deadly hunch. A social media influencer living a life of blissful isolation. A mad scientist with cybernetic eyes and a suffocating cloud of condescension. Every character adds a unique style and mood, some more than human and others not human at all, while each tries to survive in their own demented world. More ghosts and gore than jump-scene scares, this anthology embraces all aspects of horror to take readers on a long, twisted journey filled with mayhem, murder, and depravity.
The opening paragraph of A Toxic Invasion provides a good example of how Hernandez employs highly emotive words to create a frightening atmosphere. A “noxious green cloud” or the “sickening crunch of bone being snapped in two” plunges readers directly into a scene of nauseating gloom, cementing a foundation of unease for the rest of the story. One relevant short, A Virtual Crisis, introduces readers to two modern women who share their home and lineage, but little else. Their characterization feels the most authentic of any in the book, making the story all that much more creepy when normalcy crumbles into a ghoulish nightmare. An element of sleuthing connects each tormented tale, yet every story presents a fresh take on ghosts, vampires, zombies, or worse. Interspersed artwork is an interesting feature, jolting audiences from a dark stupor into a less ominous twilight, though the illustrations in Hidden Power promise to stay with arachnophobic readers for a long time. Get ready for the ultimate showdown between dark and light with Twilight Perils: A Collection of Eight Secret Stories.
