Behind the Gate

Thank you to New Directions and NetGalley for the ARC.

I expected Behind the Gate to be much creepier than it was. Dávila often gets filed under horror, but this collection fits more naturally into the gothic tradition because it is atmospheric, surreal, psychologically intense, and fixated on what happens when ordinary life starts to feel corrupted or unbearable.

Dávila is remarkable at capturing how completely people can be overtaken by a feeling, whether it's anxiety, grief, loneliness, obsession or the plain monotony of daily life. Her characters drift toward some breaking point, and the immediate prose makes those inner states feel physical. I highlighted a lot.

She often takes something ideal (a relationship, a home, a person's view of the world) and lets it warp. But it isn't all misery. There are flashes of wonder too, such as a character seeing the beauty of the world as if for the first time, and another longing to reach up and grab the clouds.

One thing she excels at is playing with structure. In one story, she moves between the present and an old journal, and the two timelines start to answer, interrupt and bleed into each other. My favorite was the last story, "Death in the Forest," where a man's desire to escape into the woods builds into an overwhelming stream-of-consciousness passage. For me, it's the most memorable writing in the book.

Now, a few endings here threw me off. Dávila loves an abrupt finish, and when it works, it lands like a final blow. Other times the story just stops before it has earned its conclusion. That inconsistency took away a little from the overall impact of the collection, but it's still an enjoyable read.

If you want traditional horror, you will likely be disappointed by Behind the Gate. But if you like dark, surreal character studies where the dread comes from inside, it's worth picking up. I'm looking forward to reading more Dávila soon. 3.75/5