This is a 2015 World Fantasy Award nominee for Best Novella.

This is a horror story.

I don't like horror stories.

I like this horror story.

A very handsome man named Jeffrey comes to the dingy small town of Voorhisville, and charms all the women he meets. They aren't even put off by the fact that he drives around in a hearse. The story unfolds for us in a number of voices--fifteen-year-old Ellie, her mother Theresa, widowed Sylvia, and others, as well as a collective voice calling itself "The Mothers."

Each becomes pregnant, and each gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. Jeffrey, by this time, is long gone.

The babies all have wings. Hard, sharp, black wings you can cut yourself on.

Each of the women hides the secret of her baby's wings, for as long as she can. They are even slower to realize that they have all had the same lover. But as their babies start to fly, one by one, they realize the other women have the same problem.

The horror builds slowly, in their paranoid protection of their babies, in the reactions of those around them, in their almost accidental gathering at the Ratcher farm, and in the utterly reasonable-seeming tone of the Mothers' collective account of their decisions and actions.

Beautifully written, subtle, and effective. Highly recommended. ( )

A mysterious man with brilliant blue eyes impregnates most of the fertile women in a little American town. Each of the babies has bat wings, hearty appetites, and grows rapidly. Eventually the mothers piece together what has happened and huddle together in an old farmhouse in hopes of protecting their strange children.

It could have been a cool remix of the Village of the Damned, but instead it just felt rambling and pointless. Eventually it devolves into surreal nonsense. On the one hand, I liked that Jeffrey's identity and the babies' purpose are never really explained; on the other, this felt far too long with far too little meat to it. ( )

This novella is on the Nebula short list. I found it compelling enough to read the whole thing, though I found myself quite frustrated in the end. The biggest question from the very start was, "What is Jeffery?" This man came into town and managed to impregnate every woman of fertile age, causing them to bear children from sharp wings. I wanted to know what he was, what his motivation really was (it's not clear that he seduced them for this own enjoyment, even), what the children were, why they were a threat beyond the town. The actions of the mothers were disturbing but made sense, in their own way. The writing was good--it certainly pulled me along--but I really prefer stories with tidier conclusions. ( )

A mysterious stranger rolls into the town of Voorhisville leaving a handful of women with child. Months later, when the children are born with wings, the mothers attempt to hide their demonic abnormalities with disastrous results. The novella is written in a journal format with the mothers attempting to tell their side of the story. ( )