Shirley Jackson is a master of the uncanny and of her characters’ reactions to it. It’s often unclear where the dividing line is, whether the protagonist imagines horrible things because they are afraid or becomes afraid because they are perceiving horrible things. Either way, the sense of unease animating her stories grows so intense that reality itself seems to falter before it, like turning the volume on a speaker up until it pops. Dark Tales is a great introduction to Jackson’s short fiction that showcases her skill with the mundane and the terrifying, and her particular talent for mingling them.