In Lynn K. Kilpatrick's In the House, anything can happen. A collection of shorts—lists, character sketches, directions, scripts, and instructions—In the House reveals the often conspicuous, yet frequently overlooked dangers of relationships gone awry.

In a home suffused with fragility, or in a kitchen surrounded by knives, Kilpatrick's men and women navigate around one another's eccentricities with caution, highlighting the unspoken desires and veiled needs of domestic routine. In these...