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Lovecraftian Short Story Reviews by the Bibliothecar

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The Harbor-Master by Robert W. Chambers

The Harbor-Master by Robert W. Chambers

“…unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the courage to tell the truth about the matter—not from fear of ridicule, but because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be true.”Robert W. Chambers, “The Harbor-Master” “‘The Harbor Master‘ gave me quite a wallop in 1926, when I read it…” —H.P. Lovecraft to J. Vernon Shea, January 28, 1933 Robert W. Chambers’ is…

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The Last Case of Dr. Jonah Wexley Abbott by Erik McHatton

The Last Case of Dr. Jonah Wexley Abbott by Erik McHatton

“She looked old. Not the type of old one earns at the end of a long and fruitful life, but old like rusted metal, blighted by rot. Her wasted arms, folded across her stomach with funereal grace, were sporadically stained by deep purple bruises. Propped up by two plush pillows, her shriveled head nestled in a shock of white straw hair. Under dark lids, her closed eyes floated in pools of shadow;…

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Mr. Cannyharme, by Michael Shea

Mr. Cannyharme, by Michael Shea

“He walks and walks. Everywhere he notes the homeless, his new countrymen, and searches their eyes. Many are burnouts, their eyes mere emptiness. Many are smug, have beaten the game because they’re warmed for the moment by Night Train or pills. But more are mad-eyed, and glare like fanatics when you ‘front them. Not insanity, no. It’s a fierce, futile insistence they exist, that they are here in…

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Echoes, by Jess Landry

Echoes, by Jess Landry

Lucy brought her fists up, ready to pound again, but stopped herself when her eyes fell upon the outside world.Or, where the outside world should’ve been.There were no lights, no trees, no streets. It looked as though someone had plastered the windows in tar, allowing absolutely nothing to penetrate the obsidian darkness that looked back at her.The outside world was gone.Jess Landry, “Echoes,”…

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Night Drive Drifter in a Bad Dream by Rebecca Gransden

Night Drive Drifter in a Bad Dream by Rebecca Gransden

It all started on the night I got fired from Henry’s Chicken House.—Rebecca Gransden, “Night Drive Drifter in a Bad Dream” Have you ever had a day that started out bad and kept getting worse? Have you ever heard the expression, ‘things have gotta get worse before they get better”? What if they didn’t get better? What if they just kept getting worse? That’s the thrust behind Rebecca Gransden’s…

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Copping Squid, by Michael Shea

Copping Squid, by Michael Shea

“When he was a kid, he’d always felt sorcery in the midnight streets, in the mosaic of their lights, and he’d never lost the sense of unearthly shapes stirring beneath their web, stirring till they almost cohered, as the stars did for the ancients into constellations. Tonight, with mad, bleeding Andre riding shotgun, the lights glittered wilder possibilities, and a sinister grandeur seemed to…

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In the Garden of Ibn Ghazi, by Molly Tanzer

In the Garden of Ibn Ghazi, by Molly Tanzer

“It was said that every plant in the world grew in the garden of Ibn Ghazi, even those one might call wicked—poisons and rare herbs with magickal properties. And it was said, too, that Ibn Ghazi knew how to make use of them all. He was an alchemist and sorcerer of great repute, a man of wisdom—but his judgment, while lauded, was not often witnessed.”Molly Tanzer, “In the Garden of Ibn Ghazi” “As…

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Truth is Order and Order is Truth, by Nadia Bulkin

Truth is Order and Order is Truth, by Nadia Bulkin

“You live in a monster’s empire. You’re only upset because you’re not the biggest monster anymore.”Nadia Bulkin, “Truth is Order and Order is Truth” “Regarding the setting for tales—I try to be as realistic as possible.”—H.P. Lovecraft to Emil Petaja, December 29, 1934 Last year I had the pleasure of reading some of the stories contained in the Valancourt BOOK OF WORLD HORROR STORIES, VOL. 1,…

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The Church in the Mountains, by Gemma Files

The Church in the Mountains, by Gemma Files

“Ever find yourself remembering stuff you know can’t possibly be true?…I mean—things you think you saw once somewhere, like on TV or whatever, when you were a kid; spooky shit, disturbing, real nightmare fuel. Only you can’t tell if you actually really did see it, looking back, or somebody just told you about it, and it got inside you that way…if you even just dreamed it, maybe. Like the whole…

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The Band Plays On by Alan Baxter

The Band Plays On by Alan Baxter

“The sign said ‘Gulpepper, population 8,000,’ Torsten said. “That’s not a tiny hamlet.”“Did you saw the bit underneath?” Simone asked. “Someone writed it on.”“What bit?”“It said, ‘But the dead out number the living.’—Alan Baxter, “The Gulp” “I saw the body spread on that dank stone,And knew those things which feasted were not men…”—H.P. Lovecraft, “Fungi from Yuggoth” (IV. The…

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Dagon and Jill, by J.P. Mac

Dagon and Jill, by J.P. Mac

“Going forward, there could be a small problem with Dagon and Jill in the chapter where young Jill lures a homeless man out onto a pier, then shoves him into the water…This is a wonderful empowerment metaphor about the rewards that come from facing scary things. However, legal is worried some might view it as mean-spirited. Could you include people from other cultures and races, who are also…

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In His House, by Richard Thomas

In His House, by Richard Thomas

“It’s not hard.I just need you to listen.And keep listening.That part is essential.I need you to recite a few strange words the morning sun, or the afternoon doldrums, or the long, ever-expanding night. Wherever you are, whenever you are, whoever you are.In his house, he waits dreaming.”—Richard Thomas, “In His House” Is there a better way to round out the year of reviews than with the big “C”…

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The Black Stone, by Robert E. Howard

The Black Stone, by Robert E. Howard

“All eyes were fixed on the top of the Stone which they seemed to be invoking. But the strangest of all was the dimness of their voices; not fifty yards from me hundreds of men and women were unmistakably lifting their voices in a wild chant, yet those voices came to me as a faint indistinguishable murmur as if from across vast leagues of Space—or time.“—Robert E. Howard, The Black Stone “I know…

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The Crimson Fog, by Mark Samuels

The Crimson Fog, by Mark Samuels

“The chambers of our four AK-47 assault rifles were emptied by us into the depths of red gloom. The noise was deafeneing, and bits and pieces of mutilated vegetation scattered into the air like wedding confetti. After three or four more bursts we ceased firing. “See anything?” I said. “Nothing,” Mayhew replied. “Think we got the bastard?” Koszalski said. The smell of cordite masked everything else.”

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Star Crossed, by Jonathan Oliver

Star Crossed, by Jonathan Oliver

“Jasmine reached for the book, but withdrew her hand the moment she touched the wrapping. It hadn’t felt like cotton or hessian, rather something unpleasantly organic. Stealing herself against disgust, Jasmine snatched up the book, quickly throwing off its noisome shroud.”

—Jonathan Oliver, “Star Crossed”

“If I should try to write a story outside the weird area which engrosses my emotions and…

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The Undertow, and They That Dwell Therein, by Clint Smith

The Undertow, and They That Dwell Therein, by Clint Smith

“Of course, the mid-’80’s decor matched just about everything Gwen associated with Florida: out-of-date pastel aesthetics, innocuously campy beach-bum trinkets. Beneath the Jimmy Buffet facade, though, there was a sense of everything being scoured and scrubbed. Sand-eaten, as though the Gulf Coast were just one slender, eroding jawbone.”

—Clint Smith, “The Undertow, and They That Dwell Therein”

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Edward's Journal, by Lee Murray

Edward’s Journal, by Lee Murray

“Giraldy is back,” he said. We jumped rotting logs, trampled low bushes, in our haste to reach them. It was Giraldy, but he was barely recognizable: supine on the muddy ground, he was tinged blue and enveloped from head to toe in thick gelatinous slime. Opaque and criss-crossed with white filaments, the glutinous cocoon put me in mind of a frog’s spawn with it’s gelatinous covering, or perhaps a…

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