I must admit to being quite unnerved when I received a review copy of Nathan Ballingrud’s Crypt of the Moon Spider, covered in a spider’s web.
This novella follows Veronica Brinkley, who undertakes a mysterious experiment which becomes even more twisted as it goes on.
Her reasons for joining the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy, run by Dr. Barrington Cull, weren’t fully her own.
I found comparisons to American Horror Story: Asylum, but throw in a narrative around the titular Moon Spider, and you have a melting pot of fantastical proportions.
It’s a brisk read at just over 80 pages, but it feels like a jumping off point for a series of novellas to come.
Fans of dark fantasy with a blend of horror, will lap this up.
Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud is available in various formats from Titan Books.
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