Laird Barron

Pleasingly demented tale as thick as cosmic soup with pulp trappings, from the privileged young scions of an elite aristocorporate family in the 1950s and their terrifying family - their mother an Egyptian goddess, their father a supervillain, their grandfather an unspeakable patriarchal monster, at least one uncle prone to hunting killing and eating his nephews and nieces. When they witness their grandfather's deep space probe crash a week before it is due to launch, they find themselves in show more a horrifying yet hilarious nightmare of vast sleeping gods impinging on anthill Earth. Can they survive corporate rivals, cults, the attention of a being beyond comprehension and their own family? It's a rollicking adventure of blood and violence and the crushing insignificance of humanity in the gaping void of screaming nothingness. A mad blast from beginning to end. show less

I absolutely want to write something longer about this but it's insane how deeply every story here is suffused with horror at heterosexuality, even though I'm not sure the author realises it. It's really noticeable when you get to the best story in the book which is entirely about gay men and the only 2 women appear as dangerous interlopers that suddenly all the other stories got put in perspective for me. There's a heavy sense of gay anti natalism and het sex and the nuclear family as show more something that can only lead to horror. Idk if I'm reading too much into it but it just Makes Sense to me and after finding the first few stories a little disappointing when I got to Mysterium Tremendum which is an amazingly creepy and gay novella that suddenly everything clicked into place and I appreciated all the rest all the more. The story quality varied a bit but that one is great. show less

Get cosmic, get grim, get weird, get a nice big dog and head out into the wild wastes of Alaska to find the strange and terrible horrors waiting for you there, or maybe just poke your head into the attic, or drop by at a friend's party, terrible things are uncoiling everywhere, including inside the husk of blood and meat you call yourself. Laird Barron nearly died to bring you these messages, the least you could do is devour it until it begins to devour you.

A second collection from Laird Barron, more tales to gouge your world out and then hold the dripping world out on the end of its talons and wave it at the universe and ask if anything wants a snack and a billion disgusting filthy things start shuffling hungrily forward.

More great writing, and a greater variety of protagonists to fall prey to the slow erosion of sanity and reality as Barron mythos grows and infects yet more settings and locales and transforms more doomed and hapless humans show more into food or feeders. Gay lovers, bereaved mothers, retired surveyors, scientists and married couples, all grist to the horror mill.

The stories themselves are disquieting, disturbing, and disgusting enough to churn the stomach but draws enough veils to churn the mind. Your heart will break and your mind will revolt at the terrible fates of many of these characters, but you'll be glad it isn't you.

Reread - or rather re-listen, just for Halloween 2020. Cosy and reassuring!

Rereread show less