THE DEEP ONES: "Bringing Helena Back" by Sarah Monette

"Bringing Helena Back" by Sarah Monette.

Discussion begins December 11, 2024.

First published in the February 2004 issue of All Hallows.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?834779

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

The Bone Key
New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird

ONLINE VERSIONS

No online versions found to date.

ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS

No online audio versions found to date.

MISCELLANY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Monette
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/interview-sarah-monette/
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/interview-with-sarah-m...
https://tinyurl.com/ye2yccab

This story is sort of amazingly conventional for a 2004 story collected in New Cthulhu. The central topic is traditional necromancy, with no Yog-Sothothery at all. It was all rather matter-of-fact, although the horror elements were vivid enough.

It was also noteworthy that this story by woman was a million miles from passing the Bechdel test.

This is one of those stories Darrell Schweitzer dubbed an "old school chum" story. Lovecraft sort of used a variation of that in "The Statement of Randolph Carter", "From Beyond", and "The Hound" with his narrators being psychologically dominated by another man and having an horrific experience.

I didn't recognize any of the fictional titles as belonging to the Mythos so agree there's no Yog-Sothothery.

Still, I liked it as a tale of a man who regrets his weakness in not saving his one and only friend. A bit more poignancy than in Mythos stories.

I agree on the "old school chum" trope being central here, and I was surprised to find it from a woman writer, but it's not as if she lacked literary models to work from. "The Statement of Randolph Carter" is indeed a close cousin.