The Croning

A trippy bit of cosmic horror. Well written with compelling characters. Got a bit bogged down in the middle, but the details added quite a bit to the main character's story.

Couple of spoilers below.

I'm not sure why people are basically calling him a simp. He clearly isn't. He is the product of a long line of men who have been manipulated by forces much stronger than humans. His "forgetfulness" and bowing to his wife's peccadilloes and transgressions aren't indications of his weakness, they're indicators of the forces at work on him. Their trips together. That party. He was surrounded, pummeled and yet he survived.

And of course I was happy that Thule made it out of there. At least I think he did. He was loyal and a good boy.

Overall I show more really enjoyed this. There really aren't enough of these books out there. I'm really digging on this genre. show less

Horror defined by what is left out... The aging protagonist's Swiss cheese memory; all gaps and lacunae, is the most frightening thing in this novel. This is atmospheric, Lovecraftian horror with a surprisingly effective fairy tale backbone. The journey is better than the end, but this is a really excellent horror novel.

This is my first Laird Barron and it will not be my last. In fact, I'm very excited to grab anything else he's written for all kinds of reasons: beautiful prose, a creepy old-school horror mastery that straddles the lines between haunting images, idyllic life, and mind-destroying terror.

Indeed, I fell down the rabbit hole of this fantastic exploration of an *obviously* wrong interpretation of the Hollow Earth theory. I got caught up trying to piece together the many different time periods, the cross-sections of a single lifetime. The horror aspects were awesome but it was the mystery that kept me coming back.

How could everything return to normal? Again and again? What is the truth? Or better yet... how is the truth?

It's easy to wave a show more hand and say this is a Cthuhlu-ish tale. It's more interesting to call this a really dark retelling of Rumplestiltskin. But what is the truth?

This is a wonderfully dark and beautifully written work of cosmic terror couched as an idyllic life well lived... with strange gaps. :)

No spoilers, but I should mention that I guffawed and rubbed my hands by the end. :) show less

A lifetime full of lost memories and vague recollections turns out to be crowded with vast dreadful horrors that cannot even be contemplated without losses of sanity, but what's it got to do with him and his wife? Brilliant first novel by master of the short story Barron. Most of the elements will be familiar to readers of his terrific collections, but there's a dark humour running through this that suggests to me that there's only so many times you can contemplate Old Leech consuming the misshapen survivors of enslaved humanity in the far future before a touch of high camp enters in through the hopelessness and nihilism, at least if you have a touch of self awareness.

Recroned.

4-1/2 stars; almost gave it five stars but it was a little too derivative of [a:H.P. Lovecraft|9494|H.P. Lovecraft|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1299165714p2/9494.jpg]'s The Whisperer in Darkness so I subtracted half a star for lack of originality in plot. That said, it's like The Whisperer in Darkness on acid and speed. Some of the amnesia/flashback is a little hard to swallow but, hey, we're dealing with the supernatural here so let's not be too picky. The ending once again reminded me of [a:Michael Shea|7213910|Michael Shea|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png]'s The Autopsy or that movie Fallen with Denzel Washington.

Barron gets it on but with none of his wiggy show more philosophical enigma; we know what's goin' on here.

The great thing about Barron now is he keeps mining the same vein/theme but in so many different ways. He's got his own Mythos going (I know I'm stretching it a bit) but he's upped the creep and despair factor since [b:The Imago Sequence and Other Stories|911954|The Imago Sequence and Other Stories|Laird Barron|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1391343266s/911954.jpg|897056] with more solid endings that are just going to make you wonder if he doesn't know something about the universe that we don't.

Barron has now shown he can go the distance in story, novella, and novel. He should be better known. show less

Mi primer acercamiento al escritor Laird Barron fue a través de su relato ‘El Broadsword’, incluido en la antología ‘Alas tenebrosas: 21 nuevos cuentos de horror lovecraftiano’ (Valdemar, 2014), sin duda uno de los mejores de la misma. Así que cuando se anunció la publicación de ‘El Rito’ (The Croning, 2012), su primera novela, ya me estaba frotando las manos.

La historia de ‘El Rito’ da comienzo como si fuese un cuento, eso sí, sangriento y enfermizo, como si de un relato de Angela Carter se tratase. En mi opinión, esta es la mejor parte de la novela, o al menos la que más me ha gustado. Posteriormente, el libro alterna capítulos en diferentes épocas, con Don Miller, geólogo, como principal protagonista. A lo show more largo de la narración, iremos conociendo la relación con Michelle, su mujer, antropóloga de profesión, y los terribles secretos que rodean su vida.

Tras un fantástico inicio, la trama se pierde en un gran preámbulo, y cuando empieza lo bueno de verdad, ya estás dando la vuelta a la última página.

‘El Rito’ resulta una lectura interesante, sugerente y cargada de gran simbolismo, pero me deja con la sensación de que Laird Barron se desenvuelve mejor en las distancias cortas, escribiendo relatos, que historias más largas. Un autor a seguir de cerca. show less

I've been waiting for this book to settle in my brain so I could give it the review it deserves but it just won't happen. This book was so many things; horror, time travel, a bit of science fiction, fantasy, even fairy tales. It's everything. And I loved it. It kept me up nights with its tension and gave me bad dreams to boot. And still I loved it.