Crypt of the Moon Spider
by Nathan Ballingrud
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Pub Date Aug 27 2024 | Archive Date Aug 27 2024
Tor Publishing Group | Tor Nightfire
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Description
Crypt of the Moon Spider is a dark and dreamy tale of horror, corruption, and identity spun into the stickiest of webs.
Years ago, in a cave beneath the dense forests and streams on the surface of the moon, a gargantuan spider once lived. Its silk granted its first worshippers immense faculties of power and awe.
It’s now 1923 and Veronica Brinkley is touching down on the moon for her intake at the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy. A renowned facility, Dr. Barrington Cull’s invasive and highly successful treatments have been lauded by many. And they’re so simple! All it takes is a little spider silk in the amygdala, maybe a strand or two in the prefrontal cortex, and perhaps an inch in the hippocampus for near evisceration of those troublesome thoughts and ideas.
But patients aren’t the only ones with trouble on their minds, and although the spider’s been dead for years, its denizens are not. Someone or something is up to no good, and Veronica just might be the cause.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781250291738 |
| PRICE | $17.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 112 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Ryan W, Reviewer
4,5 stars. Been saving this for the right day. Since I have a few days off I took it w/ me to a deserted beach and pretended it was the forested moon of Ballingrud’s imagination. This is a wild ride y’all and just the start. I love how Ballingrud (in this and THE STRANGE and some of his other stories) abandons reality for ripe fields of dreams. He does it without looking back and something wondrously unshackled is born. His prose sings, as you can now expect.
There is more medical horror here than I expected but that made it all the more surprising and terrifying. There are lunar landscapes and spiders; lost mafioso and secret cabals; candlelit underground crypts and decaying gods.
It did not reach the height, for me, of the world of “The Butcher’s Table” and “The Atlas of Hell,” but this is lunar gothic is a close second. I seriously cannot wait to see where this story goes next because honestly, it could go anywhere.
Kathryn M, Reviewer
I really enjoyed this opening chapter of the Lunar Gothic Trilogy world, it had that fantasy element that I was looking for and enjoyed about the overall horror element to it. The characters felt like they were supposed to and enjoyed how everything worked together. Nathan Ballingrud does a great job in bringing me into this world and characters and making me want to continue reading this.
Nick C, Reviewer
Anyone who has read the ‘The Butcher’s Table’ knows Ballingrud writes one hell of a novella. Now with his latest release, he just may have become a master of the form.
‘Crypt of the Moon Spider’ deals with a heavily troubled woman who is sent to an asylum on the moon by her husband. She joins a group of patients undergoing a radical surgical procedure, one that would make David Cronenberg cringe.
This may be an alternate earth/moon during an alternate early 1900s, but the sci-fi elements haunt the background as SPIDER becomes a psychological body horror creature feature that will have readers craving the second installment in this planned trilogy.
This is some seriously weird top notch terror that can be enjoyed in one manic sitting.
Kyle l, Reviewer
Wow! Body horror monster mash set on the moon in the early 1900s. This is some really good writing. I don't want to give much away. A young woman gets sent to the moon to receive treatment for depressi9n and other things. She quickly discovers the moon hides many secrets and monstrous things. I can't wait for the next one! So many spiders!
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