**Spoilers – Kinda**
I’ll start by admitting that this represents kind of a weird detour. Right now, I have stacks of highly reviewed, well received books just waiting to be read. My TBR list is a joke right now – it represents more of a retirement project these days than it does any realistic reading plan.
Nevertheless, I’m taking a digital walk-about on Amazon yesterday, right after finishing a post on “Ravencry” by Ed McDonald, and this under the radar title catches my eye. Maybe it was the odd cover art…maybe it was the price at $3.99…most likely it was the Lovecraftian element. I’m a sucker for all things Lovecraft and it doesn’t take much to convince me to download a new title. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve read six books based on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu’s Mythos:
- “The Ballad Of Black Tom” by Victor LaValle
- “Lovecraft Country” by Matt Ruff
- “Carter & Lovecraft” and “After The End Of The World” by Jonathan L. Howard
- “Sherlock Holmes And The Shadwell Shadows” and “Sherlock Holmes And The Miskatonic Monstrosities” by James Lovegrove
All great reads that I’d highly recommend if you enjoy a good Lovecraftian themed story.
Short to long – I hit the Kindle Buy Now button and opened it up. It’s a novella coming in at about 100+ pages and it’s a quick, easy, pretty entertaining read.
It’s a quirky story. The author doesn’t waste any time on developing his character – by the end of the book, you still don’t really know who or what John Persons actually is – only that he’s a Lovecraftian monster in his own right – possibly the last Yithian left on Earth. There’s no real world building – the story is set in modern day London and takes place in a working class neighborhood. The language is a bit odd – set in the U.K. – but Persons uses terms like “dame” and “skirt” to describe women – leaving you feeling like Mike Hammer might be lurking somewhere in the shadows. There are no higher causes – John Persons is just doing a job and is not worried about the evidence of larger problems that come to light during his investigation – though in the final chapter, he does make it a point to remind himself that he did “we did good” – the “we” being both the Lovecraftian monster that speaks to us throughout the story and the human body he animates. There’s really no one to root for here – the two young boys that have hired John to kill their step father – also possessed by a monster – are really only using him as bait to draw out said step father / monster. In fact, they eventually wind up selling themselves to Shub-Niggurath – one of the Lovecraftian Old Ones – to guarantee their protection. It’s a dark, nasty story.
Having said that, I really enjoyed it – enough to buy all three of Cassandra Khaw’s novellas – another John Persons story called “A Song For Quiet” – and her two Rupert Wong books – “Cannibal Chef” and “Rupert Wong And The Ends Of The Earth”. Khaw’s fresh and interesting and I’m very interested in seeing where she goes with her writing.
If there’s no worldbuilding and no character building, is there at least a plot? What you describe feels like it’s barely a plot, and I’m wondering if it’s typical of Lovecraftian horror.
It’s a short novella – so very spare. No real need for world building as it’s set in modern day London – though there are hints that there’s more to the place and time than is said in the story. There are also hints as to what John Persons is but it’s never clearly explained or made explicit. There’s plenty of room for Khaw to grow and develop this – doling out details as she goes. I’m not sure that I could say exactly what typical Lovecraftian horror is anymore – with so many people writing into the Mythos – but this is likely close. I did enjoy the story and I’m looking forward to the next. Cheers, Brian