A wonderfully Gothic re-imagining of the moon in an alternative 1923.

There is so much of the science fiction of Verne and Wells in this novella, but then tempered by a very dark creeping horror with a Lovecraftian flavour, cosmic and visceral.

Set on the moon among the forest that Galileo thought was a sea is a sanitarium called The Barrowfield Home, a place treating melancholy with experimental procedures involving spider silk from a long dead Moon Spider.

A cracking tale that had me gripped from start to finish, with a slow build setting the place within a universe that suddenly exploded into a startling conclusion there wasn’t a foot placed wrong.

The whole story was tight and paced so well, I especially liked the inclusion of some back story for Grub which really added flavour to the conclusion.

Looking forward to the next episode in the Lunar Gothic Trilogy!

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A good mix of horror, sci-fi. A well plotted and entertaining story
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The perfect horror and science fiction mix with Bradbury vibes. A extended short story, compelling, which creates a world for further stories. Looking forward to reading the next one next year!

I really enjoyed this novella. The vibes were immaculate and I thought the author packed a lot of story into just 112 pages. The setting was very Gothic and creepy, which I always appreciate, and the very idea of a giant moon spider is pretty upsetting in and of itself. Overall, this was a great read and I will pick up the next one as soon as it is released.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Crypt of the Moon Spider is a stunning novella that had me gripped from the start. I adored the growing horror and sense of unease. The characters were all fantastically developed for such a short space to flourish. The world building was surprisingly intense and vivid but at the same time it flowed so well that we never had massive drops of information.

I adored every second of reading this and read it in one sitting. It was beautiful and bleak and captivating at all the same time and definitely one you will continue to think about long after you have finished.

As always thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the copy to review. My review is always honest and truthful.

A horror/sci-fi blend, that get uncomfortable real quick. I enjoyed reading flowery passages in juxtaposition to the horror. Ultimately there was just too much packed into not even 100 pages and I would have prefered more depth for less elements of the story. Still a readable and interesting novella.
3,5

Crypt of the Moon Spider takes place in 1923, except it’s not like the 1923 that we know from the history books, all flappy skirts, prohibition and the Charleston. No! This is an entirely different 1923 where there are Buck Rodgers or Edgar Rice Burroughs type rocket ships that make regular journeys to the moon to drop off rich mentally ill patients who want to get in on the act of eminent psychiatrist Dr Barrington Cull (or Barry, if you want to piss him off! Which does crop up in the book at a later point!), who has set up his institute, The Barrowfield Home for the Treatment of the Treatment of The Melancholy. (I suppose Mr Ballingrud only had a fleeting thought for the lesser egos of those poor smaller words).

Here, Dr Cull has had surprisingly good results in the treatment of those people who experience the feelings of sadness (squared) by using the abundant resource of Moon Spider silk. In addition to this, it also gives the families of the afflicted the opportunity to drop them off their unwell relatives pronto, and then retire them to the back of their brains at a place called distant memory.

Enter our new patient, Veronica and her husband (who under the guise of caring, gentle husband, is keen to slip the yoke of his encumberment, i.e. his wife, and jetpack his way back down to earth and start his life afresh), hoping to get the radical new treatment and rid herself of the black periods that have marred her existence and lead her into thoughts of ending her life.

Upon landing on the moon, they are met by Head Custodian Charlie who is charged with taking her to her rooms (he is definitely not a nurse! Well, he might be, but more in the Nurse Ratchett type of nurse, and definitely not the Florence Nightingale or Mary Seacole type that would suggest a caring kind of nurse). After the initial introductions, Charlie soon turns quite creepy (Bang! And there we have it folks, the first encore of the word that made its first appearance all the way back in paragraph - you count em!), as does this so called caring environment.

After several insistences (which are summarily ignored and lead Veronica to mount protests and eventually lead to despondency), she meets the renowned owner of the home, Dr Barrington Cull, who explains the process of how he is going to fix her, all under the watchful gaze of Soma, an Alabaster Scholar, who belongs to a group of secularists who worship the Moon Spider.

After a Freudian, psychoanalytic trip to her childhood as a poor farmers girl under the vast skies of Nebraska, Veronica is taken back to her room to await her first treatment where she will discover the true horrors of the treatments that Dr Cull employs to cure the mentally bereft and unwell.

Mixing science fiction, horror and a heavy dash of dreamlike surrealism, Ballingrud writes an immersive tale that much like the spider silk Dr Cull purports will cure any mental illness, weaves its way into your brain.

You soon get used to the style of prose that he uses as he shows us the horrors that the patients of the home will experience as Ballingrud illustrates the frankenstinian experiments that were a part of early mental health care.

Throughout the story there is a genre soup of horror styles, such as body horror and cosmic horror, as well as a touch of the gothic.

Perfect for fans of people like Thomas Ligotti, Laird Barron and other such luminaries of weird fiction, Crypt Of The Moon Spider creeps into your unconsciousness to lay its eggs of unease as you traverse it’s pages.

Perfectly weird Science Fiction Horror novel that captures what I love most about this genre. Wild ideas and deeply unsetteling atmosphere.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan for my digital review copy

4 stars.

This was such a good little read!

It's a combination of sci-fi and horror, with a 1923 setting that makes it almost like pulp fiction.

I really enjoyed the creepy prose and the use of body horror was so effective!

For how short it was, it did a superb job of making me invesed in Veronica and I can't wait to see what comes in the next installment after reading the teaser at the end.

This is my second time reading a book from this author, and I have to say his writing is exceptional.
This novella is a 50/50 mix of horror and science fiction set in an asylum unlike any you have known, it's on the moon and it's safe to say that things aren't as they initially seem.
As far as novellas go, this is a top drawer effort. It has it all, a great storyline, amazingly well drawn characters, with plenty of mystery and action thrown in for good measure.
I cannot wait for the next book in the series.
Exceptional and highly recommended!

I’m gonna be really honest and say: This is without a doubt one of the best short stories I’ve read so far. Only 80 pages but such a fantastic, dark and gory story. I devoured this book! The concept is so weird and disturbing, and even though there’s a lot going on it is easy to understand because of the great writing style. Had to shower after finishing though, because it felt like I had spiders all over me.

A perfect book for both horror & sci-fi reader!

Thank you so much for this ARC Titan Books.

I presume this novella is set in the same universe as the authors "The Strange', although this time the setting is the Moon (instead of Mars).
Nathan Ballingrud is quickly becoming the master of Weird SF, very VanDerMeer but with more than a big mix of Nostalgia Pulp Fiction. This work even mentions Edgar Rice Burroughs. Fairly short, so it is impossible to mention anything without doing spoilers, so I will just say read The Strange first, then Crypt of the Moon Spider (which hints a reason for the mystery of the silence of Earth).
Coming next year is the next volume Cathedral of the Drowned. Very much looking forward to it.