Crypt of the Moon Spider

by Nathan Ballingrud

Genres: Horror
Pages: 128
Rating:

Synopsis:

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 trouble lurks in many a mind at this facility 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.

Nathan Ballingrud’s Crypt of the Moon Spider was very much a random choice for me, because I’ve been interested for a while in reading more short fiction, and the library happened to have this on their Halloween-themed table. Before I go on, I want to emphasise that you probably shouldn’t read the rest of this review if you’re arachnophobic, and this book probably isn’t for you. (Fiction and reality are two different things, of course, but if the thought of spiders makes you squirm, I’m pretty sure this one isn’t a place you want to go.)

It definitely brings the unsettling vibes, as Veronica Brinkley arrives on the moon to be treated for depression and is swiftly experimented on and abused, with the doctor using spider silk from long-dead Moon Spiders to replace parts of her brain he’s cut out.

Obviously that’s ick on various levels, and it doesn’t get any better when spiders start hatching inside people’s skulls — particularly Veronica’s, as something special has been implanted in her brain.

For me this one was a step too far out of my comfort zone in a direction that I’m not really interested in going. I’m not unduly arachnophobic (not compared to e.g. my germophobia), but spiders moving through my brain is definitely not an image I want to sit with. I think if I were rating objectively (not that I really believe there’s such a thing), I’d have to give it some higher marks for how well it manages some very unsettling images. But I rate based on enjoyment, and this one was solidly not for me.

There’s apparently to be a sequel, and I’m not sure where that would go — but I won’t be following!

Rating: 2/5