For over a decade now, Nathan Ballingrud’s North American Lake Monsters has been on my to-read list. Though hearing nothing but praise for it upon its 2013 debut, and ever since, I’ve yet to come across a copy to pick up, let alone fit into my reading schedule. I’ve caught some of his stories in collections and enjoyed them, so I wasn’t going to let a new Ballingrud release again pass me by. Crypt of the Moon Spider is the first novella of an advertised Lunar Gothic Trilogy, now available from Tor Nightfire.
Seeing the title of the series and this first story with its superb cover art by Samuel Araya (Christine Foltzer, design), I very eagerly started reading. The cover illustration and internal chapter-heading illustrations of a web-enshrouded moon evoked memories of Stephen Gammell’s art for the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Series, and Ballingrud’s surreal gothic horror perfectly matches a similar vibe. The novella’s dedication to Dale Bailey will also key well-read genre fans into what to expect with Crypt of the Moon Spider, even if unfamiliar with Ballingrud.
The year is 1923 and Veronica Brinkley arrives on the moon, escorted by her husband for her intake into the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy, a renowned facility at the figurative cutting edge of psychiatric medicine and the literal edge of the dense forests and flowing streams of the lunar surface. Though the methods of the manager of the facility, Dr. Barrington Cull, might be considered radical, experimental, or potentially risky, few argue with the positive results he has shown in patient healing, in removing those burdensome or dangerous thoughts or ideas people may have.
Dr. Cull’s surgery takes advantage of a local ingredient: moon spider’s silk, and the expertise of Soma: a member of the Alabaster Scholars, the cult-like devotees of the giant moon spider found deep within a cave years prior by some of the first lunar colonists.
But Veronica’s treatment begins to frighten her, as strange memories and dark dreams begin to coalesce in her head, and she begins to wonder about what she is being used for, what the spider silk stitched into her brain has done.
Gothic creepiness pervades the entirety of the novella, with a self-contained story whose characters and plot perfectly fit into the strengths of that format’s length. But the true fear-inspiring horror of Crypt of the Moon Spider is most succinctly presented in this passage, from memories of a conversation between Veronica and her mother:
“Your father tells you pretty dreams because he thinks girls need them. They don’t. What they need is the truth. When you get older you’re going to marry a man—with means, if we’re at all lucky—and make a family. And God help you if you ever become a burden to them.”
… “How could I ever become a burden to them? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“When what you need outweighs what you offer. Make no mistake child. Your life does not belong to you.”
Crypt of the Moon Spider is indeed about fears of identity and power, of having a life that does not belong to you. Even in this fantastical alternate universe of the 1920s, this is a state of physical and psychological horror inflicted upon women by society, a “casual brutality” of control over someone’s life, as Veronica phrases it at one point to refer both to the actions of Dr. Cull and her husband. Coupled to this, Veronica also has to deal with a fear of being able to trust her memories, to even trust herself.
Ballingrud also applies this theme to a male secondary character, an assistant/attendant at the facility named Charlie, who Veronica quickly nicknames Grub after their first encounter. One of the later chapters in the novel reveals a bit about Grub’s background, and how his life under the control of Dr. Cull has come to be. The shift in focus from Veronica to Grub is quite jarring, at first. But the surprising connections between characters and consistency of theme soon make the reason for the change clear, and fulfilling.
And behind all the plot of the main characters, lurking in rumor and shadows: Soma, and those who may or may not be dead: the other Alabaster Scholars and the spider they worship(ped.) Are these other lives being controlled? Or is everyone else subject to their web?
Crypt of the Moon Spider introduces a fascinating, but unsettling world that should provide wonderful follow-up novellas for this Lunar Gothic Trilogy. I’m ready for them. Readers should check this first entry out.
