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Invaders from the Dark (Annotated): The weird pulp classic
When Portia Differdale invited her maiden Aunt Sophie to live with her, Sophie little expected to be caught up in a struggle between the forces of Light and Darkness. But meeting the exiled Russian Princess who moved into the neighborhood somehow clued her into the uncanny forces in play, and before too long, policemen would vanish, children would be kidnapped or worse, and she would be facing... Invaders from the Dark!This iktaPOP Media edition includes a new introduction giving the book genre and historical context.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 1925
3 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Greye La Spina
56 books8 followersGreye La Spina was one of the few women to write regularly for the leading fantasy/horror pulps, and was a contributor to the very first issue of the first American pulp magazine devoted exclusively to tales of horror and the fantastic.
Born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the daughter of a Methodist minister, she was a precocious child, publishing her own "small press" newspaper at the age of 10, with pages of poems and local gossip. As a teenager, she won a literary contest and had a story published in Connecticut Magazine. La Spina gave up writing to attend to her marriage and the raising of a daughter, but in her early thirties she was drawn back to it.
In the 1920s and 1930s, La Spina worked as a journalist, and she was said to have been the first female newspaper photographer. Following the death of her husband, La Spina married again, to a deposed Italian baron.
Born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the daughter of a Methodist minister, she was a precocious child, publishing her own "small press" newspaper at the age of 10, with pages of poems and local gossip. As a teenager, she won a literary contest and had a story published in Connecticut Magazine. La Spina gave up writing to attend to her marriage and the raising of a daughter, but in her early thirties she was drawn back to it.
In the 1920s and 1930s, La Spina worked as a journalist, and she was said to have been the first female newspaper photographer. Following the death of her husband, La Spina married again, to a deposed Italian baron.
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February 6, 2022
In my review of the splendid collection entitled "The Women of Weird Tales," which was released by Valancourt Books in 2020, I mentioned that I'd been very impressed with the five stories by Greye La Spina to be found therein, and was now interested in checking out the author's classic novel of modern-day lycanthropy, "Invaders From the Dark." Well, it took a little searching until I found a copy of said book for what I considered a decent price, but I am here now to tell you...mission accomplished, and to share some thoughts on what has turned out to be a fun and surprisingly grisly novel, indeed.
La Spina, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this unjustly neglected writer, was born Fanny Greye Bragg, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, in 1880. She would go on to pen over 100 short stories before her passing in 1969, around 20 of them appearing in "Weird Tales" magazine; of those 20, two of them, "Invaders From the Dark" and "The Gargoyle," were serialized short novels. In the case of the former, it originally appeared in the April/May/June 1925 issues of "The Unique Magazine," and was, unsurprisingly, a huge hit with "Weird Tales" readers. Seabury Quinn, the author who would place more stories in the magazine than any other writer, reportedly missed his subway stop, so engrossed was he in the tale. Another "Weird Tales" contributor, C. M. Eddy, Jr., was so enamored with it that he supposedly pressed for its release as a hardcover edition. Well, it took all of 35 years, but in 1960, Arkham House did finally rescue La Spina's novel from oblivion, in a hardcover volume that today is a highly sought collectable. In 1966, the Paperback Library came out with its own edition, with the title, for some strange reason, changed to "Shadow of Evil," and its front cover sporting that oft-used depiction of a frightened woman fleeing from a creepy-looking Victorian abode. (Perhaps you're familiar with the type of cover I mean?) After this, La Spina's novel would go OOPs (out of prints) for another 41 years, until the fine folks at Ramble House opted to add it to their already huge catalog, for a new generation to discover. And yes, it is the 2007 Ramble House edition that I was happy to finally lay my hands on. "Invaders From the Dark" did not mark the first time that La Spina had written a tale about werewolves. Indeed, her very first published story had been "The Wolf on the Steppes," which appeared in the short-lived pulp magazine "The Thrill Book" in 1919. She would go on to write another tale of lycanthropy, the highly regarded piece called "The Devil's Pool," in 1936, and if her 1925 novel is any indication of quality, I would love to read both of those stories someday....
"Invaders From the Dark," for the most part, consists of a manuscript written by an elderly woman named Sophie Delorme. In a most convincing introduction, La Spina tells her readers how the manuscript came to be delivered into her hands, after Delorme had contacted a magazine dealing in the supernatural (presumably "Weird Tales" itself) and asked to be put in touch with one of its writers who was well versed in the occult, as Greye apparently was. Immediately after Ms. Delorme had thrown La Spina her manuscript from an upper-floor window, she'd been yanked away, and she and her home were destroyed in an explosion. Before the publication of Delorme's manuscript, La Spina tells us, any number of mysterious and destructive events had occurred, in an apparent attempt to ensure that its release to the public would never take place. The fact that Delorme's story made it into print, it seems, is a providential blessing, as her story was written for the express purpose of warning the world about the evil forces dwelling in our midst.
Sophie, we learn, had moved from her Massachusetts home to NYC, to live with her adopted niece Portia, who had recently lost her husband. That husband, one Howard Differdale, had originally hired Portia to be his assistant in his studies of the occult, and had died during the faulty conducting of one of his arcane ceremonies. Now, Portia finds herself attracted to the handsome and kindly Owen Edwardes, a real estate man who lives nearby. But major-league trouble arrives in the form of the beautiful blonde Russian princess Irma Andreyevna Tchernova, who hires Owen to find her a suitable abode and who also seems to have a hankering for the young man. To Aunt Sophie's bewilderment, Portia immediately becomes suspicious of the princess, who not only has an uncommonly long third finger, but who also loves foul-smelling marigolds, cannot eat sweets, orders massive quantities of red meat from the local butcher, has slanted eyebrows, has red spots in her eyes, walks rather slinkily, and keeps five gray wolves as pets. As time goes on, two policemen and one 12-year-old girl disappear from the neighborhood, after which, it is learned, the princess had cut back on her meat orders from the butcher! Finally, Portia tells her aunt of what she has long suspected: that the Russian princess, abetted by her hulking manservant Sergei and her mute and barefoot underling Agathya, is nothing less than a werewolf, capable of changing her shape at will! And, to make matters even worse, Portia has discovered, after doing a little surreptitious spying at the princess' abode while in her "astral state," that Irma will soon be turning Owen into a werewolf as well, to be her (literal) running mate. Can Portia, novice occultist as she is, possibly face off against this female monster to save her man's soul from a truly horrendous fate?
Now, there are several factors that combine to make La Spina's work here a fairly unusual experience. First, of course, is the fact that all three of the book's main characters--the narrator, the heroine and the villainess--are women, and that the men who we see, such as Owen and those hapless cops, are all ineffectual, albeit well-meaning. Despite some tears on the part of Portia, and a fainting spell that comes upon Aunt Sophie, the women presented to us are the ones exhibiting all the strength and decisiveness. And then there is the matter of Princess Irma herself. Unlike the werewolves given to us in Guy Endore's 1933 classic "The Werewolf of Paris" (Bertrand Caillet was a traditional werewolf who also preyed on livestock), Anthony Boucher's famous short story of 1942, "The Compleat Werewolf" (Wolfe Wolf, a German-language professor, could change into a wolf at will but only did so in the service of good and for his country), and Jack Williamson's 1948 novel "Darker Than You Think" (Will Barbee was actually a shapeshifter of a wholly different genus, Homo lycanthropus, who was also shown changing into a sabertooth and a boa constrictor), the Russian werewolf given to us here became the evil creature that she is by dint of a force of will alone. It is strongly suggested that her great faith in the dark powers that she had studied is the factor responsible for her seemingly miraculous abilities. Her current situation, thus, is no unfortunate accident of fate, as was Lawrence Talbot's in the classic Universal film "The Wolf Man" (1941), but rather a deliberate act of volition, making her, in my eyes at least, an even nastier proposition than all those others. Plus, no mention is made here of a possible Achilles heel to this werewolf, such as a silver bullet; only the occult powers and the power of prayer, strangely enough, would seem to offer any protection from this (what the Russians call) "volkodlak."
La Spina's book is fast moving and tense, and offers up several finely done sequences. In the first, Sophie and Portia peek into the princess' windows at night, and behold her cruel treatment of Agathya; in another, Sophie goes to a tea party at which the princess is in attendance. Then there is another nocturnal surveillance of Irma's abode, after which our gals are chased home by some kind of natural or unnatural wolf; the wonderful scene in which Portia's incorporeal, astral self spies on Irma and Owen, as the princess prepares her victim for his transformation; and the exciting--and wholly believable--culmination, as reported, via pantomime, by the mute Agathya. The ultimate fate of Aunt Sophie, as seen in that introduction, is nicely mysterious, too. Adding a sense of dislocation to the entire affair is the fact that although it supposedly transpires in NYC, the neighborhood names have been changed, and even though such real thoroughfares as Queens Boulevard and Bayside Avenue are name checked, they do not correspond to the streets that occur in actuality; nor is it possible to take a subway to the town of Lynbrook! As I mentioned up top, La Spina's tale is pleasingly (although, usually, only suggestively) grisly. I just love when the princess says "I have the great blood-red orchid that seem so solid, so yielding, at once; like the pulsing flesh of a child’s heart." So yes, "Invaders From the Dark" does indeed make for a fun, old-fashioned horror entertainment. Still, there are any number of drawbacks that prevent me from giving it a higher grade.
For one thing, Ms. La Spina, sad to say, makes any number of "continuity errors" in her tale. For example, we are told that Portia was hired by Mr. Differdale in June 1910, and are later told that she married him six months later, in January 1910. Say what? Early on, it is established that the Differdale home has only two floors, with the bedrooms and library on the upper level, and yet, repeatedly, the women go up to their bedrooms when they're already on the second floor! The two Russian wolfhounds that are Portia's pets are described as being white early on (a somewhat important plot point) but are then said to be gray 100 pages later. And when Sophie and Portia spy on Irma's household through a window during that second reconnaissance mission, the princess' back is said to be facing them. So how, then, could Aunt Sophie observe "her narrow eyes regarding [Owen] provocatively from under lowered lids"? These kinds of goofs can annoy an alert reader to distraction! Less objectionable to me were some instances of faulty grammar ("Her blue eyes were dazzlingly clear and looked at one uncompromisingly; there were mystery in their depths....") and several wholly unnatural-sounding conversations. Still, we must recall that it is Aunt Sophie who is telling us this tale, and that she is hardly a professional writer. Not to mention the fact that it was really up to "Weird Tales" editor Farnsworth Wright to spot all those goofs in the first place. Still, these are relatively minor matters in a book that is so eminently readable and such good fun. Yes, it would have been nice to have been given a little bit more background on Portia's work and research, and a little more biographical info as regards the princess (such as why this Russian employs so many French words), just as it would have been nice if Fu Sing, Portia's Chinese servant, weren't such a caricature, but still, what we are given here is some fairly impressive work, indeed. As Aunt Sophie tells us at one point, "Oh, this is a wild tale! But then, it makes fair reading to pass an idle hour." And now, this reader finds himself wanting to read still another novel written by a female author that features a female werewolf; namely, Clemence Housman's 1896 classic "The Were-Wolf." Wish me luck as I endeavor to track this one down....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for fans of Greye La Spina....)
La Spina, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this unjustly neglected writer, was born Fanny Greye Bragg, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, in 1880. She would go on to pen over 100 short stories before her passing in 1969, around 20 of them appearing in "Weird Tales" magazine; of those 20, two of them, "Invaders From the Dark" and "The Gargoyle," were serialized short novels. In the case of the former, it originally appeared in the April/May/June 1925 issues of "The Unique Magazine," and was, unsurprisingly, a huge hit with "Weird Tales" readers. Seabury Quinn, the author who would place more stories in the magazine than any other writer, reportedly missed his subway stop, so engrossed was he in the tale. Another "Weird Tales" contributor, C. M. Eddy, Jr., was so enamored with it that he supposedly pressed for its release as a hardcover edition. Well, it took all of 35 years, but in 1960, Arkham House did finally rescue La Spina's novel from oblivion, in a hardcover volume that today is a highly sought collectable. In 1966, the Paperback Library came out with its own edition, with the title, for some strange reason, changed to "Shadow of Evil," and its front cover sporting that oft-used depiction of a frightened woman fleeing from a creepy-looking Victorian abode. (Perhaps you're familiar with the type of cover I mean?) After this, La Spina's novel would go OOPs (out of prints) for another 41 years, until the fine folks at Ramble House opted to add it to their already huge catalog, for a new generation to discover. And yes, it is the 2007 Ramble House edition that I was happy to finally lay my hands on. "Invaders From the Dark" did not mark the first time that La Spina had written a tale about werewolves. Indeed, her very first published story had been "The Wolf on the Steppes," which appeared in the short-lived pulp magazine "The Thrill Book" in 1919. She would go on to write another tale of lycanthropy, the highly regarded piece called "The Devil's Pool," in 1936, and if her 1925 novel is any indication of quality, I would love to read both of those stories someday....
"Invaders From the Dark," for the most part, consists of a manuscript written by an elderly woman named Sophie Delorme. In a most convincing introduction, La Spina tells her readers how the manuscript came to be delivered into her hands, after Delorme had contacted a magazine dealing in the supernatural (presumably "Weird Tales" itself) and asked to be put in touch with one of its writers who was well versed in the occult, as Greye apparently was. Immediately after Ms. Delorme had thrown La Spina her manuscript from an upper-floor window, she'd been yanked away, and she and her home were destroyed in an explosion. Before the publication of Delorme's manuscript, La Spina tells us, any number of mysterious and destructive events had occurred, in an apparent attempt to ensure that its release to the public would never take place. The fact that Delorme's story made it into print, it seems, is a providential blessing, as her story was written for the express purpose of warning the world about the evil forces dwelling in our midst.
Sophie, we learn, had moved from her Massachusetts home to NYC, to live with her adopted niece Portia, who had recently lost her husband. That husband, one Howard Differdale, had originally hired Portia to be his assistant in his studies of the occult, and had died during the faulty conducting of one of his arcane ceremonies. Now, Portia finds herself attracted to the handsome and kindly Owen Edwardes, a real estate man who lives nearby. But major-league trouble arrives in the form of the beautiful blonde Russian princess Irma Andreyevna Tchernova, who hires Owen to find her a suitable abode and who also seems to have a hankering for the young man. To Aunt Sophie's bewilderment, Portia immediately becomes suspicious of the princess, who not only has an uncommonly long third finger, but who also loves foul-smelling marigolds, cannot eat sweets, orders massive quantities of red meat from the local butcher, has slanted eyebrows, has red spots in her eyes, walks rather slinkily, and keeps five gray wolves as pets. As time goes on, two policemen and one 12-year-old girl disappear from the neighborhood, after which, it is learned, the princess had cut back on her meat orders from the butcher! Finally, Portia tells her aunt of what she has long suspected: that the Russian princess, abetted by her hulking manservant Sergei and her mute and barefoot underling Agathya, is nothing less than a werewolf, capable of changing her shape at will! And, to make matters even worse, Portia has discovered, after doing a little surreptitious spying at the princess' abode while in her "astral state," that Irma will soon be turning Owen into a werewolf as well, to be her (literal) running mate. Can Portia, novice occultist as she is, possibly face off against this female monster to save her man's soul from a truly horrendous fate?
Now, there are several factors that combine to make La Spina's work here a fairly unusual experience. First, of course, is the fact that all three of the book's main characters--the narrator, the heroine and the villainess--are women, and that the men who we see, such as Owen and those hapless cops, are all ineffectual, albeit well-meaning. Despite some tears on the part of Portia, and a fainting spell that comes upon Aunt Sophie, the women presented to us are the ones exhibiting all the strength and decisiveness. And then there is the matter of Princess Irma herself. Unlike the werewolves given to us in Guy Endore's 1933 classic "The Werewolf of Paris" (Bertrand Caillet was a traditional werewolf who also preyed on livestock), Anthony Boucher's famous short story of 1942, "The Compleat Werewolf" (Wolfe Wolf, a German-language professor, could change into a wolf at will but only did so in the service of good and for his country), and Jack Williamson's 1948 novel "Darker Than You Think" (Will Barbee was actually a shapeshifter of a wholly different genus, Homo lycanthropus, who was also shown changing into a sabertooth and a boa constrictor), the Russian werewolf given to us here became the evil creature that she is by dint of a force of will alone. It is strongly suggested that her great faith in the dark powers that she had studied is the factor responsible for her seemingly miraculous abilities. Her current situation, thus, is no unfortunate accident of fate, as was Lawrence Talbot's in the classic Universal film "The Wolf Man" (1941), but rather a deliberate act of volition, making her, in my eyes at least, an even nastier proposition than all those others. Plus, no mention is made here of a possible Achilles heel to this werewolf, such as a silver bullet; only the occult powers and the power of prayer, strangely enough, would seem to offer any protection from this (what the Russians call) "volkodlak."
La Spina's book is fast moving and tense, and offers up several finely done sequences. In the first, Sophie and Portia peek into the princess' windows at night, and behold her cruel treatment of Agathya; in another, Sophie goes to a tea party at which the princess is in attendance. Then there is another nocturnal surveillance of Irma's abode, after which our gals are chased home by some kind of natural or unnatural wolf; the wonderful scene in which Portia's incorporeal, astral self spies on Irma and Owen, as the princess prepares her victim for his transformation; and the exciting--and wholly believable--culmination, as reported, via pantomime, by the mute Agathya. The ultimate fate of Aunt Sophie, as seen in that introduction, is nicely mysterious, too. Adding a sense of dislocation to the entire affair is the fact that although it supposedly transpires in NYC, the neighborhood names have been changed, and even though such real thoroughfares as Queens Boulevard and Bayside Avenue are name checked, they do not correspond to the streets that occur in actuality; nor is it possible to take a subway to the town of Lynbrook! As I mentioned up top, La Spina's tale is pleasingly (although, usually, only suggestively) grisly. I just love when the princess says "I have the great blood-red orchid that seem so solid, so yielding, at once; like the pulsing flesh of a child’s heart." So yes, "Invaders From the Dark" does indeed make for a fun, old-fashioned horror entertainment. Still, there are any number of drawbacks that prevent me from giving it a higher grade.
For one thing, Ms. La Spina, sad to say, makes any number of "continuity errors" in her tale. For example, we are told that Portia was hired by Mr. Differdale in June 1910, and are later told that she married him six months later, in January 1910. Say what? Early on, it is established that the Differdale home has only two floors, with the bedrooms and library on the upper level, and yet, repeatedly, the women go up to their bedrooms when they're already on the second floor! The two Russian wolfhounds that are Portia's pets are described as being white early on (a somewhat important plot point) but are then said to be gray 100 pages later. And when Sophie and Portia spy on Irma's household through a window during that second reconnaissance mission, the princess' back is said to be facing them. So how, then, could Aunt Sophie observe "her narrow eyes regarding [Owen] provocatively from under lowered lids"? These kinds of goofs can annoy an alert reader to distraction! Less objectionable to me were some instances of faulty grammar ("Her blue eyes were dazzlingly clear and looked at one uncompromisingly; there were mystery in their depths....") and several wholly unnatural-sounding conversations. Still, we must recall that it is Aunt Sophie who is telling us this tale, and that she is hardly a professional writer. Not to mention the fact that it was really up to "Weird Tales" editor Farnsworth Wright to spot all those goofs in the first place. Still, these are relatively minor matters in a book that is so eminently readable and such good fun. Yes, it would have been nice to have been given a little bit more background on Portia's work and research, and a little more biographical info as regards the princess (such as why this Russian employs so many French words), just as it would have been nice if Fu Sing, Portia's Chinese servant, weren't such a caricature, but still, what we are given here is some fairly impressive work, indeed. As Aunt Sophie tells us at one point, "Oh, this is a wild tale! But then, it makes fair reading to pass an idle hour." And now, this reader finds himself wanting to read still another novel written by a female author that features a female werewolf; namely, Clemence Housman's 1896 classic "The Were-Wolf." Wish me luck as I endeavor to track this one down....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for fans of Greye La Spina....)
January 20, 2025
Originally published in serial format in 1925, this is written in a style that reminded me of Dracula and Frankenstein. I knew I had to read it when I found out that the villain is a Russian princess who is also a werewolf. So specific and unusual, I couldn’t resist! And it was even more fun to read than I expected!
And what a great cover! My edition from the 60s has orange sprayed edges that contrast with the blue cover AND perfectly match the orange of the spooky house’s lit up window!
Somehow, it’s the only actual full length novel that Greye La Spina wrote. She was primarily known for writing short stories for fantasy/horror pulps. Because it’s from 1925, it does have an occasional dated moment here and there in it, so bear that in mind. If you can get your hands on a copy of this, it’s totally worth the read!
And what a great cover! My edition from the 60s has orange sprayed edges that contrast with the blue cover AND perfectly match the orange of the spooky house’s lit up window!
Somehow, it’s the only actual full length novel that Greye La Spina wrote. She was primarily known for writing short stories for fantasy/horror pulps. Because it’s from 1925, it does have an occasional dated moment here and there in it, so bear that in mind. If you can get your hands on a copy of this, it’s totally worth the read!
March 31, 2022
El nombre de Greye la Espina suele evocar gratos recuerdos a los asiduos lectores de la revista Weird tales. Lamentablemente, quedan con vida muy pocos de esos lectores; el paso del tiempo se ha ido encargando de sepultar todos esos relatos y a sus autores. En habla hispana autoras como Greye son aún más desconocidas: muchas de las historias de la época Pulp nunca fueron traducidas al español.
Es necesario comentar que, en Weird tales también se publicaron novelas cortas, muchas de ellas presentadas por entregas, Los invasores de la oscuridad es una de ellas. Se entregó a los lectores en tres partes de abril a junio de 1925, en los números de esos meses. En aquella época solo la obra de autores destacados como Lovecraft, Derleth, Smith, Queen, pudieron abandonar las páginas de pulpa de celulosa, para ser publicados en libros y antologías. Por lo que tener esta novela en un solo volumen, es algo que se aprecia.
En algunos textos ya he mencionado que en la época Pulp, la escritura de mujeres resalta por encima de la obra de otros autores. No es mera adulación, la forma de construir las historias, los personajes y los tópicos que abordaron son tratados de forma diferente. Los invasores de la oscuridad está llena de ocultismo, magia, licantropía, viajes astrales; con interpretaciones de pasajes bíblicos que podrían ser considerados como parte de lo que hoy conocemos como horror religioso.
Ha sido una historia que he disfrutado mucho, por la forma en que te atrapa y cómo acomoda los elementos, fantásticos, ocultos y de terror. El único detalle que encontré, no es sobre la obra, es sobre la traducción, detecté varios párrafos mal traducidos e inconsistentes, que pude cotejar con la versión original para poder continuar mi lectura. Creo que la editorial debe cuidar un poco más estos detalles.
Por lo demás los invito a adentrarse en la obra de está extraña y oscura escritora. No los defraudará.
Es necesario comentar que, en Weird tales también se publicaron novelas cortas, muchas de ellas presentadas por entregas, Los invasores de la oscuridad es una de ellas. Se entregó a los lectores en tres partes de abril a junio de 1925, en los números de esos meses. En aquella época solo la obra de autores destacados como Lovecraft, Derleth, Smith, Queen, pudieron abandonar las páginas de pulpa de celulosa, para ser publicados en libros y antologías. Por lo que tener esta novela en un solo volumen, es algo que se aprecia.
En algunos textos ya he mencionado que en la época Pulp, la escritura de mujeres resalta por encima de la obra de otros autores. No es mera adulación, la forma de construir las historias, los personajes y los tópicos que abordaron son tratados de forma diferente. Los invasores de la oscuridad está llena de ocultismo, magia, licantropía, viajes astrales; con interpretaciones de pasajes bíblicos que podrían ser considerados como parte de lo que hoy conocemos como horror religioso.
Ha sido una historia que he disfrutado mucho, por la forma en que te atrapa y cómo acomoda los elementos, fantásticos, ocultos y de terror. El único detalle que encontré, no es sobre la obra, es sobre la traducción, detecté varios párrafos mal traducidos e inconsistentes, que pude cotejar con la versión original para poder continuar mi lectura. Creo que la editorial debe cuidar un poco más estos detalles.
Por lo demás los invito a adentrarse en la obra de está extraña y oscura escritora. No los defraudará.
October 23, 2022
I vacillated between a 3- and 4-star rating most of the way through this book, but decided on 3 because I liked this book, but certainly didn't love it. In fact, it was work to read all the way through it and seldom have I read a book this slowly over this long a period, or been happier to reach the end. The novel is reasonably well formatted with coherent plot progression and well written in terms of its use of the English language. The basic problem is that so little that's truly exciting happens in these 168 pages, and much of that is off-camera.
An aunt goes to visit her recently widowed niece only to find her niece in a lover's triangle with a Russian woman who happens to be a werewolf. That sounds pretty cool, but that struggle is pretty much the entire plot. The rest is just window dressing and atmosphere. The characters are cardboard, the dialogue unimaginative, overly on point, and melodramatic in a gothic sense. Still, it's an early werewolf story and La Spina's lycanthropy sources are not quite ours. So there's a few surprises in what lore she brings in.
The story is not painfully bad, but it's certainly not exceptional, nor particularly memorable. I recommend it only for patient readers interested in early (in this case 1924) werewolf stories that treat their subject seriously.
An aunt goes to visit her recently widowed niece only to find her niece in a lover's triangle with a Russian woman who happens to be a werewolf. That sounds pretty cool, but that struggle is pretty much the entire plot. The rest is just window dressing and atmosphere. The characters are cardboard, the dialogue unimaginative, overly on point, and melodramatic in a gothic sense. Still, it's an early werewolf story and La Spina's lycanthropy sources are not quite ours. So there's a few surprises in what lore she brings in.
The story is not painfully bad, but it's certainly not exceptional, nor particularly memorable. I recommend it only for patient readers interested in early (in this case 1924) werewolf stories that treat their subject seriously.
December 3, 2020
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
Occult horror love story from 1925, written by a lady with a lady narrator, a lady hero and a lady villain. Men are only involved in supporting roles. Well researched with both horror and occultism checking out well.
Would have given it 5/5, but, the story is a bit too straight forward and predictable for me, so ended up on a high 4/5. I don't want to get into the details of the story to give up what little surprises there are. We're given to believe that the manuscript the story is based on is a real story, so it all starts off with a foreword by the author explaining how she got her hands on it.
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
Occult horror love story from 1925, written by a lady with a lady narrator, a lady hero and a lady villain. Men are only involved in supporting roles. Well researched with both horror and occultism checking out well.
Would have given it 5/5, but, the story is a bit too straight forward and predictable for me, so ended up on a high 4/5. I don't want to get into the details of the story to give up what little surprises there are. We're given to believe that the manuscript the story is based on is a real story, so it all starts off with a foreword by the author explaining how she got her hands on it.
October 22, 2022
I had high hopes for this short novel because it was originally published in Weird Tales then by Arkham House. Unfortunately, it is predictable and weakly paced horror novel with few horrific moments. The Russian princess and werewolf is a wonderful villainess, but too many of her actions are related by others. I should have been able to finish the book in a few days, but it took me a couple weeks.
August 12, 2025
2.5 : A competent, if somewhat standard, gothic werewolf tale. What makes it stand out is its unusual take on lycanthropy, framing it not as a curse passed through bites, but as something brought on by summoning evil spirits or demons to possess a person and transform them.
August 16, 2025
Invaders from the Dark had haunted the bookshelf in my house since before I was born, always sitting in the middle of a collection of 'Lovecraft' books. Over time I read the Lovecrafts, but this inconspicuous little book was overlooked, until only recently I decided to see what the heck it was and give it a read.
I was not expecting 'Dracula, but with werewolves'!
Invaders from the Dark was immediately a strange and fascinating story, one that now lingers in my memories and asks that I give it a second reading someday.
The narrator and the protagonist, both women, are refreshingly proactive and sensible when compared to other heroines written during the 20's. The idea that she is being trained as a supernatural fighter, given mystical knowledge in order to oppose the forces of darkness, is also a plot that would sit well alongside many modern stories. It's a good thing she's receiving all this training, because who has moved into the neighborhood but that most infamous princess of darkness, the werewolf queen!
I was not expecting 'Dracula, but with werewolves'!
Invaders from the Dark was immediately a strange and fascinating story, one that now lingers in my memories and asks that I give it a second reading someday.
The narrator and the protagonist, both women, are refreshingly proactive and sensible when compared to other heroines written during the 20's. The idea that she is being trained as a supernatural fighter, given mystical knowledge in order to oppose the forces of darkness, is also a plot that would sit well alongside many modern stories. It's a good thing she's receiving all this training, because who has moved into the neighborhood but that most infamous princess of darkness, the werewolf queen!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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