What do you think?
Rate this book
Autopsy of an Eldritch City: Ten Tales of Strange and Unproductive Thinking
Every city casts a shadow, some longer than others. And the city of Thundermist, Rhode Island casts one of the longest shadows of all. With a population of 40,000 people, it might not seem like the most populated place on earth, but every citizen there has a story to tell, some more sinister than others. Look past the city’s pious Catholic façade and you shall see dead children floating face down in its sewers, witches corrupting susceptible minds with blasphemous books, and demons capering on the frescos of its haunted churches. It is a city where even the most innocent of objects—a quilt, a video game, a snow globe, a notebook—can act as a key that unlocks the doors to Doom, Delirium, and Death. The city has long since faded away: all that lingers is its nightmares, in the form of these ten testimonials from the damned, tales of strange and unproductive thinking. Will you open these pages and conduct an autopsy of your own on this dead city? But be warned: the scalpel that dissects the shadows is also the scalpel that cuts both ways.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 27, 2015
2 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 7, 2017
First a note on style; I can sympathize to some extent with another reviewer who was annoyed by the continuous drops of references to writers, musicians, movies, etc. Sometimes it’s down to a specific picture in a book, printed on a specific year, even listing the publisher. I can see where this isn’t to everyone’s taste.
As I read though this actually annoyed me less and I enjoyed some of it. (I was impressed when “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” and a Commodore 64 video game I played as a kid appeared in the same story.) The book even lists a soundtrack at the end.
By the way -- the proper soundtrack for this review is Cloudkicker’s “Sky Guide,” “Don’t Stop” by Mr. Logistix, “Monkey 23” by The Kills, Tycho's "Source," Pink Floyd’s “Echoes (Live at Pompeii)” specifically starting 7:30 into the song. Also: Black Marble’s “It’s Conditional,” "Brokendate" and “Glawio” by Com Truise. (End credits roll to “Live Lead” by Kimekai.)
But seriously...
This was a lot of fun to read. I always looked forward to jumping into the next story and I read this far faster than I intended to. These stories inspired quite a few Google searches and nostalgic “I remember that” moments. A couple of the endings didn’t 100% “seal the deal” with me, but I didn’t mind that too much.
The stories are all connected, being based in the same town, and there are recurring characters. The town of Thundermist is a fascinating place full of weird antique shops, cults and haunted history. It has a radio station that plays video game soundtracks and it’s own creepy asylum. There’s even a cute gay emo librarian who loves the works of Robert Aickman....so....where the hell is this place?
Most shocking -- Thundermist still has an independent bookstore. I’ll suspend disbelief as much as I can, but don’t push it...
The Cursed Quilts - A pretty good story to start off with, I enjoyed it. It’s a pretty obvious homage to M. R. James’ “The Mezzotint,” but it's very original in the way it is handled. It has some really effective moments of description. It the end is predictable, but the way it ends, WITHOUT an explicit bang helps make it even more effective. A trio of brother’s visit a quilt show to vote for their mother’s quilts, one of them becomes fascinated by the quilts of a woman who recently died, which seem to tell a sinister story.
Tir-Na-Nog - I liked this story a lot. Wow this is nostalgic stuff. It reminded me of my childhood at times -- the interest in horror stuff, Halloween, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (!), etc. The end was a little off I thought, but it was still one of my favorites here. A girl recounts how she ignored her parent’s warning each year about trick-or-treating at a horror author’s house, where she got her first exposure to dark fiction.
Iridophobia - Another very nostalgic story, with a focus on childhood fears and traumas, over-religious parents captured by the 1980’s Satanic panic, and how those fears continue to haunt, even if they seem to have mostly faded from memory. A fun read, building to a shocking climax, albeit one that feels a bit tongue-in-cheek. A man tells his psychiatrist about the childhood fears that have affected and shaped his life, and he decides to finally confront them.
The Snow Globes of Patient O.T. - This is definitely one of the best in the book, like in the top two. It’s got a very creative idea at it’s center, it leaves an impression and it was one that took me off guard the most. A young woman starts purchasing snow globes at an antique shop that are crafted by the inmate of an asylum in town, not realizing they are far more than they seem.
The Yellow Notebook - This one had some slow moments, but certainly pays off in the end. It’s got a Lovecraftian mythology, infused with a Ligottian pessimism that’s quite striking. A bored bookstore employees' interest is perked after a strange man leaves behind a notebook on his research into religion and the occult. He will hear from the man again after he has discovered some horrific secrets about reality.
The Fire Sermon - Another very nostalgic story, but this one is more wistful and sad than the others. It’s the final flashing of one’s life before one’s eyes, and all the strange, sad and happy moments that make up a life.
Dyad - This is a bit of a change from the other stories here, this almost has the feel of a dark fairy tale at times. It isn’t among my top favorites here, but it’s still a very well-written story with an end of subtle menace. An elderly man is tasked with finding suicides in Japan’s infamous Suicide Forest. He also takes care of his invalid twin brother who has been a burden to him his whole life, but whom he has a strange link with.
The Aphotic Zone - Another fun and shorter story, although it’s on a lower tier compared with some others. This is more straight-forward horror, with a weird tinge. I thought how the story was told from a “one-sided conversation” worked well, it reminded me of Ligotti’s “The Chymist” in that way. Two men meet at an art gallery, one of them is a loquacious artist with some very strange, sinister ideas about how to capture the “real you” in art.
The Demons in the Fresco - This is by far the longest story in the book, and it is one of the best -- although it does have a lot of preliminary detail and description in the first half. With it’s focus on old church history it reminded me of some M. R. James stories, although the influence of Lovecraft is also felt. It feels like a mystery at first, a bit cozy even, but with a mounting sense of unease as it goes along. A young man exploring the art of an old church becomes fascinated by the long-dead artist, and a mystery within the art itself.
Ritual Quest - This was one of my least favorite stories, it feels like an above-average Creepypasta. It’s a brief, fun little story to cap the collection. A man buys a rare, infamous video game, about which he has heard many strange rumors.
As I read though this actually annoyed me less and I enjoyed some of it. (I was impressed when “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” and a Commodore 64 video game I played as a kid appeared in the same story.) The book even lists a soundtrack at the end.
By the way -- the proper soundtrack for this review is Cloudkicker’s “Sky Guide,” “Don’t Stop” by Mr. Logistix, “Monkey 23” by The Kills, Tycho's "Source," Pink Floyd’s “Echoes (Live at Pompeii)” specifically starting 7:30 into the song. Also: Black Marble’s “It’s Conditional,” "Brokendate" and “Glawio” by Com Truise. (End credits roll to “Live Lead” by Kimekai.)
But seriously...
This was a lot of fun to read. I always looked forward to jumping into the next story and I read this far faster than I intended to. These stories inspired quite a few Google searches and nostalgic “I remember that” moments. A couple of the endings didn’t 100% “seal the deal” with me, but I didn’t mind that too much.
The stories are all connected, being based in the same town, and there are recurring characters. The town of Thundermist is a fascinating place full of weird antique shops, cults and haunted history. It has a radio station that plays video game soundtracks and it’s own creepy asylum. There’s even a cute gay emo librarian who loves the works of Robert Aickman....so....where the hell is this place?
Most shocking -- Thundermist still has an independent bookstore. I’ll suspend disbelief as much as I can, but don’t push it...
The Cursed Quilts - A pretty good story to start off with, I enjoyed it. It’s a pretty obvious homage to M. R. James’ “The Mezzotint,” but it's very original in the way it is handled. It has some really effective moments of description. It the end is predictable, but the way it ends, WITHOUT an explicit bang helps make it even more effective. A trio of brother’s visit a quilt show to vote for their mother’s quilts, one of them becomes fascinated by the quilts of a woman who recently died, which seem to tell a sinister story.
Tir-Na-Nog - I liked this story a lot. Wow this is nostalgic stuff. It reminded me of my childhood at times -- the interest in horror stuff, Halloween, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (!), etc. The end was a little off I thought, but it was still one of my favorites here. A girl recounts how she ignored her parent’s warning each year about trick-or-treating at a horror author’s house, where she got her first exposure to dark fiction.
Iridophobia - Another very nostalgic story, with a focus on childhood fears and traumas, over-religious parents captured by the 1980’s Satanic panic, and how those fears continue to haunt, even if they seem to have mostly faded from memory. A fun read, building to a shocking climax, albeit one that feels a bit tongue-in-cheek. A man tells his psychiatrist about the childhood fears that have affected and shaped his life, and he decides to finally confront them.
The Snow Globes of Patient O.T. - This is definitely one of the best in the book, like in the top two. It’s got a very creative idea at it’s center, it leaves an impression and it was one that took me off guard the most. A young woman starts purchasing snow globes at an antique shop that are crafted by the inmate of an asylum in town, not realizing they are far more than they seem.
The Yellow Notebook - This one had some slow moments, but certainly pays off in the end. It’s got a Lovecraftian mythology, infused with a Ligottian pessimism that’s quite striking. A bored bookstore employees' interest is perked after a strange man leaves behind a notebook on his research into religion and the occult. He will hear from the man again after he has discovered some horrific secrets about reality.
The Fire Sermon - Another very nostalgic story, but this one is more wistful and sad than the others. It’s the final flashing of one’s life before one’s eyes, and all the strange, sad and happy moments that make up a life.
Dyad - This is a bit of a change from the other stories here, this almost has the feel of a dark fairy tale at times. It isn’t among my top favorites here, but it’s still a very well-written story with an end of subtle menace. An elderly man is tasked with finding suicides in Japan’s infamous Suicide Forest. He also takes care of his invalid twin brother who has been a burden to him his whole life, but whom he has a strange link with.
The Aphotic Zone - Another fun and shorter story, although it’s on a lower tier compared with some others. This is more straight-forward horror, with a weird tinge. I thought how the story was told from a “one-sided conversation” worked well, it reminded me of Ligotti’s “The Chymist” in that way. Two men meet at an art gallery, one of them is a loquacious artist with some very strange, sinister ideas about how to capture the “real you” in art.
The Demons in the Fresco - This is by far the longest story in the book, and it is one of the best -- although it does have a lot of preliminary detail and description in the first half. With it’s focus on old church history it reminded me of some M. R. James stories, although the influence of Lovecraft is also felt. It feels like a mystery at first, a bit cozy even, but with a mounting sense of unease as it goes along. A young man exploring the art of an old church becomes fascinated by the long-dead artist, and a mystery within the art itself.
Ritual Quest - This was one of my least favorite stories, it feels like an above-average Creepypasta. It’s a brief, fun little story to cap the collection. A man buys a rare, infamous video game, about which he has heard many strange rumors.
June 11, 2017
Excellent collection that deserved way more visibility. All stories are, in one way or another, se in or connected that "eldritch city" from the title - Thundermist, Rhode Island. While there is an element of interconnectedness to them, they are quite diverse thematically and there doesn't appear to be any sort of connected mythos behind them. In fact, underlying cosmologies of individual stories of individual stories are often completely completely contradicting. This latter feels almost intentional. One story usus Christianity for its basis, another Celtic mythology, another reveals malignant cosmos and so on. Every single take is quite unique, rather than being mere rehash of one or another worldview.
There is quite a bit of erudition here too. Not merely related to author's apparently encyclopedic knowledge of religious and occult matters, but also to his knowledge of pop culture and various modern subcultures. Latter part sometimes feels a bit forced, and gives off a feel of "subculture" horror fiction a la Poppy Z. Brite. I did find the video game references cool though. Understandably, subculture element won't be to everyone's liking, but I find authors dedication to his own interests and authenticity quite commendable. (also, it is kinda amusing to imagine someone reading these stories 20-30 years from now and imagining how much of it will be completely lost of him or her!)
As to the stories themselves, there are no bad ones here. Some I've enjoyed more than others though and that would be: Tir-Na-Nog, The Snow-Globes, The Yellow Notebook, Dyad, The Demons in the Fresco.
Tir-Na-Nog has this nostalgic, almost Bradbury-like feel to it. It also presents interesting take on Celtic mythology and, surprisingly, ends with a positive message in relation to the creative and healing purpose of horror fiction.
The Snow Globes of Patient O.T. is a tale of young woman's growing obsession with titular curios. They are made by a possible serial killer, and their price will prove to be (even) odder and much higher than it appears to be.
The Yellow Notebook - bookstore employee stumbles upon the titular notebook, left behind by one of his customers. It contents at first appear to deal with a subject of perennial religion, but they will eventually lead him into scenario reminiscent of Lovecraft's From Beyond.
Dyad - old Japanese forest warden with (extremely) checkered past takes care of his incapacitated brother in the middle of one particularly infamous part of japan's landscape. Story actually ties to one specific practice connected to that patch of land. This tale reminded me of Kyoka Izumi in mixture of melancholy, macabre and supernatural with its Buddhist underpinnings.
The Demons in the Fresco - Palpable traces of M. R. James antiquarian horror and later Huysmans here. Young man, both repelled by, and attracted to, Christianity, is fascinated by art found in old church. This one plays out in a manner that I found to be quite unexpected.
There is quite a bit of erudition here too. Not merely related to author's apparently encyclopedic knowledge of religious and occult matters, but also to his knowledge of pop culture and various modern subcultures. Latter part sometimes feels a bit forced, and gives off a feel of "subculture" horror fiction a la Poppy Z. Brite. I did find the video game references cool though. Understandably, subculture element won't be to everyone's liking, but I find authors dedication to his own interests and authenticity quite commendable. (also, it is kinda amusing to imagine someone reading these stories 20-30 years from now and imagining how much of it will be completely lost of him or her!)
As to the stories themselves, there are no bad ones here. Some I've enjoyed more than others though and that would be: Tir-Na-Nog, The Snow-Globes, The Yellow Notebook, Dyad, The Demons in the Fresco.
Tir-Na-Nog has this nostalgic, almost Bradbury-like feel to it. It also presents interesting take on Celtic mythology and, surprisingly, ends with a positive message in relation to the creative and healing purpose of horror fiction.
The Snow Globes of Patient O.T. is a tale of young woman's growing obsession with titular curios. They are made by a possible serial killer, and their price will prove to be (even) odder and much higher than it appears to be.
The Yellow Notebook - bookstore employee stumbles upon the titular notebook, left behind by one of his customers. It contents at first appear to deal with a subject of perennial religion, but they will eventually lead him into scenario reminiscent of Lovecraft's From Beyond.
Dyad - old Japanese forest warden with (extremely) checkered past takes care of his incapacitated brother in the middle of one particularly infamous part of japan's landscape. Story actually ties to one specific practice connected to that patch of land. This tale reminded me of Kyoka Izumi in mixture of melancholy, macabre and supernatural with its Buddhist underpinnings.
The Demons in the Fresco - Palpable traces of M. R. James antiquarian horror and later Huysmans here. Young man, both repelled by, and attracted to, Christianity, is fascinated by art found in old church. This one plays out in a manner that I found to be quite unexpected.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews