Noctuidae

by Scott Nicolay

An impromptu hike through an Arizona canyon leads a young woman into the paths of monsters both human and otherworldly.

Genres: Horror, Novella, Weird Fiction, Fiction, New Weird

106 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2016

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cosmic horror tale fueled by human tension and an unknowable presence.  The two main characters each attempt to dominate the other, sometimes taking extreme measures, while avoiding a preternatural threat.  The human elements annoyed me, but the supernatural manifestation was seductive in its silent and alien nature.  Its incomprehensible presence was both beautiful and terrifying.

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's more than meets the eye to this book. I mean, it's not JUST a horror story. It has elements of existentialism and insight on the inner workings of human psychology. It's a fun read because you keep reinterpreting what you just read as you read along , multiplying the emotional intensity of the material.

BUT it kind of is an horror story. NOCTUIDAE is at its best when it does look straight at its own horror elements, which I thought were very bluntly introduced. The confrontation between Sue Min and Pete at the heart of nothingness really breathed life into this book, to the point I thought the rest was accessory, really. I guess this is as much horror as NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a Western.

Does that make sense?

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come

[John H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick first thoughts on the book, maybe I'll come back and write something better later.

Second piece of short fiction that I've read by Nicolay, a novella length story rather than the short story/collection of vignettes Do You Like To Look At Monsters? Neither have been a disappointment despite all the hype surrounding Nicolay, though there are some minor issues I've had with both that didn't keep me from enjoying them.

A quick word about the book itself: a nice little book with a gorgeous cover. I don't normally buy paperbacks much any more, but, it's fairly nice for - I assume - a print-on-demand book.

The story, though never outright horrific, kept me tense and in state of trepidation throughout. And while it didn't do anything particularly new in terms of plot, structure, ending, or concept it was still very good.

Two of Nicolay's strong points seem to characters and settings. Both of the main characters were interesting and well-developed for a story of this length. The monster(s?) of the story was intriguing and I'm glad that it was never explained in much detail. The setting was one of the best parts, it was nicely described and fit perfectly with everything.

Some of the dialogue was a bit cringe-inducing when an "incident" occurs between two characters, I assume it to be intentional, given the context, but it came off as occasionally clumsy and ruined my immersion sometimes. There were some syntactically awkward sentences in the first section that I had to reread to understand, but overall the prose was simple, functional, and good with some nice sentences throughout.

Being a fan of shorter fiction for Horror/Weird I don't read many novels, or even novellas. The length is well-chosen for this story and makes me look forward to reading more novella-length works. Now the hard choices between reading Nicolay's Ana Kai Tangata and the two recently released novellas by Barron.

Definitely recommended. I have a feeling I'll be rereading the two stories I've read so far by him again in the near future.

[David Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and excellent novella from Nicolay and King Shot Press. I haven't read all of Nicolay's work, but this is definitely my favorite of what I have read by him. Three hikers go out into the desert, a couple Sue Min and Ron, and Ron's friend Pete, who gives Sue Min the heebie jeebies. They find a cave and decide to set up camp in it. Ron disappears leaving Sue Min and Pete to escape an otherworldly danger that has manifested outside the cave.

The story is told from the perspective of Sue Min, who even in an 80 page story, Nicolay manages to give some serious depth to. That is one thing that really impressed me about the story. Another thing is the tense juxtaposition of a known threat versus an unknown threat. Pete proves himself to be a physical threat while this void outside the cave is a more abstract threat. The tension between the two hikes combined with the creepiness of the monster make this a very unsettling read. To top off everything the book ends perfectly.

Needless to say I enjoyed this novella. If you're a fan of previous Nicolay work then you should just go ahead and pick this up. If you've never read Nicolay but are a fan of Laird Barron or Thomas Ligotti then I would also suggest you pick this up.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take one of Stephen King's claustrophobic single-location survival tales ("The Ledge" or similar) and put it in a cocktail shaker with Scott Nicolay's "Dogme 2011 for Weird fiction" (http://weirdfictionreview.com/2011/11...) ethos and more than a soupcon of Nicolay's experience with spelunking and exploration and you get this bitey little tale of three hikers who get stuck in a very shallow cave by... something. I join a few other readers in not really feeling like the ending worked as well as the lead-up, but still a solid Weird suspense story in a snack-size package.

[Mindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars

I seem to be in the minority on this one...this is the first I've read of Nicolay, and while I can see what he was trying to achieve, it just didn't really work for me. The characters were rather flat. The protagonist is a strong female, but doesn't bother to speak up until the shit hits the fan. The most repugnant character is made to seem practically illiterate one moment, and then typical frat boy the next. I found myself more annoyed with the situation than scared. It's rather short, so I don't feel like it was a total waste of my time, but I have certainly read better horror novellas this year.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noctuidae is a novella about three young adults, named Ron, Pete, and Sue-Min making an impromptu hike through an Arizona canyon into the paths of monsters both human and otherworldly.

That might sound like the plot for B movie. However, its still possible to do something interesting with old tropes. This well written story has at least one unique monster, interesting dialog, and an ending which caught me by surprise.

The story follows the tenets of Nicolay's manifesto Dogme 2011, which can be read here:
http://weirdfictionreview.com/2011/11...

Perhaps two more tenets can be added.

11. The author's knowledge and experience inform the story. Noctuidae is informed by anthropology and history, and perhaps by Nicolay's life experience.

12. Add some Forteana to the story. In Noctuidae, there are time anomalies. Also, the weird monster in the story is a creature I've haven't come across previously.

And so the weird fiction renaissance continues....

[Waffles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowie wow wow!
I loved this.
Tension! Very tense.
Atmosphere - like a Blackwood story set in New Mexico.
Blackwood with a bro!
More exclamation points needed!

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent monsters, iffy characterisation, thin plot.

[Daniel Vlasaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really dug the atmosphere and vibe of this book. Wasn't super feeling the ending - but there was still a lot to like here.

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the key elements in any Scott Nicolay (Ana Kai Tangata) story is a keen sense of frisson. He magnifies this aspect by diving into the mind of one of the characters on such a level as to bring the reader fully into the story on multiple levels. The staging of his tales runs the gamut of possibilities, some of which include starting off with the character already steeped in a bad situation and we’re at that point where something needs to change (“after”--though, of course, then the really weird stuff kicks in), or putting the character in a situation that gradually escalates into uncertainty (“Noctuidae”), while distorting the world around the character in such a way that ‘normal’ is no longer a part of the narrative (many of his tales; perhaps most of his tales, including the two noted in this sentence). In Noctuidae, we spend the duration of the terrifying tale in the mind of Sue-min, who is on a hike with her boyfriend, Ron, and Ron’s friend, Pete. She doesn’t like Pete. We don’t like Pete. The core of the tale takes place in a cave, at night, after Ron goes missing. The frisson rubs hard as the circumstances deteriorate to a point where the possibility of rape hangs in the air like a clothesline draped with soiled laundry, all while something indescribable looms outside the cave. The moments in-between are fraught with tension, fear, and exhaustion. The creature might seem the bigger peril, but for much of the tale, Pete is right on par with it. Toward the end there’s a beautiful moment that tapped the valve on the tension I was feeling, finally able to breathe again, though a few paragraphs later, I realize it was only the loosening/readjustment of a noose before having the chair kicked out from beneath me. Hope may play a role in the motivations of the characters, but ultimately, hope is the lie they’ve succumbed to in this powerful tale of truly weird and truly human horrors heightened to unbearable.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very impressed with Nicolay's collection "Ana Kai Tangata" and would put him in the company of my favorite weird authors like Simon Strantzas, Livia Llewellyn, Daniel Mills, Cody Goodfellow and others who are somewhat new on the scene, relatively speaking that is.

With this novella Nicolay is back in somewhat familiar territory as a couple of the stories in "Ana Kai Tangata" also involve cave exploration.

I could almost rate this at four stars. It's a fun read, but two complaints: First, I thought the end came on rather suddenly and wasn't that satisfying, although that's a minor quibble. My main issue with this novella is that we spend too much time in the head of the main character who is worrying about something other than the "monster," and the weird/horror elements really get pushed to the edges of the story.

This still delivers as a weird tale. We are left with a lot of implications, speculations and open questions, personally I like that more often than not.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So little in "Noctuidae" is offered to the reader outside its two stock characters and their trite emotions. Can cliches even make a character rounded?

Now, I am not suggesting Nicolay should have violated his own "Dogme 2011 for Weird Fiction." But the conclusion of that set of commandments was "I swear as a writer that my supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings; out of the universe itself." 

"Noctuidae" is happy to leave the reader with commonplaces about middle class professionals falling apart in a crisis, bromide sixty years ago on "The Twilight Zone." We are left no wiser than Sue-Min and Pete. Inexplicability is all well and good, but it does not rule out an explicable story arc for the characters confronting the mystery.

In this sense, "Noctuidae" lags aesthetically behind, say, George Allan England's "The Thing from Outside" (1923).

Full:

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/202...

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't let the three star rating sway you from this book. I am going to agree with a few others here and just say that the ending is divisive. I enjoyed reading this and will definitely read more from Nicolay.

[Leah Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my expectations for this were WAY too high going in. I was expecting Laird Barron level magnificent new horror, and it was just okay. Not nearly as creepy as I thought it would be. Plus strangely sexist at some points even though I think the author was deliberately trying to write an un-sexist character/scenario?

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tense and unnerving novella, which manages to have quite a bit of depth despite it's length.
The writing is excellent and despite the ambiguous and unknown elements to the story Scott manages to paint quite a picture with his words.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling. Brilliant! Compelling. A major work by a major writer.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not awful, but not good. And not scary. And kind of annoying.

[Horror DNA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Nicolay’s Noctuidae packs a lot of great elements, but its brevity and frenetic pace make it easy to miss some of them. The narrative kicks off with something akin to an adventure tale with a touch of tension, but quickly turns into a bizarre story propelled by dialogue that looks at human nature under duress and features one of the most memorable monsters in recent history. When you throw in the type of ending that sticks with you long after the last page has been turned and the fact that Nicolay is a very talented storyteller who seems to possess the ability to construct stories that are naturally lean and violently quick, the result is a short narrative that demands to be read and shows the author is doing his own thing and producing outstanding work that’s on the fringes of contemporary horror fiction.

You can read Gabino's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Diamond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually 3.5 stars, the premise was interesting, the writing was great, I loved the choice to focus on the tension within the cave more than the danger outside, and the main character was wonderfully done, the novella length just did the story a disservice and I feel it would've worked better either distilled into a short story, or drawn out to novel length where Nicolay could've really revelled in the characters predicament.

This is still one to read if you get the chance, because Nicolay is one talented author and deserves a round of applause for how well he got into the mind of Sue-Min, particularly given the circumstance she is in, and I'll be looking forward to more of his work!

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am absolutely intrigued by this whole text. Delighted that I cannot truly fathom its raison d’etre, as it continues and will continue for some while to linger in my mind, I am sure.

Despite my resistol hat, I have not been very efficient at acting as a literary ohm-resistor against the compelling page-turning quality of this book, having finished it today.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tense, well-written novella about three people—two men and a woman—who hike the Blue River Canyon in Arizona and spend a terrifying evening in a shallow cave whose entrance is subsequently blocked by a large malevolent being. Nicolay vividly evokes the Arizona setting and achieves remarkable depth of character, particularly for Sue-Min, his Korean-born protagonist, who must contend with monsters both human and inhuman. This is a beautifully executed cosmic horror tale.

[Collin Landis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wildly uneven.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

An original, thoroughly nightmarish adventure.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a trippy book. Super fun one that's a quick read. Definitely upping that sketch factor. I liked how it was set in the southwestern US. Not a location I find in the books I read.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, gripping, suspenseful read that any lover of the weird or occult wouldn't think twice about packing along for a weekend excursion to a remote cabin.

A trio of hikers go backpacking through an obscure canyon valley in southern Arizona and find more mysteries than any of them expected to encounter. Think "127 Hours" meets H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space." A page-turner, it should also appeal to the casual reader who has enjoyed films such as The Descent, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Blair Witch Project.

Make no mistake: This story isn't just the sum of its strange components mixed into the lost-and-in-danger-with-no-cell-phone-service premise. With a female Asian-American protagonist, commentaries on racism, sexism, nationalism, and identity politics are seamlessly woven into the narrative in a deft, realistic manner that does not come off as heavy-handed or as a thinly veiled effort to champion a particular worldview--in other words, the characters come off as *real*, not only in their presentation, development, and respective "places in society," but also in the believable way that each deals with the unbelievable.

The prose itself is clever, smart, and manages to not only mirror the personality of the story's protagonist but to make every line and detail indispensable. As much as the story is tense and anxiety-inspiring, it is also in its own way a meditation on the natural world and mankind's unclear place within it all. I especially enjoyed the passages about the hike, which, to my relief, weren't clogged with verbose wordage about the technicalities of backpacking and descriptors of the setting you'd imagine would only be familiar to seasoned outdoors-people. Rather, the language was accessible yet at times tastefully lyrical, and even inspired within me (by nobody's definition a savvy or enthusiastic hiker) a longing to hit the trail.

More than just your standard weird tale, this short novel/novella firmly entrenches Nicolay within the ranks of modern weird fiction connoisseurs Clive Barker, Laird Barron, Kathe Koja, and John Shirley.

[William M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this book after I began listening to the author's podcast, The Outer Dark, a weekly show in which he delves into the weird fiction movement with some very impressive guests. They have some amazingly deep conversations and analysis on the genre. So decided to support the author by picking up one of his books and giving him a try. Scott Nicolay's podcast is so intellectually stimulating that I just knew I would enjoy his books, and of course I did.

I find myself drawn to stories with a minimal amount of characters, probably because the author can focus on each character more, especially with a novella. Noctuidae only has three characters on a camping trip, so it was a perfect setup for what I enjoy. Nicolay grounds the story with an authentic realism that makes the character's discovery even more frightening. I was wholly engrossed and felt the actions of the characters were believable based on the setup and details we learn of them. The slow build of atmosphere was a perfect fit for what this tale needed.

A small criticism, however. I thought the author's overly politically correct opinions sort of seeped into the female character and caused a few moments of heavy handed dialogue. That aside, I would pick up more of Nicolay's work in a heartbeat and would love to see him try his hand at a novel length project. I think his slow build would be perfect in long form.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott Nicolay’s “Noctuidae” (King Shot Press, 2016) continues that author’s exploration of the New Weird. Three canyon hikers — former archeologist Sue-Min, her boyfriend Ron, and Ron’s obnoxious friend Pete — set out to explore a relatively unknown canyon in Arizona. As darkness falls, they take refuge in a shallow cave. But in the depth of the night, something unspeakable emerges just outside, a sort of carnivorous flower whose extra-dimensional nature seems confirmed by the odd, shifting (fourth-dimensional) blobs that pass through the cave.

Narrator Sue-Min finds herself caught between the horror outside and a repugnant man within the confined space, and her handling of the situation is deft (even if Pete’s characterization is occasionally more heavy-handed than necessary). True to his creative philosophy, Nicolay allows the mystery and dread to deepen to an abrupt terminus, leaving the reader reeling and pleasantly disturbed.

Written with accomplished style and carefully constructed atmospherics that arise from natural surroundings, “Noctuidae” further cements Nicolay as a weird force to be reckoned with.

[Pinky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three canyon hikers - sweethearts Sue-Min and Ron, Ron's pal Pete (a composite of every well-earned brah stereotype). Two ranchers pitching the outset in an ominous climate that incubates lost. One cave's-maw sentinel no surrealist could cage by canvas. Attention to detail that postures uneasy in the reader's lowbelly next to - sometimes overlapping with - that which defies description. Exploration of the politics of power - in relationships, in coercion and threat of violence, in engrained racism and misogyny, in the esoteric and exotic beings that take root and bloom in the dark matter gaps in experience where sense nor reason may wander.