A lot of the reviews of this novella seem to focus on what it does well—creepy puppet imagery, hints at even worse things behind closed doors—and overlook what it does poorly—build a story without exposition dumps, realize that it's attempts at building up suspense are largely non-existent, resist the urge to go for easy shocks, maintain a consistent world-view. For the former half, the "does-well", I enjoyed it immensely. I liked the creepy puppet. I liked the uncomfortable dialogue. I was mostly ok with the protagonist, though she was mostly a vessel for Curran to do creepy things with a puppet. However, the rest just left me lacking.
For one, if a story is going to involve (I guess this is a mild spoiler) puppet-on-human rape, then you had best make that mean something. Sure, it is creepy, and shocking, but it is also completely dislocated in the story. It has no impact on the narrative. The description of sap-ejaculate is almost divinely inspired, but like a lot of conspiracy theories, it was smoke-and-mirrors to cover up a magician taking a cigarette break.
Secondly, the story is largely told through documentation and prior investigations. This has potential (I mean, so is "Call of Cthulhu") but this is a story of immediacy, wearing the majority of its whole soul right out in the open. If you invoke the god of investigation, your story needs to feel like a story about investigation, which this does not. The potential of even-worse-surprise-twists does not make up for the fact the core twists are boldly telegraphed.
Had the first couple of scenes being stapled directly to the last couple, it would have made a fairly impactful short story. Had it been longer and had time to build for, it might have been more insightful. At the novella length, it feels both padded and incomplete. Some good moments, some great imagery, but in need of something just a bit more, or a bit less.