Amy H. Sturgis’s Reviews > Dark Equinox and Other Tales of Lovecraftian Horror > Status Update

When I try to determine my favorite from this collection, I know it will be difficult, but I'm expecting "The Death Verses of Yian-Ho" to be among the top candidates. What an elegant, engrossing story. It pushes all of my buttons: the questing student pursuing a lead in her research, the Special Collections at Miskatonic University, the hint of blasphemous history, terrible realizations... Outstanding.

"Custom Order" should be read with the theme from The Omen playing in the background. Very effective in building & sustaining dread. "Desert Mystery! Gas and Go!" and "Rehab" pack incredibly strong punches for such brief, tight tales. "Scream Saver" is a potent shout out to the "Hounds of Tindalos." "The Water Lily Room" is desperately, beautifully poignant. I wanted to go slower but I can't stop reading!

"When the Stars Run Away": "The universe is ripping. All of it. Everything's coming apart." This one will haunt me. Darkly perfect. "Wings of Memory" is another kind of comeuppance story. "Maybe the ravens made a difference," indeed. "Her Beloved Son" gives Lavinia Whateley from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" her moment.

Delicious! In "Dark Equinox," Jen hopes to prove herself as a viable candidate for graduate programs by pursuing her research into the photomontages of Leonie Gerard, an eccentric artist who ended badly. Jen finds & becomes consumed by Gerard's last work. Hauntingly effective because of all it suggests rather than explains. "The Sweetness of Your Heart" is an elegant portrait of one man's well-earned comeuppance.