Crypt of the Moon Spider

4,5 stars. Been saving this for the right day. Since I have a few days off I took it w/ me to a deserted beach and pretended it was the forested moon of Ballingrud’s imagination. This is a wild ride y’all and just the start. I love how Ballingrud (in this and THE STRANGE and some of his other stories) abandons reality for ripe fields of dreams. He does it without looking back and something wondrously unshackled is born. His prose sings, as you can now expect.

There is more medical horror here than I expected but that made it all the more surprising and terrifying. There are lunar landscapes and spiders; lost mafioso and secret cabals; candlelit underground crypts and decaying gods.

It did not reach the height, for me, of the world of “The Butcher’s Table” and “The Atlas of Hell,” but this is lunar gothic is a close second. I seriously cannot wait to see where this story goes next because honestly, it could go anywhere.

Anyone who has read the ‘The Butcher’s Table’ knows Ballingrud writes one hell of a novella. Now with his latest release, he just may have become a master of the form.

‘Crypt of the Moon Spider’ deals with a heavily troubled woman who is sent to an asylum on the moon by her husband. She joins a group of patients undergoing a radical surgical procedure, one that would make David Cronenberg cringe.

This may be an alternate earth/moon during an alternate early 1900s, but the sci-fi elements haunt the background as SPIDER becomes a psychological body horror creature feature that will have readers craving the second installment in this planned trilogy.

This is some seriously weird top notch terror that can be enjoyed in one manic sitting.

Wow! Body horror monster mash set on the moon in the early 1900s. This is some really good writing. I don't want to give much away. A young woman gets sent to the moon to receive treatment for depressi9n and other things. She quickly discovers the moon hides many secrets and monstrous things. I can't wait for the next one! So many spiders!

In 1923, Veronica is dropped off on the lunar surface by her husband at the Barrowfield Home for the Treatment of the Melancholy run by the renowned Dr. Barrington Cull, who can treat almost any mental ailment with astounding success. Veronica, who's been deeply fascinated about the moon most of her life, learns that there used to be giant lunar spiders that inhabited the moon at one time and that there is a nearby cult that worships a corpse of one. She also learns that the secret behind the doctor's treatment is just some spider silk implanted in the brain. And as with any good gothic story, nothing at this hospital is what it seems. This gripping novella seamlessly blends multiple genres like gothic, horror, and sci-fi with the body horror elements providing extra chills. Even though it's quite short, it's able to discuss complex ideas of agency, bodily autonomy, and memory. The one thing I thought it was lacking was some world-building, but that could come later since this is supposed to be the first of a trilogy. I I didn't think it distracted from the overall story. This is a title I look forward to featuring in a future episode of my library's book recommendation podcast, Books & Bites.

Fantastic stuff. Nathan is at the top of the game. I cannot wait to see what else he does. I'll follow him until the ends of the earth

Thank you to Netgally and Tor Nightfire for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

In the world of this novella, it is 1923 and Veronica Brinkley has set foot on the moon and is admitted to the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy. Known for its use of spider silk, the renowned facility and doctor, Barrington Cull, promise to rid one of troublesome thoughts of melancholia. However, the moon's past and husk of the gargantuan spider will change Veronica's life beyond what Dr. Cull has promised.

I LOVED this novella. It is so creeping and the descriptions of the spider silk and the moon are just delightful. This reminded me a lot of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," but the after effects of the short story where the husband leaves the wife at some facility to die. I also just loved the universe that Ballingrud creates here. It's so interesting to imagine a 1920s where space travel, at least to the moon, is possible. And then there's all of the cool occult stuff with the giant spider. GUH. I loved this and cannot wait for the next novella in the series.

Loved this! Super spooky and atmospheric, as well as a really quick read. It's immersive immediately and has wonderful twists and turns and reveals.

Wonderful, dark science fiction. I liked the portrayal of the main character's struggle with depression. The setting was extremely creepy and claustrophobic sometimes. Generally a very well-written book. I can only recommend this.

Welcome to the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy
Location: the Moon! (1923)

The Strange (2023) was my eye catching introduction to Nathan Ballingrud, which became one of my favourite novels of last year, an unsettling science fiction tale set on the desolate dustbowl of Mars. I enjoyed it so much I featured it in the ‘Accessible Adult’ section of my review almanac The YA Horror 400, which was recently published. This fascinating author is particularly well known for his weird, dark fantasy and horror short stories brought together in the two collections North American Lake Monsters (2013) and Wounds (2019). In 2007 his short story ‘The Monsters of Heaven’ won the prestigious Shirley Jackson Award, with him securing a second Jackson gong in 2013 for North American Lake Monsters, in the Best Single-Author Short Story Collection category. Ballingrud’s widely admired fiction has also been nominated for numerous other top prizes, including the Bram Stoker, the World Fantasy Award and the British Fantasy Award.

Back in 2015 Ballingrud’s novella The Visible Filth (currently out of print) was included in the excellent This is Horror website range of fiction. The Strange was his longest work to date and his debut as a novelist, with his latest Crypt of the Moon Spider he returns to novella length fiction, with this being the first in his Lunar Gothic Trilogy. This is a bizarre distinctive book, even by Ballingrud’s lofty standards of weirdness, and I will definitely be returning for a second trip to the web when part two arrives.

Coming is at a lean 128-pages there is a lot to unpack in Crypt of the Spider Moon and I am intrigued in which direction part two heads, indeed, I would not be surprised if it contains a completely new set of characters or heads into another nightmare dream sequence. Like with The Strange, this book is set in an alternate reality, opening in 1923 with quiet, subservient and mousy Veronica Brinkley being left at a medical facility on the moon by her husband for exhibiting vaguely unexplained emotional problems connected to depression. The whole novella is set at the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy where Veronica is treated by Dr Barrington Cull, a medical practitioner known for his invasive and successful treatments have been lauded by many. ‘Invasive’ is a bit of an understatement and is a pivotal part of the story, which involves a fair bit of surgery and gleefully hurtles into the body horror zone of David Cronenberg with skulls being sawn open.

The doctor is not exactly what he seems, neither is his chief orderly Grub and as Veronica’s treatment intensifies the story focuses upon the manner in which she reacts to it. If you do not like spiders then I would avoid this story, as a key part of the treatment involves inserting a certain type of spiderweb into the brain, which originated with a long dead giant spider which once lived on the moon. Even though the spider has been dead for many years, it still has followers and Veronica is far from your average patient. The style is deliberately jarring, there are memory jumps, various flashbacks and suppressed memories which might have some bearing in the second novella.

With many authors Crypt of the Spider Moon might have ended up as a sticky spider’s web of a mess, however, few do weird more convincingly than Nathan Ballingrud and do not expect a linear beginning, middle and neat conclusion. Little background is given to this version of 1923, (I wasn’t even sure it was ‘our’ moon as it has trees and forests) and the hospital was a threatening place where human rights disappeared out the window with a surreal nightmare morphing into an almighty bad trip. I did also wonder whether it was set in the same timeline as The Strange, but it does not matter as much of this whacky mind-bending (and skull cracking) novella makes little sense and that’s all part of the fun.

There’s something about Nathan Ballingrud’s writing that just gels with my brain. His sentences are beautifully crafted and the stories he weaves feel original. I had high expectations going into Crypt of the Moon Spider and it absolutely lived up to them.

The novella is about a woman who is sent to an institute on the moon in an effort to cure her melancholy. The methods used are unusual to say the least. I loved the weird lunar setting. I loved the medical body horror. I loved the ancient spider lore. It's sci-fi byway of the fantastical and with a heavy dose of horror.

To me, Nathan Ballingrud is basically a modern day Ray Bradbury (one of my very favorite authors!). I can’t wait to read whatever his mind cooks up next!

Yeah, so if you’re afraid of spiders - don’t read this one. I read this novella on my kindle, curled up in the dark, from start to finish one night. Then I had to stare into the darkness and try to fall asleep…..

Crypt Of The Moon Spider is chock full of body horror along with commentary on bodily autonomy and the constructs of memory. I am obsessed with this story and can’t believe there are going to be two more books in this universe. This is my first book by this author, although I’ve had The Strange on my TBR list since it was published. His writing is absolutely gorgeous and I love when an author can write about horrible, terrifying things in a way that is both haunting and beautiful.

Also a moment for this cover because what the fU<k is that, right?!? So freaking scary and I love it. If I could make one recommendation - if you are thinking about reading this book, just go in blind. Skim the synopsis but don’t really read it. Just put all your trust into me that you should read this one if you like body horror, the moon, female rage, and more horror!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the eARC of this creepy title!**

With the recent release of Yorgos Lanthimos's film, Poor Things, and two other Frankenstein movies slated for 2025 release - one from Guillermo Del Toro for Netflix, and another in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s theatrical The Bride - Mary Shelley's shadow continues to loom large as a source of inspiration for modern-day horror talents. Enter into this fray, Crypt of the Moon Spider, Nathan Ballingrud's latest novella and first in the Lunar Gothic trilogy for Tor Nightfire.

As with Ballingrud's previous release, The Strange, the author presents us with a fantastical alternate history and a voyage to the stars more in keeping with the imaginings of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs than Neil deGrasse Tyson. In Crypt, it is 1923 and Veronica Brinkley has been entrusted by her husband into the care of Dr. Cull of Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy on Earth's moon. The clinic has been built upon a tomb that once housed the legendary moon spider, and although this species is no more its webs still cling to the treetops of the moon's forest surrounding Barrowfield Home.

Veronica is a waifish sort, the type of person upon whom events occur to and are heaped upon with little care or who lack any awareness of their own power for agency. Her victimhood is learned, instilled upon her by her own mother as a child in their Nebraska farmhouse who taught her that her life is not her own and that women exist only in the wake of men. Mother's is an old-fashioned viewpoint in lockstep with the times -- the suffrage movement, if it existed at all in this askew historical, would not yet have led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which itself would only be a couple of years old in Veronica's adulthood. Women are second-class citizen, and Veronica's institutionalization has little to do with her own wants or desires so much as her husband's, who has consigned her away off-planet in an effort to wash his hands of her entirely. She's passed from one man to another in a series of victimizations that culminate, but do not end, in an unorthodox medical procedure involving moon spider silk and intracranial surgery.

With both Crypt of the Moon Spidery and The Strange, I've found an awful lot to love about Ballingrud's alternate histories and star-flung exploits. What they lack in scientific rigor they make up for with fun and spectacle. He clearly has a vision with these tales, and he does a fantastic job realizing them. The modern technologies and antiquated world views of the 1920s setting provide intriguing dichotomies against the fantastical lore, and its impact on the sciences, upon which these worlds are built. Ballingrud presents us with imagery that alternates between the marvelous and the terrifying in equal measure, granting us visions that are both awe-inspiring and chill inducing in their terrestrial and extraterrestrial horrors, and the mishmash of ideas and concepts he weaves together are keenly unlike anything else you're likely to read. Or, as Tyson might more eloquently put it, with Ballingrud, we got a bad-ass over here.

Nathan Ballingrud is reliable in delivering original, thrilling stories, but this one surpasses his previous work. Continuing in the style of his novel, The Strange, this book blends fantasy, science fiction and B-movie aesthetics to create a unique vision. The prose is lyrical and nearly every line glitters with depth and poetry as the narrator exhumes buried secrets. Delving into America's dark history of psychiatric treatment in an all-too-plausible context, Crypt of the Moon spider moves along at a frightening pace, revealing mysteries, miracles and terrors on every page. Fans of classic science fiction will be charmed by this viscerally disturbing fantasy and ravenous for the next installment in the Lunar Gothic Trilogy.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC.

You can usually be guaranteed of an excellent read from Mr Ballingrud. This is probably my favorite piece of his work. It’s horror. It’s science fiction, it’s really creepy. It’s a five star read through and through.

We humans on earth try to survive and make do and good within our own perplexing lives and frailties but unfortunately things break, and can and can’t be undone, and one may seek out cures of all kinds and if all else fails there is one on a distant moon involving a home and spiders.
Book a seat on a shuttle to this destination, seats are limited and expensive!

One day in 1923 a Veronica Brinkley was voluntarily handed over in custody by her husband for Treatment of the Melancholy at Barrowfield home.
The complexities of her dilemma upon earth along with the anxieties and frailties of what to come are well crafted necessary elements hooking the read in upon a moon amongst spidery matters and frightening minutes within a metamorphosis of one Veronica with a deeply effective human tragedy.

Upon a moon amidst the immeasurable cosmos denizens of human and spider entities be awaiting with a infusion of human frailty and the macabre and ancient holy wonder in a mesmeric manifestation of gothical grotesque excellence penned by Nathan Ballingrud with a phantasmagoric procession of monstrous delights.

A disturbingly dark and profoundly unsertling story, or, in other words, excellent horror. I love how memories and fears twist and change into something else in this story, and the setting on a spider-haunted moon is beautiful and terrifying.

Nathan Ballingrud somehow wrote the most bizarre period piece, taking place on the moon in the early 1900s, with giant mystic spiders and groundbreaking brain surgeries, and because he's such a damn good writer, I was rooted in the story, and eager to see where it goes. It's a noir tale about an always-shackled woman who overcomes her oppressors and embraces her power. Such a great story, I can't wait for more!

What the hell did I just read? Crypt of the Moon Spider is like some kind of science fiction fever dream and I was down for it!

It's 1923 and Veronica is heading to the moon with her husband. He is committing her to the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy. Years ago, the moon was home to a colossal spider. The spider is dead now but uses have been found for its moon spider silk. Turns out it can help the mentally ill. Or can it? As the mysterious Dr. Cull performs his spider silk brain experiments on his patients, his assistant Charlie is busy harassing and abusing patients in his own way. And lastly, who are these people wandering around in white, often bloody robes? You'll have to read this to find out!

I admit that I only have a vague idea as to what happened here, but I believe that was the author's intent. Yes, I understood most of what was going on, but what I do not understand is most of the how and why. Was what happened some sort of dream on Veronica's part? Does the world at large know exactly what it is that Dr. Cull is doing? What the hell is Charlie's problem? I feel like I, myself, am wandering around the labyrinthian Barrowfield Home, looking for answers.

I loved Veronica as a character. She felt real to me and she was so hard on herself I just wanted to hug her. I get the feeling that Veronica is somehow special, that she was always meant to be on the moon, and that she has a purpose there.

This was a unique novella but I feel it is connected to the wider world of literature as well. Viewed a certain way, this could be a weird retelling of Frankenstein, or maybe even a planet of Dr. Moreau instead of an island? (I also feel a little bit of an, Edgar Rice Burroughs vibe, but that could be and probably is, just me.) All of this to say I'm still not really sure what is happening here, but I WANT MORE. I am trusting in the author to answer all of my questions in the next two books and I would like both of those ASAP, please!

All the Stars to this wicked, dreamy, and weird science fiction tale! Bravo!

*ARC from publisher.*

One of the most creative premises I've seen in a very long time! This novella is 100% Gothic and 100% science fiction. All the Gothic tropes are here, but set on the moon and with a mad scientist and a giant spider and the spider's disciples. Looking forward to the next novella in this trilogy!