Crypt of the Moon Spider (The Lunar Gothic Trilogy Book 1)

Crypt of the Moon Spider is a dark and dreamy tale of horror, corruption, and identity spun into the stickiest of webs.Years ago, in a cave beneath the dense forests and streams on the surface of the moon, a gargantuan spider once lived. Its silk granted its first worshippers immense faculties of power and awe.It’s now 1923 and Veronica Brinkley is touching down on the moon for her intake at the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy. A renowned facility, Dr. Barrington Cull’s invasive and highly successful treatments have been lauded by many. And they’re so simple! All it takes is a little spider silk in the amygdala, maybe a strand or two in the prefrontal cortex, and perhaps an inch in the hippocampus for near evisceration of those troublesome thoughts and ideas.But patients aren’t the only ones with trouble on their minds, and although the spider’s been dead for years, its denizens are not. Someone or something is up to no good, and Veronica just might be the cause.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of the Alchemical Journeys series

“This short, surreal novella feels like a slice of a much larger story in the best way. A thoughtful meditation on personhood, judgment, and trauma. Not for the arachnophobic among us.”

Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“A wicked, pulpy, hideously gorgeous phantasmagoria that will leave you helplessly twitching in its grand web. Nathan Ballingrud once again demonstrates that he's one of our finest writers.”

Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light (Stories)

“Crypt of the Moon Spider is a Gothic fantasy where madness nests within madness of emotional vistas that are as bleak as bleached bones. Ballingrud's immense talent shines, cold and furious.”

Owen King, author of The Curator

“Crypt of the Moon Spider is a superb and unnerving work of science fiction.”

Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk Additional Praise for Nathan Ballingrud North American Lake Monsters was a World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker award finalist!

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of our best and most original writers....Crypt of the Moon Spider is psychologically rich, nightmarishly vivid, and deeply scary.”

Jeff VanderMeer, Nebula Award-winning author of Annihilation, on North American Lake Monsters

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite short fiction writers.”

The New York Times, on Wounds

“In the Hills, the Cities.” It’s horrifying, but there’s beauty.”

Victor LaValle, award-winning author of The Changeling, on Wounds

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite contemporary authors and any time he’s got a new book out I run to the front of the line. His work is elegant and troublingly, wonderfully disturbing.”

Paul Tremblay, award-winning author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“Nathan Ballingrud’s brilliant fiction brims with imagination, integrity (I do not use that term lightly), and an authentic world-weary dread that bores directly into your heart. With Wounds you'll gladly follow Nathan to Hell and (maybe) back.”

John Langan, Los Angeles Review of Books

“What Nathan Ballingrud does in North American Lake Monsters is to reinvigorate the horror tradition.”

Lee Mandelo, author of Summer Sons, on North American Lake Monsters

“For those willing to go down the dark road that’s laid out here, and those willing to feel complex patterns of sympathy, disgust, and horror for (often bad) people, this is an interesting collection. Uncomfortable a read as it is, it has the tinge of reality to it: a reality that often we’d rather not look at.”

Andrew Liptak, io9, on North American Lake Monsters

“Each one of these nine stories has the capacity to seduce and terrify you like any of the most heavyweight horror authors out there.”

Locus

“Matched to his original ideas and refreshing re­furbishments of genre set pieces, Ballingrud’s writ­ing makes North American Lake Monsters one of the best collections of short fiction for the year.”

Cory Doctorow on North American Lake Monsters

“Ballingrud’s work isn't like any other. ...Ballingrud is an expert at teasing out every delicious shade and nuance, every fine gradation of misery and pain.”

About the Author

Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, is the author of The Strange, Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, and North American Lake Monsters, which was adapted into the Hulu series Monsterland. His work has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards. He lives in Asheville, NC.

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