Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, A horror Book Review by Tony Jones

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. Comparitively 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. Acordingly, 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.

Tony Jones 

Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud

A young woman, committed to an asylum, undergoes a bizarre treatment that unlocks a vast well of power in this cosmic horror novella, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher.

Veronica Brinkley has been committed to The Barrowfield Home, run by Dr. Cull, to treat her depression. The institution is built on the crypt of a giant Lunar Spider. Tended to by a monastic group of worshippers called the Alabaster Scholars. Dr. Cull is using the lunar silk from the dead spider to “repair” people’s brains.

As Veronica’s memories are tampered with. She finds a surprising reserve of power within herself, upending everyone else’s plans for her and stepping into a grand new role she had never imagined for herself.

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