Weird Murmur

Meghan Arcuri, "Going, Going" and Adrian Ludens, "Resistant to Change" in  Where the Silent Ones Watch , ed. James Chambers (Hippocampus Press: 2024). In William Hope Hodgson’s novel  The House on the Borderlands , little is said of the Recluse’s sister, Mary, and, in part, it is this absence of information that makes her a fascinating character. The reader can’t help but wonder about the old man’s sister. Two short stories from the James Chambers edited anthology  Where the Silent Ones Watch  pick up on themes of Mary’s story, albeit in two different ways. In her short story “Going, Going,” Meghan Arcuri takes the strange and awkward background role that Mary plays in Hodgson’s work as an opportunity to explore the psychological horror of not being seen. The protagonist of Arcuri's story gives a little away and those around her, particularly her partner, take much, much more. She slowly loses herself and disappears from the view of those around her. It is a cre...

Meghan Arcuri, "Found and Lost" in  Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign , ed. James Chambers (Hippocampus Press: 2021).  My opening murmur is usually spoiler-free; however, this post reveals some details that particularly spoiler sensitive readers may wish to avoid. The King in Yellow stories that I enjoy the most are usually the ones that capture the mood and mystery of the original Robert W. Chambers—the stories that don't answer the questions. In that tradition, two of my favorites are Karl Edward Wagner's "River of Night's Dreaming" and Sarah Read's "The Inn of the Fates." Although certainly parts of Arcuri's short story retain the yellow-mystery and leave the reader with lots of questions, "Found and Lost" is, first and foremost, a cleverly creative story that gives us a peek into what Mr. Hawberk and Louis Castaigne, from "The Repairer of Reputations," are doing when they are off-page in the...