Denise Dumars

OK, I admit it. I am a sap for genre fiction. Sometimes us addicts get a marvelous fix, like Delta Green or Dead But Dreaming. And sometimes we get oregano that wouldn't get a fly high (to paraphrase Cheech and Chong). I bought the collection Lovecraft Slept Here by Denise Dumars strictly on the basis of the title. As is my wont, when I get a collection like this I tend to skip around, sampling stories in no particular order. The first one, Angel Baby, was not a mythos work, but the second I read, Topping Out, was a gem. It was not overtly Cthulhu mythos but it was great horror with a Lovecraftian feel....

Topping Out was told from the perspective of a young woman down on her luck who was basically a kleptomaniac. In the finest horror tradition, much like in Bloch's/Hitchcock's Psycho, we get to know her, sympathize with her as she gets into deeper fixes and actually feel her anxiety. And then suddenly she is swallowed up by a horror that comes out of left field. This was the most Lovecraftian part of the collection. She is caught shoplifting in a store, the owner takes her on the roof of the store and sacrifices her to his gods, chanting unintelligible words after decorating the roof with fish heads, and smelling the distant sea. A terrific story that served to really whet my enthusiasm.

The Video is a very nice mythos story. Beware of snuff films! Regarding the story that gives the books its title, Lovecraft Slept Here, I did find the isolated, mysterious family, unique ancient jewelry, luring in an outside dupe, and an evil sorceress who has lived impossibly long all to be very Lovecraftian elements. But the very last paragraph killed the story for me by turning the whole thing into a sad little joke at the expense of Lovecraft's writing style. It was kind of like some stories in Cthulhu and the CoEds.

But after that, bupkus, nada, bagels, goose eggs. Dumars is a skilled writer, but they chose the title for marketing only. There is nothing else mythos about it. Even the story that gives the book its title has only the faintest echo of Lovecraft (OK I've argued about The Mirror, The Deal and The God of the Morning with James Ambuehl). So if you want some fresh offbeat stories that are by turns fantastical and horror, you should enjoy this. If you want unspeakable tentacular pleasures, well you pays your money and you takes your chances. I am affronted that the title did not reflect the contents thereby exposing to the world what a dimwit I am. Fie upon thee, Wildside Press!… (altro)