So these past few days I've enjoying some great cosmic horror with this particular novel, Gus Moreno's "This Thing Between Us".
When Vera and Thiago had gotten the Itza, things have taken a strange turn. One thing that the ads never mentioned for "the world's most advanced smart speaker" were the scratching noises in the walls. Eerie music being played in the night. Or even the weird packages being ordered, like industrial strength lye.
Though it was weird it was also pretty amusing. But that changed when Vera is killed, and Thiago's whole world ends up becoming unbearable. And he does the only thing that could do, and that is to get as far away from Chicago. But there is no escape; not from the guilt, not from the anger. And also not from the evil that now hunts him. One that is feeding on his pain, and searching for a way to enter our world.
Some of the new crop of horror writers that I've had a chance to read have their own brand of cosmic horror, usually from anthologies and some short story collections (like T.E Grau's "The Nameless" plus two by Christopher Slatsky with his two collections "Alectryomancer" and "The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature") and also the few novels by Nick Cutter I've also read.
Moreno's "This Thing Between Us" is a pretty awesome title. It's darkly funny, but doesn't really go into dark comedy territory. Of course there is a nameless entity that follows the main character, plus all the ensuing madness. But it also touches on the subject of grief, which is also the running theme for this book, and what can happen to those that end up being consumed by it.
I think this proves that cosmic horror tackle other subjects along with the nameless cosmic beings and soul crushing insanity. There's another novel of cosmic horror that also deals with the theme of grief, that one being by one John Langan (yet another author I haven't acquainted myself with yet!) called "The Fisherman". And it is one that I hope to read one day, along with some of his other books!
by i-the-muso-1968