Novella Review – You Will Speak for the Dead by R.A. Busby (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Horror
Length: 86 pages
Publisher: Stelliform Press
Release Date: October 10, 2024
ASIN: B0D98VFX6L
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGaley for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Paul Simard’s life is a mess. When his mother dies, and his boyfriend moves out, the only thing Paul has left is his hoarder house cleaning business, and that’s not exactly a recipe for dating success. But after Paul gets a call to clean out the home of some elderly biologist, nothing will ever be the same. You see, 928 Avirosa isn’t just your normal cleanout. Something in the house is…alive. It’s not just the fungal carpet or the mushrooms growing over every surface, or even the disturbing smell. It’s the woman’s voice he hears inside his head. The creeping sense he’s been invaded. The powerful connections to memories and people he’s never seen. Yes. Something in that house is alive. And it wants to speak to him. Before long, Paul understands the house hoards more than just secrets – and Paul’s life depends upon uncovering its answers.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone story. I got an eGalley of this through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This was creepy and decently done with some very Lovecraftian overtones to it. I read it quickly and enjoyed it.
Paul has a hoarder house cleaning business, and this next house he is dealing with is a dozy. The house is literally alive inside, full of fungus and mushrooms. After the first day of clean-out Paul starts to notice some strange things happening to his body and his mind. He finds strange fungal filaments growing on him and hears voices in his head. He needs to figure out what is happening before the changes are permanent.
This story has a lot of horror elements to it and a dark supernatural type of element as well. The fungus and the weird collective mind it develops gave me Lovecraft vibes. The descriptions are very gross and gory, which is pretty horrific. I didn’t find it particularly scary, just weird, creepy, and gross.
I did wonder why this was happening to Paul and not the other people cleaning the house, and struggled to understand the significance of the teacup he found. To be fair, I was reading this while sleep deprived at a gaming convention, so I may have missed some subtleties here.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this was strange and different and creepy and I enjoyed it. I liked how it plays on some odd human fears around the horrors you might find during a house clean-out and the lack of our understanding of the fungal world. There are some pretty gory, gross parts here, which are the main horror elements…the other parts of the story are just weird. I would recommend if you like weird horror with a Lovecraft vibe to it.
