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That Which Should Not Be
 
 

That Which Should Not Be [Kindle Edition]

Brett J. Talley
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

*  2011 HWA Bram Stoker Finalist for superior achievement for a First Novel.
*  2011 GoodReads Choice Awards Semi-Finalist
*  Winner of the 2011 JournalStone horror writing contest.


Miskatonic University has a long-whispered reputation of being strongly connected to all things occult and supernatural. From the faculty to the students, the fascination with other-worldly legends and objects runs rampant. So, when Carter Weston's professor Dr. Thayerson asks him to search a nearby village for a book that is believed to control the inhuman forces that rule the Earth, Incendium Maleficarum, The Inferno of the Witch, the student doesn't hesitate to begin the quest.

Weston's journey takes an unexpected turn, however, when he ventures into a tavern in the small town of Anchorhead. Rather than passing the evening as a solitary patron, Weston joins four men who regale him with stories of their personal experiences with forces both preternatural and damned. Two stories hit close to home as they tie the tellers directly to Weston's current mission.

His unanticipated role as passive listener proves fortuitous, and Weston fulfills his goal. Bringing the book back to Miskatonic, though, proves to be a grave mistake. Quickly, Weston realizes he has played a role in potentially opening the gate between the netherworld and the world of Man. Reversing the course of events means forgetting all he thought he knew about Miskatonic and his professor and embracing an unknown beyond his wildest imagination.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 641 KB
  • Print Length: 260 pages
  • Publisher: JournalStone (1 Oct 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B005RR20RM
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #41,969 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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More About the Author

Brett J. Talley
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Karen
Format:Kindle Edition
Phew what good book! It held me captivated right through to the last page. I've always enjoyed old, classic horror, so it's wonderful to find a new book that reproduces the chills and terror of the old books so successfully. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend to any horror lover.
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Format:Kindle Edition
That Which Should Not Be is a rather lovely compendium of Lovecraftian vignettes. There's an odd pair of -logues both pro and epi that attempt to give the book the feel of a "found footage" film for reasons beyond my understanding, but the real meat of the tale is the "diary" of Carter Weston as he prepares for his last battle to hold back the dark.

The problem with Lovecraftian pastiche is that it only really works as a short story. This is true of all horror, but particularly so Cosmic Horror as the structure is so rigidly defined by necessity. The longer a horror story gets, the longer you spend with characters doing stuff that's not related to the horror, which is the principal issue with Stephen King's oeuvre: A 3-400 page story about a monster clown is stretched without remorse to 1000 pages about whatever the hell was in his head at the time.

Talley navigates this issue by splitting the narrative into five related short stories: The framing story told by Carter, and the tales of the four men he meets in the Kraken Inn. The main issue I have with the book is that either Talley himself or his editor seemed to put the short stories in entirely the wrong order, so much so that perhaps it's an intentional joke or reference (to join the legions of others) that I'm missing, but it's just so wrong.

The first short story we're given is that of Jack and the woodland Wendigo and it is superlative. Re-contextualising existing mythology is something really special when it's done right, and I don't think I've seen it done better than here. But it's an early crescendo that none of the other three matches up to. I understand that if you're writing a paean to H.P, you do need an asylum story and a cult story, but the reveals at the end of each seem like they would have naturally lead to one another if properly ordered (2, 3 then 1. 4 would have been a step back to provide the necessary exposition and build for the climax of the frame).

This is a minor niggle, as I was never bored while reading it (I certainly don't mean to infer any of the other novellas weren't up to snuff), and everything else about the book is pitch-perfect. It's all set in the right time period for it to work, the voices feel authentically Lovecraftian (drink every time you read "Stygian", "Plutonian" or "[a thing] that cannot be properly described" followed by a description and you won't make two chapters) and the Abyssal Horrors are doled out piecemeal with very real consequence.

Really enjoyable, straight-faced horror. I hope to read much more like it.
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By Hayley
Format:Paperback
Fantastic book. Dark, gritty, demonic, filled rich language and supernatural creates. Loved it.

Carter Weston is a student of Miskatonic University (H.P. Lovecraft will recognise the fictional university, with a reputation of being linked to all things occult and supernatural); he's sent on a mission by his Professor to find a Book, Incendium Maleficarum, a much known and much feared artefact. On a dark, stormy night (as it always is), Carter stops in a local tavern, where four men tell him stories of their personal experiences with the darked, the damned, the things that hide in the shadows, that which should not be...

Whilst I loved the whole story, I think the four 'tales' of the story, told by each of the four men Carter meets in the tavern, were more gripping and interesting than the overall story arch. That Wendgio one was, I think, the best, but they were all excellently told. The writing is deep, dark, yet rich and desrciptive, and that was what drew me in most of all.

I wonderfully written book, and fantastically dark book, paying homage to many of the greats beforehand (Lovercraft, as already mentioned, as well as Bram Stoker's Dracula (see the names in William's story)). I highly recommend this to fans of horror, of gothic, and especially those who like a tale of darkness...
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