Synopsis
Rejoice, for the Earth is His.
Detective Hunter will do anything to prove Dean Tyler’s innocence. The question is, is he willing to sacrifice his family to Cthulhu to do it?
All it takes is a single glance at a screen for the voices to take control. For idle hands to make things the human mind wasn’t meant to see. And for it to spread like wildfire.
Will he succumb to the virus plaguing the San Bernardino Valley and beyond?
Or can he find the will to stop it?
Review
CTHULHU GRIMOIRE (or GR1MO1RE as it is stylized on the cover) by Eric Malikyte is a Cthulhu Mythos horror thriller set in present-day Los Angeles. While listed as he second of the OEI Archives, the book is fully readable as a standalone. It is an investigative novel that starts very similar to something like Seven and quickly transforms itself into something that verges on the apocalyptic.
The premise is there is a series of suicides occurring in the Los Angeles art community, starting at a prestigious art school. Detective Hunter immediately starts to believe his department is going to railroad a young black man into a murder charge and gets personally invested in clearing his name. Unfortunately, the young man confesses almost immediately after. This accompanies the discovery that all of the victims had become involved in an underground art movement that seems to consume all of their time.
Meanwhile, a young transman named River finds himself terrified of the sudden and horrific changes that are occurring among his fellow art students. Worse, his mother has become involved in an extremist church that has its own connection to the mysterious art. River finds himself powerless as he watches the worst parts of everyone he knows psyches start to spill out into his life. Worse, he starts to see the art’s appeal himself.
Finally, Lena is a woman who hails from another world (the tie in to the OEI Archives). A person who has already seen an entirety of a human population fall prey to the mind-virus. She serves as a Cassandra figure for the other protagonists, trying to find some way to warn the rest of the world that things are about to fall apart.
The book is a slow burn for the first half, slowly transforming from an occult police procedural to a nightmarish psychological breakdown of reality. I would have preferred the book to stay a little more grounded for longer but I felt Eric Malikyte has a fantastic gift for showing the terrifying consequences of an encounter with the Mythos on the brain.
The social commentary element is upfront so those allergic to it should probably stay away. Nevertheless, I think this element is extremely well handled with Hunter frustrated by his own issues in the department and past with a racist father-in-law on end. River is also someone who just wants to live their best life but finds themselves under the control of a society that favors the idea they’re mentally ill. It’s used to underline the horror rather than preach at the audience but your mileage may vary.
The Mythos element itself is associated with art, mathematics, and the idea of human ideas being insignificant to mankind. Exposure to the Mythos takes on an Instrumentality (yes, an Evangelion reference in a Cthulhu Mythos novel review) that I found to be intriguing. It’s definitely not your grandfather’s Lovecraft but that makes it better not worse, IMHO. Indeed, it reminds me of some of the Delta Green games I’ve played.
In conclusion, I think this is a good book for fans of the Cthulhu Mythos and psychological horror to check out. But I think this is definitely worth the price and a sign that the Mythos is alive and well among indie horror writers.
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