This morning I read the new Sirenia Digest, which contains a new Caitlin R. Kiernan story, or rather collection of vignettes, The Eldritch Alphabetos (A Lovecraftian Primer). Of course, you're better off if you're already a Lovecraft fan but if you're not then Caitlin's new story might help you open your mind a bit. Offering different individual vignettes for the letters A through M--the rest of the alphabet promised in an upcoming issue--The Eldritch Alphabetos presents thirteen glimpses into Lovecraft's world via Caitlin's own distinctive vision. Certainly Lovecraft likely never envisioned his ghouls quite as lovely and sexual as the one presented in "G is for Ghoul" or could have made the aesthetic connexion to Invasion of the Body Snatchers in "F is for Fruiting Bodies (also Fungophobia)".
The reader will also find credible and imaginative continuations of aspects of Lovecraft's stories, one of my favourites being "J is for John Raymond Legrasse". This vignette provides a pleasingly macabre description of the man's ultimate fate, and beyond, following his appearance in Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu.
A really nice little bundle of weird fiction is The Eldritch Alphabetos.
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