A review by archergal
A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by John Hornor Jacobs

3.0

I put off listening to this book because I was pretty sure I'd have issues with it.

I was right. Maybe cosmic horror (and some earthly horror) just really isn't for me.

The language the writer uses is fine. He writes very well, with lots of lush adjectives.

I listened to "My Heart Struck Sorrow" first. A musical folklorist goes chasing after the origins of a song in the rural south. There may be some cursed verses of the song. He goes looking for them, and finds some weird stuff. A generation or so later, another musical folklorist tries to follow his trail. He also finds some weird stuff.

I strongly disliked the modern-day folklorist. But that was the worst part of this story for me.

The other story is the one with the lovely title "The Sea Dreams it is the Sky." I honestly had some issues with this one, because of the abuse and torture depicted here. I couldn't even pay good attention to what was going on because of my revulsion. If you have a stronger stomach than I do, you will probably like this story more than I did. The writing, the words on the page, is fine. The subject matter is repellent to me. YMMV.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars because of the writing. I hated almost every minute I listened to the first story.