Aly Wyrd, famous art provocateur and magician, is missing on the eve of the opening of her visionary project, the Path of Illumination. It falls to her estranged daughter, Pallas Trismegistus Morrigan Aylward, to navigate through dream, memory and arcane mystery to revisit her history with her mother in ’80s London and ’90s Ireland until Pallas catches up with present-day revelation by walking the road to enlightenment designed by her mother.
Dark bleatings, my lovely little wyrdoes. Today, we’re discussing yet another beautifully presented and well-written novella from PS Publishing, which is one of my favourite publishers because they always seem to house fiction that doesn’t neatly fit into one category or box. I’d say this is horror adjacent, rather than straight up horror, full of mystery and oddness, and captivating characters.
I always hesitate to say too much when I’m reviewing a novella and this will be no different because of my fear of revealing too much and spoiling it for you, but let’s give this a go. I had no idea what I was getting into when I cracked the cover and was delighted to discover just how much the author was able to pack into a story of this length. We’ve got what I think is a unique central setting and premise (it’s so rare to read anything that centres around the art world in peculiar fiction), a mystery, and even better for my tastes, a protagonist who doesn’t even quite know how to feel about the mystery even though it revolves around her mother.
In a shorter page count, we’re treated to some quite deep character exploration, familial strife that bubbles beneath the surface, the power and horror of creativity, and a whole host of other things that the author stitches together without making the story convoluted or confusing. It also has a lot of depth without even a hint of pretention.
I absolutely loved it.
Again, if you’re looking for a visceral scare, this might not be for you right now, but despite thinking that I was only in the mood for “horror” horror, I am so happy to have experienced this. Whatever your tastes, I’d truly recommend giving this one a go, particularly if you’re in the market for something unique and rich.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
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