North American Lake Monsters: Stories

In the past couple of years, I've been craving a particular type of horror book. A cosmic horror, if you will...Or even if you won't, the horror wouldn't care, it simply is. I found this book on a list of cosmic horror books and figured I would give it a shot.

This is not the book I was looking for.

North American Lake Monsters is a collection of nine short stories written mostly by the author (The Crevasse is a collaboration with another writer). The prose is easy and sometimes insightful. The characterizations are mostly well done, and the stories themselves represent more of a character sketch than a plot driven work.

But is it horror? Well, it uses horror elements, but a lot of these horrors (ghosts, unknown monsters, crazy folk) take a secondary or even tertiary role to the suffering of the characters as they experience life's horrendous downs. In many of the stories, you could take out the supernatural elements and still be left with a coherent story.

So why bother? What is the point? In some cases, it leaves an excellent effect at the end such as in The Monsters of Heaven. In cases like Wild Acre or The Good Husband, it provides the stimulus that not only drives the story, but contributes emotions (some of disgust) that otherwise would not exist.

In other words, Ballingrud is concerned with some of the darker aspects of human nature and uses horror to magnify them. These stories do not have sustained horror crisises or existential horror at humanity's precarious state in the universe. Rather, it has a mother's regret at what her life has become, a man's survivor guilt, and several people's frustrations at their inability to connect with those they love.

And perhaps that's all the horror we need.