3 out of 5

I was half-in / half-out of my appreciation of Moore’s work when Neonomicon came out.  It’s certainly not his best work, but it undoubtedly made an impression, and – rather purposefully – a disturbing one, that swirled his fascinating recasting of Lovecraft lore with a full assault of the violence and sex that is between the lines of HPL’s fiction.  This grounding into the grit makes the otherworldliness more haunting, as well; we can understand the connection between our reality and that of The Old Ones, and Neonomicon smashes it all together most horrifyingly.  The book rekindled my love for the writer,

Two FBI agents are following up on the events of The Courtyard, tracking leads through occult bookstores and then to a ritual that goes very, very wrong.  I was shocked when I first read this; it’s not that Moore hasn’t assaulted our senses before, but – and again, purposefully – events here are stretched out to an extreme, and presented with a hopelessness that’s rather terrifying.  This is effective, but parts of the book also feel cheap – including a big reveal that’s occluded by being spoken aloud via a character with a lisp – and rather unnecessary, in that some of the procedural buildup to infiltrating the ritual is unrewarding.  Additionally, while I think there’s value in how the mid-section plays out, Moore ‘normalizes’ events relatively quickly, which also has a function within the narrative, but makes the issue and a half or so that follows read like a coda.

While Providence would follow, offering a deep dive into the lore, and backround on characters / events informing Neonomicon and The Courtyard, Moore’s now proclaimed retirement means we won’t get a followup to this series, which is a shame.  On its own, it’s incredibly interesting (and boldly constructed) but flawed; as a middle of a grander story, it’s events and the experience could’ve been made required.