When I pick a book to read (especially for this site) I have expectations. I want to see sentient flora, evil blobs, Nazi werewolves and zombie private investigators. I want to see a giant ape shove the Transamerica Pyramid up the ass of some otherworldly beast. 

I definitely don’t want to read a story about a man’s sad attempt to contact his dead sister. But c’est la vie, that’s exactly what I got in Beyond Here Be Monsters, the new anthology from author Gregory Frost.

“That Blissful Height” takes place a couple of centuries ago during the golden age of somnambulism, clairvoyance, metaphysics, alchemy and all that supernatural jazz. It was an exciting time in history when spiritualists were squinting into the inexpressible.

Even Robert Hare—a stuffy academic who thought all phenomena must be open to the proofs of science—saw some merit in mediumship. To prove his hypothesis, he hired numerous psychics to help locate his sister in the afterlife. He even went so far as to invent a Ouija board-like contraption called the Spiritoscope. 

After summoning his sister a few times (along with a group of famous dead people like George Washington, Isaac Newton, Lord Byron and others), Hare was honestly convinced that a communication pathway between the living and dead truly existed. 

Unfortunately, his carefully researched and documented theory was dismissed by everyone. Did he actually talk to his sister? Did he really discuss Saturn’s rings with Isaac Newton? No concrete evidence could be established because the entire business of spiritualism was clouded in trickery. “Did you genuinely believe you sat in the presence of Washington, Franklin and Newton?” asked one skeptical colleague. “Honestly, you’re as possessed as any medium ever claimed.” Poor Robert Hare, how desperately he wished to embrace those shabby spiritual charlatans. 

“That Blissful Height” is an excellent story and there are more delightful non-monster stories included in this collection as well—“The Final Act,” “No Others Are Genuine” and “Traveling On” to name a few 

But (thankfully) the book’s main agenda is monsters. In service to this programme, Frost partially rewrites Homer’s Odyssey (!!) to include vampires inside the Trojan Horse, he reports on Abraham Van Helsing’s first undead encounter and he follows two grifters as their dupery unexpectedly brings forth the “First Mother.” 

There’s also a few nods to Lovecraftian monsters in this volume—which is odd because in his endnotes, Frost confesses that he doesn’t like the writings of H.P. Lovecraft very much. I had to laugh because, despite his lofty reputation, I don’t care for Lovecraft and his clumsy purple prose either. 

If I had to choose, though, I’d say my favorite of these Lovecraft-inspired stories is “The Seal of New R’lyeh.” Cthulhu comes to Earth and destroys civilization. Later we find out that the cosmic creature is actually fleeing from a pantheon of ancient gods. There’s no doubt that Cthulhu is an immense and terrifying entity, but it’s nice to see ol’ octopus-head finally get a little well-deserved comeuppance. 

[ Beyond Here Be Monsters / By Gregory Frost / First Printing: November 2024 / ISBN: 9781958880265 ]