For me it was sitting around a table with my friends about 25 years ago. My buddy had tried Dungeons and Dragons and found an even more interesting game to play - The Call of Cthulhu. After finishing our first round that evening I was so fascinated I asked what it was all about. Another friend had a copy of Rats in the Walls and read it to us. I was so creeped out that when my mom came to pick me up the next day, we went to the bookstore and I immediately went and picked up a few different books. Good times. 😂 How’d you first discover the works of HP Lovecraft?

My first H.P. Lovecraft purchases were the Del Rey paperbacks. Nothing has ever come close to Michael Whelan's "Lovecraft's Nightmare" diptych that he did for the covers of those books. Just black, white, and red, the paintings are evocative rather than literal interpretations of HPL's stories. Some of the 60s and 70s pulp paperbacks had trippy covers (I got one from the library that featured Brown Jenkin and it was unsettling) but nothing like Whelan's. Do you have any favorite covers?

I just finished this novel, and wow, what a rollercoaster ride. This is more of a sci-fi related cosmic horror, but I think what impressed me most was the fact that it was not only a great cosmic horror sci-fi but also an absolutely insanely high-paced, action-oriented, and interesting story. Without spoiling anything, the story starts off in a very interesting direction and almost immediately gets into the action. While listening to this, I was constantly remarking at how crazy the story was and the twists and turns were all super interesting. At one point in the story, they essentially were quoting the very beginning of the story in a way that made you go, "Holy %$#!." I had a ton of fun reading this one, and I can highly recommend it. It reminded me a lot of the book "Fourteen" by Peter Clines, which was another favorite of mine and the type of story that I'd been looking for for the better part of a decade. I'll be continuing on in the series later as I have some other backlogs to catch up on, but this one is a must read for those that like a side of sci fi with their cosmic horror!

I just did a writeup for a book I finished over a weekend called The Breach (normally not that fast of a reader but this one had its hooks in me). Excellent piece of sci fi cosmic horror for those interested - reminded me a ton of 14 by Peter Clines which is one of my favorite books of all time. What stuck with you that you enjoyed over the past month that you think everyone should check out?

I found out about this one from horror blogger Stacie Ponder and it is one of my favorites. Arletty, a young woman, comes to an isolated California town looking for her father, who has gone missing. The town's past is coming back in strange and unsettling ways. Arletty teams up with a trio of other outsiders to try and find out what is happening and where Arletty's father is. If you want something that *feels* like Innsmouth in the 1970s, this is it. There are some jump scares, but most of the movie is mood. It is designed to unsettle rather than to scare. Is it cosmic horror? Maybe. It is definitely Lovecraftian, and it ends with a pretty strong implication that the world as we know it is coming to a close. Right now, it is available free (with ads) on Tubi. It pops up on Shudder frequently, if you subscribe.