Have You Read This Yet: Lure by Tim McGregor

Lure is a horror fantasy novella, just 100 pages- so short, but chock full of meaning, and savage beauty. But, let's start at the beginning.

How I Found It

I follow the publisher on Twitter, actually. Tenebrous Press publishes "New Weird Horror", and . . . they deliver on that promise at every turn, every level, consistently. Most notable, and why I followed them, was their body horror anthology titled "Your Body Is Not Your Body", an anthology with trans and gender non-conforming authors to help support trans youth in Texas. I haven't gotten this book yet, but it's always been on my To-Buy list!

After that one, they started promoting Lure, and their marketing was stellar. They boosted small excerpts, some of the beautiful drawings present in the book, and so much more. I'm always a sucker for mermaid stories, and the fact that it was a novella? I've had the attention span of a goldfish since turning 27 so this was a blessing to me! But, time passed, life got hard, and I had to set this one on the To-Buy list too . . .

Until now.

I managed to find it at a Barnes & Noble, which surprises me as I could swear they swore off supporting indie authors? But it may have been because this was a B&N in a rich neighborhood- which, I'm going to stop here and tell you do as I say, not as I do. Support indie authors by buying from their indie publishing websites! I had meant to, but life got in the way and by the time I was starting to tread water again . . . I digress, but- just support indie efforts directly.

What's Lure About?

The summary goes like this:

In the chapel of a forsaken fishing village on another world's shore, the seawashed bones of old gods hang from the rafters. When a new god drifts into the bay, the menfolk fear nothing as they reach for their spears; but capturing Her may be their last act of reckless bravado.

Her very presence brings dissent and madness. Her voice threatens to tear the starving, angry community apart. Setting a siege of relentless horror against the backdrop of brine and blood, Lure blurs the line between natural disaster and self-destruction.

The story goes like this:

A boy named Kaspar lives in a miserable fishing village, with his father- the village Pastor- his sister Bryndis, and little brother Pip. He is cut off from his first love Agnet- she was married off to the best fisherman in the village, Gunther- and life there only promises hardness and little change.

Until she appears.

The people aren't quite sure who she is- they know what she is, a mermaid- but is she a God? A terror? A miracle? A savior? She so closely resembled the form of the God they have hanging from their rafters- doesn't that prove how incredible the world is?

For all the questions they had, and how few answers, it makes a devastating sort of sense that the men of this traditional village decided that the only course of action was to kill her. The people are only interested in surviving, continuing tradition, and fish. Anything even slightly outside of that will not be tolerated. They must have figured that this mermaid (A Luremaid, she was first called) was a combination of the two things they knew best: a woman, and a fish. And they knew how to handle both- by completely disregarding their worth as living creatures. But what a mistake that was!

I'm not going to get into too many details, because this book is small enough that everything will make sense very quickly once you start reading it. But, holy shit, it was so good. I mean, you love the fantasy of a mermaid God coming to test a village and punish its failures . . . but there was so much more to it!

The social issues message that weaved through the book was so familiar and it kept being the damning nails to dozens of coffins in this book. The way the men who are essentially big fish in a little pond (ha!) let that feeling inflate their egos and erode what little sense they might have had . . . the fear and anger as their self-perceptions are challenged and defeated . . . the chaotic duality of quiet resignation and mystic rebellion from the women . . . the secrets that spill out as the town flounders (ha!!) in their own scummy pool of poor decisions and ignorance . . . Kaspar's tragic (?) coming of age!

Honestly the ending was so damn good, and the whole book just gave off this blaring subtext; if the menfolk had just been kind, had shown even a modicum of respect or decency in the whole matter, the outcome could have very well changed! Had they not given the mermaid's magic so much material to work with, I don't know that her voice would have worked so well! But, they did. Because they just knew that nothing could knock them out of their spot in society, that there could never be a shake up of the hierarchy. But life is so much more complex than that, and not even a tiny village can escape that won

In the end, they realized just how little they knew.

And, a final note . . . I did like the ending, every part of it, including Kaspar's role in it. But I have a headcanon-

("can't you just say theory?" "No-anyway-")

My headcanon is that Kaspar just . . . started a new chapter in his life. I don't think events happened as they did just for his part to be so simply cut. There's more to Kaspar's story, but that tale is mine to spin, because McGregor has definitely done his job here.

This novella is amazing, if you've taken the time to read this article then you should absolutely purchase the book from this website that I've linked in the article, and maybe grab another book or two- I hear Crom Cruach is a blast. As always, Happy Haunting~!