Epeolatry Book Review: An Ocean and a Desert by Rachel Roth

This collection’s Lovecraftian elements appealed to me along with its twist of Poe and dash of King. Roth tells tales that can happen anytime and anywhere. They get under your skin. Poetry is interspersed between each of the stories, rather like a touchstone to the next piece. 

The first story, “Our Land, Our Cave, Our Home,” examines the outer and inner craziness of war. 

“Skin” shows the potential hazards of being a doctor of the mind. Sometimes you can catch their sickness too. 

“Sea Foam” shows the slow descent into madness with fire, endless seas, and a never setting sun. 

“Okeechobee After Midnight” is a bit of a murder mystery but with a clown lurking in the corner. With a really big smile. 

My favorite was probably “Bodies Beneath New Orleans.” Who knew a painting could bring itself to life in such a wonderfully skin crawling way. 

“Spiders and Bones” is the cat and mouse game of survival through the desert. Or has it ended even before it began? 

The last story in the collection, “The Moroi,” awakens with a woman naked and blistering in the desert sun. She doesn’t know who she is. But she leaves the random people she finds wondering what she is.

I enjoyed Roth’s sometimes cryptic stories. They stuck with me. Better flow and wrong word choices took me out of the horror being woven.

/5

Available from Amazon.