A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2024!

“This short, creepily imaginative piece of gothic fiction delivers an all-too-real look at how women have been treated by mental-health providers.” —The Wall Street Journal

“This short, surreal novella feels like a slice of a much larger story in the best way. A thoughtful meditation on personhood, judgment, and trauma. Not for the arachnophobic among us.” —Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of the Alchemical Journeys series

“A wicked, pulpy, hideously gorgeous phantasmagoria that will leave you helplessly twitching in its grand web. Nathan Ballingrud once again demonstrates that he's one of our finest writers.” —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“Crypt of the Moon Spider is a Gothic fantasy where madness nests within madness of emotional vistas that are as bleak as bleached bones. Ballingrud's immense talent shines, cold and furious.” —Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light (Stories)

“A brilliantly original, unsettling blend of gothic madness, retro-science fiction and scenes that would make a great Hammer Horror movie.” —The Guardian

“Crypt of the Moon Spider is a superb and unnerving work of science fiction.” —Owen King, author of The Curator

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of the finest purveyors of speculative fiction working today, and Crypt of the Moon Spider, the first book in what will be the Lunar Gothic Trilogy, further cements him as one of the strongest voices in the field. Wonderfully atmospheric and very strange, Crypt of the Moon Spider is a superb start to what promises to be a fantastic trilogy.” —Locus

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of our best and most original writers....Crypt of the Moon Spider is psychologically rich, nightmarishly vivid, and deeply scary.” —Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk

“With Crypt of the Moon Spider, Ballingrud has again leaped across genres and the confines of our physical world to deliver something bold, dynamic, and haunting, a dark fantasy that blends science fiction, myth, and pure terror into something only Ballingrud could write.” —Paste Magazine

“Unhesitatingly violent and wildly fantastical, Ballingrud’s fever dream of a novel will reward daring readers with something they haven’t seen before.” —Publishers Weekly

“A truly creepy, utterly riveting story.” —Library Journal

“Crypt of the Moon Spider exhibits masterful body horror to emphasize the dread of vulnerability and the evils of malpractice.” —FanFiAddict

“If writers fashioned buildings from words, Nathan Ballingrud would erect cathedrals….With Crypt of the Moon Spider, he has expanded the border of hell into the reaches of the cosmos, where no celestial space is immune to human corruption and destructive behavior.” —RueMorgue

Additional Praise for Nathan Ballingrud

North American Lake Monsters was a World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker award finalist!

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite short fiction writers.” —Jeff VanderMeer, Nebula Award-winning author of Annihilation, on North American Lake Monsters

“Stretch[es] the boundaries of the genre by employing these grand, horrific worlds. “The Butcher’s Table” reminds me of the first time I read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, the Cities.” It’s horrifying, but there’s beauty.” —The New York Times, on Wounds

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite contemporary authors and any time he’s got a new book out I run to the front of the line. His work is elegant and troublingly, wonderfully disturbing.” —Victor LaValle, award-winning author of The Changeling, on Wounds

“Nathan Ballingrud’s brilliant fiction brims with imagination, integrity (I do not use that term lightly), and an authentic world-weary dread that bores directly into your heart. With Wounds you'll gladly follow Nathan to Hell and (maybe) back.” —Paul Tremblay, award-winning author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“What Nathan Ballingrud does in North American Lake Monsters is to reinvigorate the horror tradition.” —John Langan, Los Angeles Review of Books

“For those willing to go down the dark road that’s laid out here, and those willing to feel complex patterns of sympathy, disgust, and horror for (often bad) people, this is an interesting collection. Uncomfortable a read as it is, it has the tinge of reality to it: a reality that often we’d rather not look at.” —Lee Mandelo, author of Summer Sons, on North American Lake Monsters

“Each one of these nine stories has the capacity to seduce and terrify you like any of the most heavyweight horror authors out there.” —Andrew Liptak, io9, on North American Lake Monsters

“Matched to his original ideas and refreshing re­furbishments of genre set pieces, Ballingrud’s writ­ing makes North American Lake Monsters one of the best collections of short fiction for the year.” —Locus

“Ballingrud’s work isn't like any other. ...Ballingrud is an expert at teasing out every delicious shade and nuance, every fine gradation of misery and pain.” —Cory Doctorow on North American Lake Monsters