The Gods of Moab
Stephen Mark Rainey
Damned Rodan Publishing (June 23, 2024)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
Though this book is small, it is truly mighty and will have you on the edge of your seat all the way to the end. I blew through it twice and it still scared me just as much—that’s how deft Stephen Mark Rainey is with the written word.
The story takes place on New Year’s Eve. After a long car ride, Warren Burr, his girlfriend, Anne Delmar, and their friends Roger and Kristin Leverman arrive at a terrific restaurant that takes some doing to find, as hidden in the woods as it is. But the food is worth every wrong turn and when they are seated, a freakishly tall and forbidding giant of a man approaches their table to speak to them. He appears to be some sort of religious zealot, and the four dismiss him, with not a little rudeness, and do not allow him to say what he wanted to say.
This may have been a big mistake.
He leaves them alone but before he walks away, he places a small piece of metal covered with undecipherable symbols on their table. Warren slips it absently into his pocket after they examine it, and when they look up, the giant, who calls himself “John Hangar”, is gone. The name “Hanger” means “wood on a steep hillside.” It is an aptly chosen moniker. “John” means “God is gracious.” Well, you’ll have to judge for yourself on that one.
The next thing to go is all their electronics, followed by the physicality of the surrounding landscape. The friends have been moved into an alternate reality that is controlled by a powerful, but invisible entity.
Things get stranger and stranger as they pile into Warren’s SUV and try to return home. Terrifying entities now inhabit the woods and seem to be herding the four of them—but to where?
There is only one way to stop John Hanger’s world vision from spreading to the real outside world that the four came from.
Can it be done?
Mr. Rainey is an expert at crafting Lovecraftian horror, and The Gods of Moab is a prime example. His eldritch work is flawlessly executed and brilliantly disciplined so it does not go overboard into the ridiculous while retaining scare after scare. I would even go so far as to crown Stephen Mark Rainey as the modern-day Lovecraft.
You’ll want to grab yourself a copy of this novella.
6 out of 5 stars.
