Cosmic Horror Monthly, Issue 8, February 2021 by Charles Tyra

Cosmic Horror Monthly, Issue 8, February 2021 Reviews

• 
  Steven Gernandt

  Let me preface by saying I had the free version so some stories were not featured in this review.
  
  Sanitize by P.L. McMillian
  
  Quiet horror that would hit home a little extra for anyone that has any level of fear of germs or infections. Has me remembering just how much hand sanitizer and washing of hands I have done this last year and a half with Covid 19. The mounting pressure on the main character's mental state is expertly applied as we progress from bad to worse by the story's end. Very unnerving and well executed.
  
  Nomad’s Land by Brenda Kezar
  Mongolian death worm, story laid out in letters back home, and an adventurer trying to just figure it all out. You had me at Mongolian death worm and if anyone reading this has not already heard it I recommend googling Norm Sherman and Mongolian death worm it is worth a listen. This story has a horror that creeps up on you. The tone of the letters is always optimistic but the details lead the reader down a different path at a pace befitting the size of the story.
  
  I Saw (poem) by Scott J. Couturier
  The saying about staring too long into the void feels like it applies here. Now imagine a skilled writer applying pen to paper after staring into that void.. That is what Couturier has done here.
  
  The Key to Grief by Robert W. Chambers
  Escape from a hanging, romance on an island and dark uncertainty all meet in Chamber’s tale. This one took me from a dismal seeming quick ending through feelings of hope and back again. Very well told, for me the ability to go from what felt like a dirty doomed existence to a seemingly meaningful happy state for our main character. It was a charming way to set up for the conclusion, that is all I can say except it is worth it.
  
• 
  Mike Dominic

  An enjoyably disturbing collection of stories this month...
  "Sanitize" does some interesting things with body horror and psychology.
  "Nomad's Land" is an interesting bit of epistolary world-building that has intriguing possibilities in cryptozoology.
  "Dead Sprint" hints at a new (or at least new to me) mythology that unfortunately does not get fleshed out enough in this story.
  "I Saw" is a poem, and the less said the better. There are people who like horror poetry; then there's me.
  "Visitor" is a quick read that hints at more horror than it shows. A literary attempt at "found footage" that is only partly successful.
  "The Key to Grief" is a welcome find in that I'd previously not read any Robert Chambers beyond The King in Yellow. It's a wonderfully strange tale that interestingly evokes another connection to Ambrose Bierce in Chambers's work. I'll leave it to the experienced reader to figure out how.
  
  Overall, I enjoyed this one as much as I always do...which is to say, as a casual Saturday morning read. Too often, the stories feel like sketches or unfinished drafts, but they always contain some interesting possibilities. The clear favorite among the new stories this time was "Sanitize", for being the most well-fleshed (heh!) story in the bunch, and for creating the most disturbing mental images.
  As always, I look forward to what the next issue has to bring.
• 
  Rachel

  Four stars for PLM's "Santize"! I really enjoyed "Nomad's Land" as well, a cool epistolary about a not often written about monster. The rest I didn't care for.