Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
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Synopsis
Laird Barron has emerged as one of the strongest voices in modern horror and dark fantasy fiction, building on the eldritch tradition pioneered by writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner of the Shirley Jackson Award. He returns with his second collection, Occultation. Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occulation’s nine tales of terror (two published here for the first time) were nominated for just as many Shirley Jackson awards, winning for the novella “Mysterium Tremendum” and the collection as a whole. Featuring an introduction by Michael Shea, Occultation brings more of the spine-chillingly sublime cosmic horror Laird Barron’s fans have come to expect. -- Amazon Description
Occultation: content & age rating
Intended for adult readers (18+).
This collection features intense cosmic horror with graphic violence, body horror, disturbing imagery, and psychological terror that explores humanity's insignificance against chaotic cosmic forces. Content includes strong language and some mature sexual content.
What to know going in
This book has graphic violence, moderate sexual content, and strong language. Content notes include graphic violence, gore, and death (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Adult readers who appreciate Lovecraftian cosmic horror will be drawn to these psychologically intense tales of ordinary people confronting incomprehensible terrors.