THE DREAD THEY LEFT BEHIND -- chapter one
"Gary Fry engages the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft to tell the story of a family’s descent from middle-class comfort to a state utterly horrifying. In the process, Fry evokes such stories as “The Colour Out of Space” and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward . This is no pastiche, however, as Fry employs Lovecraftian tropes and conceits in order to dramatize his characters’ slide into confusion physical, temporal, linguistic, and ultimately moral. What results is a Lovecraftian narrative whose political implications are trenchant and timely. Fry paints with a full palette of emotions: there is horror of the most ghastly sort, but there is also regret, and even guilt. Like Ramsey Campbell before him, Gary Fry demonstrates the continuing strength of the Lovecraftian lineage, to which “The Dread They Left Behind” is a fine addition.” – John Langan 1 After navigating the motorways from London, I’d found myself in no rush to reach my native town, and had taken the lo...