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A review by michaellouisdixon
Beneath the Salton Sea by Michael Paul Gonzalez
5.0
Beneath the Salton Sea is not my first experience with this story. I originally read elements of this story in How the Light Gets In, a short story originally published in the anthology Lost Signals, also by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. This story is the seed for the novel, and I was all on board for that, because I really loved the story. It’s an excellent Cosmic Horror story.
While this is truly a Horror story with a capital H, it’s not a viscerally gruesome tale, and yet there are some moments that made me cringe a bit from its graphic and grisly details. But for me, where this story really sinks its teeth in is its deep exploration of loss and abandonment. Keep in mind that not everyone who is abandoned is done so willingly, or through neglect. But again, this story explores more than one avenue of abandonment.
This is a Cosmic Horror story, AND it’s a Ghost story. Cosmic Horror relates to something so vastly beyond our limited ability to comprehend, and yet by our own very nature, our inquisitiveness sets us exploring the extreme edges of our known world and invariably puts us into conflict with the vast unknown. Here, at the Salton Sea, a possible past military experiment seems to have ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time. Unlike many Science Fiction stories, this is not a setup for an action/adventure, but instead it creates an alluring phenomenon which in turn becomes like some kind of cosmic trap.
Ghost stories are generally about a disembodied spirit haunting the living, and while that’s often depicted as the dead communicating, or as in Horror, tormenting the living, in Beneath the Salton Sea we have a different kind of haunting going on. Mysterious signals from the past, voices delivering cryptic messages, and communications from the missing and presumed dead. Those who’ve come in contact with the “crack in the sky”, or may even simply be close to someone who has, are forever haunted by these strange messages.
Even the location is conundrum of loss, abandonment, and haunting.
Michael Paul Gonzalez has written a truly poignant novel that is well worth reading. I highly recommend it. I will certainly be looking for more of his work to read.
While this is truly a Horror story with a capital H, it’s not a viscerally gruesome tale, and yet there are some moments that made me cringe a bit from its graphic and grisly details. But for me, where this story really sinks its teeth in is its deep exploration of loss and abandonment. Keep in mind that not everyone who is abandoned is done so willingly, or through neglect. But again, this story explores more than one avenue of abandonment.
This is a Cosmic Horror story, AND it’s a Ghost story. Cosmic Horror relates to something so vastly beyond our limited ability to comprehend, and yet by our own very nature, our inquisitiveness sets us exploring the extreme edges of our known world and invariably puts us into conflict with the vast unknown. Here, at the Salton Sea, a possible past military experiment seems to have ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time. Unlike many Science Fiction stories, this is not a setup for an action/adventure, but instead it creates an alluring phenomenon which in turn becomes like some kind of cosmic trap.
Ghost stories are generally about a disembodied spirit haunting the living, and while that’s often depicted as the dead communicating, or as in Horror, tormenting the living, in Beneath the Salton Sea we have a different kind of haunting going on. Mysterious signals from the past, voices delivering cryptic messages, and communications from the missing and presumed dead. Those who’ve come in contact with the “crack in the sky”, or may even simply be close to someone who has, are forever haunted by these strange messages.
Even the location is conundrum of loss, abandonment, and haunting.
Michael Paul Gonzalez has written a truly poignant novel that is well worth reading. I highly recommend it. I will certainly be looking for more of his work to read.