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Title: Dedication of the High Priestess
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #10
Author: Ephraim Unger
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror / Short Story
Pages: 33
Words: 10K
This was a short story that the author was kind enough to give me a free copy of. It would have fit into a KIY anthology just fine but since that probably won’t be happening anytime soon, I figured I’d take a stab at a standalone short story. While I enjoyed this in expanding the King in Yellow lore, there were a couple of things that dragged this down to the two star level for me.
The biggest issue was that the main character was 12 years old and has visions of being embraced by the King in Yellow. While cosmic horror should be disturbing, I felt like this crossed into territory that I wasn’t comfortable with. At all.
The second issue was a more technical issue. The story was written in the first person perspective and there was a lot of “he did, she wore, they said”. While some of that is inherent to that perspective, there are ways to mitigate sounding like a sports announcer at a tennis match.
I really wanted to like this more and give it a higher rating. But it is what it is. I do give props for that cover though. Ohhhhh, that is some good art right there.
★★☆☆☆
From Bookstooge.blog
A 12 year old ballerina is drawn into the world of the King in Yellow and becomes his high priestess. She brings him into our world and ushers in a new age of cosmic horror.
