Book Review: The Dreaming of Man by Nikoline Kaiser
Genre: Gothic Weird
Age: Adult
I was intrigued by the premise of this one, as the crown detail on the cover put me in mind of Macbeth, and there were Shakespeare references scattered throughout, like breadcrumbs. I was fully on board with it being a Shadow Over Innsmouth story, as I enjoy reading different takes on this, but I was pleasantly surprised to find there were additional elements as well. It is not set in any specific place or time, but it is certainly nineteenth-century or turn-of-the-twentieth-century coded, and with the Lovecraft associations, somewhere on the East Coast of the USA is implied.
Our main character, Dr. Lawrence Cooper, is a medical man who learns of his friend Henry’s death, and is drawn to the little coastal town of Osmund where Henry served as the doctor. Lawrence meets Josephine, a mixed heritage girl who works at the pub. He immediately recognises her as the daughter of someone he once knew and cared for.
Josephine is one of the reasons he remains in Osmund, but he’s also called upon to disinter Henry’s body (discovering it to be in a very fishy condition…) and to preside over the caesarean section of a local woman in labour, whose ill-fated infant comes out looking like it belongs in an aquarium. Naturally, at this point, Lawrence is disturbed.
What is going on in Osmund?
Well, there is a conspiracy afoot, and certain prophecies to fulfil, which come with cryptic Shakespearean conditions. Lawrence’s gender identity is central to this, as is his relationship with Josephine, and while these can easily be guessed at, I won’t state them here for spoiler reasons. I will say to check content warnings, and mention that there is some transphobia towards the end (expressed by the villain of the piece).
All in all, this is a quick read, dripping with atmospheric slime and oozing mystery. I did enjoy exploring the town and meeting its denizens through Lawrence, who is good company for the book’s duration. His floundering about with the clues he is given is more amusing than annoying, and certainly not as frustrating to me as it was to the villain, whose big reveal includes a very funny harangue about how slow Lawrence has been to pick up on everything he was supposed to, in order to play into the villain’s hands earlier.
The Shakespearean references do come into play, and they make everything make more sense at the end, so it’s worth sticking around for that thread to tie up.
This plays with common Weird Fiction tropes more than Gothic ones, I would say, but the line is very blurred as the Gothic is the parent to the Weird child in terms of genre, and this novella certainly counts as a Gothic Horror, too.
Overall, I thought this was a solid novella with good pacing, and a decent entry into the mythos-adjacent world of queer Weird Horror. I believe it is only currently available as an eBook, but I would recommend ordering through a library subscription service, or purchasing a copy where available.
If you’re after a film chaser to this novella, and you want to stick with Lovecraftian shenanigans, moody atmosphere, and LGBTQ+ representation, I would recommend Cthulhu(2007) dir. Dan Gildark. Content warnings for male rape and gay tragedy. Like The Dreaming of Man, this one has a scholarly, gay protagonist drawn to a coastal town after receiving news of a death and uncovering a conspiracy within it. Unlike The Dreaming of Man, it gets very dark and has a much more tragic outcome. I have seen a large range of Lovecraftian horror films in my time, and this is still one of the better low-budget films out there based on this particular Lovecraft story. The director has put the full movie up on his YouTube channel, where it can be watched for free. It can also be streamed (check JustWatch for services) and/or purchased on DVD.
Purchase at Neon Hemlock Publishing / Bookshop.org / Kobo / Amazon UK / Waterstones
Review by C.M. Rosens
Bluesky: @cmrosens.com
Instagram, Threads, TikTok: @cm.rosens
I received a complimentary eBook copy from the publisher, Neon Hemlock, when they put forward the author, Nikoline Kaiser, as a candidate for the Author Spotlight series on cmrosens.com.
