The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky: A Novella of Cosmic Horror

A young professor at a university is pulled into an unexpected mystery by her casual friendship with a one-eyed poet of legend. When he asks her to look after his home while he’s away, she uncovers a sinister manuscript, one that tells of government conspiracies, literary texts with gruesome powers, and the dangers that come with a writer’s curiosity.

The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky feels like an update of Lovecraft’s more grounded tales, but it ditches New England’s shores for a more vibrant and intriguing locale: Spain. This shift offers all sorts of new opportunities for characterization, historical backdrop, and horror, and Jacobs makes the most of all three.

The world feels lived in, complete, unlike Lovecraft’s stories that often feel disconnected from the world in general. And although this “cosmic horror” novella is less about cosmic horror and more about the very human horrors we unleash upon each other, the aura of the book remains quite unsettling. You cannot trust this world — not on the road, not in the pages of a book, and not in the offices of government. Hell, you can’t even trust it in your local cafe.

That’s the kind of horror with the potential to crawl inside your head and take up residence.