Cthulhu's Car Park

I received this novella to judge for SFINCS. Opinion is my own, and does not represent that made by the team. I did also happen to purchase the audiobook, as I am super busy, and the narration was a nice plus.

This was an interesting mix of kind of slice-of-life styled mundane work and then urban fantasy-ish blended cosmic horror and action. A car park. Creepy lights and darkness. The car park workers. Discovering a cistern that’s slowly churning out multi-dimensional monsters. Oh and the monsters turn to sludge when they die, so no one will believe it.

The main character, Sam, is enjoyable and believable. Her experiences are so real and frustrating that I didn’t mind sitting in the booth with her while she worked. As a retail worker, I have experienced and heard some of these things myself, so it was spot on (sadly!).

I liked the idea of her recruiting the other car park employees to protect the place and stake out the cistern, however I did find the ending to come up a bit short. Both in the literal scale, and excitement. It wasn’t outright flat, it just felt as if it came and went, the action happening in one single little burst. It made the built up stakes not read as quite real.

Personally a 3.5/5*, I’d still recommend as I’m sure book 2 adds even more to it.