The Neon Gospel, reviewed by Hexillith

[Editor's note: This review was written externally and copied to the Mythos Review by its author.]

The Neon Gospel is a blogpasta written by Apostate, and can be read here. Its main Fear is the Dying Man.

This is a polished and well-written piece chock full of body horror. The protagonist, Hector, is a bitter young adult who resolves to “get busy living or get busy dying” after witnessing his grandfather’s death to cancer. Well, not exactly – those tumors were actually caused by a Dying Man shard by the name of Capricorn, who’s now possessing Hector. This manifests first in what Hector thinks is somnambulism, but soon he’s missing time and finding himself in strange places with no clue how he got there, and the same kinds of tumors he saw on his grandfather are appearing in his own body.

I think The Neon Gospel’s greatest strength lies in its strong plot and smooth storytelling. In reading it one gets the impression that the author knew exactly where the story was going to go and what needed to be done to get it there, resulting in nearly seamless flow. It also has that sense of creeping dread which is so important in the horror genre, and has it in spades. My only complaint is that a few details seemed vague or unclear. For example, Capricorn claims that Hector ‘let him in,’ but there’s nothing in the account of his grandfather’s death that would suggest that. This is, admittedly, probably not something that most people would notice or care about on a casual read-through (and I apologize sincerely if I missed something).

This is an excellent blogpasta and certainly makes my list of favorites. I would very much like to see more of Capricorn, although The Neon Gospel shines on its own.