Steve Stred's Reviews > The Croning

I’ve been honored and fortunate to forge an acquaintance with Laird Barron, and I’m certain that if not for geographical restrictions, a true friendship would arrive between the two of us. I’ll never know truly the how, but randomly one day, early on over on Twitter, I had a notification and it said Laird Barron was now following you. I’ll admit – my consumption of Laird’s work has been shamefully minor, only a few short stories here and there – and because of that, I wasn’t fully aware of how monumentally impactful and inspirational Laird is within the horror world. It was through reading this novel that I was introduced to his mythology, the Old Leech and the Limbless Ones and the Children of Old Leech. I was so involved in what he was creating within the pages of ‘The Croning’ that I had to Google it and see if it was based on anything within history, but only discovered this was completely his doing.

If you’re a fan of cosmic horror and phenomenal mythology, look no further.

What I liked: The book opens with a retelling of a very famous fairy tale, which at first I was a bit confused by, but once you get through the entirety of the novel, it made total sense.

After that introduction, the novel focuses on Don, husband to Michelle and father to twins. We soon begin to see that his wife is an ‘odd duck’ in the sense that she is from an well-to-do family and her scientific studies fall into the ‘conspiracy theory’ realm of Hollow Earth and Hidden Little People.

But, as Don’s story soon unravels and we learn more and more about his experiences, we soon begin to see that maybe there is something to Michelle’s pursuits.

The final quarter of this novel is a sprint. The first three quarters is a slow-burn, chess match set up getting the pieces in place. All specifically to get us to the point of Don being sent to a strange geological discovery and all the chess moves have efficiently gotten you to the starting line for the 100m sprint at the Olympic Games. Because, when Don arrives, everything goes off the rails and Barron has the readers wrapped in the chaotic palm of his hand.

The ending is fantastic and took all the clues given earlier and like domino’s, knocks them down, one at a time. We get all the gooey bits with all the historical high notes that were needed and it’s once again brought back around to the fairy tale beginning.

What I didn’t like: I’ll admit, there were times were I contemplated DNFing this one. There are some very slow, dry and sluggish moments in the first half. As it begins to really unravel, it makes sense, but when something happens and we get pretty much zero answers at that time – looking at you Mexican trip – it becomes frustrating. Barron makes sure to tease enough to keep those devoted following along, but I fear those moments may be enough to cause some folks to tap.

Why you should buy this: Between his short stories and this novel, Barron has already created a legion of fans and a mythos that is extensive and utterly, fucking captivating. Old Leech and all around it have hooked into my brain and I’ll want to be exploring much more of his work surrounding it.

If you’ve not read any Barron yet, this one starts slow, but takes off and never comes down from there. It really ends with some of the most engrossing and unnerving moments you’ll ever read.