"The pair of novellas in Forbidden Knowledge constitute some of the most vibrant and chilling ventures into Lovecraftian fiction in recent decades."-S. T. Joshi
Two graduate students walk the winding road to madness, one in New England, the other New Zealand. Yet each suffers silently, facing grave danger when their curiosity gets the better of them. In two novellas, Tony LaMalfa has weaved a rich tapestry of Lovecraftian horror that evokes the shade of the Master himself.
"The Face on the Floor" explores the fate of the young Jonathan Danforth's tortured involvement with Andre Oswald, a fellow student at Miskatonic University whose quest to read the Necronomicon engulfs Danforth in a baffling web of horror and tragedy.
"If Only Skin Deep" takes us to New Zealand, where the young scholar Myriam Delacroix investigates the Māori tribe that seems to have anomalous relations with nameless entities from the sea. The revelation Myriam experiences at the end of an enigmatic ceremony is soul-shattering.
With this debut volume, Tony LaMalfa can take his place among the leading Lovecraftian writers of our time.