Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Before there was Urban Fantasy... there was 1978's Fritz Leiber writing Urban Fantasy. :)

Strangely enough, I was very engaged with certain parts of this novel, how it set itself up as a horror within a horror, a horror writer going through a dark patch that then leads him into a very STRANGE patch where ideas intersect with an almost Lovecraftian (or Clark Ashton Smith-ian) becomes a novel of investigation and eldritch (idea) horror.

Just why did all those old friends, the horror triumvirate (and associated) back in the '20s and '30s, die early or suicide?

There's lots of great literary name dropping and history packed in this novel. And more than that, there is a lot of great collective unconsciousness meets virus meets memes action going on here... ESPECIALLY for the time this novel came out. I'm reminded of some of my favorite modern UFs that play with geek fandom or bibliomancy or the like, but the style is very much a mix between a noir mystery (with drug use) and a simmering 70's horror novel.

In other words... it doesn't quite FIT with the modern view of novels. :)

And for me? I love how strange it is. It might not be the strangest novel ever, but it definitely got under my skin. :)

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