A fishing village with the feel of medieval times almost, because women don’t really matter. This is a world where men are still in charge. An excellent backdrop for a horror story leaving you soaked with dirty, bloody, smelly sea water.
“Lure,” from Tim McGregor is a story consisting of the worshipped bones of a God to a forsaken fishing village in a far-off place that hasn’t ventured into today’s world quite yet. We’ll try to keep the puns to a minimum.
Now I will be 100% transparent with you. I’ve never found myself a big fan of water horror. I can take or leave Jaws, or The Meg. And I’m not sure why. It just never appealed to me. Which made it that much odder how enthralled I was with this book.
First off, Tim McGregor can write. Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Secondly, I could be wrong, but the dude had to have done some major research. I would think so just from the language used, and the terminology. Now I know any good writer is going to do a little research to get things right. And I don’t know a lot about Tim, maybe he’s a fisherman, but this seems like an in-depth informative piece on how fishing villages run.
The world building is tremendously comprehensive to the point you will feel like a resident of this village, which you will quickly find your place in an overly politicized environment. The preacher of this village, Uriah and his family are essentially beggars, relying heavily on kindness they may receive from the village people. You can’t help but to compare it to the organized religions still occurring today with their hands out, but we won’t make this discussion about religious hypocrisies.
We see poverty in this village. And we see women looked at as second-rate citizens. We see people un-evolved, choosing to worship the bones of a former god rather than expand their lifestyle. Then we see a threat to the village. At least a creature looked at as a threat to the village. This isn’t the Little Mermaid. And initially the creature isn’t a threat, but once the menfolk of this village realize it’s a female, their one and only plan is to hunt her down.
McGregor weaves us in and out of this dark depressing world of a dirty sea and a creature that gets pissed off, unleashing her fury. The dumb idiotic thinking of the men in this village may have just spelled doom for everyone involved.
I get the feeling McGregor is messing with us, toying with us a little. Maybe he is trying to tell us something. Because the play on politics and religion and how they mix, and clash, is pretty clear and unmistakable.
Or maybe he just wanted to write a bloody story where a Mermaid, or a “Luremaid” seeks revenge. I somehow don’t think Disney will be fighting over the rights to this one to make a new animated movie.
This one gets you involved, there is a lot packed into this short novella, hundred pages or so. A quick read, a few tongue-in-cheek moments. Plenty of blood and gore, and I’m sure there is a message within. You may get a message out of it. Maybe a moral.
Lure from Tim McGregor is extremely well put together, bringing plenty of terrifying blood-soaked moments, mixed with a little bit of a coming-of-age subplot. It can be looked at as a folkloric nature story, where nature is possibly taking revenge against those who may have disturbed it. It will make you think twice before getting into the water. And it may make you wonder what exactly is out there in the water.
Title: Lure
Author: Tim McGregor
Publisher: Tenebrous Press
Publication Date: July 4, 2022
Pages: 130
Language: English
Format Reviewed: Paperback
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