Cosmovorous

by R.C. Hausen

The year is 1993. Esmeralda has been living on the fringes of society for as long as she can remember. Until an incident unlocks a cache of nightmarish memories. Visions of a bizarre town in the desert, shadowy recollections of a mysterious woman, the pain of an ultimate betrayal, and the shame of a bargain made in blood. Now, she must confront a twisted world where abominations indulge in sadistic pleasures. There, she will learn the secrets of the ravenous cosmos. Come see. The debut Cosmic Horror novel from R.C. Hausen takes you on a journey into the darkness that surrounds us all.

Genres: Horror, Lovecraftian

286 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2021

Reviews

[Danger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovecraft meets Barker in a southern-fried punk rock nightmare. The prose here is delicious. The imagery is (quite literally) out of this world. What a hidden gem this book is.

[Corrina Morse · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, this is RC Hausen's debut novel!! DEBUT!!!!! This does not read like a debut at all, it's absolutely fantastic! It's gone straight into my top 5 for this year! This book was SO good!! There aren't many books I put down because I don't want them to end, because I want to prolong the enjoyment as long as possible, but this was absolutely one of them!

If you're a fan of cosmic horror you will love this, if you're not a fan of cosmic horror, you probably soon will be!

Working in a bar, Esmerelda starts to remember her darker days, through flashbacks and visions.
She is drugged one night after closing and on the way home sees a familiar homeless woman and more unsettling hallucinations occur, causing uncomfortable memories to niggle at the back of her mind. Her past is literally coming back to haunt her, and she rediscovers who she is. Only, that's not always a good thing, and there are always people close to you who inadvertently become involved.

I loved the vibe of this book from the start, it was dark, ethereal, eerie, and mysterious. It reads like a horrifyingly bad trip! The baddest trip! But in the best possible way! Utterly chilling and completely mind bending!
The story builds steadily, and enticingly, to a mind shattering crescendo!

I also really enjoyed Hausen's writing style, detailed narrative, striking imagery, shocking moments, and even a jump scare or two. I felt the chitinous claws scurrying in my brain. It was moving, emotional, horrific, terrifying and it totally blew me away.

This book most definitely needs a sequel, and to see this on the big screen would be a fantastic experience! Someone get on to Netflix!!
"COME SEE!"

[Ellie Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

~About

The story opens on Halloween night. After a series of shady events, bar worker Esmeralda begins to hallucinate a variety of unnerving things. Disembodied voices implore her to ‘come see,’ although what they’re tempting her toward is not initially clarified. Although these hallucinations are revealed to be common for Esmeralda, they get progressively worse over time.

After trying to score some drugs to numb the voices and visions, Esmeralda witnesses something horrific. In addition, while escaping her dealer’s home, she finds a mysterious vhs tape on her car’s backseat, a tape depicting some horrible scenes from her past.

Finding herself followed by the disembodied voices, Esmeralda and best friend Cleo flee the city but end up drifting closer to the horrors that await. However, it isn’t only external dangers they face: for Esmeralda, the biggest danger lurks within.


~Characters

Esmeralda, a bar worker tormented by her past, makes for an interesting and sympathetic protagonist. She possesses an inner voice which torments her over ‘dark things’ she’s done, a voice which she often tries to drown out with cocaine. Her past is rife with risk and danger, having also spent some time in a juvenile correctional facility. Such a troubled former life has led to her being tough and highly capable, taking care of herself and others even in perilous circumstances. As such, Esmeralda was a highly likable character, who I hoped would succeed in her personal journey.

Cleo, Esmeralda’s best friend and fellow bar worker, provided a somewhat softer contrast to our leading lady. Cleo was a highly supportive and caring friend, who willingly followed Esmeralda into the jaws of metaphorical hell, just so her friend wouldn’t have to go the journey alone. In addition, Cleo’s great sense of humour provided brief respites from the more tense and heart-pumping scenes which filled the story.

Finally, the overarching villain of the piece, Dresda, took the form of a human woman who Esmeralda had once been romantically involved with. She embodies the cruel and unusually seductive nature of an intelligent species which seeks to merge with humanity and overthrow them in a glorious bout of chaos. Throughout the book, there were many examples of the atrocities such a species was willing to commit, chief among them being murder and sick sexual pleasures involving humans. Dresda (and all she symbolized) was easy to hate as she turned her back on everything it means to be human.


~Positive Aspects

There were many positive features to Cosmovorous and as such, I have listed my favourites below.

-The first person present tense allows for a sense of immediacy and intimacy with our main character. We become privy to Esmeralda’s every thought and to her unique way of seeing the world. This, interspersed with third person flashbacks, allows the reader to get both a closer look at who Esmeralda is, and also provides a certain amount of distance between Esmeralda and the events of her past.

-The author has a gift for imagery, using a particular selection of words to create an almost lyrical style of prose. Scenes are vivid and dark, allowing the reader to imagine what is unfolding before them with the utmost of ease. Furthermore, the sensory description provided made me feel everything, from the texture of a place or clothing, to the smell and sensation of locations, people, and things. All were vivid and realistic, with dark and threatening undertones.

-The tension of the story escalated well, increasing gradually at all the key points, in order to set my heart thumping in anticipation.

-I particularly liked how the chapters were, for the most part, short and sweet as this made it easier to digest each chapter’s worth of information. Seeing as there were a lot of tense scenes with vivid acts of violence, having frequent chapter breaks was handy for me in order to process everything I’d read, including the intense emotions the story provoked in me.

-I liked how the story moved between Esmeralda’s present circumstances and her traumatic past as this provided added context to the present situation.

I couldn’t identify anything negative about this book. I loved every moment.


~Memorable Quotes

While reading Cosmovorous, I identified four quotes which left me thinking.

1) ‘Sometimes if you don’t have people to help you back up when you fall, you can get trampled on.’
2) ‘That’s the thing about shame. It follows you wherever you go. A loyal companion and a constant reminder.’

3) ‘When you’re angry and sad, there isn’t anything that will make you not be, except time.’
4) ‘At their core, all humans are fighters: it just takes the right circumstance, some pressing urgency or desperation, to awaken the instinct.’


~Overview

Overall, I found Cosmovorous to be a gripping and addictive horror story, which had a unique premise and memorable characters. Themes included destruction, friendship, and survival.

If you’re searching for an ideal post-Halloween read, then I feel this would be perfect.

My Rating: 5 stars.
Recommended to: Those aged 18 or over, who enjoy well-crafted and grotesque horror stories.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wheee!

This story starts out with us following a young woman living a transient lifestyle, trying to get back into the swing of things. After getting out of a juvenile prison, she's in search of any job that will take her, so we are thrown into a rock and roll world at a live club in Austin. All that set up has its charm as she's trying to get by, but then this book escalates pretty rapidly to a much wilder storyline.

This book is bonkers fun. It leans into weird fiction, and doesn't shy away from gory horror. It was packed with surprises. None of this book went in any direction that I was expecting. It certainly is weird and pulpy and while there weren’t tentacled monsters there are a lot of cosmic arthropod appendages.

Hausen has a acid-laced florid style, with frequent big mood sentences, presented with an extensive vocabulary. The writing is a bit over-the-top, steeped in throwbacks to noir descriptions, but I found his style quite endearing even if I did giggle at it from time to time.

Ultimately, the book benefits from his style and the writing is so punchy that it doesn’t feel like purple prose. There are so many psychedelic freak-outs in this, that his off-the-chain tangents meshed seamlessly as reality started to blur.

The plot chops along quickly from new reveal to new reveal. I just couldn't put the book down. It helps that he's as big of a fan of short punctuated chapters as I am.

It really was a rollicking good time. Sure, it was a bit ridiculous, but I am totally on board with anything else this guy does. I feel like if you are looking for a trippier David Sodergren you should really check this out.

[RoseDevoursBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

Okay Cosmic horror fans, do I have the book for you! It’s centipede Horror like you’ve never seen before. If Clive Barker and Lovecraft had a baby, it would be Cosmovorous.

The writing is phenomenal! It’s beautiful and poetic even when describing the most horrific things. It’s heavily centered on creating a disorienting atmosphere that makes the reader wonder what’s real and what’s not. Pair this with a main character who suffers from dark hallucinations and you’re in for a ride that’s surreal and full of dark imagery of mutations and insectoid faces that result in a massive Arthropod nightmare! I loved Esmeralda who was a badass of a female protagonist and I especially enjoyed the relationship she formed with her love interest Chloe. Together they went through hell and back uncovering secrets from Esmeraldas past and fighting off hostile parasites.

My only gripe is how oversaturated the novel is with similes when describing something in detail. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the lyrical writing style but at times I feel like it affected the pacing of the novel and certain descriptions could have been cut down to keep the momentum of the story going. The ending also felt a bit rushed and lacking but I still very much enjoyed this debut novel and will recommend it to horror lovers seeking a nightmare fueled novel writhing with worms. Come see…

Many thanks to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Celso Hurtado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book is like being dropped into the middle of a hallucinogenic nightmare. And I mean that in the best possible way. Cosmovorous follows Esmeralda, who has a mysterious past that is slowly revealed over the course of the book. She sees mind-bending scenes throughout the novel, and embarks on a journey to discover the truth about what happened to her. Hausen has a gift for vivid imagery, especially when describing horrific things. His character work is top notch as well. Esmeralda genuinely feels like a person who has had a rough life, and you're rooting for her the entire way. Cosmovorous is a fantastic entry in the cosmic horror genre. Highly recommend.

[C.S. S Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, where to start? I won this book in a giveaway & Mr Hausen was kind enough to ship it to me, even though I'm in another country. Such a kind act requires I commit to a review & what's more, that I commit to an HONEST review. So here it is...
I was blown away. It was the perfect story for me, melding so many things I look for in a novel. I got through it in a matter of days & have already ordered the audible to listen to on my work travels.
Imagine if Clive Barker had written Jacob's Ladder after binging all the Silent Hill games at once, then sneezed & dropped the manuscript into a blender with HP Lovecraft's more darker works. An overly ridiculous analogy, I know. But that was how it felt.
But to use the "It's like" statement does him a disservice. He owns this. Twisting & shaping it into something pretty special and makes it his malevolent own. Now I can't wait to see what's next. (This is his first novel as well. Read it & you'll realise just how crazy such a statement sounds!)

[Zachary Ashford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this easiest way to describe this is by saying 'if you like Phantasm's style of cosmic road-horror, you're going to love this.' I had a blast with it.

It's creepy as hell. It's written beautifully. Cosmic horror done right.

Great stuff.

[Kendra Hukill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm honestly stunned this is a debut indie novel, it reads like it was written by a seasoned author. R. C. Hausen writes with such vivid detail I felt completly immersed in the story from the very beginning. A must read for anyone that loves cosmic horror.

[Ryan Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cosmovorous is R.C. Hausen's debut, but you wouldn't guess it. He writes with an assured voice, and when he gets into the horror, his writing pops off the page. The novel is terrifying.

[Michael Louis Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this story! Give me the apocalypse from cosmic horrors beyond our comprehension, and give it to me steeped in bleakness.
I highly recommend this book.

[Jedi Lykins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook cosmic horror. With the flair of a seasoned story teller, Hausen bursts on the scene with a first novel ripe with intrigue and gravitas. Cosmovorous is a masterclass in the genre, developing a compelling story with grounded characters. The twist is is unexpected, yet fluid, and the stakes are high. The only reason I gave it four stars is that sometimes the dialogue seems a little high brow for the characters in question. other than that, this is a phenomenal story, and I am eagerly awaiting what comes next from this author.