House of Mystery, Volume 1 by Matthew Sturges

Things come to a grinding and convoluted halt with 'The Beauty of Decay,' the fourth volume in the HOUSE OF MYSTERY's latest mythology. And I hate the fact that I am so clueless about what's going on here. I would like to hold out and see where things go with this series, especially with the Constantine connection. I feel that things are getting even more difficult to understand (instead of the opposite) and the subject matter is really quite unpalatable. I really do think I have an issue with a lack of clarity in the concept. I'm trying to figure out what is inhibiting my enjoyment of this series. I do like some of the characters, like Fig and Harry and Pirate Mary, but this is one of those series where you never know if someone is going to get killed off soon, so better not to get too attached to anyone. I guess there is some dark humor in the fact that Cain continually kills Abel (who then resurrects), but I am not a huge fan of that plot device. I'm not loving the overlying thread of the Conception and Cain. The poet, Eduard's backstory, not sure how I feel about it. The Constantine story was interesting but sad. I despise cockroaches and I found the tale from the viewpoint of a cockroach utterly disgusting.

I just wasn't that fond of the stories, except I did kind of like the one written by Bill Willingham about a man trapped in a castle with the last surviving servant and the creatures who are stalking them. I really like the idea of stories within stories, which is a prominent feature of this book. I think I will continue to read it, but it might be too dark and twisted and it's definitely somewhat incomprehensible to me.

The short stories really stood out though and they will be the main motivation for my reading more of this series. Thus overall the 'main' plot was one I didn't have much invested in.

There are also some short stories in the Annual included. Spellbound was an interesting tale about a cursed book. House and Home will appeal to any fan of Gaiman's Sandman since it features Cain as its main piece. I'm always down for originality and this is certainly a fresh idea. The Tale of Brutus the Bold was rather creative since it tells the story of a brave cockroach.

Germain was also entertaining with some fine prose thrown into the mix. But some of the short stories are really different. The overall plot of the people trapped in a different plane of existence I didn't really care for. Still as this is a pastiche of short stories inside the arc of a larger plot (not bad-rather clever in fact) it didn't seem to make much difference. Not being clearly labeled, I did not realize this was the 4th volume.

House of Mystery, Volume 1 by Matthew Sturges