Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Dunnsmouth with Daryl Gregory

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Dunnsmouth, Massachusetts and our special guide is Daryl Gregory author of HARRISON SQUARED.

Dunnsmouth's Top Five Spooky Places

Harrison Squared is a Lovecraftian adventure set in the bleak fishing village of Dunnsmouth, Massachusetts. Monsters lurk in the caves beneath the town, and in the waters just offshore. In fact, just about every square inch of Dunnsmouth is creepy, but here are the highlights.

Dunnsmouth proper:
...is a severe disappointment to our hero, Harrison Harrison. He’s moved to this town with his mother, Rosa Harrison, so that she can pursue her quest to find the sea creature who drowned her husband and cost her son his right leg. But something strange is going on in town. Everyone seems to be in the same cult, and even worse (to Harrison) the cell coverage is negative bars. While Mom pursues her quest, Harrison has no choice but to go to school at...

...Dunnsmouth Secondary:
Once an ancient temple devoted to the worship of elder gods, it’s now a high school for the town’s youth. (Cutbacks are a bitch for everyone, even the denizens of horror novels.) The top floors seem to be typical classrooms, but the basement? All kinds of weird things are in the basement, including....

...the Scrimshander’s lair:
In caves below the school, the Scrimshander works his art. He's a legendary boogey-man, a seemingly immortal serial killer who inscribes his victims’ souls onto the bones of whales... and other mammals. Harrison’s mother has been captured by this inhuman beast, who works for the town cult. It’s Harrison's duty to rescue Rosa before her body becomes an empty husk suitable for sacrifice in...

...the  realm of the Dwellers:
This ancient race of fish-like humanoids live in the deep waters off Dunnsmouth bay. They worship an elder god called the Urgaleth—the “Mover Between Worlds.” Harrison already lost his father to Urgaleth, and soon he’ll lose his mother unless he finds her before the ritual takes place. Fortunately, Harrison has some allies, including Lub the Fish Boy, who lives in...

The Lighthouse:
To be more accurate, the ruins of Dunnsmouth’s old lighthouse. Lub, one of the Dwellers, has made the crumbling and abandoned tower his secret hideout on land. Lub is fascinated by humans, and this is where he keeps his collection of human pop cultural items: comic books, bicycles, pulp fiction... the flotsam of jetsam of human civilization. Lub, for example, is perhaps the greatest living fan of Aquaman, and Harrison can’t persuade him of the lameness of his devotion.

Thank you Daryl for giving us such a haunting tour of Dunnsmouth!  

To learn more about Daryl Gregory and his books, please visit his website.  You can add Harrison Squared here on Goodreads.

What did you think of Daryl Gregory's picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Temperance, Wyoming with Laura Bickle.  Next week we'll be traveling to Boston, Massachusetts with Nancy Holzner.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!