THE CENTURY'S BEST HORROR FICTION #62: A review of "The Aquarium" by Carl Jacobi

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In his introduction to this piece, Pelan mentions wishing he could find a place for Jacobi in this volume, as he always seemed to be in the running for several years and was never quite good enough. Finally, 1962 opened up for him, but unfortunately, Jacobi’s entry fails to satisfy.



Emily Rhodes (hereafter referred to as Miss Rhodes in the story) is fed up with the smallness of her apartment, so she rents a house that comes with a conservatory (which she converts to a painter’s studio) and an odd aquarium. She invites her friend Edith to join her as a companion in this new house, and before long, they are living a quiet life of . . . well, nothing, really. Both are crept out by the aquarium and the previous owner, but they seem content to just ignore it.


A neighbor tells them that the man who installed the aquarium, which is filled with dank water and shells and supposedly nothing else, was a famous conchologist who had peculiar ideas about reality. For example, he believed there were creatures at the bottom of the ocean that could imitate its prey, and that they were controlled by, you guessed it, Cthulhu.


A kitten goes missing, but aside from that, nothing truly weird happens. In fact, nothing much happens at all in this story, up until the end. SPOILER ALERT: Edith starts sleepwalking, and Miss Rhodes notices that her destination is always the aquarium, which she stares at until woken up. But then, on the very last page, Edith is drawn to the aquarium, where she is partially eaten by a monster we never see. (There are, however, bloody footprints leading from the tank to the body, then back.)


Really? Is that the best you can do? Granted, the imagery at the end is pretty cool, but it makes no sense. This story is essentially a waste of time. There is no suspense, there is no intrigue, and the only horror to be found here is plain old ineffective. END OF SPOILERS.


It seems that Pelan lives at extremes. Either his choice is bad or un-fucking-believably good; there is no in between. Chalk up another for the former.


[This story first appeared in DARK MIND, DARK HEART and cannot be read online at this time.]