Crawl Space by Steve Toase is a novella published by JournalStone Press in March 2026. The author was kind enough to send me a copy, and I’ve be woefully negligent in posting a review!
Rachael and Ben are contractors hired for a very specialized archeological job, unearthing documents that their employer, the mysterious Durchsickern Institute, believes may be caught up in the remains of the old city-wide pneumatic mail system. While searching through various abandoned buildings, they make a series of odd and seemingly unrelated discoveries – a capsule with measurements larger than the tube they found it in that shouldn’t possibly be able to fit, and yet does; a capsule inexplicably containing a collection of mismatched human teeth, all from different individuals of different ages; and a capsule containing a knot of strange, aggressive worm-like creatures.
As they continue their search, Rachael increasingly feels like they’re being watched, suspecting the man who hired them is also spying on them. She watches a woman pull the teeth out of her gums one by one right in front her, and shortly afterward, Ben calls her from his hotel room, claiming someone attacked him and ripped out all his teeth. After a hospital stay, Ben is able to return to work, but Rachael catches him shoving dirt and plaster and brick dust into his mouth, saying cryptic things about “they are trying to return” and the “backstage remaining pure”, ultimately revealing to her that he removed his own teeth, a necessary sacrifice to access what he calls the Crawl Space – a kind of world between worlds made up mostly of trash.
The novella is highly atmospheric and visceral. Toase does a wonderful job with his descriptions of abandoned buildings, so much so that you can practically feel the gritty floors, the sweaty heat, and the grime clinging to your skin as you read. The imagery throughout the novella is striking and the fact that Rachael and Ben are urban archeologists unearthing artifacts from relatively recent history is a nice twist on the trope of a long-buried, ancient relic from a lost civilization unleashing unspeakable cosmic horrors. Similarly, that they are searching for documents in an old postal system also underscores the often mundane and banal nature of evil. It isn’t all sinister robes and chanting cults; evil is more likely to be lurking in corporate offices, reshaping the world to their liking behind the scenes through the power of their bank accounts.
The novella is well-paced, with the weirdness building slowly and steadily throughout. The imagery and setting continue to be highly effective once Rachael and Ben find themselves in the Crawl Space with its dampness, rot, and dust. It’s the kind of read that may leave you wanting a shower, but it a good way, and a refreshing take on the cosmic horror genre.
