Book Review: Cult of the Spider Queen by S.A. Sidor
Welcome back, fellow cultists of curiosity!
Today’s literary adventure slithers into the tangled heart of the Amazon rainforest with Cult of the Spider Queen by S.A. Sidor. A standalone entry in the Arkham Horror fiction line, promising a deliciously pulpy descent into obsession, cosmic horror, and creeping dread. This one’s for the adventurers, the explorers, and the dreamers… but also for the doom-struck investigators who know precisely how that usually ends in the Mythos.
Initial Thoughts:
Before I crack open the book itself, let’s address the elephant-sized arachnid in the room: this is not a Lovecraft-penned tale. It draws from the expanded Mythos, particularly the rich storytelling sandbox that is the Arkham Horror universe. So don’t expect stilted New England towns and unpronounceable fish gods. Instead, think: 1930s jungle-pulp cinema meets eldritch doom, with a script that feels half-Indiana Jones, half-At the Mountains of Madness.
And I was all in for it, especially as I got to enjoy it at a cottage retreat surrounded by weedy lakes and buggy trees.
Arkham Advertiser reporter Andy van Nortwick is going nowhere fast, until a mysterious film reel arrives, hinting that famous silent film star Maude Brion, missing for a year in the Amazon, may still be alive. Smelling a scoop (and a chance at his big break), Andy finagles funds and builds a team to find her. That team includes the no-nonsense explorer Ursula Downs (yes, that Ursula Downs from the card game!), her wary partner Jake Williams, and the enigmatic anthropologist Iris Bennett Reed, whose missing husband may have been the Spider Queen’s first offering.
What follows is a descent into a jungle that seems to bend time, warp minds, and weave its victims into something wholly unnatural. At its core, Cult of the Spider Queen is a story about obsession and ambition. Each character is chasing something, be it fame, knowledge, revenge, or glory and the jungle, like any proper eldritch location, knows it. The further in they go, the more the line blurs between expedition and fever dream. Sidor does a fantastic job of capturing that slow unravelling. The rainforest becomes a character of its own: suffocating, hypnotic, and wrong. The novel nails that signature Mythos feeling: the creeping suspicion that nothing is real anymore, that time and logic have stopped playing fair.
Highlights:
Ursula Downs is a standout. Calm, fearless, and ready to shoot first. Fans of the board game will love seeing her in action.
Cinematic vibes abound. The narrative feels like a lost black-and-white adventure serial that got spliced with something blasphemous halfway through.
Sidor’s prose balances pulp action with Mythos menace, a tricky line to walk, but he pulls it off with flair.
Nitpicks:
The supporting crew could’ve used a bit more depth. Some are best described as Red shirts.
The final act leans hard into cosmic surrealism, which might be disorienting for readers expecting a more grounded pulp adventure.
Arachnophobes: you’ve been warned. This book doesn’t just have spiders; it worships them.
Final Verdict:
Creepy, fast-paced, and dripping with the humidity of madness, Cult of the Spider Queen is a stellar addition to the Arkham Horror mythos. It brings something fresh to the table, without losing that delicious taste of dread that Mythos fans crave. If you like your horror weird, your heroes flawed, and your endings ambiguous, then be sure to add this to your TBR list.
Recommended for:
| Fans of the Arkham Horror universe
| Pulp adventure lovers
| Spider cultists (you know who you are)
Stay weird, stay curious, and beware mysterious film reels arriving in the mail…
Until next time,
Peps
