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ed_moore's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
The Call of Cthulhu: 1.75 Stars
For an iconic horror story that has inspired so much, and the most famous work of the man who coined the term ‘Lovecraftian’, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ was extremely lacking. The narrative perspective was perhaps the greatest flaw, this being in the first person view of Thurston, however all the “action” happens only through him reading his great uncle Angell’s manuscripts and hearing recounts, in some cases recounts of recounts and then main terrifying plot element occurred within a dream of a character who is interviewed within the manuscript, placing the reader about 3 people away from any engaging events and hence nullifying any response or connection to the story. It all reads like a bland recount, and opens with an overly dramatic, almost non-fiction in tone analysis of the idea of occult which also removed any believability from the story. There is so much without explanation, the figure of ‘Cthulhu’ is very limited in appearance and not a major threat (though the cult of Cthulhu seem to be framed as the main antagonists, even still they have little fear factor and are easily subdued), and the present plot line was extremely mundane. The writing was entirely uninspiring and not to mention Lovecraft makes many racist remarks and insinuations which do absolutely nothing to help his case, just making an already weak story extremely problematic. The most unsettled I was reading this was when random classical music blurted out between chapters in my audiobook which caught me completely off guard, which is zero credit to Lovecraft’s writing.
The Dulwich Horror: 1.25 Stars
The Dulwich Horror tells of Wilbur Whateley, a boy who ages at an abnormal rate who is harbouring and summoning an entity to terrorise the town of Dulwich. This was written so poorly, it was difficult to follow, unbelievably mundane, the horror wasn’t at all threatening and the characters depicted as ‘outsiders’ and hence played the roles of the worshippers of the satanic were so heavily racialised and written in such an offensive manner. The story was so mundane and the ending came to such a swift conclusion with far too much ease in comparison to the threat that Lovecraft created.
Dagon: 2.75 Stars
This was the shortest of the three stories in the collection by a significant margin and largely benefitted from such, there was no room for Lovecraft to make a threatening entity seem extremely mundane, allowed for more individual imagination by the reader, and had little space to weave in any racist remarks. Dagon is the encounter of the speaker with a huge fish entity, that encapsulates the idea of the Lovercraftain megalophobia far better than ‘Call of Cthulhu’, ultimately Dagon is a suicide note, this encounter driving the speaker into madness, and therefore the story has enough mystery but unlike the other two resolves in at least some manner. That being said, it was still noting remarkable.
My total rating of Lovecraft’s stories is an average of each individual review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Racism and Gore
waffel07's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
baumkuchenend's review
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
singinwicked's review against another edition
Keep picking it up and putting it down since it's short stories
cllorento's review against another edition
There are too many incredible books by incredible authors out there to read for me to waste my time finishing this mediocre book by a literal white supremacist. Also it was really boring.
book_concierge's review against another edition
2.0
Of course, I’ve heard of H P Lovecraft for years, but I’d never bothered to read anything by him. Just not my genre of choice. But I happened to have this in the house, courtesy of Penguin Random House (the publisher gifted me a set of their new “orange” Penguin Classics a few years ago), and it carries the “science fiction” tag so it fit a challenge.
First, these stories are mostly NOT science fiction, although one, dealing with aliens removing the brains of humans but keeping the bodies and brains both alive separately probably would qualify. Mostly this collection is one of horror stories originally published in magazines.
Second, as horror stories, I didn’t find them all that horrifying. Although, I can imagine that an audience in the early part of the 20th century would find them disturbing. The fact that Lovecraft writes all these stories in the first person serves to remove much of the suspense. Clearly the person survives any ordeal because he is telling the story. Reading them one after another in this collection made them seem formulaic and dull.
Lovecraft relied on the reader’s imagination in that he virtually never describes the “horror I witnessed,” instead relying on stating that said horror was just “too terrible for words.” There’s frequent use of the typical, dark, deserted location – either a room at the top of a tall tower, or a pit underground – into which the hero ascends (or descends), without any good light or backup, and despite the feeling of dread. In many of these cases, the hero awakens some time later with no memory of how he escaped.
Finally, although I recognize that this is a sign of the times in which they were written, Lovecraft relies on some disturbingly racist / prejudicial stereotypes.
On the plus side, one of his friends/colleagues was the inspiration for the hero of the final story in this collection: The Haunter Of the Dark. That person was Robert Bloch, who wrote Psycho. Lovecraft gave his character, Robert Blake, an address that was once Bloch’s home in Milwaukee. Sadly, one can no longer visit that edifice. It’s at a location that was cleared of houses in the ‘60s to make way for a freeway extension. But it was fun to see that address pop up in the book.
First, these stories are mostly NOT science fiction, although one, dealing with aliens removing the brains of humans but keeping the bodies and brains both alive separately probably would qualify. Mostly this collection is one of horror stories originally published in magazines.
Second, as horror stories, I didn’t find them all that horrifying. Although, I can imagine that an audience in the early part of the 20th century would find them disturbing. The fact that Lovecraft writes all these stories in the first person serves to remove much of the suspense. Clearly the person survives any ordeal because he is telling the story. Reading them one after another in this collection made them seem formulaic and dull.
Lovecraft relied on the reader’s imagination in that he virtually never describes the “horror I witnessed,” instead relying on stating that said horror was just “too terrible for words.” There’s frequent use of the typical, dark, deserted location – either a room at the top of a tall tower, or a pit underground – into which the hero ascends (or descends), without any good light or backup, and despite the feeling of dread. In many of these cases, the hero awakens some time later with no memory of how he escaped.
Finally, although I recognize that this is a sign of the times in which they were written, Lovecraft relies on some disturbingly racist / prejudicial stereotypes.
On the plus side, one of his friends/colleagues was the inspiration for the hero of the final story in this collection: The Haunter Of the Dark. That person was Robert Bloch, who wrote Psycho. Lovecraft gave his character, Robert Blake, an address that was once Bloch’s home in Milwaukee. Sadly, one can no longer visit that edifice. It’s at a location that was cleared of houses in the ‘60s to make way for a freeway extension. But it was fun to see that address pop up in the book.
bubblesuns's review
1.0
Read The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and At the Mountains of Madness. Calling it quits here. Went into this a huge fan of Lovecraftian work and excited to delve into its origins. Ho boy did this disappoint.
I understood that Lovecraft himself was a horrible person but I wasn’t prepared for just how deeply his racism would permeate the stories themselves. Combined with the mind numbingly boring prose (seriously we do not need an exact map of all the streets in Innsmouth during the escape) and dull protagonists, I despised these stories.
Only positive is that talented people made good stuff out of his ideas. And that he died penniless.
I understood that Lovecraft himself was a horrible person but I wasn’t prepared for just how deeply his racism would permeate the stories themselves. Combined with the mind numbingly boring prose (seriously we do not need an exact map of all the streets in Innsmouth during the escape) and dull protagonists, I despised these stories.
Only positive is that talented people made good stuff out of his ideas. And that he died penniless.
benjamez's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
srapu's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75