Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Zew Cthulhu

I really wanted to like this. I love the idea of cosmic horror... Unknowably large and mysterious beings that could crush us out of existence with barely a thought... That idea is terrifying!

Unfortunately, the writing style was hard for me to follow. There were many words I had to look up, and many phrasings that had me rereading sentences or even paragraphs to follow what happened. Hell, in the climax of the namesake story in this book, I MISSED a crucial part, because it was described so strangely. I only realized later when I read a review online!

That said, I know this is classic writing, and I know it inspired many later horror writers, so I have to give some credit there.

THAT said, I also learned Lovecraft was a very racist person, and it showed through in some of the stories.

I did not read all the stories here. I recommend not starting at the first one, but instead doing research about which ones people liked. Out of those I read, I'd say Rats In The Walls was probably my favorite.

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briereader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

My first time reading any of Lovecraft's work, and I wasn't really impressed. Even beyond the blatant xenophobia that pervades his work, I simply didn't find the horrors he described quite that horrifying. I don't think time treated the wok kindly (once more, even beyond the BLATANT and PERVASIVE xenophobia)--the once titillating and unimaginable horrors are honestly well within my understanding.

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wikibam's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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erikwmj's review against another edition

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Decided that I want to individually log all of thr longer stories at the end: The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour Out of Space, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Haunter Of the Dark. So technically I will be finishing this book. 34% is the point where the shorter stories stop and the longer ones begin.

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jemappellecat's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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commander_zander's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Call of Cthulhu is the least appealing of these stories. The others i'd recommend for those who want to learn more about the history of science fiction, or to discover largely-forgotten horror tropes. Not recommended to general readers (because of predictable plotlines & racism).

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claireskies's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective 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

3.0

I feel bad for giving such a famous and influential author such an average rating, but i must say I was disappointed.

Firstly to address the elephant in the room: it is hard to read Lovecraft and avoid his racist ideologies. While we can all sit and say "oh it was a different time then," it doesn't erase how harmful and influential his words are. In describing the whiteness of Herbet West, I believe, he describes him as of a superior race; caucasian, blue eyes, blonde hair. Frankly, many of Lovecraft's stories are ruined by his unecessary insertion of racist comments. For example, in the Rats in the Walls, it adds nothing for the narrator's favourite cat to be named a slur. One can easily discuss the folklore of native americans without calling them savages. Lovecraft also has a strange obsession with Congo and "white apes" which I believe are a reference to black people with albinism.

However in this anthology, S. T. Joshi is not hesitant to point out Lovecraft's flaws, and my dislike of Lovecraft is in no way tied to the work of Joshi. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his explanatory notes at rhe end of the collection. I don't enjoy nonfiction, so I don't always read these notes, but I was very impressed and enraptured by the editor's.

In some praise of Lovecraft, he really is an amazing writer. Bad person, but a good writer. His ability to string together a beautiful array of words to evoke somewhat abstract yet atmospheric, concrete settings is outstanding. His descriptions are unsettling and eerie, but magical.

And back to crticism... now I do enjoy reading older works, and this is something I find in perhaps all of them. They are anticlimatic. Which sounds wrong to say considering that we experience the rise and fall of Cthulu in this collection. (Though that story did have one of the stronger climaxes). Authors of this period focus too much on exposition, and it feels as though the ending is rushed. In a longer story, the narrator flees right as things get really interesting. It feels as though we are touring through a beautiful mansion only to be rushed out without ever being shown upstairs.

While I appreciate each story being linked, I wish Lovecraft made the connections stronger. It almost feels like a cop out when Lovecraft has invented this new, cosmic being only to turn around and say "oh yeah blah blah this guy is in Necromoniom lol." As someone who also likes to do this, it just wasn't as effective enough. Perhaps it was because the only thing linking these stories is one book. It would have been far more powerful if perhaps instead of the author seeing that book on someone's shelf, they spotted a bizarre metal cylindar.

"Shadow over Innsmouth" evades these downfalls and is by far my favourite story in this collection.

It starts off a little slow, but by the end I was flipping through the pages frantically: both in trying to see where the story gets next, and also to escape the fantastic horros of Innsmouth. Cosmic and eldritch horror don't tend to scare me, but as the narrator attemps his escape from the town, my heart was in my mouth. I felt this story had the most action in it compared to the rest, and that scene where the narrator attempts to flee the hotel by breaking through room after room was frightening.

Overall, I say Lovecraft, and this collection of stories, is worth a read. It's average rating is a result of racist and xenophobic ideals that made some stories difficult to read, as well as the lacking climaxes of certain stories.

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