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dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, War
Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If you’re reading this online, find the 1902 Harper edition on Archive.org (not Google, whose scan is partially defective). It omits “In the Court of the Dragon,” one of the weird stories and a good one, but is overall significantly better typeset and has markedly better grammar.
Some of the short stories are excellent in terms of plot and characters; others are flatter than cardboard; the prose is uniformly eh and the author’s punctuation is pretty bad in the editions from before he had an editor. I technically DNFed this three times.
Nevertheless, when it is good it is really good. “The Repairer of Reputations” is perhaps my favorite short story for the delightful scheming politician-assassin of a narrator, though obligatory disclaimer that Chambers emphatically did not understand whatever mental illness he’s trying to portray. “The Mask” is painfully accurate in its depiction of Alec’s suppression of his love in favor of self-abnegating loyalty, with my source being that, aside from the love triangle, I have been there. “The Street of the Four Winds “ is short but haunting, and stayed with me long after I read it.
The romances in the weird stories of this book also don’t fall into the wooden-lovers business Chambers is so used to, with the partial exception of “The Demoiselle d’Ys,” which is nevertheless enjoyable for the information on medieval falconry.
I also have an intense and long-running special interest in The King in Yellow, so derive from that what opinions you will.
Some of the short stories are excellent in terms of plot and characters; others are flatter than cardboard; the prose is uniformly eh and the author’s punctuation is pretty bad in the editions from before he had an editor. I technically DNFed this three times.
Nevertheless, when it is good it is really good. “The Repairer of Reputations” is perhaps my favorite short story for the delightful scheming politician-assassin of a narrator, though obligatory disclaimer that Chambers emphatically did not understand whatever mental illness he’s trying to portray. “The Mask” is painfully accurate in its depiction of Alec’s suppression of his love in favor of self-abnegating loyalty, with my source being that, aside from the love triangle, I have been there. “The Street of the Four Winds “ is short but haunting, and stayed with me long after I read it.
The romances in the weird stories of this book also don’t fall into the wooden-lovers business Chambers is so used to, with the partial exception of “The Demoiselle d’Ys,” which is nevertheless enjoyable for the information on medieval falconry.
I also have an intense and long-running special interest in The King in Yellow, so derive from that what opinions you will.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Murder, War
Minor: Animal death, Gore, Grief, Cultural appropriation
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia, Suicide, Alcohol
challenging
dark
mysterious
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Forced institutionalization
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It’s so hard to rate this since it’s a collection of short stories. I loved some while I found others tedious to get through even with the beautiful writing of Chambers.
Repairer of Reputations was probably the strongest story and likely my favorite. The ending is haunting as you slowly put the pieces together about our "mad" (but don't call him that, he doesn't like it) narrator Hildred Castaigne and his strange relationship with his cousin Louis and the odd Mr. Wilde. The setting becomes eerie as well with the titular reputation repairing and the suicide chambers as Chambers masterfully writes of a trembling man going inside one.
The Mask is also a spooky tale of Boris, Alec, and Genevieve with arelatively happy ending. It's still very eerie and contains mystical science discovered by Alec that turns living beings into stone. After Genevieve reads The King in Yellow and jumps into the pool containing the substance, Alec destroys it and his notes so that it could never be recreated before committing suicide. Yet, soon the fish and rabbit that turn into stone come back to life and it ends with Genevieve waking up. It has a lot of interesting ideas and atmospherically uncanny science that leads to disaster (for Alec at least) .
Repairer of Reputations was probably the strongest story and likely my favorite. The ending is haunting as you slowly put the pieces together about our "mad" (but don't call him that, he doesn't like it) narrator Hildred Castaigne and his strange relationship with his cousin Louis and the odd Mr. Wilde. The setting becomes eerie as well with the titular reputation repairing and the suicide chambers as Chambers masterfully writes of a trembling man going inside one.
The Mask is also a spooky tale of Boris, Alec, and Genevieve with a
In the Court of the Dragon is far spookier and ends with the titular King in Yellow whispering menacingly to our narrator. He has been pursued by a sinister church organist though for what purpose he does not know until the end when the man follows him home and goes after his soul. We can assume his soul has been taken by the organist who is a minion of the King in Yellow, which now forces the narrator to do his bidding.
And now I heard his voice, rising, swelling, thundering through the flaring light, and as I fell, the radiance increasing, increasing, poured over me in waves of flame. Then I sank into the depths, and I heard the King in Yellow whispering to my soul: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" (66).
The Yellow Sign is probably the scariest story of the bunch and keep getting creepier all the while. The churchyard watchman is the creepiest character in the book and I don't recall him saying a word! The part about his thumb and his overall terrifying appearance adds to the fear the narrator Scott begins to spiral, especially as he and Tessie read The King in Yellow. The tale ends abruptly as we assume the narrator dies like Tessie as we learn the watchman is a corpse that has been dead for months.
The Demoiselle d'Ys is a time travel love story that is honestly quite tragic. It technically ends well for our narrator is he is not lost forever in the moors or trapped in the past, but his love is forever gone from him and him from her. The entire story grows more tense as we realize Jeanne and the others are all from the past and we begin to wonder if the protagonist Philip will be trapped at her home forever. Even as he escapes, it remains tragic as Jeanne is now deceased having "died in her youth for love of Philip, a stranger" (106).
The Prophets' Paradise is the last spooky/eerie type story that is less connected that the others. It functions as a series of prose poems that evoke unease as well as the madness of The King in Yellow with its repetition. It isn't as intriguing as the earlier tales and this was the last one that truly interested me deeply.
Perhaps I would have appreciated the last four tales if I wasn't searching for and expecting a horror tale with eerie elements. They're more bohemian and romantic. The Street of the Four Winds has a bit of a horror-ish vibe with Severn and his conversation with the cat. Rue Barrée has the more sardonic tone that is reminiscent of the first tale, but it was a bit of a chore to get through the various artists and romantic plots. The last few tales blurred together (probably not helped by similar plots, tones, settings, and even the same recurring characters).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Suicide, War
Minor: Racism, Antisemitism, Grief