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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A short story collection which is too horror adjacent to be placed in the romance section of the library. One of the stories is about an orange cat that likes to eat. The book does not say that the cat "isn't" Garfield, so you're welcome to believe whatever makes you happiest.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First published in 1895, this landmark of weird fiction blends fin-de-siècle decadence with a sense of cosmic dread. The opening stories, linked by the forbidden play “The King in Yellow,” remain powerful for their atmosphere of madness, artistic obsession, and creeping unreality. While the later tales move toward romance and society drama, the book as a whole is a striking mix of styles that influenced writers from Lovecraft to contemporary horror. An uneven but enduringly imaginative collection, well served by the Penguin Weird Fiction edition.
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories by Robert W. Chambers. My particular copy included 10;
The Repairer of Reputations
The Mask
In the Court of the Dragon
The Yellow Sign
The Demoiselle D’ys
The Prophets’ Paradise
The Street of the Four Winds
The Street of the First Shell
The Street of Our Lady of the Fields
Rue Barrée
The first half were utterly gripping, while the second half felt like a separate book entirely. Each half includes references to the other short stories within, but the first half are much more focused on the weird; unexplainable events, characters slipping into or driven to madness/obsession, and of course, the fictional play for which the book is titled after.
The short stories of madness, destiny, and the idea of a play which drives its readers insane were written so well that they deserve 5 stars. The play is only alluded to/talked around - never directly written out save short excerpts. Like darkness, often what’s most frightening to us is what we don’t know, and Chambers uses this to create an atmosphere that I can only compare to seeing shadows move in the corners of your eye when you’re alone at night. Your brain may try to rationalize the fear away, but the feeling remains all the same.
I was surprised, too, with how well Chambers writes romance along with these short horror stories. They amplified not only the stakes, but proved great at exploring exactly the sort of obsessiveness that the horror drew from.
However, only the first half are really horror. The latter half are period romances about the artistic elites of Bohemian Paris. While I thought romance added to the horror stories, the whiplash from changing genres along with dropping horror entirely made them feel like a bit of a letdown. I get the feeling they would be stronger included in a separate book, and unfortunately my 3.5 Star rating of The King in Yellow in its entirety mostly stems from this.
The Repairer of Reputations
The Mask
In the Court of the Dragon
The Yellow Sign
The Demoiselle D’ys
The Prophets’ Paradise
The Street of the Four Winds
The Street of the First Shell
The Street of Our Lady of the Fields
Rue Barrée
The first half were utterly gripping, while the second half felt like a separate book entirely. Each half includes references to the other short stories within, but the first half are much more focused on the weird; unexplainable events, characters slipping into or driven to madness/obsession, and of course, the fictional play for which the book is titled after.
The short stories of madness, destiny, and the idea of a play which drives its readers insane were written so well that they deserve 5 stars. The play is only alluded to/talked around - never directly written out save short excerpts. Like darkness, often what’s most frightening to us is what we don’t know, and Chambers uses this to create an atmosphere that I can only compare to seeing shadows move in the corners of your eye when you’re alone at night. Your brain may try to rationalize the fear away, but the feeling remains all the same.
I was surprised, too, with how well Chambers writes romance along with these short horror stories. They amplified not only the stakes, but proved great at exploring exactly the sort of obsessiveness that the horror drew from.
However, only the first half are really horror. The latter half are period romances about the artistic elites of Bohemian Paris. While I thought romance added to the horror stories, the whiplash from changing genres along with dropping horror entirely made them feel like a bit of a letdown. I get the feeling they would be stronger included in a separate book, and unfortunately my 3.5 Star rating of The King in Yellow in its entirety mostly stems from this.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
It is extremely weird that one of the seminal works of cosmic horror is mostly a collection of bohemian romance stories. Chambers is a better writer than Lovecraft, his stories more varied and his horror more subtle, but I expected more based on this book's prominence. Maybe things change in Act II?
Лавкрафт занудний, ви знали? Так, творець непередаваного неосяжного жаху. Але пише він занудно. Чемберс виявився краще. Його жах не настільки всеохопний, але про Гастура все одно всі чулі, міфологія також тягнеться в далеке минуле, і в порівнянні читати якось бадьоріше виходило.
Приємно вражена влучними ідеями, коротким метром і флером Єйтса. Прикро знати, що цей всесвіт Чемберс швидко закинув, а до жахів так і не повернувся. Потенціал був шалений.
Друга половина добірки - просто існує. (Точніше, перша половина просто існує, бо друга більше притаманна автору за стилем.) Непогана, окремо від першої було б навіть цікаво її розбирати, але на фоні відчутно потьмяніла. Вона на трієчку, не дуже розумію принцип вибору оповідань під одну обкладинку. Десь там мало б бути розділення - чистий аркуш і курсивом ІІ.
Той, що відновлює репутації 5/5
Маска 5/5
У Дворі Дракона 4/5
Жовтий знак 4/5
Леді д'Іс 4/5
Рай пророків 5/5
Вулиця Чотирьох вітрів 3/5
Вулиця Пресвятої Богородиці 2/5
Рю Баре 4/5
Приємно вражена влучними ідеями, коротким метром і флером Єйтса. Прикро знати, що цей всесвіт Чемберс швидко закинув, а до жахів так і не повернувся. Потенціал був шалений.
Друга половина добірки - просто існує. (Точніше, перша половина просто існує, бо друга більше притаманна автору за стилем.) Непогана, окремо від першої було б навіть цікаво її розбирати, але на фоні відчутно потьмяніла. Вона на трієчку, не дуже розумію принцип вибору оповідань під одну обкладинку. Десь там мало б бути розділення - чистий аркуш і курсивом ІІ.
Той, що відновлює репутації 5/5
Маска 5/5
У Дворі Дракона 4/5
Жовтий знак 4/5
Леді д'Іс 4/5
Рай пророків 5/5
Вулиця Чотирьох вітрів 3/5
Вулиця Пресвятої Богородиці 2/5
Рю Баре 4/5
I now understand why King in Yellow is referenced so often in horror movies, books and games. This collection of short stories written in 1885 was way ahead of its time and a big influence in the horror genre. I highly recommend King in Yellow to every horror lover, even though the characters in the stories probably wish they had never read the book King in Yellow.