Reviews

The Horror at Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft

emmamcc's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

tkayla15's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

aliciagw's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.0

I didn't really care for this.  A short story about a detective who is creeped out by immigrants and investigates their alleged sinister occult ways.  I read it after I had read "The Ballad of Black Tom" by Victor LaValle.  I just wanted to get an idea of what his story was based on.

Yes, as everyone says, definitely a wee bit racist.  More than a wee bit.  Lovecraft certainly didn't care for immigrants.  However, I did not rate this story based upon the racism.  It's not something I look to find in a book, but if it's there and it's an old story I tend to chalk it up to being indicative of the era that the story was written in.  Not a good thing, but not entirely unexpected for the times.  

My problem with the story is that I found it utterly boring.  Mind numbingly so.  Not scary at all, just a creepy feel to it.  It was extremely verbose- far too wordy for me.  I'm okay with wordy in some books, but for me all the wordiness of this made me forget anything even mildly scary that was happening.  And there really wasn't much of that anyway.  It was short, but I couldn't wait for it to be over.

emberreece's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

3.0

sortabadass's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

1.0

pattricejones's review against another edition

Read this because I was about to start [a:Victor LaValle|1762294|Victor LaValle|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1280959466p2/1762294.jpg]'s new book, which I understand to be in part a response to the racism in this book, which turns out to be extreme. I cannot recommend it except as a case study in how "everyday" racism and anti-immigrant bias permeate many classic texts.

aberdeenwaters's review against another edition

3.0

Eerie, sinister, atmospheric, and racially charged. A quick little read from HP with demonic undertones.

huchuhu's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

kurbanski's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

2.5

destiniev's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

I mean it’s HP Lovecraft so full of racism
and xenophobia. I was reading this before I read the Ballad of Black Tom as this is what that book is based on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Child death