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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
Read the first 3 stories, but all a bit mid. The whole going mad thing gets old and always makes me think I'm missing something important because of unreliable narrators, but the fact is it's probably just not for me. "The Mask", the second story had me fairly hooked but kinda petered out at the end.
The first story was literally described on Wikipedia as an "anti-story". Don't think I'm a fan of those. The second two were more palatable. The writing does remind me of Lovecraft a lot and his "weird fiction".
Anyway, I'm happy I read something and I'm excited to move on to the next thing. Also happy this was on Google Books and I didn't have to waste any time or money getting it.
The first story was literally described on Wikipedia as an "anti-story". Don't think I'm a fan of those. The second two were more palatable. The writing does remind me of Lovecraft a lot and his "weird fiction".
Anyway, I'm happy I read something and I'm excited to move on to the next thing. Also happy this was on Google Books and I didn't have to waste any time or money getting it.
What a waste of time! The first short story was somewhat ok, but the rest was extremely boring. And on top of that, this particular Kindle edition has lots of formatting issues.
I wanted to read The King in Yellow because of the references to it on True Detective. But I really don't understand the fuss. Maybe I picked the wrong book? I can't believe that Chambers has influenced Lovercraft, Gaiman and others with this.
I wanted to read The King in Yellow because of the references to it on True Detective. But I really don't understand the fuss. Maybe I picked the wrong book? I can't believe that Chambers has influenced Lovercraft, Gaiman and others with this.
An extremely uneven collection.
The first 4 stories, linked by the theme of a play entitled The King in Yellow, are simply brilliant, with "The Repairer of Reputations" being the most well-thought through and rounded up one - absolutely amazing. All of the 4 stories evolve around a cursed book and the city "where black stars hang under the heavens."
The 5th Story, The Demoiselle D' Ys is a lovely, lazily paced story with the tones that sort of let you guess the twist almost from the beginning (hence 4 stars) - but I still found it quite satisfying, and particularly relished in the falconry-related vocabulary.
The rest... well. Hardly any supernatural, not much else really happens , boooooring.
However, even though the average of the below ratings for the individual pieces comes closer to 3,
I'm still rating the collection as 4 stars - simply because the first 4 stories are just SO GOOD.
The Repairer of Reputations: 5 - the best one of the collection!
The Mask: 5
In the Court of the Dragon: 5
The Yellow Sign: 5
The Demoiselle D' Ys: 4
The Prophets' Paradise: 1
The Street of the Four Winds: 1
The Street of the First Shell: 3
The Street of our Lady of the Fields: 1
Rue Barée: 1
Dedfinitely recommend picking up just for the first 4 stories. The rest you can skip, really.
The first 4 stories, linked by the theme of a play entitled The King in Yellow, are simply brilliant, with "The Repairer of Reputations" being the most well-thought through and rounded up one - absolutely amazing. All of the 4 stories evolve around a cursed book and the city "where black stars hang under the heavens."
The 5th Story, The Demoiselle D' Ys is a lovely, lazily paced story with the tones that sort of let you guess the twist almost from the beginning (hence 4 stars) - but I still found it quite satisfying, and particularly relished in the falconry-related vocabulary.
The rest... well. Hardly any supernatural, not much else really happens , boooooring.
However, even though the average of the below ratings for the individual pieces comes closer to 3,
I'm still rating the collection as 4 stars - simply because the first 4 stories are just SO GOOD.
The Repairer of Reputations: 5 - the best one of the collection!
The Mask: 5
In the Court of the Dragon: 5
The Yellow Sign: 5
The Demoiselle D' Ys: 4
The Prophets' Paradise: 1
The Street of the Four Winds: 1
The Street of the First Shell: 3
The Street of our Lady of the Fields: 1
Rue Barée: 1
Dedfinitely recommend picking up just for the first 4 stories. The rest you can skip, really.
This is a book that was definitely written in the Victorian period but it lacks the charm of others of the time period. A lot of people have come to this one because of their interest in Lovecraft and more recently, True Detective. There are a couple of problems with this, not the least of which are that this book is extremely typical of the verbose writing style of the late 1800s. There's a lot of really unnecessary details that were used to pad out the story and while they can be atmospheric, this just came off as getting in the way of the interesting parts. That brings me to the Lovecraft connections, which are interesting if you're a fan and certainly do have some excellent ideas that Howard Phillip would take and expand upon. That said, again with the tedious details! So much of what makes this idea intriguing with the cursed play and the King in Yellow as a trope are buried in tedious details and a lot of over explanations on things that are less interesting than the damn play. Only suggested for serious Lovecraft fans and even then, maybe just the first four stories before it devolves into love stories.
challenging
mysterious
tense
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
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I've already read the last story in the book (as part of a ghost story collection), and loved that story - it was one of the best in the collection. It remains my favourite out of the four stories collected here, but all are eerie and brilliant. I hadn't realised the King in yellow was a collection - I'd assumed it was one short novella. Though each of the stories is quite different, the atmosphere carries through the whole book. Noticeably, the stories are not nearly as dated as many from the same period which helps with the creeping sort of horror they employ, because it lends a sense of something that's universally to be dreaded.
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
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:
Yes
I honestly expected more out of this, but it was still rather interesting.