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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A foundation of the genre for a reason! My favorite stories were Mademoiselle D’ys, The Mask, and The Street of the Four Winds. I super tuned out when I got to the miscellaneous stories outside the King in Yellow mythos, but I’d recommend the book up to that point.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
First couple stories we good. After that, disappointment
Some really excellent (If often rather "of their time") stories with imagery that I expect will stick with me for a long time, you can tell why this was so influential to the horror genre. Unfortunately the collection is let down by the extremely dry romances that make up the latter part of the book and the author's eventually slightly grating Francophilia.
challenging
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:
No
The King in Yellow is an early collection of short stories that explore a fictional play called The King in Yellow that brings misfortune and madness upon those who read its cursed second act. Its Weird tales inspired the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and something about it has always fascinated me. So I finally got my hands on a copy and found it actually more accessible than Lovecraft's writing, but perhaps a little underwhelmed overall. That said, I am fascinated still to explore what it has inspired, whether this particular lore has expanded with other authors. We shall see!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide
This could have easily be one of my favorite books. Seven out of the ten short stories appeal to my love of the macabre in ways that most stories simply can't. The idea of a book called "The King in Yellow" that's about a play called "The King in Yellow" that causes people to go mad and die after a person reads it is decently terrifying on its own, but to couple it with the Lovecraftian imagery that Robert Chambers employs is icing on the rotten, maggot-infested cake.
However.
The three last stories veer away from "The King in Yellow" so dramatically that it detracts from the saga that was constructed in the first. Instead of continuing the horrifying story of the play, they topic shifts to love and romance and, even though the author seems to attempt to unify all of the pieces with the last story in the book, the effort seems weak and does not satisfy.
Perhaps there is some hidden value to the latter chapters. The first act of the play within the book is supposedly so commonplace that the revealed truths of the universe found in the second act, when juxtaposed with the normalcy of the first, are capable of driving a person mad. With the actual book, it seems to be the other way around - the first portion is so insane and the second portion so mundane that, when put together, they threaten to drive the reader mad. If this was the author's intention, kudos to him. If not, I have no idea what he was thinking and I don't care to know.
That being said, it's definitely worth a read. You can find it all over the internet for free (as it is in the public domain) and it's certainly a great value for the price.
However.
The three last stories veer away from "The King in Yellow" so dramatically that it detracts from the saga that was constructed in the first. Instead of continuing the horrifying story of the play, they topic shifts to love and romance and, even though the author seems to attempt to unify all of the pieces with the last story in the book, the effort seems weak and does not satisfy.
Perhaps there is some hidden value to the latter chapters. The first act of the play within the book is supposedly so commonplace that the revealed truths of the universe found in the second act, when juxtaposed with the normalcy of the first, are capable of driving a person mad. With the actual book, it seems to be the other way around - the first portion is so insane and the second portion so mundane that, when put together, they threaten to drive the reader mad. If this was the author's intention, kudos to him. If not, I have no idea what he was thinking and I don't care to know.
That being said, it's definitely worth a read. You can find it all over the internet for free (as it is in the public domain) and it's certainly a great value for the price.
mysterious
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:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
For once, I have to say, "HP Lovecraft was right."
The first 4 stories are very interesting horror stories, proto-cosmic horror even, and then the rest of the stories are just tedious romances. Even the 4th horror story in the collection leans too far into the tedious romance side of things. After yet another American man jaunting abroad fell in love with yet another French teenage girl, I just had to delete the audiobook from my phone.
The first 4 stories are very interesting horror stories, proto-cosmic horror even, and then the rest of the stories are just tedious romances. Even the 4th horror story in the collection leans too far into the tedious romance side of things. After yet another American man jaunting abroad fell in love with yet another French teenage girl, I just had to delete the audiobook from my phone.