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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed the stories featuring the titular play that is the first four stories. The imagery of Carcosa was so striking and really shows how this inspired Lovecraft. The other stories were more 18th century Paris stories about gentlemen and ladies that I enjoyed. The ending to both The Street of the Four Winds and The Street of Our Lady of the Fields were surprisingly wholesome. My favourite though was The Mask that was very disconcerting. I really enjoyed The Yellow Sign and its slow creeping dread. The Demoiselle d’Ys was also very eerie and had a sombre ending.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
This book is highly underrated and misunderstood without context or analysis of the themes and motifs as well as the dualistic nature especially the later to end stories.
After finishing the book I would have given it a 3 or 3.5. I am biased on this but I detest French as a language and this is highly French centered.
I came to reading this book as a regular horror book which it's apparent with the first half of the stories. The love stories felt meh and incongruous with horror until I watched an analysis on YouTube that basically turns the mushy romance stories on their head. The king in yellow not only is a God of observant obvious madness, death, illness etc but of the dualistic nature of dreams and reality, life and death intertwined.
It touches the dangers of wearing false masks that they become indistinct from your true self. The sun being not a symbol of life but of peril. Love being a sacrifice, a dark obsession, a peril of loving the wrong person for the wrong reasons. Or rushing on impulse to offer love when it's not ripe to receive
The yellow king is not only a horror of the mundane kind but of deeper psychological kind. It twists the most unpopular love stories on the surface to actual tragedies. From the in your face yellow mark to the living God of the yellow king to the symbolism of the sun, shadows, masks, paleness to Cupid and much more this book is pretty dark then at first glance. The mushy love stories are far darker and in instances depraved than what you can perceive at first glance. This is a horror and psychological thriller. It's an awesome read when you keep in mind that it's not a straightforward spooky book but full of omens and symbolic features that change everything.
After finishing the book I would have given it a 3 or 3.5. I am biased on this but I detest French as a language and this is highly French centered.
I came to reading this book as a regular horror book which it's apparent with the first half of the stories. The love stories felt meh and incongruous with horror until I watched an analysis on YouTube that basically turns the mushy romance stories on their head. The king in yellow not only is a God of observant obvious madness, death, illness etc but of the dualistic nature of dreams and reality, life and death intertwined.
It touches the dangers of wearing false masks that they become indistinct from your true self. The sun being not a symbol of life but of peril. Love being a sacrifice, a dark obsession, a peril of loving the wrong person for the wrong reasons. Or rushing on impulse to offer love when it's not ripe to receive
The yellow king is not only a horror of the mundane kind but of deeper psychological kind. It twists the most unpopular love stories on the surface to actual tragedies. From the in your face yellow mark to the living God of the yellow king to the symbolism of the sun, shadows, masks, paleness to Cupid and much more this book is pretty dark then at first glance. The mushy love stories are far darker and in instances depraved than what you can perceive at first glance. This is a horror and psychological thriller. It's an awesome read when you keep in mind that it's not a straightforward spooky book but full of omens and symbolic features that change everything.
I read this for its connections to HBO's True Detective, and the first batch of stories were 4-5 star experiences. Exquisitely creepy tales of madness and ghosts. The remaining stories that don't connect with the mythology of Carcosa or "The King in Yellow" concern expatriate aesthetes in love and war in Paris, and for me were snoozers. But definitely read the first half if you want to peel back some layers of True Detective and see its roots in a long tradition of American horror.
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:
Yes
I think it’s a classic for a reason. It just doesn’t lend itself to be a good audiobook experience. Some of the earlier stories worked, but they are over so quickly and you’re moving on to the next one. By the time you are finally starting to understand what is happening in the current one, it ends and you’re on to the next. It was hard to keep up with.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I first read The King in Yellow in middle school. I didn't remember much but the basics, and being very impressed with the Yellow mythos stories, and not much else. Nothing much has changed, as that is still the case. The Yellow mythos stories are master classes in quiet, cosmic horror. That being said, much like Lovecraft, I have come to enjoy the stories other authors have written in the mythos much more than Robert W. Chambers' stories. (I'm thinking of Hailey Piper and Joseph Sale here.) However, it remains a must-read for cosmic horror fans. 3.75 stars
medium-paced
The dystopian 1920s America that was being painted, with eldritch horror underneath, was truly captivating. But it all changed to high society Paris with weird women being weird and I struggled immensely to finish those final pages. If there is more like the King in Yellow somewhere amongst Chambers’ work I will read it in an instant, but I will be dodging anything that resembles those last stories for the rest of my life.
Despite it's age, The King in Yellow is a heavy hitter. Granted, the first 4-ish stories in this collection are the only thing that really tie into the idea of The King in Yellow, but even the romance stories that come after are well crafted (even though I haven't finished them all... yet).
Not quite cosmic horror as we might expect coming from HPL, but it still holds something that feels in that vein. The similarities are very strong. Chambers has a beautiful way with words sometimes, a very poetic prose that lends itself well to these stories. I would recommend this collection but would preface it by saying that Chambers focuses more on the characters than the cosmic. I plan to finish the remaining two stories when I'm past the horror phase I'm currently in.
Not quite cosmic horror as we might expect coming from HPL, but it still holds something that feels in that vein. The similarities are very strong. Chambers has a beautiful way with words sometimes, a very poetic prose that lends itself well to these stories. I would recommend this collection but would preface it by saying that Chambers focuses more on the characters than the cosmic. I plan to finish the remaining two stories when I'm past the horror phase I'm currently in.
I went to this collection interested in the influences of H.P. Lovecraft. Apart from one, maybe two exceptions, the short stories in this selection aren't worth the expense of finding a copy of the book. I can definitely see the influence, but Chambers was no where near the writer Lovecraft was.