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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Obviously, as a collection of short stories, there were some I enjoyed more than others. If I gave my opinions on every single story, this review would basically be a dissertation, so instead I put my ranking below. 1-4 are very good and memorable. I enjoyed 5-7 but can't remember what they were about now when I'm writing this review, almost 4 months after reading. 8-10 are also not memorable but I remember not enjoying them/being bored by them.
1. He
2. Herbert West - Reanimator
3. The Lurking Fear
4. The Rats in the Walls
5. The Hound
6. The Shunned House
7. The Nameless City
8. The Call of Cthulu
9. The Festival
10. The Horror at Red Hook
1. He
2. Herbert West - Reanimator
3. The Lurking Fear
4. The Rats in the Walls
5. The Hound
6. The Shunned House
7. The Nameless City
8. The Call of Cthulu
9. The Festival
10. The Horror at Red Hook
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'm gonna go about this in a roundabout way, via the Lord of the Rings.
One of the most common sayings of those who critique the Lord of the Rings is something like the following. "Yes, Tolkien basically invented modern fantasy and changed popular literature forever, but that shouldn't be considered if you're talking about its actual quality." I have always hated that sentence. What do you mean? It's so obvious to me that a work of art's originality should be considered. Maybe that doesn't really affect one's enjoyment of a piece of art, but it certainly affects its "quality" if we're going to talk about something so subjective. Most of being impressed by Pollock and Picasso is bound up in the outside knowledge that nobody was doing (or ever had done) what they were doing. Part of Psycho's greatness is that every modern slasher or even movie with a twist owes it a massive debt.
So what am I saying all that for? It's simple.
I am not ignoring Lovecraft's impact on the genre of horror, nor am I ignoring that no one was doing what he was doing (with some exceptions). I am fully cognizant that I would not have some of my favorite works of fiction without his influence. I still give this two stars. I did not like it.
Even though every story ostensibly features a new protagonist, really they're all the same Generic Guy with various backgrounds appended to the same framework. Most of the stories are told either second- or third-hand, with that Generic Guy learning about something that happened to someone else once (and oh dear wasn't it so horrible) until the stinger at the end which arrives with the predictability of the sun's rise, where the reader is given one final telling detail that cements the situation as having been truly horrific. I don't mean to sound overly flippant, it's just that after one or two of the shortest stories, I already had all I needed to intuit the rest of them.
Oh, and there's an elephant in this New England one-room shack. Everyone knows Lovecraft was a virulent racist, but this often gets lost in the fog of other odious artists. Like, Mel Gibson is an antisemite, but his movies aren't antisemitic (unless I'm missing something). Kevin Spacey is a rapist, and sure that makes American Beauty a harder watch than it already was, but his films aren't about rape being good or reasonable.
By insane contrast, Lovecraft was a racist who wrote stories all about how scary Africans, pagans, and the Other are. In one story, the Generic Guy kills himself by self-immolation because he learns his ancestry includes an ape-man race from the African jungles. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is a thinly veiled parable about the evils of miscegenation. Betcha didn't know the Necronomicon was an Islamic text. For as much as "The Dunwich Horror" is my favorite of the stories in this collection, even it features an uncomfortable number of references to "regressed" branches of a family tree.
Anyway, I just thought I'd point that out. Because I'm generally for the idea of separating the art from the artist. The problem with Lovecraft is that you can't. In so many ways, his works are about his racist and eugenicist views.
Good things now. I liked "The Dunwich Horror." I liked "The Shadow Out of Time." The cosmic horror he pioneered is one of the greatest inventions of modern fiction.
It's just ridiculous to me that the PlayStation 4 video game Bloodborne, the card game Arkham Horror, the films of Guillermo del Toro, the comic The Sandman, and really most fictional works that stem from Lovecraft's ideas are better by orders of magnitude than what spawned them. That's certainly not true for Tolkien's work.
One of the most common sayings of those who critique the Lord of the Rings is something like the following. "Yes, Tolkien basically invented modern fantasy and changed popular literature forever, but that shouldn't be considered if you're talking about its actual quality." I have always hated that sentence. What do you mean? It's so obvious to me that a work of art's originality should be considered. Maybe that doesn't really affect one's enjoyment of a piece of art, but it certainly affects its "quality" if we're going to talk about something so subjective. Most of being impressed by Pollock and Picasso is bound up in the outside knowledge that nobody was doing (or ever had done) what they were doing. Part of Psycho's greatness is that every modern slasher or even movie with a twist owes it a massive debt.
So what am I saying all that for? It's simple.
I am not ignoring Lovecraft's impact on the genre of horror, nor am I ignoring that no one was doing what he was doing (with some exceptions). I am fully cognizant that I would not have some of my favorite works of fiction without his influence. I still give this two stars. I did not like it.
Even though every story ostensibly features a new protagonist, really they're all the same Generic Guy with various backgrounds appended to the same framework. Most of the stories are told either second- or third-hand, with that Generic Guy learning about something that happened to someone else once (and oh dear wasn't it so horrible) until the stinger at the end which arrives with the predictability of the sun's rise, where the reader is given one final telling detail that cements the situation as having been truly horrific. I don't mean to sound overly flippant, it's just that after one or two of the shortest stories, I already had all I needed to intuit the rest of them.
Oh, and there's an elephant in this New England one-room shack. Everyone knows Lovecraft was a virulent racist, but this often gets lost in the fog of other odious artists. Like, Mel Gibson is an antisemite, but his movies aren't antisemitic (unless I'm missing something). Kevin Spacey is a rapist, and sure that makes American Beauty a harder watch than it already was, but his films aren't about rape being good or reasonable.
By insane contrast, Lovecraft was a racist who wrote stories all about how scary Africans, pagans, and the Other are. In one story, the Generic Guy kills himself by self-immolation because he learns his ancestry includes an ape-man race from the African jungles. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is a thinly veiled parable about the evils of miscegenation. Betcha didn't know the Necronomicon was an Islamic text. For as much as "The Dunwich Horror" is my favorite of the stories in this collection, even it features an uncomfortable number of references to "regressed" branches of a family tree.
Anyway, I just thought I'd point that out. Because I'm generally for the idea of separating the art from the artist. The problem with Lovecraft is that you can't. In so many ways, his works are about his racist and eugenicist views.
Good things now. I liked "The Dunwich Horror." I liked "The Shadow Out of Time." The cosmic horror he pioneered is one of the greatest inventions of modern fiction.
It's just ridiculous to me that the PlayStation 4 video game Bloodborne, the card game Arkham Horror, the films of Guillermo del Toro, the comic The Sandman, and really most fictional works that stem from Lovecraft's ideas are better by orders of magnitude than what spawned them. That's certainly not true for Tolkien's work.
To be honest, this wasn't a 4 star book.
The short stories were not on the same level, and while some were really engaging, the rest bored me so much I almost considered not finishing the book.
Yet for the sake of three stories, the rats in the walls, the lurking fear, and the music of Erich Zann, which were 4.5 star stories for me, I'm neglecting the ones I didn't like!
Outsider, and the colour out of space, were really good too. Not my favourites but they were still interesting.
The short stories were not on the same level, and while some were really engaging, the rest bored me so much I almost considered not finishing the book.
Yet for the sake of three stories, the rats in the walls, the lurking fear, and the music of Erich Zann, which were 4.5 star stories for me, I'm neglecting the ones I didn't like!
Outsider, and the colour out of space, were really good too. Not my favourites but they were still interesting.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Only read call of Cthulhu, interesting story. I like how it described the city.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cannibalism
Fans of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy are probably already familiar with Lovecraft & the Cthulhu Mythos, but this is a great collection. Some interesting endnotes give insight into how Lovecraft's stories are interconnected to each other, and also how Lovecraft's real life influenced the creation of the stories, the settings, and the characters. I'd really recommend this. If anything, I'd say the only thing that's lacking is the influence Lovecraft has had elsewhere, but I'm sure I can find another book out there that talks about that. (I mean, come on, "Old One's" even appear in Buffy!)
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
My first experience with H.P. Lovecraft and it was a mixed bag of really love and kind of forgettable.
My favourite stories in this collection were The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I felt these stories had all the aspects I wanted and expected from Lovecraft. Monstrous and otherworldly creatures, twists and a deep fear of the unknown. I won't go into details of these because I would highly recommend those stories.
There was one aspect of his writing style that didn't sit well with me and that was the way he handled accents. Certain stories like The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror and a few others have certain characters with an accent. He writes them out in a way that is very jarring to read and it makes those stories very difficult to follow. I felt the example in The Shadow Over Innsmouth read better because of the nature of the character speaking. But it really ruined stories of The Dunwich Horror for me personally.
The other short stories I felt were largely either average or forgettable. And in the case of At the Mountains of Madness, I felt like there was too much over-explanation that took some of the unknown out of the story.
Overall I thought this was a pretty good collection and I would ne interested in reading more of his work at some point.
My favourite stories in this collection were The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I felt these stories had all the aspects I wanted and expected from Lovecraft. Monstrous and otherworldly creatures, twists and a deep fear of the unknown. I won't go into details of these because I would highly recommend those stories.
There was one aspect of his writing style that didn't sit well with me and that was the way he handled accents. Certain stories like The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror and a few others have certain characters with an accent. He writes them out in a way that is very jarring to read and it makes those stories very difficult to follow. I felt the example in The Shadow Over Innsmouth read better because of the nature of the character speaking. But it really ruined stories of The Dunwich Horror for me personally.
The other short stories I felt were largely either average or forgettable. And in the case of At the Mountains of Madness, I felt like there was too much over-explanation that took some of the unknown out of the story.
Overall I thought this was a pretty good collection and I would ne interested in reading more of his work at some point.
Kinda just bleh, like... very um... abstract and overly written. On and on about how how totally and utterly unfathomable and unspeakably horrific things are. It felt like there were so many words to describe so little. I dunno, not for me.
Audio book HP Lovecraft is awesome, reminds me of old radio plAYS
The Diary of Alonzo Typer: Hombre va a casa donde pasan cosas malas, y luego se sorprende cuando pasan cosas malas
The Dunwich Horror: Juego de gemelas, pero algo salio mal
The Horror in the Museum: Hombre ignora todas las red flags de un viejo que tiene figuras de cera en su sotano
The Mound: Panfilo tenia razon
The Call of Cthulhu: Una secta? En Estados Unidos? Que raro...
At the Mountain of Madness: La Sociedad de la Nieve + Alien
The Doom that Came to Sarnath: Que les parece si ignoramos las advertencias y hacemos una joda?
The Festival: Lovecraft: Edicion Navidad
The Shadow over Innsmouth: Yo no recuerdo que la sirenita sea asi...
The Shadow out of Time: Episodio de Doctor Who
The Haunter of the Dark: Como es esta la primera vez que se mete la iglesia en el medio de todo
The Dreams in the Witch House: ¿Por que es este lugar paranormal? La mujer que vivia aca sabia mucha matematica
The Dunwich Horror: Juego de gemelas, pero algo salio mal
The Horror in the Museum: Hombre ignora todas las red flags de un viejo que tiene figuras de cera en su sotano
The Mound: Panfilo tenia razon
The Call of Cthulhu: Una secta? En Estados Unidos? Que raro...
At the Mountain of Madness: La Sociedad de la Nieve + Alien
The Doom that Came to Sarnath: Que les parece si ignoramos las advertencias y hacemos una joda?
The Festival: Lovecraft: Edicion Navidad
The Shadow over Innsmouth: Yo no recuerdo que la sirenita sea asi...
The Shadow out of Time: Episodio de Doctor Who
The Haunter of the Dark: Como es esta la primera vez que se mete la iglesia en el medio de todo
The Dreams in the Witch House: ¿Por que es este lugar paranormal? La mujer que vivia aca sabia mucha matematica