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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
slow-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:
Yes
I started this ages ago cuz I found out about The Great God Pan.
After reading that story (which is 5/5), I did some research on Machen and discovered we would not have gottten along. Funny how a man from the late 1800’s who hated women managed to write a piece of Good For Her, feminist horror. However although I loved it, I did have to sit with it for a while to gain any meaning from it (not that meaning is essential, it can just be a fun journey).
Novel of the White Powder 5/5
After reading that story (which is 5/5), I did some research on Machen and discovered we would not have gottten along. Funny how a man from the late 1800’s who hated women managed to write a piece of Good For Her, feminist horror. However although I loved it, I did have to sit with it for a while to gain any meaning from it (not that meaning is essential, it can just be a fun journey).
Novel of the White Powder 5/5
This is a much shorter story which reads like a drug trip and could be a metaphor for our capitalist society. what started with corruption ends with corruption. The meaning of this one jumps right out at you.
The Red Hand (dnf)
Here is where Machen’s prose begins to take a toll. It was all too much and I couldn’t finish it. This resulted in me putting the book for months.
The White People 4/5
I picked this book back up again for the final story as I am currently reading The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher and I wanted to read the original before I continued their version. This one doesn’t hit as hard as Pan but Machen’s never ending sentences add to the overall experience of the unknown magic(??)(it could just be how nature truely is honestly) and I loved the depiction of good/evil and saints/sinners.
Here is where Machen’s prose begins to take a toll. It was all too much and I couldn’t finish it. This resulted in me putting the book for months.
The White People 4/5
I picked this book back up again for the final story as I am currently reading The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher and I wanted to read the original before I continued their version. This one doesn’t hit as hard as Pan but Machen’s never ending sentences add to the overall experience of the unknown magic(??)(it could just be how nature truely is honestly) and I loved the depiction of good/evil and saints/sinners.
Et Diabolus incarnatus est. Et homo factus est.
"And the Devil was made incarnate. And was made man."
a nice lil playlist to capture the vibe🤭:
🎵 Menhir Ginger - Musica Chthulthiana
🎵 Dr. Gorgo - Musica Chthulthiana
🎵 Anguish - Aseptic Void
🎵 Rest Easy - Tobias Lilja
Pros
- The prose is absolutely fucking beautiful. machen somehow manages to make environments both eerie and lush at the same time (feels kinda like Conrad's Heart of Darkness but set in rural Wales and 1890's London)
- I love the way he makes two very separated time periods mix by making the ruins of an ancient pagan temple bleed into the modern streets of London and giving us a feel of wrongness about that, like the whole pan thing is out of its time.
- ~fuck around and find out~ my favorite horror trope 🫶
- i'm not in the occult club but in the end I’m a bitch for it and so I can’t help but stan the idea of an anti-christ girlie, hell yeea⛧
- pretty great use of the unknown/unseen/unmentionable as the main horror element – nothing scarier than an unknown malevolence imo. (not perfectly done tho because it was definitely tipping over into being too much at times)
- the whole revelation of
Mary being the mother of Helen and Helen essentially being the anti-christ caught me completely off-guard. that was cool. so glad I went in blind - All the underlying symbolism I could probably spend hours digging into – for example
using Mary as her name because she's the mother of Helen by Pan/Satan just like Mary is the mother of Jesus by God. - if this was an indie pixel horror game then clarke's bachelor apartment would be a warm and cozy save station
- I dig the shortness of it, it really doesn’t need to be longer. and the fact that it’s so short kind of smooths out the cons
Cons
- a little bit anticlimatic because the ending feels kinda subdued when it's just told in retrospective like that
- ngl I was a lil confused with the shifting povs of that handful of dudes, I wonder if it could've been written with fewer povs altogether?
- this may be my fault for not concentrating enough idk but I had a continuously poor perception of how much time was passing😂 (but maybe that was intentional?? because it definitely made the revelation hit harder lol)
- A little wordy in the middle but not terrible
overall a diamond in the rough but i loved it👌
The universe is silent throughout the day, and not without dread has it been sundered; it shines with nightly fires, and resounds on all sides from the choruses of the Aegipans: both the playing of pipes, and the ringing of cymbals are heard along the ocean shore.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
I enjoyed this, I was expecting a gothic fantisy, but it's more gothic horror, with a little lovecraftian fantisy in it, it is a bit wordy at times, but that is to be expected for it's age.
Un poco meh, sinceramente.
No tenía muchas expectativas, pero no me ha gustado mucho.
No tenía muchas expectativas, pero no me ha gustado mucho.
dark
mysterious
same thing as Frankenstein, expected science and body horror, got people talking nonsense for a looong time
Great use of the unseen/unspoken to scare the reader. Thematically and stylistically reminded me of Lovely Molly, one of the scariest horror films I've seen in the last few years.