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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
A quick read. Good, but repetitive and yet disjointed in spots, as if the author completely forgot that he'd just explained a thing. Lots of narrator switches without a way to connect them until well after the start of the chapter.
And yet...nicely done cosmic horror, and a monster that still manages toraise dread.
And yet...nicely done cosmic horror, and a monster that still manages toraise dread.
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
Short and easy read. The original voice of cosmic horror. An essential read if you're studying the genre, and pretty quick to do in a sitting
I first need to thank Stephen King for turning me on to this story. I was getting ready to read his new book Revival in which he made reference to this story. I decided to quickly see what it was all about and then get back to his book. Well, this book was free for Kindle so of course had to read it first. I really liked the story. It was great to have the horror referred to and not be described in depth so I could let my imagination wonder. I have already downloaded several more of his stories. Thanks Mr. King! I promise your book is next on the list. Right after the one I started at lunch today!
dark
mysterious
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:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
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:
No
Very haphazard presentation and no character really stood out (they all seemed like the same person to me), but definitely unsettling and definitely a cornerstone for horror lit.
dark
mysterious
tense
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
“The name she passed under when I met her was Helen Vaughan, but what her real name was I can’t say. I don’t think she had a name. No, no, not in that sense. Only human beings have names”
This was so cool!!! just oozing with dread and terror the entire ride! Machen does so much with so little here, leaving so much to the imagination because in this world truth is a burden that will
never allow you to be happy. This is taken to its greatest lengths with the form of the novella - all of the information we get on Helen and what is going on is filtered through a number of accounts (bar the scene in the first chapter). Everything is a story a friend of a friend told someone, or as in the last chapter is only fragments of another man’s story.
Nothing truly happens in the novella: we never see Helen nor hear her speak once, the closest we get is a man mentioning awful things she said to him - but we never find out what. It really works to the novella’s benefit as it keeps you a number of degrees of separation away from her while the whole novella is men discussing how dangerous to be in the proximity of her. Yet we never find out exactly what she does or how she ruins these men to the actions they take in the novella! Oh it’s delicious! Helen’s conception being the bastardisation of the conception of Jesus Christ born of Mary, making Helen an antichrist figure of the pagan kind. I’m gonna be thinking about this forever!
P.S. Was I the only person thinking of Andrzej Żuławski‘s Possession the whole time I read this? Żuławski must have read this right?
ET DIABOLUS INCARNATUS EST. ET HOMO FACTUS EST.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicide
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence
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:
Complicated