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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
3.75 stars. Starts wonderfully strong. Ends okay. One big, disbelief-straining infodump loses a star.
I'd been meaning to read Lovecraft for a while, since I love all the Lovecraft fanart I see on the internet (e.g. this!), and I was in the mood for something weird and about monsters.
This short novel is reminiscent of 19th century horror stuff like Dracula and Frankenstein. The pacing feels a little slow at times, the infodumps are very infodumpy, and the general voice is just super 19th century dude.
Which is fine. I enjoyed the slow build-up to the eventual reveal, and I enjoyed how the TRUE HORRORS (!!)!!)!) which the protagonist keeps alluding to but never actually, totally materialize (I guess it's "read the sequel for more").
Brief plot: Protagonist Man (didn't get his name), a professor of geology from some New England college, goes on a science expedition with his scientist bro friends (and some grad students and interns, heh) to the Antarctic. They drill some holes. They find some weird striations. When they investigate stuff more, they find, well, CTHULHU. Well, sort of. Cool stuff. Then bad things happen. Then, AFTER the bad stuff, the Professor and his friend decide to go explore those "mountains of madness" and see what's on the other side. I will admit that I did LOL a little at WHAT WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE: I don't think it's spoilery to say they do, at one point, find penguins and marvel at domestic stuff like window hinges. I'm sorry, but it was kinda funny to have them be like, "the horror! the horror! but what good window hinges". Also, "what good art, that is good, wow". Hahahaha. Also, okay, how did they literally deduce the entire history of the planet from some (apparently quite good but still just) murals? I know the late 19th century was when folks were pumped about archaeology, but I thought it took them more than a minute to understand the hieroglyphs and the pyramids?! RIGHT?
THE HORROR
I'd been meaning to read Lovecraft for a while, since I love all the Lovecraft fanart I see on the internet (e.g. this!), and I was in the mood for something weird and about monsters.
This short novel is reminiscent of 19th century horror stuff like Dracula and Frankenstein. The pacing feels a little slow at times, the infodumps are very infodumpy, and the general voice is just super 19th century dude.
Which is fine. I enjoyed the slow build-up to the eventual reveal, and I enjoyed how the TRUE HORRORS (!!)!!)!) which the protagonist keeps alluding to but never actually, totally materialize (I guess it's "read the sequel for more").
Brief plot: Protagonist Man (didn't get his name), a professor of geology from some New England college, goes on a science expedition with his scientist bro friends (and some grad students and interns, heh) to the Antarctic. They drill some holes. They find some weird striations. When they investigate stuff more, they find, well, CTHULHU. Well, sort of. Cool stuff. Then bad things happen. Then, AFTER the bad stuff, the Professor and his friend decide to go explore those "mountains of madness" and see what's on the other side. I will admit that I did LOL a little at WHAT WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE: I don't think it's spoilery to say they do, at one point, find penguins and marvel at domestic stuff like window hinges. I'm sorry, but it was kinda funny to have them be like, "the horror! the horror! but what good window hinges". Also, "what good art, that is good, wow". Hahahaha. Also, okay, how did they literally deduce the entire history of the planet from some (apparently quite good but still just) murals? I know the late 19th century was when folks were pumped about archaeology, but I thought it took them more than a minute to understand the hieroglyphs and the pyramids?! RIGHT?
THE HORROR
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Really hard to read and the end is so boring
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Didn’t enjoy the horror aspect of the book, found it too obvious what was happening and couldn’t relate/picture the imagery.
DNF - I've been in a reading slump and it's very unfortunate that I found this book which only made it worse. It think the point of this book is world building and lore for other Lovecraft stories but I couldnt struggle through it any longer. Maybe I'll return when I have more context for it.
I’m so surprised that my rating for this book turned out to be so low. The narrator’s voice is great! The story started off strong for me too. Honestly thought I was going to give a 4 star rating. So what happened to change that? I hit chapter 5 in the audiobook... Chapter 5 has to be the most boring part of the entire book. Sadly it was about 31 minutes long and the book lost its magic for me. Talking about rock formations and striations along with petrified wood just wasn’t interesting for that long a time. I get that these two are geologists and this mattered to them and the information shows how much Lovecraft gave to his story. Sadly, I never fully regained my interest in this story. I pretty much slogged my way through the story for the narrator but I found myself zoning out near the middle and near the end because the emotion behind the voice seemed to remain the same. (I'm sorry Edward Herrmann! I love you and always will but I have to be honest.)
Narrator: 3.5 stars
Story: 2 stars
Overall: 2.75 stars
Narrator: 3.5 stars
Story: 2 stars
Overall: 2.75 stars
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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