Reviews - The Shadow Over Innsmouth

746 reviews for:

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

H.P. Lovecraft

3.87 AVERAGE

preston29's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-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

cyrthedeer's review against another edition

4.5

Original Goodreads review below:

Honestly Innsmouth ranks as more a 4.5 for me but I'm happy to give it a 5 mark here. It actually only took me a day to read, the longer time listed here is because I got derailed from daily reading.

To begin, I have to admit I've never been a huge fan of Lovecraft's works. I do highly value the contribution he made to horror writing, not to mention inventing the genre of cosmic horror. But in my forays into his work -mainly The Dunwich Horror and Call of Cthulhu- I found his stories underwhelming. Perhaps a bit of that is hype, and a bit is being smacked with Lovecraft's virulent racism without having any prior warning.

Speaking of racism, Innsmouth pleasantly surprised me by not being quite as remarkably vile in regards to racism as some of his other works. Yes, it is still present. We can only ask so much of the man. But it wasn't any more racist than what you might see in contemporary works, as opposed to Lovecraft's specific brand of fearful hatred (for context, this man was so racist that we have letters from other racist people at that time asking him to please tone it down a little, also look up the name of his cat).

All of this is a very long introduction to say, I really liked The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I liked it immensely, as a story of its own and not just in comparison with his other works that I've read. I found it well paced, thrilling, horrifying in all the right ways, with a properly chilling ending. This is the most compelling way he approaches an Old One. I found myself comparing it a bit to the 1973 Wicker Man, which I am sure draws inspiration from Innsmouth. As a big fan of Wicker Man, and generally of stories where a lone protagonist roots out a mystery in a hostile community, I really enjoyed Innsmouth.

All in all, I rate The Shadow Over Innsmouth as a 4.5, but part of why I am marking it as a 5 here is because this is the Lovecraft story I want people to read. I feel like it's a much better starting point for someone interested in his works than Call of Cthulhu. I also feel like it's a more compelling story, and a thrilling piece by its own right.