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A review by squid_vicious
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
4.0
October spooky read #10!
Yup, the good old classic. And like most classics, it has quite a few flaws, mercifully balanced with enough imagination and silliness that one can still enjoy these short stories despite some truly off-putting elements.
I would lie if I pretended this book was easy to review, or to recommend. People usually either love or hate Lovecraft – I can see why, and his work is definitely not for everyone. If you can’t laugh at affected, excessively florid prose, don’t even bother. If you like the idea of sentient oozing green goo, step right up! But seriously: his thing was the ineffable, so you need to use your own imagination to make his stories creepy. All he will do is hint at what could possibly be lurking in shadows, or what those cultists might be summoning, and the rest is up to you. Most of his mysterious stories remain unsolved, and that can both frustrating and very creepy, but people who need their horror spelled out for them will not get into it. This is for those of us who love ideas like books with a mind of their own, geographies that will dive a man mad, strange not-quite-humanoid creatures, secret forgotten cults worshiping strange and ancient gods.
Also, given his incredible influence over horror, weird, fantasy, science-fiction and pop culture (see “In The Mountains of Madness” https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1912341592?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1), this little collection is a must-read if only because it is so seminal. You don’t have to like the guy, but knowing what inspired the greatest minds of genre literature and cinema is very interesting (at least, to nerds like me). It can definitely be a challenging read, both because of the style, repetition of a few tropes, and of course, the occasional unsavory descriptions. But when they are good, Lovecraft’s stories are truly wonderful, atmospheric and spooky. He created a world of dark menace, filled with truly alien entities whose motivations the human mind simply cannot grasp, and that world has spread like a virus into the mind of so many other writers and artists…
This collection, edited by S.T. Joshi, is the perfect place to start for Lovecraft newbies. Joshi carefully selected stories that are loosely connected to each other, provided a great introduction that will inform the reader about Lovecraft’s theories on writing and on horror, and includes notes about each story. But on the first read, my advice is to ignore the academic analysis and just dive in. Have a cocktail and read it aloud to yourself (or to a willing friend), as theatrically as you can.
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" remains a weird stand out for me, as does the title story (obviously), but I also really love "The Whisperer in Darkness" (adapted into a fantastic movie by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society in 2011) and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". While this tome includes a few weaker stories, they all introduce important items over the Lovecratian Universe, like the town of Arkham, Massachusetts and it's infamous Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon is mentioned in several tales - and obviously, the Old Ones and their eon old cult, which can be found in isolated areas all over the globe. First-time readers and novices should definitely start here.
A flawed must-read, if only to satisfy your intellectual curiosity about what this whole Cthulhu business is about. I agree that other writers built on his groundwork and wrote better-written and more interesting stories, but the twisted root of one of my favorite genres is well worth the detour. 4 and a half stars.
Yup, the good old classic. And like most classics, it has quite a few flaws, mercifully balanced with enough imagination and silliness that one can still enjoy these short stories despite some truly off-putting elements.
I would lie if I pretended this book was easy to review, or to recommend. People usually either love or hate Lovecraft – I can see why, and his work is definitely not for everyone. If you can’t laugh at affected, excessively florid prose, don’t even bother. If you like the idea of sentient oozing green goo, step right up! But seriously: his thing was the ineffable, so you need to use your own imagination to make his stories creepy. All he will do is hint at what could possibly be lurking in shadows, or what those cultists might be summoning, and the rest is up to you. Most of his mysterious stories remain unsolved, and that can both frustrating and very creepy, but people who need their horror spelled out for them will not get into it. This is for those of us who love ideas like books with a mind of their own, geographies that will dive a man mad, strange not-quite-humanoid creatures, secret forgotten cults worshiping strange and ancient gods.
Also, given his incredible influence over horror, weird, fantasy, science-fiction and pop culture (see “In The Mountains of Madness” https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1912341592?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1), this little collection is a must-read if only because it is so seminal. You don’t have to like the guy, but knowing what inspired the greatest minds of genre literature and cinema is very interesting (at least, to nerds like me). It can definitely be a challenging read, both because of the style, repetition of a few tropes, and of course, the occasional unsavory descriptions. But when they are good, Lovecraft’s stories are truly wonderful, atmospheric and spooky. He created a world of dark menace, filled with truly alien entities whose motivations the human mind simply cannot grasp, and that world has spread like a virus into the mind of so many other writers and artists…
This collection, edited by S.T. Joshi, is the perfect place to start for Lovecraft newbies. Joshi carefully selected stories that are loosely connected to each other, provided a great introduction that will inform the reader about Lovecraft’s theories on writing and on horror, and includes notes about each story. But on the first read, my advice is to ignore the academic analysis and just dive in. Have a cocktail and read it aloud to yourself (or to a willing friend), as theatrically as you can.
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" remains a weird stand out for me, as does the title story (obviously), but I also really love "The Whisperer in Darkness" (adapted into a fantastic movie by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society in 2011) and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". While this tome includes a few weaker stories, they all introduce important items over the Lovecratian Universe, like the town of Arkham, Massachusetts and it's infamous Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon is mentioned in several tales - and obviously, the Old Ones and their eon old cult, which can be found in isolated areas all over the globe. First-time readers and novices should definitely start here.
A flawed must-read, if only to satisfy your intellectual curiosity about what this whole Cthulhu business is about. I agree that other writers built on his groundwork and wrote better-written and more interesting stories, but the twisted root of one of my favorite genres is well worth the detour. 4 and a half stars.