A review by jellygh0st
The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

See, it's hard to review because it's mostly pure aesthetic. Not from its writing, no, the act of reading it is purely aesthetic. There's something to be gained from it, for sure, but most of us approaching this work already know the vast majority of what there is to know about it - and that is its aesthetic. Actually reading it is gratuitous, even when it's valuable, just so you can make a check mark in your mind and recall that you did, in fact, read the classic horror thing. That's not to say it's bad, often it's inspiring and I still take influences from many of the stories in my own work, but it's not like... substantial in the way you'd want it to be when compared to other important works of horror.