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rentheunclean 's review for:
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
by H.P. Lovecraft
The middle of this book (Chapters 3, 4 and the first half of Chapter 5) are very good, but the beginning and end left me unimpressed. I can almost appreciate what Lovecraft seemed to be trying to do here, but the execution just let me wanting. It is also unnecessarily xenophobic in a racially charged way, which is expected from Lovecraft, but still just sort of sucks.
Each chapter has the main character recounting a long monologue he witnessed during his exploration of Innsmouth from someone closer and closer to the goings on of the town. This is structurally unique and interesting, but this is where Lovecraft's execution falls over and doesn't really land. The two in the first two chapters are overlong and repetitive and don't make much sense contextually. It is hard to accept that a ticket seller or a store clerk would be this willing to give one-sided, 10,000 word history lessons on Innsmouth. The town drunk's story fits in better and is more interesting, though still repetitive. Chapter 4 ends up basically being the main character's own tale of his time in Innsmouth, with Chapter 5 being a wrap up (which I liked) and an out of no-where twist (which I thought was extremely weak).
Chapter 4 is the highlight of the book and single-handedly pulls this out of 1 star territory. It is believably tense and well narrated, with a compelling rising action that the rest of the book sets up very well (if in an overlong way). The telling of the main character's escape from the Gilman House and Innsmouth proper is absolutely riveting. This was probably additionally effective to me because of the excellent audiobook reading I listened to by Mike Bennett.
Each chapter has the main character recounting a long monologue he witnessed during his exploration of Innsmouth from someone closer and closer to the goings on of the town. This is structurally unique and interesting, but this is where Lovecraft's execution falls over and doesn't really land. The two in the first two chapters are overlong and repetitive and don't make much sense contextually. It is hard to accept that a ticket seller or a store clerk would be this willing to give one-sided, 10,000 word history lessons on Innsmouth. The town drunk's story fits in better and is more interesting, though still repetitive. Chapter 4 ends up basically being the main character's own tale of his time in Innsmouth, with Chapter 5 being a wrap up (which I liked) and an out of no-where twist (which I thought was extremely weak).
Chapter 4 is the highlight of the book and single-handedly pulls this out of 1 star territory. It is believably tense and well narrated, with a compelling rising action that the rest of the book sets up very well (if in an overlong way). The telling of the main character's escape from the Gilman House and Innsmouth proper is absolutely riveting. This was probably additionally effective to me because of the excellent audiobook reading I listened to by Mike Bennett.