italo_carlvino 's review for:

H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction by S.T. Joshi, H.P. Lovecraft

5.0

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My personal favorites are "The Color Out of Space," "The Music of Erich Zann," "The Dunwich Horror," "At the Mountains of Madness," and "Shadow over Innsmouth." I have also read "Dagon," "The Thing on the Doorstep," "Herbert West Reanimator," "The Outsider," "Call of Cthulhu," and "Cool Air." There are probably others I have missed. All the stories are excellent in their ability to create cosmic horror.

Though Lovecraft's racism is really bad even by the standards of his time. Regardless of the specifics of his story he managed to capture existentialist dread and anxiety in his work, which can still speak to us today. In fact his themes can and should be reappropriated by marginalized groups who, because of their marginalization, live that existential dread and anxiety. I believe it is our duty to excavate these themes from the garbage to tell better stories.

Ranking of all of the stories I have read so far:

Color Out of Space
Call of Cthulhu
At the Mountains of Madness
Dunwich Horror (note: these are my four favorites)
Shadow Over Innsmouth
Thing on the Doorstep
Whisperer in the Darkness
Dreams of the Witch House
Nyarlothotep
The Music of Erich Zann
Shadow Out of Time
Dagon
Herbert West Reanimator (the movie is better honestly)
The Outsider
Cool Air (spooky air conditioner wooooo!)