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keaganbailey's review against another edition
2.0
Whoever put this collection together really put sawdust in with the oats. The collection is named after the first 4 stories and the other 6 romances have nothing to do with the horror stories before them, they're also much weaker stories.
The romances quickly turn into half-french slogs and I could see the longest story, The Street of Our Lady of the Fields, being nearly incomprehensible if you don't understand at least a little French and/or some art terminology.
All of the stories have the same issue of the reader needing to reorient themselves every 15-30 pages with dry settings and okay-enough characters. The endings are nearly all VERY good but you find yourself not being able to invest yourself in the characters since you know there's only the setup and ending. There's no meat to the stories.
2 stars for the lack of theme and the wild amount of French, but I would probably rate 4 stars if it was just the first 4-5 stories in this collection.
The romances quickly turn into half-french slogs and I could see the longest story, The Street of Our Lady of the Fields, being nearly incomprehensible if you don't understand at least a little French and/or some art terminology.
All of the stories have the same issue of the reader needing to reorient themselves every 15-30 pages with dry settings and okay-enough characters. The endings are nearly all VERY good but you find yourself not being able to invest yourself in the characters since you know there's only the setup and ending. There's no meat to the stories.
2 stars for the lack of theme and the wild amount of French, but I would probably rate 4 stars if it was just the first 4-5 stories in this collection.
slettlune's review against another edition
4.0
Chambers uses a remarkably modern language for his time, and is occasionally as cleverly witty as, say, Pratchett, but it was the pre-Lovecraftian mad horror that drew me to this book. All the short stories involding the king in yellow are wonderfully creepy and curious -- but I was somwhat disappointed the recurring motifs of madness and the titular play are all done with after the four first stories, then it's a series of love stories from there on out. They're good love stories (this is where his dry wit shines) and I adore the bohemian settings he uses for them, but they feel dissonant to the horror stories that preceded them. Had this collection been published today I'm pretty sure any editor would at least have reshuffled the order of stories so the change didn't feel so abrupt.
aramintapdf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
the premise is fascinating and the first handful of stories were great but the longer ones lost me.
tessabessa's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
swanzystyle's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
charri's review against another edition
Really tough to get past the old timey racism for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism
mormengil's review against another edition
5.0
Aaah, the King in Yellow.. A must read for all Cthulhu mythos (or Yog-Sothothery as HPL liked to call it himself) fans. You can't write stories like this in this day and age. Society is far too advanced and science has solved far too many mysteries. There is a certain compelling charm to cosmic and existential horror set in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. And you can still enjoy them certainly, if you can get in the proper mindset.