Reviews

Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities by James Lovegrove

icedragonchilde's review against another edition

4.25

A good 30% of this book is a story within a story that Holmes and Watson are reading, and it legitimately reads straight up like an actual short story by Lovecraft (with less racism.) I really enjoyed it.

norwegianforestreader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

elodiethefangirl's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

jscarpa14's review

4.0

I still feel a bit distant from the stories and I don't like how dim Watson seems in these stories. But I really enjoyed the journal section of the book that the other story didn't have. The series improves with each novel.

karmakit's review

3.0

I’m struggling with giving this three or four stars.....I really enjoyed listening to this book. The flow was wonderful as well as the ode to the original Holmes stories. The bit of science was enjoyable woven with the detective mystery and supernatural elements.

ferns_citruscorner_8's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

4.0

A good second book. Not entirely the Sherlock Holmes and John Watson I picture, but it’s fine. There’s a shit ton of racist name calling and whatnot, so please take care before reading. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Suicide attempt

iam_griff's review

4.0

Mixing Cthulhu with Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson, who could ask for more? This is the second volume in the trilogy of the Cthulhu Casebook & I enjoyed it again immensely.

mike_brough's review

3.0

Not as good as the first volume but still enjoyable hokum. The middle, journal, section was well done.

foxon's review

2.0

This just made me uncomfortable. Not for its gore or murder, that is very par for the course for books of this genre, but for how callously James Lovegrove treats topics he clearly knows are sensitive. Main characters engage in on page racism and enslavement with hardly a thought much less a second one in order to analyze their own behavior. It's like he tried to show how 'Of the time' these characters are, but what he fails to write the MC's in any way except for the heroes of the story. So tonally the reader is given to think that these are the 'good guys' even though their actions show us they are absolutely not. And that's all before we get to the massive flash back that takes up 1/4 of the book and deals with real life racism that was going on in America at the time. By the time that sequence was finished I didn't even care about what the ending was going to be.

godlizza's review

4.0

A strong sequel, though not quite as fun as the first book. This book, I will say, really amped up the horror, especially in the latter half of the book. Everything to do with weirdo brain experiments truly captured the 'wrongness' of human experimentation and messing with nature. Good mad scientist shit right there. The ending was also a bit of a mind fuck I didn't see coming. Excited to read the third book and see how the series wraps up :)