Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu by Paula Guran

shanshanshenanigans's review against another edition

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not my style so didn’t really enjoy all that much 

jonmhansen's review against another edition

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4.0

Collection of recent Lovecraft inspired works. It's interesting to see the directions modern Lovecraftian horror has taken, moving away from the trappings of old books and haunted New England settings and exploring the themes: fear of the outsider and fear of your self. Good collection.

2kax0's review against another edition

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

2.5

arthurbdd's review against another edition

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3.0

Overly reliant on the same limited stable of authors that too many modern Mythos anthologies rely on. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2022/08/05/cthulhu-mythos-anthologies-are-trash-and-i-hate-them/

lucasilievskie's review against another edition

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3.0

2.75

A deeply average collection of new Lovecraftian fiction featuring a number of decently-written short stories and a number of terrible ones.

I have less of an issue with the stories themselves and more with the collection as a whole – there was no coherence, no underlying theme, no degree of connectedness between the tales that made me feel like I was reading a carefully-selected, carefully-curated short story collection. It just felt like a hodgepodge of low to medium quality short stories tied together loosely by cosmic horror motifs.

My favorites: A Clutch; Outside the House, Waiting for the Crows; Alexandra Lost; I Dress My Lover in Yellow; Variations on Lovecraft Themes. Everything else in the collection was forgettable or just...not very well written.

I’d advise anyone interested in picking this collection up to read only a select number of stories – don’t waste your time reading every single one. Some of them are really not worth your time.

degeneratefromnj's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

netherworld_books's review against another edition

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5.0

There were a couple of short pieces I didn't connect with, but it's a very strong collection. The editorial choices demonstrate an impressive breadth, the stories share thematic concerns or build on one of Lovecraft's idiosyncricies. None fall into pastiche.

mslzrmx's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

3.0

dungeonmasterteacher's review

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4.0

If you're interested in Lovecraft, but put off by his purple prose or toxic worldview this is a really good book to check out. Almost all of the stories are making their first appearance in this anthology, and I'm a little surprised at how many of them were good. Even the ones that weren't that good were at least interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the core themes of Lovecraft's work being explored from so many different perspectives. I especially enjoyed "Those Who Watch", "Backbite", "In the Ruins of Mohenjo-Daro", and "Variations on Lovecraftian Themes"
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