A review by darynnmark
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
4.0
I only read: "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Shadow over Innsmouth", "The Colour out of Space", and "The Whisper in the Darkness."
A quick note upfront - the foreword to the version I read did a lot of "well, he was a horrible racist, but that didn't really matter in his works and he was a brilliant writer." While I can see how he influenced Stephen King and others, his racism did show, at least in the "Call of Cthulhu." I took this on as more of an educational read for me, and while I don't think he should be celebrated at all, now I can say I at least have a surface knowledge of his works, and I know where Cthulhu originates from.
Of these stories, "The Shadow over Innsmouth" was my favorite, as I thought it was probably the weirdest, it had a good twist, and the suspense/horror over the whole thing I thought was the strongest.
The titular "The Call of Cthulhu," while it works as kind of a setup for most of the others (with Cthulhu being the center of most of the Lovecraft mythos), was actually the weakest of these stories, to me. It also had the most blatant racism, which was a big turnoff.
The "Whisper in the Darkness" was probably my second favorite, as a family is working to revive a terrible thing that grows both figuratively and literally in horror, scale, and destruction.
The "Colour of Space" was actually outside the Cthulhu and Old Ones mythos, when everything goes wrong for a family after a meteor lands on their farmland.
Overall, knowing the viewpoint of the author, I would recommend reading these tales, especially if you're a fan of Stephen King.
A quick note upfront - the foreword to the version I read did a lot of "well, he was a horrible racist, but that didn't really matter in his works and he was a brilliant writer." While I can see how he influenced Stephen King and others, his racism did show, at least in the "Call of Cthulhu." I took this on as more of an educational read for me, and while I don't think he should be celebrated at all, now I can say I at least have a surface knowledge of his works, and I know where Cthulhu originates from.
Of these stories, "The Shadow over Innsmouth" was my favorite, as I thought it was probably the weirdest, it had a good twist, and the suspense/horror over the whole thing I thought was the strongest.
The titular "The Call of Cthulhu," while it works as kind of a setup for most of the others (with Cthulhu being the center of most of the Lovecraft mythos), was actually the weakest of these stories, to me. It also had the most blatant racism, which was a big turnoff.
The "Whisper in the Darkness" was probably my second favorite, as a family is working to revive a terrible thing that grows both figuratively and literally in horror, scale, and destruction.
The "Colour of Space" was actually outside the Cthulhu and Old Ones mythos, when everything goes wrong for a family after a meteor lands on their farmland.
Overall, knowing the viewpoint of the author, I would recommend reading these tales, especially if you're a fan of Stephen King.