A review by kirnet
The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

In full honesty I only picked this book up because I am deep in the True Detective brain rot and I wanted to tap into some of the inspirations for the season. I’m also a fan of the Malevolent Podcast, which deals with the King in Yellow mythos, and I’ve read a lot of Lovecraft, so I went in expecting something much different than what is actually in this collection. Only the first 4 of the short stories actually deal with the King in Yellow, the rest are more weird/ fantasy romance fiction. Almost all of them have the through line of artists in Paris, with a lot of the same reoccurring characters and references, which is an interesting idea but I simply do not care about the French lol. Once I got over the hurdle of my own expectations and actually engaged with the stories on their own I started having a better time. The first story is by far the best and most engaging, and the rest of the stories slowly started to lose me, but that’s also due to my lack of experience with this time period, so most of the references went over my head, and I wasn’t engaged enough to research them. I also enjoyed the last story in the collection as well, I liked the humor.

Overall, I think labeling this collection as horror is entirely misleading? The first 4 stories, yes, to some degree, but the rest absolutely not. I was able to draw a lot of connections and possible places that True Detective drew inspiration from, and that’s mainly why I went into this in the first place, so that is a win. 

Theres a handful of period-expected racism, and the women in the stories are mostly just wet paper bags, but that’s to be expected.