H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction (1916-1959)

List: Jones/Newman, NPR and Reedsy Discovery all have Lovecraft in some form or fashion represented

**Note: There were five different H.P. Lovecraft books on the list (two of which I had already read) so I figured I’d just read through the entire fiction of Lovecraft as a catch all for all of them. Also note that this doesn’t include collaborations like Lurker at the Threshold which August Derleth completed based on a Lovecraft story fragment.
This audiobook collection of over 50 hours of material courtesy of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society starts with the relatively straightforward “The Alchemist”, his first published story, before launching directly into a novella that’s one of the cornerstones of the Lovecraftian mythos, “At the Mountains of Madness”. It’s an appropriate story to kick things off proper with as it gives you almost everything Lovecraft is known for, both for good and bad: you have his elaborate descriptions of otherworldly architecture and culture, his excellence sense of mood and atmosphere, his ability to build to a an impressive finale, his long-windedness and tediousness in belaboring points that could’ve been made more efficiently… I mean, by the end of this one, you should be either totally bought in or completely alienated, so in that respect it’s a smart move.
Of course this being a complete collection, all the major touchstones of Lovecraft’s mythos are here including “Call of Cthulhu”, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, “Dagon”, “The Nameless City”, “The Dunwich Horror” and others. My personal favorites in the core Cthulhu mythos include “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” with its creepy fish people, the third section of “The Call of Cthulhu” (the only time we actually get the main god himself to make an appearance), “The Whisperer in the Darkness” (a macabre tale of alien mad science) and “The Thing on the Doorstep” (a strange tale of evil wizard body swapping).
Some of the ones I enjoy the most aren’t actually tied to the overarching Cthulhu mythos at all like the creeping urban horror of “Pickman’s Model” (I wonder if this was an influence on Fritz Leiber), the gruesome Frankenstein riff “Herbert West Re-animator” (which has a nice dark sense of humor to it), the amusingly self-referential “The Unnameable” and the more straightforward terror of “The Tomb” and “The Lurking Fear”.
Not all of them are gems though. Honestly some of my least favorite are some of the longest like The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward which feels like a short story idea extended to novel length and the obnoxiously self-indulgent Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. Also of lesser interest are ones that seem to exist solely to build out the mythos without offering much of an actual interesting narrative like “Nyarlathotep”, “The Descendent”, and “History of the Necronomicon”.
It also contains some little curios that seem to stick out from the rest like “The Mysterious Ship”,”Sweet Ermengarde” (the rare straight up comedy with not even a little horror or mystery) and a discarded draft of “Shadow Over Innsmouth” that are really only of interest to completionists.
Of course this wouldn’t be a write-up without mentioning Lovecraft’s racism which is definitely there. You get touches of it in stories like “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” with his distrust of “the other” but the notorious “Terror at Red Hook” is certainly his most blatant and unappealing (which is a shame since the story itself is actually told quite well). Even an otherwise nice little pulp exercise like “The Rats in the Walls” is spoiled by a very unfortunate pet name.
One last thing of note to this particular audiobook edition is that I quite liked the 5 minutes of outtakes at the end with the readers themselves cursing Lovecraft’s at times labyrinthian, overly prosaic and dense dialogue.
Overall while I wouldn’t say I am an unabashed massive fan of everything Lovecraft ever produced, he was undeniably a massive influence on horror fiction and a damn good writer when he reigned in his most over-indulgent impulses.

Mythago Wood (Robert Holdstock, 1984)

List: Jones/Newman

Brothers Steven and Christian are drawn to Ryhope Wood, a mysterious forest their father was obsessed with investigating and where they discover mythagos, myths and legends are rendered flesh and blood out of their imaginations. When Christian goes missing in the wood pursuing his mythago, a beautiful woman he thought dead but now believes may be remade, Steven finds his own incarnation of the mythago to have appeared from the wood, the wild and ravishing Guiwenneth. Eventually events transpire that causes Steven and Harry Keeton, a man Steven brings on to aid in his investigation of the wood, to venture into the woods themselves, bringing forth danger and destiny.
This dark gothic fantasy had a pretty interesting premise and at times fulfills its promise with engaging and philosophically stimulating passages on the role of archetype in the human consciousness. It’s certainly the kind of novel that impresses critics, earning the World Fantasy Award back when it was released, and surprisingly has a clean and elegant prose that makes it quite readable. And yet, something felt missing for me. It seemed to take too long to get to the meat of the story, spending far too long on an awkward romance plot that was not Holdstock’s strong suit. When in the woods themselves though, the book is a well-paced fantasy adventure with dark undertones of madness and murder. As an aside, I’m honestly not sure why this was included in a list of Best Horror though as the horror elements themselves are very light in general. I’m reading through the Jones/Newman books on the side though so I imagine I’ll get to the rationale behind it as I’ve seen with others that feel non-genre.

Forget the Sleepless Shores: Stories (Sonya Taaffe, 2017)

List: NPR

Many of these stories are melancholy sea-tinged ruminations on loss and desire featuring ghosts and creatures of the dark as surrogates for our own inner turmoil. The centerpiece of the collection “All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts” (and the story that was actually featured on the NPR list) is a Lovecraftian tale of those in Innsmouth left behind, destined to be apart from humanity while also unable to be accepted by their own people. It’s an interesting, unique story, and I can see why it’s admired. Taaffe’s prose for the majority of the stories is willfully obtuse, over-written and self-indulgent but for this one story, she seems to reign it in to create something a little more special. Many of the other stories in the collection though are just tough reads to be frank. I found myself unable to focus on the text, the florid, obfuscated passages blurring into a morass of inconsequentiality that made it increasingly difficult to actually follow what’s happening. Several stories are intentionally vague in their conversations and descriptions. Some are written in second person present tense. It all feels very experimental and even more poetry prose. I think a small subset of people will find Taaffe’s writing style absolutely captivating. But as for me, I have no desire to follow Taaffe any further down the rabbit hole.

Strange Toys (Patricia Geary, 1987)

List: Jones/Newman

9-year-old Pet’s family is eccentric. Her mom and dad are lackadaisical and inattentive. Her 13-year-old sister June is both Pet’s best friend and harshest critic, calling her fat constantly while also cultivating a toy poodle collection with her. Their oldest sister Deane gets into some trouble with some bad people and gets arrested, and the family skips town on an extended cross-country road trip until the problems blow over. They stop at every tourist destination and tourist trap they come across as a way to spend time. Along the way, Pet comes across a mysterious gentleman named Sammy who only wants Deane’s personal diary. Pet doesn’t understand it but ultimately decides to do it to make Deane disappear and stop causing her family trouble. This seemingly innocuous transaction sends dark magic repercussions through Pet’s entire life as we jump forward to Pet at 16 and then Pet at 30, trying to break a familial cycle of regret and sadness.
I liked this one quite a bit, but I feel like the final third of the book just doesn’t quite stick the landing. Still, it does a great job of building out the character of Pet, representing her inner voice at different points in her life as she wrestles with trauma and a sense of independence. The early chapters have this entrancing sense of magical realism and horror Americana to them that Stephen King has so often trafficked in, and it’s interesting to see Pet’s character arc leading up to pivotal moments in her life that center around bizarre voodoo rituals. As I mentioned before though, the final third of the book just doesn’t pull everything together the way I hoped it would and leaves things a little unsatisfyingly vague. Still I think it’s worth reading for the interesting characterization alone.

Goosebumps Breakdown Part 1

Goosebumps… That much adored gateway to horror for many a little scamp, pumped out by the dozens by kid scares machine R. L. Stine. NPR was kind enough to put the entire 62-book Goosebumps series on their list. I hadn’t really intended to read all of them, but my son seems to be into them at the moment. So I thought, hey, why not read along with him and post groups of them as we finish as a little side quest? I doubt I’ll read all of them or possibly even half of them by the end of this, but I guess I’ll see how far it takes me. I actually read a decent amount of them when I was a kid but don’t remember much. Anyway, without further ado…
Go Eat Worms: I don’t know why my son picked this one to read first. It’s certainly one of the least scary of the Goosebumps books (of course, none of them are actually that scary to begin with) instead going for the ‘ick’ factor. Lots of worms being put in people’s hair and down shirts, goofy shenanigans like that. The ending is by far the best thing about this one which is otherwise super lame.
Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes: Hey, lawn gnomes are kinda creepy, right? Well, not here. Instead they come off more obnoxious, sneaking around at night and damaging the neighbor’s property, getting our protagonist and his dog in trouble. Even the ending where Stine usually tries to come up with some kiddie Twilight Zone kind of thing falls flat.
Beware, the Snowman! This was just dumb. Coming late in the original Goosebumps series, it’s obvious Stine was running out of ideas. It even has a lame fakeout where the snowman pretends to be the protagonist’s father. Pretty bottom of the barrel Goosebumps.
Shocker on Shock Street: Finally, a Goosebumps book that seems to legitimately be capable of scaring little kids. This one is basically one long theme park ride of a book with the two main kids being constantly tormented by all the ooky stuff on the hot new Shock Street ride. Plus is has a kind of clever twist ending.
A Night in Terror Tower: This is another above average entry for Goosebumps with kind of grotesque torture tower as the initial setting before it switches gears into a loopy time travel story. This one also has a pretty decent twist that puts it a step above crappy evil snowmen and sinister lawn gnomes.

Of course an above average Goosebumps book is still pretty weak sauce for the average adult horror fan, so you know, keep that in mind with these micro-reviews.