Various HP Lovecraft novelette reviews.

[A Genius]

In the literature world, I was hearing a lot about the Cthulhu Mythos and how HP Lovecraft wrote them and stuff. After a while, I decided to check it out, so I started looking for HP Lovecraft books at the store. I found one and took it home, only to find that I had recieved the same book for Christmas last year and forgot about it.

HP Lovecraft in general: The book I ended up getting twice was The Best of HP Lovecraft. Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and Macabre. I do not believe that too many of you will be severely frightened of his work. HP Lovecraft specialized in the fear of the unknown, and that's not really the most widely used type of fear in literature nowadays. They are, however, pretty fricking entertaining. Give em a shot, see if they're for you. So now, on to specific reviews of his stories! The ones I've read, anyway.

The Call of the Cthulhu: I can't guaruntee it, but I think "Cthulhu" is pronounced Kah-Thoo-Loo. It's probably easier to say Choo-loo, though, so I use that. Anyway, this is the first Lovecraft story I read, and it's probably the most well known of his works, since it introduces the Cthulhu Mythos title character. It's pretty cool, though. The first two thirds of the story talk about what Cthulhu is and how he was born and stuff. It's a pretty good read right there, the Cthluhu cult is pretty cool, and Cthulhu's plot is diabolically evil, though, in my opinion, kind of silly. The last third, however, features Cthulhu running around eating people. I can't tell you too much about this bit without giving away spoilers, but however scary Cthulhu was meant to be in this story, he comes off as cute in the last bit. Not that that's a bad thing. I've actually heard of Cthulhu plush dolls. Anyway, Cthulhu is great. You've got to like him. 9/10

The Dunwich Horror: Meh...this one is okay. It's longer than TCOFC, and probably scarier also (there's a VERY freaky scene in the middle involving one of the villains), but I don't think it really clicked for me. Basically, the plot here involves the evil wizard Wilbur Whately going off to find the Necronomicon and summon Yog Sothoth. And there's a problem right there. Comparared with the Shoggoths or Nyarlathotep, Yog Sothoth isn't really that interesting a villain. He's just a big clump of stuff tied together, and runs around raping/eating stuff like cows or people. Lovecraft never evidentally liked Sothoth much. 6/10

Nyarlathotep: This is a hard one to grade because it's so short. I read this one on the internet instead of the collection, because it's not actually in the collection. Nyarlathotep makes his first appearance here, and while I hacen't seen him much yet, he's pretty scary and evidentally one of the most popular characters. Yeah, so basically the plot nhere is that Nyarlathotep comes down and does some stuff. I can't tell any more without giving away the ending. Ah, hell. It'll take you all of ten minutes to read anyway, Nyarlathotep kills everybody. Anyway, nothing this short can annoy you too much. 8/10

The Shadow over Innsmouth: This is one of Lovecraft's most well regarded works, though he didn't care too much for it, which features several mentions of Cthulhu (And several references to deities that obviously are Cthulhu). Cthluhu is awesome, giving this an instant thumbs up. Anyway, this story is about a guy who goes to a town full of evil fish people. Hell, having fish people is enough for this story. Anyway... Innsmouth is a pretty dang cool story featuring a drunken old man explaining the history of Innsmouth, an interesting escape sequence near the end, and a twisted ending (Although not as surprising today as it once was). This is probably the best example of what HP Lovecraft is like, so it's probably the best starting story. 9/10

-A Genius (I have mor to review, but I'll do them later.)