The call of Cthulhu : and other frightening tales

by H.P. Lovecraft

This collection of stories is not for the faint of heart. Lovecraft’s detailed and graphic depictions of supernatural beasts and dark mysterious realms will leave readers hanging on the edge of their seats. Considered to be one of the most significant horror writers of the twentieth century, Lovecraft creates sinister beings with fantastical and cosmic origin stories that will both terrify and delight fans of this genre.

Genres: Fiction

243 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Alex Fry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did it. I defeated HP Lovecraft. Call of Cthulhu and the third short story were great, but the Silver Key was pointless and MY GOD was Mountains of Madness boring. Such a cool concept for a book too, but when it boiled down to geological descriptions and overindulgence in detail I got sick of that shit fast. A picture is worth 1000 words, and HP Lovecraft misinterpreted that memo.

Overall I can see why he’s such an important horror writer, and I do appreciate his style of slowly building up these cosmic horrors. It’s just *how* he builds it up can range from intriguing to ungodly levels of boring.

Also he loves the word decadent. I’m not even sure he used it right half the time because after reading it so much I still hardly know what it means.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Call of Cthulu: 4/5
The Silver Key: 2/5
The Dunwich Horror: 5/5
At the Mountains of Madness: 3/5

[Brian Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feen spent 40 pages describing a cave.

No bueno.

2.0/5

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 - Lovecraftian themes/ideas are some of my favourites but his works are a bit of a slog. Prime example that doing it first doesn’t mean you did it best.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a collection of four of Lovecraft’s most popular works. While I’m certainly no admirer of his personal life, I wanted to read these to get a glimpse into the Cthulhu Mythos and to see what inspired the overall Lovecraftian genre of horror. Alas, after reading these it seems that I’m no admirer of his professional life either. While I know there are a few other recommended works not included in this collection, I honestly don’t feel compelled to trudge through them.

The individual works’ ratings and reviews are as follows:

“The Call of Cthulhu”
- 2.5/5 stars
- Just about average for me. I wanted to read it due to it being the foundation of Lovecraftian lore, but I honestly wasn’t impressed. I can appreciate the idea, but I felt it fell short. Maybe cosmic horror just doesn’t do it for me, but I finished feeling generally underwhelmed and not really excited to read the other stories.

“The Silver Key”
- 2.75/5 stars
- As a whole, I liked this one slightly more than “The Call of Cthulhu.” While the first few pages were painfully repetitive and slow, I found the overall story to be relatively enjoyable and interesting. Still not something I’d remember after a few days, though.

“The Dunwich Horror”
- 3.75/5 stars
- This one was genuinely enjoyable to read. I thought it would be predictable from the beginning, but I ended up actually being surprised by the ending. Great vibes of an eerie, creepy, village.

“At the Mountains of Madness”
- 2.25/5 stars
- This was a frustrating experience. After a relatively enjoyable novella experience with “The Dunwich Horror,” I was excited to start this novella, especially since it is one of Lovecraft’s more famous works. However, the few good story ideas that this has are dragged down by woefully executed exposition and environmental descriptions. It took me twice as long to finish as I thought it would solely due to the number of breaks I needed to take from the seemingly endless rambling by the narrator. By the end, the somewhat interesting plot felt very overshadowed by an overall poor writing performance.

[JSpringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, maybe 6/10.

My favourite story out of these which I found was the most striking was The Dunwich Horror. The Call of Cthulhu doesn't live up to it's reputation but it wasn't bad, just average. The Silver Key was boring. At The Mountains of Madness was intriguing for the first half but then it became just a lot of telling rather than showing and the endless descriptions of the rooms and chasms they enter as they are in the Mountains was soo boring.

This is the first grouping of Lovecraft books I've read and while I'm sure there's still some good ones out there. I think it's the descriptions of lore that have a legacy and have stood the time rather than the texts themselves - this book wasn't super interesting. A bit like The King in Yellow, I was expecting a bit more horror but oh well.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked some of the short stories more than the others. Overall, I found there was a lot of repetition (especially in the foreshadowing), and too much description. I understand how novel and original this must have been, but we've seen a lot of this since their time.

[Rowan Gleser · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars the first and third stories were great but the last one was painful to read

[Saju Pillai · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

Unreadable.

[Sophie]

DNF at 46%

Review to come

[Conor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the themes and the atmosphere, but an absolute slog to get through. The mundane, over zealous descriptions really detract from the eldritch horror

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. Interesting ideas, but quite a slog + battle to get through. Of all the stories, my favourite was the Dunwich Horror.

[Matthew]

Favorites were Dunwich Horror and Mountains of Madness. Then Call of Cthulhu, then Silver Key.

[Robert Schofield]

Not great.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraft can be great once he gets to the point. Madness is the pages and pages of rocks and masonry we found along the way.

[Lukas Sarnow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dunwich Horror A+