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The Color Out Of Space, The Dreams In The Witch House
Whether the dreams brought on the fever or the fever brought on the dreams Walter Gilman did not know. Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town, and of the moldy, unhallowed garret gable where he wrote and studied and wrestled with figures and formulae when he was not tossing on the meager iron bed. His ears were growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree, and he had long ago stopped the cheap mantel clock whose ticking had come to seem like a thunder of artillery. At night the subtle stirring of the black city outside, the sinister scurrying of rats in the wormy partitions, and the creaking of hidden timbers in the centuried house, were enough to give him a sense of strident pandemonium. The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound—and yet he sometimes shook with fear lest the noises he heard should subside and allow him to hear certain other fainter noises which he suspected were lurking behind them.
88 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 24, 2016
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,494 books19.6k followersHoward 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 9, 2020
❤ Favorite lines:
"The place is not good for imagination, and does not bring restful dreams at night."
"It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws."
"He’d been going to pieces for days, and hardly knew what he was about. Screamed at everything."
"Why was everything so grey and brittle?"
"It was just a colour—but not any colour of our earth or heavens."
"The rural tales are queer. They might be even queerer (...)"
❤ ❤ ❤
Two words: mesmerizingly beautiful. The style was perfect: rich, vivid and creative. Descriptions were something that stood out for me, they were incredibly well done with just the right mixture of metaphor and realism.
Also, it's an old story, so the word 'queer' popped up quite frequently. Like, really frequently. I know the meaning in this context is 'strange', but I loved it anyway.
The idea was unique and well executed. The only thing I feel the author could have done better was the characterisation. Now, I get it, it's a short story, not a novel, so characters didn't have much time to develop. While I agree, I still think they should be at least a bit more fleshed out.
All in all, an interesting story with boring characters.
❤
"The place is not good for imagination, and does not bring restful dreams at night."
"It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws."
"He’d been going to pieces for days, and hardly knew what he was about. Screamed at everything."
"Why was everything so grey and brittle?"
"It was just a colour—but not any colour of our earth or heavens."
"The rural tales are queer. They might be even queerer (...)"
❤ ❤ ❤
Two words: mesmerizingly beautiful. The style was perfect: rich, vivid and creative. Descriptions were something that stood out for me, they were incredibly well done with just the right mixture of metaphor and realism.
Also, it's an old story, so the word 'queer' popped up quite frequently. Like, really frequently. I know the meaning in this context is 'strange', but I loved it anyway.
The idea was unique and well executed. The only thing I feel the author could have done better was the characterisation. Now, I get it, it's a short story, not a novel, so characters didn't have much time to develop. While I agree, I still think they should be at least a bit more fleshed out.
All in all, an interesting story with boring characters.
❤
November 17, 2019
CooS is a top-5 Lovecraft story for me.
March 1, 2020
Fun read!! I hope the new movie is good.
December 30, 2019
This book is literally Annihilation. Although, I found this one way creepier than the move itself. xD
January 26, 2020
Engrossing story with slow building horror. Loved his descriptions of the transformations resulting from the comet. The movie version that just came out is so disappointing. As with so many movie versions of classic gothic stories, Hollywood overdoes it with special effects, ruining the slowly building fear that the books offer.
May 9, 2026
This is my first book I have read by H.P. Lovecraft. In fact, "The Color Out of Space" (1927) was H.P. Lovecraft’s personal favorite among his hundreds of stories. He considered it his most successful attempt at creating a truly alien, incomprehensible entity, blending science fiction with cosmic horror.
Lovecraft, who often explored themes of madness and the unknown, felt this story best embodied his theories on horror, focusing on a "color" from outside space that acts as an incomprehensible force rather than a traditional monster. In June 1882, a meteorite made planetfall on Gardner's land. Over the following months, whatever alien organism had been aboard proceeded to infect and mutate the surrounding plant and animal life, including the Gardners themselves. Very creepy things happen when this alien organism which is not human or android but a purely extraterrestrial, incomprehensible lifeform from beyond our known universe invades this farm. Sounds like our immediate Washington administration if you ask me. (lol)
Science fiction and body horror are not the most effective or enjoyable types of horror for me. I can appreciate them, but they aren’t generally something that will suck me in or really scare or terrify me. Science in the story was no match for this thing. I also appreciate how the alien form was portrayed here. When they more or less look like us-it’s not nearly as scary. It’s much scarier when they are something we cannot comprehend-no real form and a color we’ve never seen. I never read Lovecraft before, but I think he does do a very good job at creating an alien which is beyond our comprehension, one not stereotypically anthropomorphic but rather what appears to be a living color, which feeds, destroys, and drives people to insanity. Check it out.
Lovecraft, who often explored themes of madness and the unknown, felt this story best embodied his theories on horror, focusing on a "color" from outside space that acts as an incomprehensible force rather than a traditional monster. In June 1882, a meteorite made planetfall on Gardner's land. Over the following months, whatever alien organism had been aboard proceeded to infect and mutate the surrounding plant and animal life, including the Gardners themselves. Very creepy things happen when this alien organism which is not human or android but a purely extraterrestrial, incomprehensible lifeform from beyond our known universe invades this farm. Sounds like our immediate Washington administration if you ask me. (lol)
Science fiction and body horror are not the most effective or enjoyable types of horror for me. I can appreciate them, but they aren’t generally something that will suck me in or really scare or terrify me. Science in the story was no match for this thing. I also appreciate how the alien form was portrayed here. When they more or less look like us-it’s not nearly as scary. It’s much scarier when they are something we cannot comprehend-no real form and a color we’ve never seen. I never read Lovecraft before, but I think he does do a very good job at creating an alien which is beyond our comprehension, one not stereotypically anthropomorphic but rather what appears to be a living color, which feeds, destroys, and drives people to insanity. Check it out.
April 8, 2020
So this one I really liked. I also wanted to listen to it since I saw the movie recently. The changes were very different but still kept very close to the source material. I really enjoyed the changes between the two stories
January 29, 2020
Classic Annihilation story. rated 7/11
March 16, 2020
This was really well written! I figured reading some existential horror would mesh well with my current situation, haha
July 17, 2021
Really enjoyed 'The Color Out of Space'. Great concept and a fun read, liked the dramatic ending and the almost juxtaposed sinisterness with the pretty glow...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews