The Transition of Juan Romero

by H.P. Lovecraft

The story involves a mine that uncovers a very deep chasm, too deep for any sounding lines to hit bottom. The night after the discovery of the abyss the narrator and one of the mine's workers, Juan Romero, venture inside the mine, drawn against their will by a mysterious rhythmical throbbing in the ground.

Genres: Horror, Lovecraftian, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Classics, Weird Fiction

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1919

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

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite an eerie story about two miners (first person narrator and a charismatic Mexican named Juan Romero) who encounter a strange noise in the earth. Will they both survive the story unharmed? What about the mysterious Hindoo ring the narrator wears. Great uncanny atmosphere and very unsettling tale that evolves like a movie. Really recommended!

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Transition of Juan Romero is an atmospheric story told retrospectively by a miner who experienced something inexplicable and dreadful in a mine years ago.

The story takes place in 1894. They have just discovered a vast new chamber in the mine. During the night the narrator and Juan Romero, a miner he works with, are awoken and compelled to investigate a terrible sound coming from the ground. At one point Romero runs faster and disappears. His disappearance is followed by sounds of terror and pain. It is too much for the narrator and he faints. He wakes up to find out that Romero is dead and the strange new chamber gone. So is the weird narrator's ring.

The story has an undefined ending. It is never explained what exactly happened to Romero. Even the hints are vague. So much is left unsaid. It is not Lovecraft's best story, but it is not the worst either. You can read it here.

[JL Shioshita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story has so much potential but feels a little rushed. I would have loved if Lovecraft had expanded upon the idea and fleshed it out more, because instead what were left with is just an amuse-bouche.

[Monse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si bien la historia está bien, y me gustó que quedara en duda de lo que si le pasó a Juan Romero –de lo cual fue testigo el narrador de la historia- fue real o obra de un sueño; me generó mucho rechazo que Lovecraft escribiera con tanto racismo el origen mexicano de Romero. Hoy quizás este escritor tendría montones de quejas por xenofobia y seguramente se tomarían acciones legales sobre su persona.

[Godzilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first disappointment in Lovecraft's early works.

Some early tension built up well, but the story seemed to peter out.

At the end I was left wondering what I had actually digested and taken from it.

There was a good story in here, it just feels poorly executed.

Onwards to the next tale...

[Mika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Juan Romero, heard a sound of a coyote and a dog and wanted to follow where it came from. While exploring the Norton Mine, he disappeared and transitioned in the most surreal way. There was also a Hindoo ring and an abyss and the whole mine exploring made me think of a mix of Made in Abyss, Lord of the Rings and The Descent. Since I liked them all, I also liked this short story.

[Aaron😎 · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a lovecraft story without two paragraphs being grotesquely racist

[Baal Of · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty weak offering, that relies on a whole lot of implication of portentous dream shit happening, but nothing really does. But the ring is missing, so it must be real. The worst part of the story is this:

One of a large herd of unkempt Mexicans attracted thither from the neighboring country, he at first commanded attention only because of his features; which though plainly of the Red Indian type, were yet remarkable for their light colour and refined conformation, being vastly unlike those of the average "Greaser" of Piute of the locality.

Holy fucking shit. I keep reading Lovecraft because I do like the mythology he created, and I genuinely like some of the stories, plus I've set myself a task to read this entire collected works, and I tend to keep at something like that, but fuck, this kind of blatantly nasty racism makes it hard to go on.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

A way-too-strange Lovecraft tale. Some of his stories just can't be accurately described, I think its better when you read it yourself...

[Amy (Other Amy) · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story set in an 1894 mining camp in the American west. Lovecraft has here succinctly captured everything I hate about his work. We have a long exposition of not really creepy details leading up to a climax in which the horror is, well, not actually revealed, because it would be too horrible. (Random mention is made of Huitzilopochtli, Aztec god of war, but would an Englishman really have been able to decipher a name like that screamed by a raving Mexican about to throw himself in an abyss?) And then it could have been a dream, but of course we know it wasn't, because the malfunctioning jewelry is missing. People, serial killers are scary. This is not.

(Moved 2015 review to the individual work Sept. 2017 to make room to review the collection under its own entry. Bonus points because I do actually remember this story rather well, but as you can see the bonus points aren't good for much when the story is already starting at the bottom.)

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

H.P. Lovecraft writes a short story from the perspective of a miner whose colleague has died at night under traumatizing, unexplainable circumstances which the miner is reluctant to retell. A surprise ending complicates the plot's conclusion, and its usage invites multiple readings to understand the story. While some readers might be overwhelmed by the story's century-old vocabulary, other readers seeking a horror story about Aztec mythology set in an 1890s mine along the U.S. and Mexico border should be entertained.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

« In that moment it seemed as if all the hidden terrors and monstrosities of earth had become articulate in an effort to overwhelm the human race. »

So the main thing about this short story is that we never really see any monster, we can only imagine and that’s where the horror resides, I guess.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 Stars rounded down to 4 Stars.

[Saul the Heir of Isauldur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy, but lacking in the eerie atmosphere that makes Lovecraft so beloved.

[Nicolás Ortenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nada que decir, más que fantástico.

[Jörg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gutes Buch, üstere Atmosphäre, kurz aber interessant

[Jessica Gonzatto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sad and infuriating how Lovecraft’s blatant racism ruins most of his work.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraft did not appear to really like this story. The story is vague; the location is just someplace in the American Southwest, and referenced supernatural forces are mostly just weird feelings. Lovecraft biographers also note that he does not appear to have in any way prepared it for publication. Original manuscripts have few notes or editing work. Frankly, it feels as though he simply lost interest in the story. There is potential here, certainly, but it feels a bit like a New Englander was momentarily fascinated with the American Southwest and lost interest before he could properly finish the story.

[Evan A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraft manages to build up great suspense throughout this story, but doesn't really make much of an impact with its ending; while it is a conclusion typical to Lovecraft's writings (with all things left unexplainable), it doesn't provide a satisfying or fulfilling enough ending to make all parts equally as good in my eyes. Ignoring the hints of racism in the exposition which just make you stop and sigh before returning to read, it's a good story that falls a little short.

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going to comment on every time Lovecraft looks down upon a race for its inferior breeding, because then I'd be here forever. Regardless, I did enjoy what is becoming a recurrence of events happening in a dream world will very real effects. Pretty neat idea, not that it's exclusive to Lovecraft.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes wish that Lovecraft would go into a bit more detail, but otherwise this story is excellently creepy.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Rizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. Different setting than usual for Lovecraft, but he still finds a way to fit in his usual dreamscapes, creepy unseen gods, and bizarrely specific racism.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a fairly scary tale about miners who breach a shaft which they shouldn't, and the consequences which follow.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a dull story and the racism is untenable. Audible edition.

[Graeme Rodaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging story where what really happened remains a mystery.

4 'Eerie,' stars.

[Jack Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amidst the frenzied Gold Rush of the American West, an unusually successful prospecting operation unearths a subterranean chasm too deep for any line to fathom, arousing superstition in a pair of expat miners.

This is a weird one. Not only is the story set in the mountainous deserts of the West (a setting Lovecraft very scarcely ever even acknowledges), but as far as the existing literature is concerned, it was never even intended for publication. Rather, the tale was meant as an illustrative example of effective horror in a desert setting for Lovecraft's colleagues, with the ultimate purpose of one-upping another unspecified writer whose writing style H.P. (as he so often did) completely lambasted and scoffed at.

In the sense of its original intent, I would say The Transition succeeds. While the desert itself is less a concrete part of the story and more a somewhat-detailed backdrop, the cosmic horror in this story really does chill. The concept of the chasm only freaked me out more the further in I read; that was some brilliant stuff on Lovecraft's part.

As a full story, I think it's pretty okay. I was thoroughly invested and intrigued throughout, but its short length keeps it from being anything insanely special.

Again, though: way too many pejorative and insulting remarks towards an entire group of people at large. This time, instead of the Inuit or mountain-dwelling New Yorkers, Mexican people are up to the chopping block! The eponymous miner, while a secondary main character of sorts, has a bevy of (in Lovecraft's eyes) detestable characterizations that, though not a crime in the auspices of a single character, represent a larger problem once Lovecraft then applies them to every Mexican alive.

I rate this story 4 bottomless, demon-infested hell-pits out of 5 raised eyebrows at Lovecraft's actually making the effort to write Juan Romero's dialogue in Spanish.

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Mine Disaster
10 July 2024

One of the things that I like about these Lovecraft stories is that they remind me of the text adventure games that I played as a kid (and still play occasionally when I get time). It’s like how a lot of his stories involve people exploring mysterious caves, and in the case of this story, a mine.

The story involves a guy who came to New England from India, though he is originally from Britain. He has with him a ring that was given to him while he was in India. Also, a Mexican has arrived with a group of Mexicans who came across the border to look for work.

Anyway, a lightning bolt hits the mine, and he has to go in there to rescue the Mexican, but when he descends into the mine he discovers that parts of it have opened up into another world through deep chasms. Anyway, he ends up fainting and wakes up and discovers that the Mexican has died.

Sure, this is a rather short story, and it also seems to be one of those stories that are one of his earlier works. Though it is interesting that his earlier works aren’t actually all that bad. It does seem that he did have a pretty good imagination. Mind you, some of his works actually come from dreams, so you sort of have to wonder the type of dreams that he used to have because I certainly don’t have dreams like that.

Yeah, it wasn’t all that bad. Not outstanding, but still readable.

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the moments I love most in Lovecraft's fiction is when his narrator beholds some unspeakable eldritch horror, and then, overcome with the sheer unspeakable nature of the beastie, he promptly passes out and leaves the reader guessing as to the true monstrosity of what he saw. Here's this story's version, quite well done, I might add:

At first I beheld nothing but a seething blur of luminosity; but then shapes, all infinitely distant, began to detach themselves from the confusion, and I saw—was it Juan Romero?—but God! I dare not tell you what I saw!… Some power from heaven, coming to my aid, obliterated both sights and sounds in such a crash as may be heard when two universes collide in space. Chaos supervened, and I knew the peace of oblivion.

This is an early work of Lovecraft's, and published posthumously. In the story, our narrator works manual labor at a mine and befriends Juan Romero, another miner who is seemingly taken in with the narrator's spooky Hindoo ring. At some point a giant chasm beneath the mine is discovered, and everyone is excited about its potential yield. But that night, a strange storm sweeps in, accompanied by the sound of wolves, or dogs, and a strange drumming. Both the narrator and Juan Romero are inexplicably drawn to the mysterious chasm....

You know how it ends. :)

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another eerie story from Lovecraft, a story of two miners, our narrator and Juan Romero who are or maybe are not drawn to an infinite hole deep in the mine they work in. Our narrator who has a past connection to India and wears a spiritual ring of sorts, hears an odd rhythm coming from this infinite hole. Romero and the narrator are drawn to it, Romero in particular who races to it, losing his proper vocabulary as he does. When the narrator arrives at the chasm Romero is gone and likely fell into the abyss. After peering into the red abyss and seeing something unspeakable he loses consciousness. When the narrator awakens, he finds he never left his bunk that night, he is missing his ring and Romero who also never left his bunk has died with no determinable cause. The chasm has also been filled with rocks from a lighting strike that shook the mountain. What really occurred that night and ended Romeros life? The story leaves it a bit ambiguous. In my own guess, the mining company in their greed for gold possibly opened a doorway to Hell and in their dreams Romero and the narrator were consumed. Where Romero fell victim to the devilish sounds, the narrator was protected by his ring that disappeared after protecting him. The story also makes reference to an Aztec god of sacrifice which could explain the death of Romero.