Pete > Recent Status Updates

Just read The Guilty!. It’s a powerful equality/anti-racism story with the best art yet in the book. The kicker, it was published in 1952. That’s before the civil rights movement. Printing this at that time period had to have been some ballsy, heroic stuff.

Van Helsing in da house!!!!

After finishing The Mountains of Madness I thought that gem of a story was surely in for a let down by whatever was to follow. Nope. In the Walls of Eryx is an extraordinarily fun read. The only straight sci-fi story in the collection is a beauty. Truly a jewel.

Well.....I see why this story gets the recognition it gets. You have to be down with lots of details or don’t even bother. But if you are down then you’re in for a slow build, peeling back the layers until as exciting an ending I’ve experienced from Mr. Lovecraft is let loose.

150 pages in and I realize I skipped ahead two books in the series. This explains a reference from earlier that I didn’t follow.

Cold Air. This one is better than good but not quite great. What I like most is how readable it is. No crazy long blocks of description. A nice read siting with the AC blasting.

The Horror at Red Hook. A good story with an element at the end I didn’t see coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was based on a real story of the time.

He. This was a solid read. I was never bored and enjoyed the intense progression of the “terror” the narrator felt.

The Shunned House is a bit of a slog of a haunted house story. The ending was solid but getting there had so many repetitive details I thought I was being possessed by an ancient spirit or something.

Imprisoned with the Pharaohs was fine. I had high expectations for this one as it’s one I’d heard of. The entire first half is Harry Houdini sightseeing around Egypt. I enjoyed the second half well enough. Eh.

The Unnamable dips back into common Lovecraft territory. Slow buildup of something possibly shocking followed by the reveal. It was okay.

The Lurking Fear was quite enjoyable. I felt like there was some connection to the Arthur Jermyn story but couldn’t find anything online.

Herbert West - Reanimator is a well done short story. The longest so far. Something about Lovecraft’s style makes it hard for me to remember details but this one stuck with me between reading breaks. Very well done.

The Terrible Old Man is a 2 page home invasion story with fun Lovecraft flair. The Crawling Chaos made me feel drugged in this opium fueled mess. Lastly, The Tree has a good premise but feel flat for me.

The Temple is my favorite yet. Message in a bottle story.

Arthur Jermyn is a pretty messed up short.

Rock fight!!!!! Derry and the kids of Derry are some of King's greatest creations.

The fire at The Black Spot. It's like King tossed in a handful of short stories in the middle of this brick of a book. Then at the end loosely relates them to the main story. Still great.

Now that the character introductions are done...damn. King can lay out a lot of info without the story really starting. Good stuff though.

The White Ship reads like a high fantasy outline or vague idea. Not my thing. I want some monsters!!

70 pages of character introductions is a bit much.

Hot damn this is a good book! But the length has me in a drugged state. I feel like I've read three books and still have a chunk left.

The Tomb was a nice story after a couple of crusty eyed sleepers.

White roses, virginal, as a bride might carry. Death is the huge bride, and the night of the honeymoon is eternity.

Jerome in the muh f@#in' house!!

Issue 5's cover of Owl/Batman is badass.

"Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped."

My first taste of Lovecraft. I had low expectations seeing as this was written 100 years ago and he was in his teens. I really like the first two stories. Excited!!

Gramma is one badass story. One of my favs from this collection.