nacholas’s Reviews > The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories > Status Update

(18p story, 3p notes)

still really good so far; the pacing and just how it envelopes the reader into such a story, is brilliant. how the exploration of the Great Race (while really racist against the australian aborigines), it showcased competent world building with an idealised way of running the world, past capitalism.

1/3 into The Shadow out of Time - whenever he does the 1st pov writing, it's more palatable because we can connect with the character. i love how it uses the concept from another story, wherein a spirit takes-over another body, while we get to see life before humans or whether they're real. it gets pretty whacky and also baffling, but this is where hpl is just great in. odd premise, pushed to its limits.

✅ The Dreams in the Witch House - wow, i liked this. sure, uses the "is it a dream" to so many extents but the descriptions of what he did... it's really vivid. a little repetitive, but golly it was good. the "dimensional" travel elements weren't as much as expected, but i loved its insinuation of it existing within the framework of witchcraft. next one is the last one :*

✅ Through the Gates of the Silver Key - pretty easy read bc of the dialogues which made the flow more catchable and more, real? instead of extremely dense descriptions. however, this was the least HPL hpl work, which makes sense bc it was his friend who did it initially.

i love its combination between cosmic horror, with a splash of sci fi (time travel/time concept).

(15p story, 2p notes), Through the Gates of the Silver Key - surprisingly easier to read bc of the dialogue nature of it. as mentioned, this is a sequel to The Silver Key, which was a sequel to Dreamquest, which was a sequel to Statement.

it has a decent premise about who has the rights for this part of the house; which then dives into the natural progress of where Carter went after Silver Key; cool descriptions

✅ The Silver Key - i actually love the smaller scale story, focusing on HPL's irl visitation to an old town. people were crazy to dislike it, i found it more 'allegorical' as ST Joshi puts it. more introspective of his own works, of criticisms and the hunger for such wondrous stories without the confines. the last 2 paragraphs were so sweet

✅ Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath - finally! took awhile, while the conclusion was a relief, it was a fun journey. some parts slacked but you can tell throughout, it was pretty creative. not my most fav work of his but i can understand why.

my most fav is about the cats, and somehow, Nyarlathotep isn't the biggest ass either?