Jordan’s Reviews > The King In Yellow > Status Update

I’m picking up on some of the theme of mortality and obsession in The Prophets’ Paradise, but otherwise, I could not tell you what’s actually going on here.

I feel like Demoiselle d’Ys had the potential to be a very good story. It has hints of subliminal space and infinite landscapes that make for good cosmic horror stories, but it never really commits to the genre. Otherwise, it’s another French tale of romance with a sudden twist of horror stapled on at the end.

The Court of the Dragon is an interesting one. It’s primarily a more subtle and demure horror tale, up until the end when, with abruptness, the curtains are pulled back and hit you all at once. I could have been satisfied with just the vague insidiousness that was lurking beneath the text, but the shock at the end is also rather good.

As an eldritch horror story, the Mask isn’t all too great, mostly coasting in a few mentions of the King in Yellow and some episodes of delirium resulting from it. As a tale of romance, I think it’s rather good, though feels oddly discordant in its plot at times.

The Repairer of Reputations is a fun one. More a tale of a man and his madness that uses the King in Yellow as set dressing, but it’s still a very good story.