The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

I feel like this book is a little bit tricky for me to review. I am by no means an accomplished reader of the horror genre and am almost completely ignorant of the history of this particular niche. I understand, from a little bit of Googling, that Lovecraft was a pioneer of a sub-genre that has continued and grown well after his death. His ‘Cthulhu mythos' has not only created many imitators but sparked board games, RPGs, video games and all sorts of spin-offs. So there must be something here.

I confess I don't really get it though.

I found very few of these stories gripping or creepy and none of them got close to what I would describe as scary. There are a few troupes in here that reoccur and I think undermine any sense of horror. Firstly, there is the frequent description of things as strange/terrible/horrible/otherworldly ‘beyond description'. Used sparingly it is a nice get out to let the reader's imagination run wild, but when it's used multiple times in every story it just feels like lazy writing. The second, which I think is worse, is that many of the stories are told in the first person by people who have already experienced some horrible thing and are now telling us about it or else are relating the correspondence of some acquaintance who experienced something strange. I found this put a lot of space between me and the horror. Nothing felt immediate, it was like watching everything from a great distance - you can't help but be impacted by it less strongly.

Those few stories that move away from this structure are quite a bit better. I thought that Nyarlathotep was strange and atmospheric. The Picture in the House, which follows it, is for my money the best of the bunch. Here, there is a genuine sense of menace which grows out of uneasiness and into something truly gruesome. You also feel as though you spot the danger well before the protagonist, giving that wonderful ‘don't go down there!' feeling as you will the character to get out of dodge before it is too late.

Sadly these few great stories don't quite redeem the collection for me. Perhaps H.P. Lovecraft is just of his time. Perhaps this is more of interest to those steeped in this genre. Either way, this book probably wasn't for me.