I’d never read any Lovecraft before so I figured what better way to start than reading all of it in chronological order? 

 

Here’s some vastly generalized thoughts on his work, overall: 

Like most classic stories, it’s written in a way that feels like it's being told rather than shown, but in the most interesting and vivid way possible. I’d beautifully written and absolutely dripping in atmosphere. I felt like I was learning a new word every other sentence so I'm glad to be reading the digital version so that I can easily look up definitions. Cosmic horror is a favourite of mine and it was fun to read these stories and easily see where more mainstream present horror media takes inspiration from. Interestingly, I found many of the stories sparked an intense feeling of creativity within me. I was constantly thinking of all the possibilities of what could happen and still found myself surprised, frequently. This is a lengthy collection of work and it’s not easy. This took about two months to read and I was getting pretty tired by the end, but I do feel quite accomplished. I would recommend reading these in order as they seem to exist in the same universe and will allude to other events, places, and characters we have already gotten to know. Here’s my breakdown of each story as I read them: 

 

The Tomb: A boy who discovers a tomb that's chained shut, but slightly ajar, in the woods near his house. He quickly becomes obsessed with the tomb and the idea of getting inside. 5/5 stars. While I didn't love the end of the story, it was still a great story. The sense of unease was heavy. 

 

Dagon: A man recalls a horror he encountered whilst adrift on the ocean during his service in WW1. 5/5 stars. The uncanniness of the landscape and the sense of isolation were excellent. 

 

Polaris: A man fixates on the sinister pole star and dreams of a mysterious city. 2.5/5 stars. This was written in a way that’s pretty, but I found myself mostly confused. This is the first story in the Dream Cycle series in which there’s an alternate dimension that’s accessed via dreams. At the time of reading this story, I didn’t know anything about the dream cycle so I wasn’t really into it. 

 

Beyond The Wall of Sleep: A former worker at a mental institution recalls his experience with a seemingly harmless patient who committed a violent crime. 3/5 stars. This one starts out so interesting and then gets pretty mind-bending. This one reminded me a lot of Junji Ito’s Long Dreams and Ronald Malfi’s Bone White. 

 

Memory: A genie and a daemon have a short conversation while overlooking a ruinous landscape. 4/5 stars for the description of the landscape, alone. There’s very little story here - his atmosphere. 

 

Old Bugs: An old man with many regrets who’s working in a pub tries to stop a younger man from going down a similar path. 3/5 stars. There’s no horror or otherworldly content here. It’s basically just a warning of the dangers of alcohol and addiction. 

 

The Transition of Juan Romero: Two miners are drawn towards an abyss uncovered within the mine. 3/5 stars. I loved the beginning of this one but it left me scratching my head at the end. 

 

The White Ship: A man boards a ship that takes him on a journey around the dreamscape dimension. 3.5/5 stars. I did like this addition to the dream cycle series. It gives us a basic understanding of some of the cities of the dream world. The settings felt like a studio Ghibli movie. 

 

The Doom That Came to Sarnath: This segment explains a slice of history of the fall of Sarnarth, a city in the dream dimension. 1.5/5 stars. I didn’t like this one. I felt like there was too much lore for a short story. There were so many city names in this story that it is just awfully confusing as we don’t have a map to understand the geography. 95% of this felt like it was a description of the city and it felt a little textbook-y. It does feel like it overlapped with Dagon a bit, so that was fun. 

 

The Statement of Randolph Carter: A man recounts the events that lead up to his friend’s disappearance. 5/5 stars. I loved everything about this. The atmosphere, the feeling of dread, the dampness of strange dark places beneath the ground. Some aspects of this reminded me of the staircase SCP. Definitely my favourite so far. 

 

The Street: We see how the surroundings of a street change over time. 1/5 stars. This was boring. 

 

The Terrible Old Man: A group of 3 con artists conspire to rob a very strange old man. 5/5 stars. It’s spooky, quick, and effective. I can see how this probably inspired Don’t Breathe (minus the uncomfortable weird parts). 

 

The Cats of Ulthar: A story about why there’s a law against killing cats in the dreamscape city of Ulthar. 5/5 stars just because this one is fun and feels like an urban legend. 

 

The Tree: Two sculptors are commissioned to create a statue. 1/5 stars. I didn’t get the ending. I’m not sure what this story was trying to say. 

 

Celephaïs: A middle aged man becomes increasingly obsessed with a city he visited in his dreams and does everything in his power to return there. 3/5 stars. This was a fun addition to the dream cycle. 

 

From Beyond: A scientist creates a machine that can allow humans to see creatures from across another dimension. 5/5 stars. This one probably inspired a lot of modern horror content, but one that it definitely inspired is the movie, The Banshee Chapter, which is the movie that scared me the most. 

 

The Temple: After finding a small ivory statue on a dead seaman, soldiers in a German U boat experience some crazy shit. 5/5 stars. This one is fantastic. Very deep sea spooky. 

 

Nyarlathotep: A strange man in Egypt claims to be a messenger of the gods from other worlds. 2/5 stars. This is a short introduction to a character that we will likely see again in future stories, but this introduction to hi is quite brief. 

 

The Picture in the House: A cyclist enters a seemingly abandoned house to escape a storm in which he finds strange artifacts and a book with a very unsettling picture in it. 5/5 stars. I absolutely loved this one. The tension is almost suffocating as the story progresses and the use of dialogue is super effective. 

 

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family: This story describes the Jermyn family lineage until a peculiar secret is revealed. 3/5 stars. I enjoyed figuring out what was happening, but there were so many names and people discussed on the family tree that it got a little confusing to keep track of it all. 

 

The Nameless City: A man seeks out a lost city in the desert and discovers something frightening underground. 5/5 stars. This one is different because we get our horror in an isolated desert setting. The isolation gets to you until you realize that the only thing scariest than being totally alone is not being alone. 

 

The Quest of Iranon: A young, lost prince searches for the beautiful city that is his birthright. 2/5 stars. This one mostly just made me mopey. 

 

The Moon Bog: A man wishes to drain a bog, ignoring the pleas of the townsfolk that he shouldn’t. 2.5/5 stars. This one is just okay. It doesn’t stand out in any way. 

 

Ex Oblivione: A man seeks to discover what lies beyond a mysterious gate within the dream world. 3.5/5 stars. This was a good story because the reader feels the same intense curiosity as the main character to see beyond the gate. 

 

The Other Gods: A man scales a mountain in attempt to look upon the gods faces. 2/5 stars. This one was a little boring for me. It was almost exactly what you’d expect. 

 

The Outsider: An individual who has never met another person leaves the castle he has lived in his entire life. 5/5 stars. I loved all of this. The descriptions of everything in this story are so beautifully dark. 

 

The Music of Erich Zann: A student moves into a cheap apartment and becomes interested in the strange music he hears being played at night by another tenant upstairs. 5/5. I loved all of this. Do I understand exactly what happened? Nope! Did I have tons of fun anyway? Yep! 

 

Hypnos: A Sculptor and his friend explore other worlds in their dreams. 3.5/5 stars. I think it’s possible this could have helped inspire nightmare on elm street. The idea of sleep being the enemy is interesting. 

 

What the Moon Brings: A man walks through a dreamscape, describing his strange findings. 2/5 stars. There wasn’t much of a story here. I just wasn’t into it. 

 

Azathoth: A man in a dull world begins to see something obscure. 2/5 stars. Meh. 

 

Herbert West–Reanimator: A man recounts his history/dealings with a scientist who’s obsessed with re-animating the dead. 2.5/5 stars. This is the first longer multi-part story in the book. It’s not bad, exactly. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. I can see how this story inspired every other modern story about bringing the dead back (Pet Sematery, The Lazarus Effects, etc). I just felt like this story could have been just as, or more effective if it was shorter. 

 

The Hound: A duo of men collect odd souvenirs from grave robbing. 5/5 stars. This one totally surprised me and it was excellent. 

 

The Lurking Fear: A monster hunter searches for the cause of deaths around a mansion on a mountain. 4/5 stars. This is another longer story with multiple segments. It’s fun. We have one of the bravest protagonists we have seen so far. I think this story was a bit less scary just because our main character was tough as nails. 

 

The Rats in the Walls: A man inherits, and wishes to restore an old family estate that’s been empty since the previous residents were murdered by one of their family members. 5/5 stars. This one really wasn’t what I expected it to be and I enjoyed the unfolding of the mystery. 

 

The Unnamable: Two men sitting in a graveyard have a discussion about a haunted house. 4.5/5 stars. This one has an excellent build of dread as the conversation continues and the sun is setting. 

 

The Festival: A man journeys to the town of his ancestors where he is called as an ancient tradition to keep festival - something his people have done once per century. 5/5 stars. This one was so uncanny and for quite awhile you have a deep feeling that there’s something wrong, but WHAT? 

 

The Shunned House: A man becomes interested in unravelling the secrets of an house with a dark history. 3.5/5. The end of this one is great but you need to get through the whole history lesson to get there. 

 

The Horror at Red Hook: A detective investigates a series of kidnappings in New York. 2/5 stars. This one felt more like Lovecraft was complaining about how much he hats New York, more than just telling the story. 

 

He: A man who’s recently moved to New York meets a stranger who offers to show him the secrets of the city. 2/5 stars. This one also didn’t do it for me. 

 

In the Vault: A man accidentally gets locked in a vault where the bodies of people who die in the winter are kept until they can be buried in spring. 4/5 stars. The thought of being locked in a dark place with dead bodies is pretty unnerving. 

 

Cool Air: A man recalls his experience with the strange doctor who lives above him in the building. 3.5/5 stars. This one was unusual without the dread and atmosphere that most of my favourites have. 

 

The Call of Cthulhu: After discovering a series of strange notes and a small sculpture of a strange creature amongst his late uncles things, a man seeks to uncover more information. 3/5 stars. This story might be one of the most well known Lovecraft tales, but it isn’t even close to the best of them. 

 

Pickman's Model: A painter offers to take a man to his secret studio space in the cellar of an old house to show him some of his darker projects. 5/5. This was everything I wanted it to be and more. 

 

The Strange High House in the Mist: A man attempts to visit a mysterious house high on the cliffs over the ocean. 2/5 stars. I likes the idea but this one felt like it was missing something for me. 

 

The Silver Key: A man loses the key to dreams as he gets older and tried to get it back. 2/5 stars. Meh. 

 

The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath: In order to find the location of the city he has seen in his dreams, a man searches for the mountain, Kadath In hopes of asking the gods of its location. 3.5/5 stars. This was a fun journey and would translate well to a studio Ghibli movie. Although this is the longest story so far, I felt like almost the whole story was glossed over. I did love that we had so many return characters. 

 

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: A doctor investigates the events that lead up to a young scholar going mad. 4.5/5 stars. This one was even longer than the previous story and I felt that the first half was a bit of a slog. Then it picks up and I was totally glued to it - especially in the final quarter of the story. 

 

The Colour Out of Space: A meteorite falls to earth and a never before seen colour begins to emit from the well of a farm. 5/5. This one felt like it could have been longer because it’s such a unique idea. I’ve seen the Nicholas Cage movie and loved it so it was fun to read the original. I know a lot of people say this is Lovecraft’s best and I disagree with that, although it is a good story. 

 

The Very Old Folk: A Retelling of a dream the protagonist has in which he’s  a member of the roman military who wants to stop atrocities committed by people who live in the hills. 2.5/5 stars. Starting off the story by telling us it’s a dream is only slightly more interesting than revealing it was all a dream at the end. Neither are particularly impactful. 

 

The Thing in the Moonlight: A man begins to write under the name HP Lovecraft, telling of a frightening dream he had. 4/5 stars. I know I just said that retelling dreams is getting boring but this one was short and bizarre enough to keep me entertained. 

 

The History of the Necronomicon: Exactly what it sounds like. It’s just a few pages explaining the history of the necronomican. 1/5 stars. There wasn’t an actual story here. I didn’t see the purpose of this. 

 

The Dunwich Horror: Some very peculiar behaviours plague a family after a woman gives birth to a very strange son. 4/5 stars. This one was longer than it needed to be but I was pretty invested in the mystery. 

 

The Whisperer in Darkness: Two men begin a correspondence via written letters about the existence of otherworldly beings that exist around one of the men’s isolated farmhouses. 4/5 stars. I liked this story but again, it would have been better if it was shorter. 

 

At The Mountains of Madness: A man reluctantly recalls the horrors he and the rest of the group of researchers he was with encountered on an expedition to Antarctica. 3/5 stars. This one was hard to rate because there were some really great moments in this. The problem was that is was so long! There was way too much time spent describing the landscape and architecture - it ended up taking away from the story and suspense. There’s also a pretty significant exposition dump at one point that was helpful in understanding what was happening, but I didn’t like the delivery of it. 

 

The Shadow Over Innsmouth: A man travelling to Arkham makes a stop in a very strange town that neighbouring townspeople always avoid. 5/5 stars. I love a story about a town where something is very wrong. While this story does have a pretty big exposition dump, it feels natural as it is delivered through a drunken conversation. This is one of the more fast paced and action packed stories in this collection. 

 

The Dreams in the Witch House: A math/folklore student rents a room that’s said to be cursed. 3/5 stars. There was a couple of things in this story that were really spooky but overall it was just a bleak story that left me feeling worse when it was over. 

 

The Thing on the Doorstep: A man recounts the events that leads up to him shooting his friend. 5/5 stars. This one was so much fun and definitely inspired some other popular horror/thrillers that I can’t name here for fear of major spoilers. It had a bit of a slow start but once you realize what’s going on, it’s like a smack in the face. This one is related to the shadow over Innsmouth, which I also loved. 

 

The Evil Clergyman: A man is left alone in an attic after being warned to leave before dark and not touch anything. 4/5 stars. This one was super short, which is refreshing at this point in the collection. For only being a few pages, it builds suspense incredibly quickly. 

 

The Book: A man recounts some strange events that occur after he comes in contact with a particular book. 2/5 stars. I believe this story is unfinished but was published anyway after Lovecraft’s death. It’s incredibly short and unmemorable. 

 

The Shadow out of Time: After waking from a coma, a man’s personality drastically changes. Years later, his original personality re-appears which triggers him and his son to seek the truth of what happened to him. 3/5 stars. This one starts very slow. Then there’s a pretty big exposition dump. The interesting part of this story is the very end. Unfortunately, you have to slog your way through to get to it. This story would have been better if it was more concise. I feel like I say that a lot about his longer stories. 

 

The Haunter of the Dark: A writer investigates an abandoned church. 3/5 stars. This one started out strong and then finished a little weaker for me.