Two Non-posthumous Novellas by H. P. Lovecraft

 

INTRODUCTION

Hello, I’m back. I understand I went through the trouble of informing of the biweekly shift, but I am still holding onto that. This is simply a bonus edition meant to coincide with last week’s sort-of-mini-review. But I mean, when you live in The Attic all day, you have to hope some can pick up the sheets I slide through the cracks.

Ehem, an important announcement on this regard, H. P. Lovecraft was a horrific slanderer. The Beings, well they aren’t really being as they don’t be-, anyways, that I represent want to wholeheartedly, well they don’t have- wholeheartedly state that this is fiction and not representative of their goals. Though, if this moves you down the path of contacting them then by all means, read along.

Now that the important things are out of the way, let’s talk about the two novellas published during Lovecraft’s life.

THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH

This was actually the only book published by Lovecraft containing an individual story in his lifetime. Originally, Lovecraft refused to publish it, and it took the efforts of correspondent August Derleth to get it published (Lovecraft was not happy about it) as a cheaply produced book.

This story begins as the narrator starts telling of how his experiences in the coastal slum town of Innsmouth led to a massive federal investigation, arrests, and an attempt to destroy a local reef. What could have led to this? Why, the revelation that the town had a dark secret, involving sacrifices to eldritch abominations and said beings slowly intermingling with humanity (yeah, that is the issue with Lovecraft. His stories seem so cliché nowadays.), is what did the trick.

This book does feature Lovecraft’s standard themes, including fears of degeneracy (particularly mixed with racism, and possibly metal illness.) It actually has a moving plot, and where it does have your standard infodumps, it actually has a legitimate action scene.

Honestly it’s pretty good. And I feel is one of his more approachable stories. The story tells of a town that is wedged between several real town that became desperate in troubling economic times and what was done in order to save the town, even if it might appear reprehensible to outsiders. While that may be moving, I feel that Lovecraft's classism means the story is supposed to move us to disgust rather than pity for the inhabitants of Innsmouth, but I pity them regardless.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS 

This is probably one of Lovecraft’s best stories. I won’t say it is his best, as there is another story that I feel deserves that title, but this is definitely top ten worthy. It is also the only one that Lovecraft knowingly (at least I think) approved publication of.

This story tells of a professor and geologist named William Dyer at the Miskatonic University at Arkham, Massachusetts (the asylum was named in tribute to this), who after hearing of a exhibition to a bizarre territory at the center of Antarctica that an expedition Dyer co-headed discovered has decided to explain his horror of the place and tragic and terrifying reasons that he abandoned hope of learning more of the Antarctic interior.

The story is quite good, though it is more of the fact that it has well developed plot details, and on action it is not often. It tells of a expedition to the unknown and how after losing contact with a sup-expedition after they made the discover of a lifetime, a horrifying truth is uncovered about the history of our world. The horror is more of a subtle suspense, an existential consideration of the facts before you. Ultimately, I find myself feeling that Fantasy fans may enjoy the elaborate history generated from the finding, and it definitely is one of the largest info dumps he wrote.

Well, I am afraid you won’t hear from me for another two weeks as I get back to my promised schedule. I would like to know your thoughts so far so I can feed them to- I mean I would like to know what you think and if you have any recommendations so far on what you would like me to read. I’ll have a print-out slid under through a crack in my door.

Two Post-humorous Novellas by H.P. Lovecraft

 

INTRODUCTION

I decided that, due to the different nature of this review, I would alter this week’s format. I decided to cover my most hated of my favorite authors, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. While famous in the weird fiction community, he could be called a socially awkward xenophobe with too much bigotry to count, but he still wrote moderately good existential horror that inspired many works. This week we will cover his four novellas/short novels.

Because of this decision, I will have to divide the parts up based on the works themselves as I am not really buying jumping across them, and of course, you would struggle to keep track of which one I am talking about. I always care about my readers' sensibilities.

Lovecraft was mostly a writer of short fiction, but he did write four stories long enough to be considered novellas. I will break this into two halves in order to digest it better and make it easier for me. Lovecraft had two of these works set aside due to his dissatisfaction with them, and personally, I find that he may of had a good reason to. While I cover these two this week, I will cover the two published during his lifetime next week. Now, let us go and see what these works have in store for us.

THE DREAMQUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH

“The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath” is the first novella Lovecraft wrote, believed to have been written around 1927, but Lovecraft declined any attempt to publish it, and it was not until around five years after his death, in 1943 did it get published.

The story details Randolph Carter, a quiet, introspective, and bookish man who had previously appeared in several other stories as he sets out across the “dreamworld,” a bizarre cross between the shared dreams of reality and an alternate dimension, in search of Unknown Kadath, a mountain palace where the “gods of earth” dwell. Carter is an experienced dreamer, someone who can move into the deeper levels of the dreamworld, yet he is stumped after he dreams of a beautiful sunset city. After praying to the gods, the vision disappears, so Carter decides to travel to Unknown Kadath to get answers, even though nobody in the dreamlands knows where it is.

Frankly, this book is a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The imagery, like classic Lovecraft, is lush and bizarre, yet opaque and undescriptive. It is a fantasy story with often surreal beings appearing and interacting with Carter, with very few of them getting a proper introduction and a few require you to be familiar with his work.

Unfortunately, the plot seems to go all over the place and it is really more out of luck and allies that gets Carter where he needs to be, and the meandering story with no chapter breaks makes it feel like it goes on forever. I feel this is probably a mediocre story, and it constantly features call-backs to other works. Essentially, it was badly paced, with no real drive and a lack of objectives beyond the overarching quest.

I like Carter, who is intelligent and knowledgeable, but I feel he suffers from being a mostly inactive protagonist. He has the know-how and the connections to go places, but when faced with threats such as the men of Leng, the moon-beasts, or the High Priest Not to Be Described, he really doesn’t have any way to fight back against threats.

Honestly, this book is really only for dedicated fans of Lovecraft, and this is more for the world building and descriptions rather than any entertainment value. Most of all, I feel it would be a mistake for this to be your first Lovecraft story.

THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD

The next work is Lovecraft’s second novella, and like the prior one, Lovecraft abandoned it and it was not published in his lifetime. This work, Lovecraft’s longest, addresses the recurring themes of ancestral taint and the dark past of New England found throughout his fiction.

The narrative first describes the mysterious disappearance of Charles Dexter Ward, a bookish young man with an interest in the occult and antiquity after being confined upon the advice of several alienists (an old term for psychologists who specialized in deviant behavior,) due to his aberrant behavior. The narration follows a family friend named Dr. Willet as he investigates Ward’s bizarre behavior which began with his fascination with Joseph Curwen, an ancestor of Ward who dealt in the supernatural and was hated as one who dealt with the devil, and Willet’s ultimate confrontation with the evil that surrounds Ward.

Honestly, this book is better than "Dreamquest," and is a good story, yet it tends to drag on far too long. Multiple plot reveals become obvious, yet Willet takes forever to discover. (The plot is a bit obvious and cliché to modern readers, I think.) Ultimately, I have to admit though that is due to us knowing he is in a supernatural horror story, so I can’t get too annoyed (yes I can.)

This book is relatively good if one is interested in Lovecraft, though it does drag on a bit, so I can only say that you should expect a slow burner with mostly a mystery style structure, with little action. This book is paced much better than “Dreamquest,” but that isn’t saying much. The book is interesting for those who like Lovecraft’s style, but can be off-putting to casual readers who expect a more tense or event-focused.

Thank you for reading, and I promise that the special review next week will be better, where we will be moving onto the much more famous (and better) “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and “At the Mountains of Madness.”

REVIEW: "Not Even Bones" by Rebecca Schaeffer

 

SYNOPSIS

Nita doesn't murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet--her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they've been "acquired." Until her mom brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out; dissecting a scared teenage boy is a step too far. But when she decides to save her mother's victim, she ends up sold in his place--because Nita herself isn't exactly "human." She has the ability to alter her biology, a talent that is priceless on the black market. Now on the other side of the bars, if she wants to escape, Nita must ask herself if she's willing to become the worst kind of monster.

MY INITIAL TAKE

"Not Even Bones" sucked me in and kept me up late at night reading. This fairly gruesome novel is a departure from my usual choice in stories. I prefer to follow heroic characters in stories with at least a bittersweet ending if it can't be happy, but Rebecca Schaeffer created a cast of antiheroes and straight-out villains that force you to love them, despite their warning signs.

Nita, a seventeen-year-old butcher on the black market, loves her job working with dead bodies, justifying that she has never personally killed anyone. She goes through several moral crises over the course of the book, but ultimately has no intent on changing her morals or crossing back over to the light--she is a part of the underground world through and through, and she intends to stay there. She is joined by the male lead Kovit, a Thai zannie (a vampire-like creature that feeds off physical pain), who works for the American mafia as a torturer. These two make no excuses for who they are, insisting that they are not misunderstood or helpless victims of their situations. They are, rather, active members of the criminal underworld who live there because they choose to be. While they arguably cannot leave the underworld without facing consequences, Nita points out that is in itself a choice. They are not good people and probably very bad ones, but nonetheless, they are hilarious, with delightful interactions. 

The supporting cast is no less impressive. Reyes is a villain you love to hate for her tough, no-nonsense behavior and her paranoia over her very precarious position as the "queen of parts." Boulder is a creep, eating the raw body parts of supernatural beings...right in front of them. And Mirella, one of the more "good" characters, is ruthless in her quest to survive and hell-bent on vengeance. 

WHAT I LOVED THE MOST

A good hero is always a joy to read about--they're fun to root for, easy to love, and they inspire others to find kindness in the world. A good villain, however, is always fun. They can go further, to more dramatic extremes, to reach their goals. They aren't held back by morals to making the "right" decision or sacrificing what they love for the greater good. 

While Nita isn't a villain (yet), she is a distinctly morally ambiguous character. Early on, you can argue that she has little choice in her career. Her domineering and abusive mother would never let her leave, and has taught her a harsh lesson in what happens when Nita says "no." Still, Nita wants to think of herself as a decent person, at best, and at the very least, not the monster her mother is. This keeps her from completely losing herself. Something brought up late in the book is the importance of boundaries, even for villainous characters. A character who has been deeper in the criminal underworld than Nita has ever gone warns her of the importance of not losing herself to the brutality of the black market. She doesn't need to be moral, but she should keep some hard rules and lines. 

This book is able to go places that others can't, because its characters are not good people. It explores the psyche of rising villains by examining what kind of life leads a person to kill and sell others on the black market, while also showing that no one is a total monster...at least, that such people don't last long. And it completely demolishes the concept of the Freudian excuse. Nothing in any of the characters' backstories is used to justify their actions--they do this because they enjoy it and because it grants them something that improves their lives. I am excited to read the next installments of "Market of Monsters" and to see how Nita evolves. 

LOVING CRITICISM

Schaeffer's descriptions can get a little...extra. It might just be my personal preference, but while Nita's creative descriptions of Kovit's Slasher Smile are clearly meant to get his dangerousness and amoral personality across to the reader, they get pretty lengthy and awkward. This is especially the case when lengthy descriptions are repeatedly used with these characters. 

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER

Choosing a favorite character is tough when each character has such a strong presence, but I would have to say Kovit is my favorite in this book. He's dramatic, he's over the top, and he's brutally honest about who he is. There is no woe-is-me from this character, and he isn't a broken man to be fixed. He doesn't want to be fixed, a nice break from other male leads, since, let's be real, the "broken man needs to be healed by a kind and gentle woman's love" is a little tiresome. 

What really makes him a great character is how delightfully unhinged he gets. Man is a member of the American mafia, and he shows it. In the scenes where he tortures characters, he enjoys every minute of it, and in the scenes where he chooses to be vulnerable, he shows a real, human quality. Schaeffer has done an excellent job of creating complex characters that feel like real people. 

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

This book is gory and gruesome, with murders, torture, and violence against children. If you have any triggers related to violence or are under the age of sixteen, then I do not recommend this book for you. But if you like stories that explore morality, have fast-paced action, and morally ambiguous plotlines, then this is the book for you. 

You can buy "Not Even Bones" on Amazon or your favorite bookstore. The Webtoon adaption of the same name is available for free online and currently on-going.