I enjoyed this collection, despite some qualms about certain depictions. I knew going in that non-white ethnicities and women would not be represented well, when they would be represented at all. We are talking semi-canonized literature from the beginning of the 20th century - and such flaws are a staple of what was considered for canonization for a long time.

The craftsmanship is good: the language and the handling of tension better than I thought it would be. There's a deftness of prose that sometimes borders on too spare, but I can't tell if the moments of shock that I'm not feeling are because I'm jaded or if Lovecraft actually missed the note (to use a musical analogy). ( )

Assigned reading for my Modern Fantasy class in college. I definitely understand Lovecraft's appeal, although I can't always fully buy into the Ancient Evil premise. The writing is a bit overblown, but does add to the mood. ( )

Amazing stuff here. After reading this, many aspects of my world seem so much clearer to me now. It is easy to see Lovecraft's influence in our day to day lives. So much of this seemed instantly familiar to me somehow, despite never having read Lovecraft before, it was like slipping on an old pair of shoes. I'll definitely be hunting down as much of his work as I can find. ( )

I admire Lovecraft for what he contributed to the horror genre more than I actually like to read his stuff.

This book is missing my favorite of his stories: At the Mountains of Madness, but for a Lovecraft novice, it's a good intro to his work and will show you both what's good and bad about his writing. ( )

"The Rats in the Walls" - It seems like Lovecraft's trying to scare you, but the best he can do is tell you the characters are scared and leave out as many details as possible. The style is like he's trying to imitate Poe, but instead of having a clever twist or psychological motivation, he just sort of says, "Here's some weird stuff. The end." Maybe I'll give one of his later stories a chance some other time. 2.5/5. 12-26-08. ( )