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mamimitanaka's review
3.0
A solid compilation of gothic, cosmic and otherwise weird fiction that is unfortunately made uneven to a detrimental extent by a number of duds that drag down the collection's quality as a whole. "The Secret of Insects" is a boring and uninspired take on Nyarlathotep with little in the way of gripping prose, "Nesters" kind of just painfully *average*, and "Mortensen's Muse" - the worst offender of the bunch - is a dry, half-baked story which makes no attempt to hide being a shameless rehash of Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model". These stories did little to sway me and I found myself checking the page count of my Kindle whenever I was reading them.
However, I'm pleased that those three tales are the only notable drag-downs on this otherwise great collection. John Langan continues to impress me with "The Supplement", a non-horrific but very poignantly written tale of quiet grief that ties in both thematically and mythologically with "The Fisherman", and if "Frontier Death Song" didn't convince me already, Laird Barron's "Oblivion Mode" continuingly sells me on the man's writing chops when I hadn't been entirely convinced before; it's a deliriously wild, imaginative cosmic horror story set in an alt-Earth medieval fantasy backdrop. Caitlin R. Kiernan's contribution is also an expected highlight, working up their surreal and hypnotizing prose as well as their interest in portraying a climate change-wracked future to a fever-pitch in a story about a cursed, ancient relic from the dark depths of the ocean. Other highlights include "Mr. Doornail", a story told in charismatic fairy-tale prose, "When the Stitches Come Undone", a tale of disquieting folk horror, and "On These Blackened Shores of Time", a highly human, emotional, and terrifying tale that has in one story convinced me Brian Hodge is a name I should look out for.
So because of those stories this gets a recommendation from me, and the good entries really are good enough to warrant labeling this "great" and the stories I didn't mention are also well enough. Sadly, the uninteresting tales here do enough to slant the overall momentum of this anthology into a more middling direction.
However, I'm pleased that those three tales are the only notable drag-downs on this otherwise great collection. John Langan continues to impress me with "The Supplement", a non-horrific but very poignantly written tale of quiet grief that ties in both thematically and mythologically with "The Fisherman", and if "Frontier Death Song" didn't convince me already, Laird Barron's "Oblivion Mode" continuingly sells me on the man's writing chops when I hadn't been entirely convinced before; it's a deliriously wild, imaginative cosmic horror story set in an alt-Earth medieval fantasy backdrop. Caitlin R. Kiernan's contribution is also an expected highlight, working up their surreal and hypnotizing prose as well as their interest in portraying a climate change-wracked future to a fever-pitch in a story about a cursed, ancient relic from the dark depths of the ocean. Other highlights include "Mr. Doornail", a story told in charismatic fairy-tale prose, "When the Stitches Come Undone", a tale of disquieting folk horror, and "On These Blackened Shores of Time", a highly human, emotional, and terrifying tale that has in one story convinced me Brian Hodge is a name I should look out for.
So because of those stories this gets a recommendation from me, and the good entries really are good enough to warrant labeling this "great" and the stories I didn't mention are also well enough. Sadly, the uninteresting tales here do enough to slant the overall momentum of this anthology into a more middling direction.
beckylej's review
5.0
Happy Saturday, readers! I hope you all had a fabulous reading week - I know I did. Sort of. After forcing myself to DNF a current YA darling (which was admittedly good, when I could get to it), I decided to treat myself to some shorts. I was a good decision as this was definitely one of those weeks where manuscripts, other work stuff, and general blah-ness left me in need of short, punchy reads. And boy did I get what I asked for.
I've sung Ellen Datlow's praises here quite a bit. Behind the scenes, because I haven't talked much about it yet, I've been reading A LOT of Lovecraft inspired works. Tor.com has THREE new or upcoming novellas in this vein (in addition to Victor Lavalle's release from earlier this year). And hubs recently treated me to three Innsmouth inspired collections as well. So I'm absolutely steeped in Lovecraft - or rather Lovecraft-inspired reads these days.
So, back to topic. Datlow has done Lovecraft before, but when I saw that it was the topic of her newest anthology (timely!) I immediately had to have it. I know by now that I can count on Datlow for a fabulously cultivated collection of weird tales by authors I either already love or will come to!
Children of Lovecraft was, of course, no exception. The premise of the anthology is this: the authors were tasked with writing Lovecraft-inspired shorts using, as Datlow states, the best of Lovecraft, while also exploring new themes and horrors. And boy did the authors to just that! From the Dust Bowl to a tale inspired by Boulder's recent epic flood, most of the stories don't explicitly use any Lovecraft specific creations - Cthulu, etc - but instead are imbued with the eerie and terrifying ambiance of Lovecraft. And yes, plenty of bizarre creations and creatures as well!
Here's the full TOC:
"Nesters" by Siobhan Carroll
"Little Ease" by Gemma Files
"Eternal Troutland" by Stephen Graham Jones
"The Supplement" by John Langan
"Mortensen's Muse" by Orrin Grey
"Oblivion Mode" by Laird Barron
"Mr. Doornail" by Maria Dahvana Headley
"The Secrets of Insects" by Richard Kadrey
"Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
"Jules and Richard" by David Nickel
"Glasses" by Brian Evenson
"When the Stitches Come Undone" by A. C. Wise
"On These Blackened Shores of Time" by Brian Hodge
"Bright Crown of Joy" by Livia Llewellyn
A few of my personal favorites include Siobhan Carroll's "Nesters" - a truly creepy tale made more so by being set during the desperation of the Dust Bowl, Richard Kadrey's procedural-esque "The Secrets of Insects," A. C. Wise's gory and disturbing "When the Stitches Come Undone," Brian Hodge's "On These Blackened Shores of Time" the aforementioned Boulder flood inspired tale (set in Pennsylvania mining country), and Brian Evenson's "Glasses" - oh, Brian Evenson's "Glasses"! This was kind of a delightful one - a bit of comic relief, so to speak, amidst what could be a quite unsettling collection!
In truth, though, I quite enjoyed the whole anthology. It is a perfect one to treat yourself to if you're craving weird and scary! And probably the best part, you don't have to know Lovecraft at all to enjoy it. You do have to love horror, though.
I've sung Ellen Datlow's praises here quite a bit. Behind the scenes, because I haven't talked much about it yet, I've been reading A LOT of Lovecraft inspired works. Tor.com has THREE new or upcoming novellas in this vein (in addition to Victor Lavalle's release from earlier this year). And hubs recently treated me to three Innsmouth inspired collections as well. So I'm absolutely steeped in Lovecraft - or rather Lovecraft-inspired reads these days.
So, back to topic. Datlow has done Lovecraft before, but when I saw that it was the topic of her newest anthology (timely!) I immediately had to have it. I know by now that I can count on Datlow for a fabulously cultivated collection of weird tales by authors I either already love or will come to!
Children of Lovecraft was, of course, no exception. The premise of the anthology is this: the authors were tasked with writing Lovecraft-inspired shorts using, as Datlow states, the best of Lovecraft, while also exploring new themes and horrors. And boy did the authors to just that! From the Dust Bowl to a tale inspired by Boulder's recent epic flood, most of the stories don't explicitly use any Lovecraft specific creations - Cthulu, etc - but instead are imbued with the eerie and terrifying ambiance of Lovecraft. And yes, plenty of bizarre creations and creatures as well!
Here's the full TOC:
"Nesters" by Siobhan Carroll
"Little Ease" by Gemma Files
"Eternal Troutland" by Stephen Graham Jones
"The Supplement" by John Langan
"Mortensen's Muse" by Orrin Grey
"Oblivion Mode" by Laird Barron
"Mr. Doornail" by Maria Dahvana Headley
"The Secrets of Insects" by Richard Kadrey
"Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
"Jules and Richard" by David Nickel
"Glasses" by Brian Evenson
"When the Stitches Come Undone" by A. C. Wise
"On These Blackened Shores of Time" by Brian Hodge
"Bright Crown of Joy" by Livia Llewellyn
A few of my personal favorites include Siobhan Carroll's "Nesters" - a truly creepy tale made more so by being set during the desperation of the Dust Bowl, Richard Kadrey's procedural-esque "The Secrets of Insects," A. C. Wise's gory and disturbing "When the Stitches Come Undone," Brian Hodge's "On These Blackened Shores of Time" the aforementioned Boulder flood inspired tale (set in Pennsylvania mining country), and Brian Evenson's "Glasses" - oh, Brian Evenson's "Glasses"! This was kind of a delightful one - a bit of comic relief, so to speak, amidst what could be a quite unsettling collection!
In truth, though, I quite enjoyed the whole anthology. It is a perfect one to treat yourself to if you're craving weird and scary! And probably the best part, you don't have to know Lovecraft at all to enjoy it. You do have to love horror, though.
sardonic_writer's review
2.0
An interesting collection of Lovecraft-inspired tales, but in the end you find yourself having to grind through them. Overall it's disappointing.
andreablythe's review
4.0
Although it took me a few months (because of my slow reading pace), Children of Lovecraft — a collection of short stories that draw on the Lovecraftian style of cosmic horror while presenting new perspectives — is a solid collection with a number of great stories.
shopgirl's review
3.0
NOTHING but bangers, with the exception of The Stitches Come Undone by A.C. Wise, a story that read like someone conflating two different TV movies they saw when they were a kid and trying to summarize that.
booknooknoggin's review
4.0
Received a copy of this to review from edelweiss. I would definitely recommend this to lovers of Lovecraft's original works or if you are a fan of weird fiction. You cannot generalize this to horror or gothic horror at that. I really enjoyed seeing that so many authors were influenced by Lovecraft and decided to write their own evolution of his lore into this collection of short stories. There were only 2 stories that I will admit I just didn't care for, but a majority of these were page turners.
silelda's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Not surprisingly this is a book without any happy endings. That being said, this book still had a lot of beautiful tragedy. There was plenty of horror and Twilight Zone style unsettled feelings. There were monsters in human and unrecognizable forms. There was one story in the collection that was so inane and difficult to follow that I actually put the book down for a couple weeks. The rest of the stories, however, were very engaging and I've got another list of authors to look up. This is a good book for fans of the horror genre or Lovecraft fans looking for new authors to read.
audreyintheheadphones's review
4.0
It's such a cliché to refer to a collection of short stories as a mixed bag. Pulling together works by different authors only ups the chances that some readers like some works, and some readers don't. Here's my take on this collection:
Siobhan Carroll's "Nesters" is a true, terrifying, eco-gothic based in part on The Dust Bowl and I loved it, even though it was hard to enjoy. (4/5)
"Little Ease" by Gemma Files featured an interesting ex-con insect terminator and what lives in the walls of buildings. Nearly worked, and maybe worked towards the end in terms of its claustrophobia and imagery? I'll have to re-read it, but I'm not in a hurry to do so. (3/5)
"The Supplement" by John Langan. No, dude. Just... no. It's an old trope(to quote R Stewart: "You think they call those books 'forbidden' just for fun? Now just look at you. All those tentacles.") , and here not executed in any new or exciting way. (2/5)
"Mortensen's Muse" by Orrin Gray: I see what we were going for here (Hollywood debauchery, Inside Edition-style), but again, way too much. Too many things that wanted to be clever asides but turned confusing. Ending plot twist didn't. (2/5)
"Oblivion Mode" by Laird Barron: Weird, in an interesting way. I really enjoyed the setting and the world-building, in that I'm a sucker for Lovecraft in high fantasy-style. Definitely need to read it again. (4/5)
"Mr. Doornail" by Maria Dahvana Headley: LOVED IT SIDEWAYS. An old-fashioned fairy tale, filled with bad fairies and seawater, sticky with blood and featuring fifty heroes who happen to be goats. Best short story of the year. Can't decide whether to embroider the whole thing on a series of pillows to scatter around the house. (5/5)
Richard Kadrey's "The Secrets of Insects": Niiiiiiiiiice. A weird cop story meets John Carpenter's The Fog. It just kept getting better and better, and didn't start out from a bad place. (5/5)
"Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille" by Caitlín R. Kiernan: It's hard to say any author is re-treading familiar ground when so much of their work deals with entangled themes and revisitings. Don't want to say more and spoil it. (4/5)
"Jules and Richard" by David Nickle: Lukewarm lamia-themed mess without explanation. (1/5)
"Glasses" by Brian Evenson: Strongly remniscent of Joan Aiken and Roald Dahl but with less of a punch. Again, a tale of glasses that let you see other worlds has been done before and better. (2/5)
"When the Stitches Come Undone" by A.C. Wise: Spectacular eco-gothic pulling history and weirdness and land together for the protagonist to fall into and through. Bonus for a unique twist on missing children. Loved it. (5/5)
"On These Blackened Shores of Time" by Brian Hodge: Someone got me Lovecraft in a sinkhole! How did you know? THANK YOU. (4/5)
Livia Llewellyn's "Bright Crown of Joy": Chunks of intriguing dystopia -- and things disguised as dystopia -- that the reader has to assemble as they go. A bit like House of Leaves (5/5)
(Did not read "Eternal Troutland" as it mainly involves an old dog and that's a no-swim area for me. Namaste.)
Siobhan Carroll's "Nesters" is a true, terrifying, eco-gothic based in part on The Dust Bowl and I loved it, even though it was hard to enjoy. (4/5)
"Little Ease" by Gemma Files featured an interesting ex-con insect terminator and what lives in the walls of buildings. Nearly worked, and maybe worked towards the end in terms of its claustrophobia and imagery? I'll have to re-read it, but I'm not in a hurry to do so. (3/5)
"The Supplement" by John Langan. No, dude. Just... no. It's an old trope
"Mortensen's Muse" by Orrin Gray: I see what we were going for here (Hollywood debauchery, Inside Edition-style), but again, way too much. Too many things that wanted to be clever asides but turned confusing. Ending plot twist didn't. (2/5)
"Oblivion Mode" by Laird Barron: Weird, in an interesting way. I really enjoyed the setting and the world-building, in that I'm a sucker for Lovecraft in high fantasy-style. Definitely need to read it again. (4/5)
"Mr. Doornail" by Maria Dahvana Headley: LOVED IT SIDEWAYS. An old-fashioned fairy tale, filled with bad fairies and seawater, sticky with blood and featuring fifty heroes who happen to be goats. Best short story of the year. Can't decide whether to embroider the whole thing on a series of pillows to scatter around the house. (5/5)
Richard Kadrey's "The Secrets of Insects": Niiiiiiiiiice. A weird cop story meets John Carpenter's The Fog. It just kept getting better and better, and didn't start out from a bad place. (5/5)
"Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille" by Caitlín R. Kiernan: It's hard to say any author is re-treading familiar ground when so much of their work deals with entangled themes and revisitings. Don't want to say more and spoil it. (4/5)
"Jules and Richard" by David Nickle: Lukewarm lamia-themed mess without explanation. (1/5)
"Glasses" by Brian Evenson: Strongly remniscent of Joan Aiken and Roald Dahl but with less of a punch. Again, a tale of glasses that let you see other worlds has been done before and better. (2/5)
"When the Stitches Come Undone" by A.C. Wise: Spectacular eco-gothic pulling history and weirdness and land together for the protagonist to fall into and through. Bonus for a unique twist on missing children. Loved it. (5/5)
"On These Blackened Shores of Time" by Brian Hodge: Someone got me Lovecraft in a sinkhole! How did you know? THANK YOU. (4/5)
Livia Llewellyn's "Bright Crown of Joy": Chunks of intriguing dystopia -- and things disguised as dystopia -- that the reader has to assemble as they go. A bit like House of Leaves (5/5)
(Did not read "Eternal Troutland" as it mainly involves an old dog and that's a no-swim area for me. Namaste.)