Scan barcode
becka6131's review against another edition
4.0
as with all short story collections, the stories vary in quality, but here the quality is better than most. the contributors clearly put a lot of effort into their offerings, and always in the spirit of the Weird, slyly tipping their hats to Lovecraft, which I loved.
neko_cam's review against another edition
2.0
It is sad that so few of these stories are worth reading, and that because of the chaff I cannot in good conscious recommend the collection just to get to the gems. What I will say is that the final entry, a short novel by Joseph Fink, is very good indeed and if there is some other way to read it I would definitely recommend doing so.
colonel2sheds's review against another edition
3.0
As mixed a bag as a bag can be. The Joseph Fink novella which ends the collection is excellent and there are a couple that are pretty good. The rest are either bad or entirely forgettable.
otterno11's review
3.0
An anthology of short stories each taking inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's "commonplace book," A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft is the result of an early communal writing project by Welcome to Night Vale creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Lovecraft's commonplace book was a diary of sorts in which the infamous cosmic horror author sketched out various story ideas, snippets of source material, and random thoughts, out of which which the contributors were each assigned one as a "writing prompt." Basing their stories on these unfinished ideas from Lovecraft, they branched out in interesting and unique ways. The collection concludes by reproducing the Commonplace book in its entirety so that you might attempt the experiment yourself.
For the most part, I feel they approached the material in ways that I don’t think would have occurred to many more traditional horror writers, including memoir pieces, poetry, and even surreal experimental text art. At the same time, not each piece completely works. I enjoyed seeing Lovecraft’s idiosyncratic ideas being harvested to such disparate interpretations. Based on Joseph Fink’s later thoughts on Lovecraft, it was interesting that he would choose this source to challenge his writers, and that they went to such unique places with it. Fink and Cranor’s work on Welcome to Night Vale channels much of the cosmic horror tropes Lovecraft brought into the popular culture, while subtly challenging it as well in a way that makes it the most influential weird fiction today in its own right.
I discuss this and other books focusing on the current relevance of H.P. Lovecraft at Harris' Tome Corner, The Lurking Fear.
For the most part, I feel they approached the material in ways that I don’t think would have occurred to many more traditional horror writers, including memoir pieces, poetry, and even surreal experimental text art. At the same time, not each piece completely works. I enjoyed seeing Lovecraft’s idiosyncratic ideas being harvested to such disparate interpretations. Based on Joseph Fink’s later thoughts on Lovecraft, it was interesting that he would choose this source to challenge his writers, and that they went to such unique places with it. Fink and Cranor’s work on Welcome to Night Vale channels much of the cosmic horror tropes Lovecraft brought into the popular culture, while subtly challenging it as well in a way that makes it the most influential weird fiction today in its own right.
I discuss this and other books focusing on the current relevance of H.P. Lovecraft at Harris' Tome Corner, The Lurking Fear.
More...