Well, folks, I really dropped the ball on the read-alongs this year. I started reading The Dunwich Horror and got stuck. I hate to say it, but I'm not a fan of this story. Not boding well for my first Lovecraft read. Not that I won't still read more of his. So, I had to bypass reading Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum and Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch-House. I'll have to pick them up later, or maybe next year.
SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS STORY
In my reading of various analyses of Lovecraft's work, one thing seems to be said more often than not. His short stories are too long. I would have to agree. I honestly thought Dunwich was never going to end.
What I did like was the whole mystery of what was going on at the Whateley house, and the weirdness of Wilbur with his strange appearance and accelerated growth. And his horrible death when attacked by a dog...the reveal of what he really was...was a shocker.
I also liked the parts regarding the Old Ones and Wilbur's efforts to bring them into this world. What I don't quite understand is what kind of monster is Wilbur's twin. It seems to be some tentacled, octopus type creature. I really don't think it sounds very scary. Is that weird? I know others know a lot more about Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos than I do, and so would understand this more. Apparently, Lovecraft introduced the entity Yog-Sototh as one of the extra-dimensional Old Ones in this story.
Strangely enough, what made things anti-climactic for me was that I knew all along that the creature who was locked up in the house, and that they were expanding the house for, was Wilbur's sibling. So the big reveal at the end just wasn't that big of a deal for me.
What did you think? Is this a Lovecraft favorite for you, or are there others of his you like better?
I made it through Dunwich Horror, but didn't make much headway into Dreams in the Witch-House. Actually, I liked The Dunwich Horror more than I've like much of the Lovecraft I've read. While long, I thought it moved along pretty well. I liked the story being told as history in this sort of "...until the Dunwich Horror of 1928!" kind of way. That feels very New England to me. I've never quite found stuff from the Cthulhu mythos scary. I like my horrors closer to home.
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