Hi guys, It’s me, Forsaken Press Social Media Manager and Official Reviewer Jenna. Welcome to the second edition of Jenna’s Side, where I give my honest reviews of all the latest Forsaken Press releases. For round two I had the treat, and terror, of reviewing Through the Gates of the Silver Key: The Best Collaborations and Ghost Writings of H.P. Lovecraft. I must admit that prior to reading this collection I wasn’t too familiar with Mr. Lovecraft’s work, having only read a handful of his stories before and knowing him mostly by reputation. So this was a fun, interesting, exciting and certainly anxiety/fear invoking experience.
Preparing this anthology for release was truly a battle against the Old Ones, with the file now holding bits and pieces of the sanity of our editor in chief and our formatting staff. Possibly some of the sanity of this reviewer too, but I leave that to you to decide. It was definitely all worth it to share some of the most underrated works of one the most influential horror writers of all time.
Just in case you thought you knew everything Lovecraft had to offer, Cameron Walker painstakingly chose some of the more obscure Lovecraft writings, poring through the ghost-writings and collaborations. Then he combined them to take the reader on a journey through the fantastical horrific visions Lovecraft is known best for, with some more traditional horror-magick sprinkled throughout. Anthologies can often read like textbooks with dull introductions, but Walker uses his introductions to add humour, insight, and controversy, keeping it from being a dry academic book.
I decided to review each story individually and then give an overall score at the end of the review to sum things up. So let’s get to it shall we?
Under the Pyramids
Under the Pyramids is a fascinating tale of horrific visions. As Walker writes in his introduction, Lovecraft lost his original draft and had to spend his wedding night hurriedly rewriting the commission with help from his wife. It reads, therefore, with a breathless energy which serves it well, making it almost seem as though Houdini, the ostentatious narrator, were telling the story aloud from memory.
Rating: 4/5
The Curse of Yig
Let me preface this: I can handle a lot of stuff in books. I’ve only stopped reading one book due to the imagery and that was The Partner by John Grisham because of its great attention to detail in its description of exactly what would happen when someone was tortured with electrical current. It’s not pretty. The Curse of Yig is wonderfully disturbing in a similar way. So I finished it, but then I was done with reading for a while. As well, I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what is about to happen, but this had two twists I didn’t see coming…
Rating: Shudder. 5/5
The Mound
Walker’s introduction describing The Mound as being akin to writing by Jules Verne got me hooked, as I have loved Jules Verne since A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was my favourite book when I was 8. I was not disappointed, as this turned out to be my favourite story in the anthology. I definitely saw the parallels with Verne in Lovecraft’s descriptions of the world below as beautiful and terrible all at once.
Rating: Can I cheat and give this one 6/5? I really do love it so.
The Man of Stone
The Man of Stone is an easy, entertaining read, which reminded me of some of Neil Gaiman’s darker short stories, one of the best compliments I can give. It doesn’t contain any of the fantastical imagery of the previous three stories, but it doesn’t need it—it is, instead, a tale of humanity’s inhumanity toward humanity, with just a little magick. It’s just disturbing enough to keep your attention even though it feels like you know what’s happening next. Plot twist, you don’t. Or at least not in the way you think you do.
Rating: 5/5
The Horror in the Museum
Remember how I said I can handle lots in books? The Horror in the Museum was where I went “Nope.” Here, Lovecraft has perfected his eldritch horrors, removing much of the sense of the fantastical, almost beautiful, which is found in the works that precede this in the anthology, leaving a simple terror. As Walker describes, this is a story of revenge for wounded pride. It feels as though it would not be out of place on an incel forum—they don’t love me, accept me, understand me, give me what I want; I’ll show them and they’ll all be sorry —which adds to the terror for these female eyes.
Rating: 5/5
Winged Death
Usually I’m pretty eloquent. Not about this. About this: GAH. I haven’t even decided if that’s good or bad. Winged Death has no fantastical creatures, no beautiful madness. A simple housefly. Or is it?
Rating: Is GAH a rating? No? Then I reluctantly give it 5/5 for getting itself stuck in the same part of my brain as cicadas and huntsman spiders. Twitch.
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
The Silver Key, to which this story is a sequel, speaks in depth of the shortcomings of the popular interpretation of post-modern existentialism: if nothing is real and nothing truly exists, then there is no reason or meaning to anything. In Through the Gates of the Silver Key, a solution is posited, which Lovecraft both relished and feared: to escape into fantasy. More than in any other story, here the fantasy dream world Lovecraft inhabits so often is understood as both joy and horror, almost as though he has forgotten it is a world of his own making. No one gets out unchanged, and Lovecraft is no exception. This realization is terrifying to him, and he shares this deep fear with us who read, including a scene which, for me, perfectly describes the awful sense of a night terror.
Rating: 4.5/5 I actually found myself drifting off reading this, because the scenery was oddly comforting.
Out of the Aeons
I love a good twist. If I couldn’t see it coming, bring it on. Out of the Aeons kept me guessing, second guessing, hoping I was wrong, then wishing I had been right because I was wrong and the reality was worse than my guess. Rinse and repeat, up until the end.
Rating: 4/5
Till A’the Seas
While I sincerely hope that this is not a view of an inevitable future, I read this story as the nightly news presents me with stories of an apocalyptic hell on earth in Australia. Our mythical frog is quickly turning into soup, and this story from Lovecraft eerily describes the nature of environmental degradation we are now seeing, and the apocalypse it is leading to unless things change. Strangely, Lovecraft apparently in all of his most horrible visions could not imagine humanity doing this to ourselves, instead blaming the changes on the sun growing toward supernova. Yet again, truth is stranger than fiction.
Rating: 4/5
The Disinterment
I wonder what it would have been like to experience this story for the first time from Lovecraft’s pen. Although I wouldn’t call The Disinterment a warm fuzzy read, it is now a familiar tale, having inspired so many similar ones. As such, you know what is coming and though it is still horror, it is almost comfortable.
Rating: 4/5
The Night Ocean
A story where nothing happens and yet everything does! Oh be still my absurdist heart. Wait, not that still.
Rating: I expected to love this from Walker’s brilliant introduction, but unfortunately I found myself…bored. 3/5 but with the caveat it was probably just as much me as it was the story.
The Diary of Alonzo Typer
Perhaps due to his attempts to keep to the style of his collaborator, this is unmistakably Lovecraft, but significantly faster paced than the other stories, save the panicked frenetic energy of Under the Pyramids. Although it is another story of meeting the old ones and their terrible gods, this one differs as it focuses on the fascination and dread Alonzo feels before he descends rather than on the journey or the destination.
Rating: 4/5
In the Walls of Eryx
As Walker writes, this is the least Lovecraftian story in the collection—were it not for his signature use of strings of adjectives, it could pass as having been written by any sci-fi author. Lovecraft leaves you to figure out what is happening along with the protagonist, only one step ahead, keeping you holding on to faint hope for him—if you could figure it out, so can he.
Rating: 4/5
Bothon
In his introduction, Walker introduces the controversy of just how much input Lovecraft had into this story before his death. If nothing else, Bothon is set in Lovecraft’s world and informed by his fantastical horrible beautiful madness. However, the hand of Whitehead, the collaborator, is evident in that the characters are not the least bit afraid of this other world and face it head-on.
Rating: 4/5
Overall I give this anthology a 5/5. I loved it. XD
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