Books by H. P. Lovecraft

A short story first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928, HP Lovecraft’s deranged tale has become a centrepiece in horror fantasy of the slime-covered, otherworldly kind. Cthulhu, “a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body,” is said to be so terrible to behold that it destroys the sanity of those who see it. Lovecraft’s phantasmagorical vision established an entire Cthulhu Mythos and inspired everyone from Stephen King to Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore. In the figures of the Demogorgon, the Mindflayer and even Vecna himself, you can see the tentacles of this myth extending into the subconscious of the Duffer Brothers, the creators of Stranger Things. If you liked Stranger Things, you’re going to love the books of HP Lovecraft.

From our article Books like Stranger Things

“I know that for some people Lovecraft might be scarier for his racism. Some people have even argued that his racist discourse is one of the things that filters through the way he writes about the alien Other. These are very valid points, and certainly explain his complex reception, with his profile gradually rising from obscurity to recognition and then to disdain. Ultimately, the message in his stories is that the human does not matter … For me, his writing really creates tension and shock. I think Lovecraft was a master of suspense, among other things” Read more...

Scary Books

Xavier Aldana Reyes, Film Critics & Scholar

“This one is a bit out there. It’s set on a submarine in the First World War. It represents what I like about the sea as a setting, but does so in a scary horror way. The sea is perfect for that—all the things you don’t know about. It links to sci fi in a way, because it is a bit like spaceships on the edge of what we know..With some stories, people build up to a point, and then, at the end, they back away from what could be an interesting conclusion to the story or an interesting character moment, and they go a bit safer. Lovecraft sets it up and then he goes for it. This is not traditional naval fiction. It’s only a dozen or so pages. But it’s got a lot of the same themes as the sea stories and the naval fiction that I like.” Read more...

The Best Naval Historical Fiction

Katie Daysh, Novelist