An okay book, but not what I was expecting from this "cult" author. Frankly, nothing happens to the main character. The real story is all told through his research, which is not a very engaging technique.
I would skip this for your first Lovecraft read. ( )

This is the first thing I've ever read by Lovecraft. Not bad at all. I'll probably try one of his longer works eventually. ( )

I see why this is his most famous story, because so far of what I have read, it's his best. The writing in this one was amazing. Creepy atmosphere, that just gets slowly more creepy and mysterious. Great prose. Impeccable pacing that continuously builds until the end.

Favorite quote:

"Only poetry or madness could do justice to the noises heard by Legrasse's men as they ploughed on through the black morass toward the red glare and muffled tom-toms. There are vocal qualities peculiar to men, and vocal qualities peculiar to beasts; and it is terrible to hear the one when the source should yield the other. Animal fury and orgiastic license here whipped themselves to daemoniac heights by howls and squawking ecstacies that tore and reverberated through those nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs of hell. Now and then the less organized ululation would cease, and from what seemed a well-drilled chorus of hoarse voices would rise in sing-song chant that hideous phrase or ritual:

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." ( )

Hoo boy. Lovecraft was a big old ball of crap, of course, and lo, his writing matches his personality. Cripes almighty, was this bad. The story is silly (not in a good way), and the language is so flowery and overwrought. It reads like someone gave a goth high school kid a thesaurus, told them every noun is better with at least one adjective and verbs are useless without two adverbs, and send them on their way with a creative writing assignment. (My apologies to goth kiddos everywhere - you deserve better than this association, you adorable weirdos.) Reading this has only confirmed my loathing for all things Lovecraft. Call of Cthulhu? More like call of trash can.

NB: I read this in the original English alongside a Latin translation written by a friend who wanted me to edit it for him, and as much as I dislike the original, I can easily say that he did a fantastic job translating it. ( )

Oh, the horror! ( )