Howard Phillips Lovecraft is the kind of writer who provokes mixed emotions. On the one hand, he has become the face of the cosmic horror subgenre and his influence on modern horror in general is undeniable. When you sit down to actually read his stories, however, you’ll find that they tend to be permeated by his rampant bigotry—extreme even for his own time—and many of his plots fall into repetitive, predictable patterns. Even his best stories (I particularly enjoyed The Shadow over Innsmouth and “The Thing on the Doorstep”) have at their core an intense xenophobia and complete disregard for women. But whether you’re a hardcore Lovecraft fan or uninterested in ever reading anything from the man himself, you can enjoy the many new stories coming out from authors who play in Lovecraft’s sandbox while critiquing some of his views and adding new perspectives into his worlds. Here are just a few examples of books that put a fun, new twist on Lovecraft’s immortal mythos: Continue reading Fresh Takes on Lovecraft
Tag: Winter Tide
Review of Winter Tide—Subverted Lovecraft
*A version of this review first appeared as an article in Auxiliary Magazine*
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys is the perfect book for lovers and haters of Lovecraft alike. H. P. Lovecraft, often considered the father of modern horror fiction, is famous for inventing the Cthulhu Mythos, which was been continued by many others in decades’ worth of novels, movies, games, and pop culture. But he’s also notorious for his rampant racism and serious lack of female characters. In Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys takes the amazing world that Lovecraft created, but subverts his negative aspects by using her story to explore the complexities of race and gender in post-World War II America. Winter Tide was published last year, but its sequel, Deep Roots, will be coming out in July. Continue reading Review of Winter Tide—Subverted Lovecraft