When I wanna pass time with some decent horror, actual horror that actually scares someone, I turn to either Stephen King’s old work or Lovecraft. Big fan of Cthulhu mythos and the Shadow Over Innsmouth is a part of it. We follow the narrator who stumbles into not so loved Innsmouth and its cults, old ones, and other mysteries.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth is sadly not my favorite in the mythos but it is still a solid read. Maybe one problem with it is the pacing issue towards the end, before the big finish. Lovecraft is capable of great scares, unsettling moments that stick with you for a long time but unfortunately this time I couldn’t feel the tension and the urgency that comes with it.
Now I’m gonna get into spoilers to explain my issue with it. I am talking about the escape from Innsmouth. Although it started great with many questions it got repetitive very fast. He uses the same descriptions over and over again, you wanna smack him back to his senses. If he had a better editor, he’d be one of the greatest ways faster. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a short story, but it is longer than some of his other stories. I think it was 71 pages and especially towards the end, it felt very long.
His vivid imagination and strong world-building skills in all its Lovecraftianness are still there. He makes your skin crawl with his words when he wants to but I felt like nothing really happened this time. The flow that usually sucks me in wasn’t there.
Locations he creates are usually mind-blowing for me and shadowed, gloomy, rotten Innsmouth has everything you need from a Lovecraft story as usual. Innsmouth’s atmosphere is excellent, the story is not terrible either. It has a solid foot, to begin with, and slowly but firmly builds the tension on these strong foundations. He does a great job with building suspense here too. Although you’re reading it while guessing what’s going to happen, on one hand, you’re still excited to see the story unfold and on the other hand, you are craving to explore Innsmouth, despite all its ugliness.
But the pursuit reduces tension instead of increasing it, and this is what caused me to move away from the story. Unnecessarily long.
For me, the ending came out of nowhere but didn’t bother me. It increased my curiosity again and made me rate the book with four stars instead of three. Overall I enjoyed the story but it wouldn’t be one of the first ones I recommend.
Peek-A-Book 