One thought on “A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft”

1. As mixed a bag as a bag can be The Joseph Fink novella which ends the collection is excellent and there are a couple that are pretty good The rest are either bad or entirely forgettable.

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2. The idea behind this anthology was fun the authors who agreed to the project were given a randomized prompt from a list of unused supposedly Lovecraft story ideas And looking at the list at the back of the book, it seems likely that the list was genuine, although a couple of them I recognized as actually used Lovecraft ideas The Cats of Ulthar which, granted, was never completed , Pickman s Model, and The Tomb, off the top of my head Went back and looked up the descriptions that had sparked my m [...]

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3. As most people will tell you this collection is hit and miss But the hits are memorable enough for me to call this a good collection of stories.Joseph Fink s novella Relative Damnation is the clear standout in my opinion, which should not be a surprise, given the writing talent he s already demonstrated in the Night Vale podcasts and also the fact that he had space to develop a story than any of the other writers But Levittown 36 Disintegration by Mark Farr stands out as the most Lovecraftian s [...]

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4. An interesting collection of tales based on a list of story ideas written by HP Lovecraft over several years Only a handful are fleshed out and several were used by Lovecraft himself the list is at the back of this book, each numbered and giving a few words up to several paragraphs of idea plot.These definitely had the lovecraft taint, though some include subject matter never found in his works in life I would recommend this for any fan of Lovecraftian literature.It certainly whets my appetite f [...]

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5. I wanted to love this book I m already a devoted listener of Welcome to Night Vale and this book is promoted at the end of every episode The premise is that each person received an unused idea from HP Lovecraft he left a list and wrote a story based on it Unfortunately, the majority of the stories are surrealistic, overly styled, and reminded me of a college literary magazine.There are a couple of scary gems in the dross, including Fink s own story, which is the last in the collection, but overa [...]

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6. After a while, I d throw it out, whatever it was, because it s importance why I kept it around, why I tried to preserve it was lost to me This book was between 3.5 and 4 stars for me The premise is fascinating taking H.P Lovecraft prompts and writing stories based on however the writer interprets it Some stories are better than others and there s a wide range of prompts and styles I think my biggest issue is that it could be longer, or some of the stories could be But overall it s a great collec [...]

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7. This is not a perfect book, even as such collections go The four star rating is for a few reasons, mostly because I think the best stories in it deserve it I also believe that most people that enjoy weird fiction will come away with at least a few gems, though what those gems are will vary and it may require some effort to get through the rest Finally, while I did not give much weight to this, the concept is ambitious, and the fact that the ideas supposedly listed by Lovecraft and regardless of [...]

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8. Bookriot Read Harder Challenge 2015 Task 4, published by an indie pressWhy I chose this book been in the TBR pile ages, plus I LOVE Welcome To Night Vale and the Mythos, so it s a great way to support Commonplace Books WNTV since I already have a t shirt.On Reading Well I do struggle with short stories in general, they are not my favourite style So I knew I would have some issues from the outset There are some first class tales in here Joseph Fink s is particularly good but tbh these were just n [...]

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9. It is sad that so few of these stories are worth reading, and that because of the chaff I cannot in good conscious recommend the collection just to get to the gems What I will say is that the final entry, a short novel by Joseph Fink, is very good indeed and if there is some other way to read it I would definitely recommend doing so.

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10. Some are much much better than others but the ones that are good are really good Unfortunately, the best one is the first one so it really raises the bar But that s my preference, your mileage may vary.

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11. as with all short story collections, the stories vary in quality, but here the quality is better than most the contributors clearly put a lot of effort into their offerings, and always in the spirit of the Weird, slyly tipping their hats to Lovecraft, which I loved.

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12. Great concept Some of the stories I dis not get, but there were a few good ones too The list of Lovecraft s ideas at the end of the book is something fantastic.

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13. A mixed bag, as is usually the case with multiple author anthologies Fantastic concept though, I d love to see a second volume with of the same.

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14. A fantastic premise leads to a very, very mixed bag of stories.

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15. The stories were somewhat less creepy than I had imagined but they were indeed exciting and strange nonetheless Jeffery Cranors story may be my favorite in this collection of stories and poems

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16. A real mixed bag Depending on the author stuff can be great, or weak Fink s story is great.

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