Howard Lovecraft

2.5/5. Rounded up to 3.

Honestly… the short story is not great. The premise, which most people definitely heard about, about a giant horrific creature eons old, is definitely interesting. How can it not be? But the story wasn't executed well, which many people are starting to agree on.

Still, if you're reading it in recent times, I'm willing to bet that it's because of all the hype about it. In reality, it's repetitive, anticlimactic, and… boring. I'm the type of person who can read numerous pages that are just describing the surroundings in a book, and I could even be entrained by watching the paint dry, but I found myself yawning at galactic horror. I am horrified by the premise, and bored & disappointed by the subpar execution.

This story is one of the founding pillars of horror fiction, and I can see how it would be earth-shaking when it first came out. But it just doesn't stand the test of time, in my opinion. Despite my gripes with the book, I do think that's it's worth giving it a read since it's one of the classics. I'll try to eventually read more stories by H.P. Lovecraft, and I hope that they're better than this one… Or that it at least has less casual racism, and fewer descriptions of literally anything and everything with the word "queer"(meaning strange; odd. Not referring to sexuality.).