Cthulhu himself, dreaming and waiting at the bottom of the sea, became a symbol for the entire mythology that Lovecraft created. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu, first published in 1928, is one of the greatest classics of American horror literature. In the shadows, there are those who want to wake the sleeping god Cthulhu in order to spread madness and destruction over the entire world. Step by step, Thurston realizes that his relative's research got too close to the truth. Mysterious murders, blood rituals in the depths of the Louisiana swamps, artists who descend into insanity after nightmarish visions, and a Cyclopean city that rises from the sea. He soon discovers the existence of a cult that worships ancient and unspeakable horrors. Francis Thurston goes through documents left behind by his grandfather's brother, recently deceased under mysterious circumstances.

That it was wrapped in the most sublime language and exceedingly vivid descriptions that I’ve read in horror fiction, only added to the experience.Boston, 1926. I was quite absorbed by it and while it was a brisk read, it was a thoroughly engaging one. And he does that quite well with ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. What he wants instead, is to send a small chill down your spine. He doesn’t want to make you scream with horror. His monsters are epic and his ideas of despair and destruction, colossal. The phantasmagoria that his story creates is that of a cosmic proportion. Lovecraft writes with the frenzied and feverish hand of a prophet of doom and sets the tone for the story right from the beginning. The Call of Cthulu is the story that sets the stage for a series of stories about the Old Ones, great beings of a time before time who have been trapped for eons in a state of death-like sleep, waiting for the right time and the right alignment of stars and planets so that they can restore their reign in the universe. The humans are there, even disgusting ones and terrible ones and it is these humans who actually do all the dirty work that makes one squirm, but they aren’t the ones who are supposed to evoke a feeling of gloomy foreboding it is the Old Ones. Lovecraft doesn’t write about Earthly horrors. What it does, and exceedingly well, is to fill you with a feeling of dread and leave you uneasy as you try to comprehend the nature of beings that he has described in his story. It does not do what a horror story is expected to do. It is not gut-wrenching, disgustingly gory or even scary in the right sense of the word. There’s something regal and respectable about Lovecraftian horror. Eighteenth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge.

The call of cthulhu by hp lovecraft