Why am I passionate about this?
I’ve been reading Lovecraft, and those inspired by him, since I was in high school. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that there could be a whole world just outside of sight that we never see, and once we do see we can never un-see. After I’d been writing for a few years a friend of mine suggested/demanded I write a story for him inspired by Lovecraft’s world. Mostly I started it to satisfy him but once the jar was open it all spilled out. I wove in real elements from history, including historical figures. This story ended up winning a major award, but there was still so much more to tell.
John's book list on Lovecraftian fiction you might have missed
Why did John love this book?
Okay, so maybe you didn’t exactly miss at least hearing about this novel, but many readers skip over the original Lovecraft stories as being too difficult to read which is a shame.
This is the where the elder god mythos truly began for me, the first of any Lovecraft story I ever read. Split into three sections this book is linked together around nightmares, cults, and a sleeping god.
Call of Cthulhu was where I learned that not every question in a story requires an answer, and that heroes can face overwhelming odds and lose in the end. It is bleak and the perfect introduction to this world.
1 author picked The Call of Cthulhu as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
One of the feature stories of the Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft's 'the Call of Cthulhu' is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.