Book Review: Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft

“The stock reaction…is to faint”

There are times – only occasionally mind you – when one needs to be charitable.

There is much the world owes H.P. Lovecraft. His name is legendary among those who adore stories of the bizarre and deranged. You must either be living under a rock or have no interest in ‘weird and fantastic tales’ if you’ve never heard of Cthulu. Countless ‘chilling tales’ from ‘beyond the crypt’ etc., etc., have been inspired by his writings – along with Poe, Asimov, Dahl and others of course. If you watch any Twilight Zone style of TV programmes or movies, you’ve probably watched a Lovecraft.

So, for that reason and that reason only, I’m giving this more stars than it deserves. I owe it to the memory of the man and the fact that many, many decades after his death (in 1937) his stories and mythos are still much loved and referred to.

That ground laid, I have to say the stories themselves are pretty lame. I can feel the collective hiss of fans around the world invoking the name of Cthulu against me right now for saying that. Sorry, but I’ll take my chances.

I say that with very little bravery because, frankly, the monsters and ‘unspeakable’ terrors of this author’s world are neither terrors nor unspeakable – so any invocation to ‘ole squid-face doesn’t really chill me. I don’t think there were many stories where the narrator didn’t proclaim either the monster or events to be ‘unspeakable’ or ‘indescribable’ before then promptly going on to speak and describe them. I kind of wish they hadn’t. With almost every story I found myself thinking: ‘is that it?’

But then this universe Lovecraft has crafted seems to have very fragile people in it. The stock reaction for every man (and there are almost no women in these stories – certainly none of any consequence unless they turn out to be the monster), on seeing any kind of danger or menace at all, is to faint. I would love to see the movie of these stories that sticks strictly to the plot because it would be hilarious; like some huge fainting competition straight out of a Monty Python sketch. I’d pay money to see that.

Interminable ‘unspeakable’ horrors and prostrate bodies everywhere I can forgive. The insidious racism and sexism, less so. While it is under the radar, there’s just a little too much looking down on anyone who isn’t white, male and educated (preferably at ‘Miskatonic University’). I can appreciate that time in which the stories were written but the fact that I don’t get the same prejudicial vibes from Dickens. Hardy, H.G. Wells or a host of others writing on or before Lovecraft, tells me that there is a problem with the author. Indeed, one can see in his stories a constant theme of finding life that is different as frightening and dangerous. We see no aliens, no spirits, no lifeforms that have any sense of love, mercy or pity. Every single one is out to kill and destroy with the sole exception of one set of ‘alien monsters’ whose motives are never entirely either presented or believed by the narrator. The assumption is always that what is new and different to us is bad. That speaks volumes.

But I acknowledged I might be a little too harsh here. I appreciate that this is horror/Sci-fi fiction and so there will tend to be the fear of the unknown and that unknown will be dangerous. I can, for sure, see how these stories are much loved too. There are ideas here which, at the time, were probably fresh and new. If nothing else, the presentation of supernatural elements coming not through the motifs of religion but through science instead is an interesting idea that still has its role today even though it hasn’t entirely been embraced. Somehow, we still prefer monsters scared of crucifixes rather than ancient aliens with ethereal bodies lying dormant underground. Perhaps there is room for Lovecraft to be found again?

But if we do so, it does need to be cleansed of prejudices and recast with values we follow today. There’s something to be said for doing exactly that. That said, the failure (in my opinion) of stories like this is that the true horror is always mankind. When you make a spirit, monster or alien the bad guy, they are never a patch on what a human being can do to another. Alas, we don’t need fiction to see that. Right now, it is all around us.

My Verdict:

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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