The Shadow over Innsmouth, 5.-14. August (Sunniva)

As this is the first review, I have no idea how to do this. Will it be full of spoilers? Will I refer to conversations I've had with Juan, the other person in this project? Will I try to make it commercial in case a magazine editor happens to stumble over our hidden little blog and think 'wow, this is the best review I've ever read, I will hire Sunniva and give her lots of money'? I think, so far, the answers to all these questions is no. So let's just start and see how we go.

I read this story in the beginning of August, when I went between finishing a much-worked with text, working as a volunteer at the charity shop every day, getting back as a volunteer with the Red Cross and the student newspaper, signing up with two recruitment agencies, and getting a part-time job with a not-quite-charity called Global Dignity. I had a minor breakdown one day, because all the expectations became too much for me. I'm still working on balancing all these responsibilities. I mainly read the story at breakfast, to avoid nightmares (very susceptible to nightmares, everything I read at night colours my dreams).

The Shadow over Innsmouth is a short story, or maybe a novella, by science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, of whom I'd heard a lot, but never read anything. I will admit to something, though: When we were talking about which books we could read and review for this project, H.P. Lovecraft came up on some list or other of books to read before you die. The main reason I agreed, and the main reason I chose The Shadow over Innsmouth, is that Neil Gaiman (one of my favourite authors) speaks a lot about Lovecraft in general, but has also written a short story called Shoggoth's Old Peculiar, set in another, British Innsmouth, but definitely inspired by Lovecraft. I never could understand this short story. It seems full of injokes that I'm not in on. I suspect that I partly wanted to read Lovecraft, and especially this one, just because of that.

Character I sympathise the most with: The main character? Or, actually, maybe more the agent at the station ticket-office, who gets to tell the stranger all about the local myths about Innsmouth. He does try to say that going to Innsmouth, especially on that old bus, is a bad idea, but at the same time he seems happy to be able to part with all this information and old stories about the small town. That would be me.

At the end of the story (no linear reviews here, do you hear), I realised that I've heard of Ctulhu before. Probably through listening to too many Neil Gaiman interviews. I've now realised that H.P. Lovecraft created the Ctulhu Mythos, which is all over the second hand book shops of Tromsø, especially in the fantasy and science fiction sections.

proof

There are no appropriate soundtracks. Listening to music while reading books has never been anything for me – the disappearing into a book and only being pulled out of it by a phone ringing, the sound of car tires, or the cat wanting to go outside, is the best experience you can have (before the pulling out).

Now there's hardly space for the actual review. I might go away from the guidelines for the next book, because I have so many feelings about it.

Let it just be said. H.P. LOVECRAFT! THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH! That's all. Brilliant.

It started out as (how I imagine) a classic science fiction/fantasy story from the 1930s, with the truth being told from the start, only with the main character not knowing this. And then came the end, and SPOILER ALERT (not really) the big twist that left me wishing for more text, more stories, and more knowledge about the Ctulhu Mythos. Without reading too much online before this review, I've already found that H.P. himself wrote more stories concerning Innsmouth and the Old Ones, which I will try to find after this.

In addition to the tons of authors and writers and cartoonists who have been inspired by Ctulhu to write directly about him and the rest of the Old Ones, I realised just how many modern science fiction and fantasy authors have been inspired by him. Plenty. Especially this idea that the human mind shrinks away from the truthful appearances of supernatural beings, or that seeing these beings can make persons mad as the brain is trying to protect us from seeing the entire truth. Namely in Mark Chadbourn's The Age of Misrule series is this one of the main points.

To conclude: I loved this story. While I read it I wasn't too sure, it was all right, with some good descriptions here and there. Then the end. Seriously.