Name: Scott Wilks's review of The Horror at Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft
Item: The Horror at Red Hook
Rating: 2
Author: Scott Wilks

H.P. Lovecraft

"The Horror at Red Hook" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written on August 1–2, 1925. "Red Hook" is a transitional tale, situated between the author's earlier work and the later Cthulhu Mythos. Although the story depicts a sinister cult, this cult offers a conventionally occult devil-worshipping threat, rather than the cosmic threat depicted in his later work. Living in poverty in the slum of Red Hook at the time of writing, Lovecraft was at this time urgently attempting to widen his markets in the pulp magazines. By having an unusually proactive Irish New York police detective as his protagonist, he hoped for a swift sale to a detective pulp, which would have opened up a new market other than his usual Weird Tales magazine. He did not get such a sale, and had to fall back on Weird Tales. "Red Hook" was thus first published in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales. Famous works of the author Howard Phillips Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Horror at Red Hook, The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadows over Innsmouth, The Alchemist, Reanimator, Ex Oblivione, Azathoth, The Call of Cthulhu, The Cats of Ulthar, The Dunwich Horror, The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Festival, The Silver Key, The Other Gods, The Outsider, The Temple, The Picture in the House, The Shunned House, The Terrible Old Man, The Tomb, Dagon, From Beyond, What the Moon Brings.

H.P. Lovecraft Collection

The Horror at Red Hook

Scott Wilks

Rating All 19 Lovecraft Stories Within the Necronomicon (Audible Audio Book) ~ Part 10 - The Horror at Red Hook.

I struggled with this book a lot, the start is a mess, it feels like Lovecraft started getting a little cute with his use of dialect; almost like he read a nearby dictionary and regurgitated this onto paper.

The ending involves stacking horror upon horror upon horror, creating a globular mess that does not invoke any feeling other than confusion and boredom.

Aida Hasani

H. P. Lovecraft

"The Horror at Red Hook" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. The story begins with Detective Malone describing an on-duty incident at Red Hook, Brooklyn, that gave him a phobia of large buildings. Back-tracking to where it all began, Red Hook is described in detail, with its gangs and crime, and suggesting at an occult underbelly. The "case of Robert Suydam" is then told to be the driving force behind Malone's federally ordered involvement at Red Hook. Suydam's demeanor changes suddenly. Known as a shabby recluse, he is seen around town looking younger and more radiant. News arrives of his engagement to a well-to-do woman, while at the same time, there is an increase in local kidnappings. A police raid, involving Malone, uncovers nothing useful from Suydam's Red Hook flat save a few strange inscriptions. After Suydam's wedding, he and his bride leave on a ship. A scream is heard and when the crew enter Suydam's stateroom, they find him and his wife dead, with claw-marks on his wife's body. Malone enters Suydam's flat to see what he can find. In the basement, he comes across a door that breaks open and sucks him inside, revealing a hellish landscape. Malone is found in the basement of Suydam's flat, which has caved in inexplicably above him, killing everyone else inside. The tunnels and chambers uncovered in the raids are filled in and cemented, though as Malone recounts, Red Hook never changes.

Scott Wilks &
The Horror at Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft

Reviews

Join the club

Scott Wilks &The Horror at Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft

Reviews

Join the club

Scott Wilks &
The Horror at Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft