I have long-meant to reread “The Call of Cthulhu.” I read it as a teenager, along with much more of the Lovecraftian tradition, and have to admit that I don’t remember a whole lot. Oh, I know all about Miskatonic University and Ry’leh and a whole bunch of other ideas now appropriated by the creators of Hearthstone. But I feel I should know more — these stories are, after all, among the first examples of horror and SF and many subgenres thereof.
What better way to reread it, then, than in this easily accessible style, which I received as gift last Christmas? It is just so well done! It is the story of Cthulhu, but in Seussian rhyme and with Seussian pictures. Seriously, I went and read the original story after finishing this book, just to see how it holds up, adaptation-wise, and the answer is, it holds up ridiculously well. It’s clever, it’s jaunty, but still dark and creepy — it might even be made creepier, in fact, with the colourful illustrations acting as a counterpoint to the nightmares they convey.
I always appreciated this book as pretty much the perfect gift for me. Now I appreciate it as the perfect gift for geeks like me everywhere. It’s funny and charming and just gets me, you know?
Well played, book. Well played.
SCORECARD
TBR DAY 26: H.P. Lovecraft’s the Call of Cthulhu for Beginning Readers by R. J. Ivankovic
GENRE: Horror, Classic, Humour
PUBLISHED: 2017
TIME ON THE TBR: > 2 months.
PURCHASED FROM: It was a gift.
KEEP: Yes, of course. It was a gift.
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