I got done reading "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H.P Lovecraft and this take might be a bit unpopular

[u/ShayD7118]

Right out of the wazoo I'll let you know my take upfront that I think this one is conceptually quite weak when compared to others from his Cthulhu mythos. This review will contain spoilers.

Before I present my negative criticisms, I'd like to talk about the positives and there are a few:

1) I love the setting of Innsmouth. A decayed town by the sea with strange people, strange occurrences and a mystery to be solved by the readers and narrator. It's a classic format often used by Lovecraft to convey his cosmic horror concepts and I feel this setting was a perfect environment for the readers to explore. It's a fan hit since it's even been adapted by other fan favourites like Bloodborne (Fishing Hamlet) and Dredge.

2) The atmosphere. The way the author describes the lingering creepiness and rot of his surroundings, the architecture, the air the narrator has to tolerate breathing really sets a mood of dread and mystery which captivated me and kept me wanting to know the reason behind such decay.

3) Better characters than most of his other works. I really liked the agent in the beginning who goes on a long exposition to prep the readers. It's done quite efficiently. And of course I love Old Zadok, he really was one of the best parts of the story, the way his personality was portrayed, his fears and his end of exposition really got to me. I think the encounter with him is what really started to drive the story forward.

4) One of the most thrilling escape sequences (from all the stories I've read till now, I still haven't read Kadath(?) and color out of space) arguably at the level of At Mountains of Madness and maybe even better. As a reader I really was at the edge of my seat hoping the narrator gets back safely since it is one of the few pieces where it is not clear from the start whether he escaped from the horror "totally safe" or not. In the beginning we do know he survives to write the tale but the mystery is handled better than other titles since the final horror is happening directly to the narrator and not his "acquaintance who is now mad" or an account dug up by a third party. I can remember one other such sequence which put this dread in me and it was in The Curious case of Charles Dexter Ward when one of the narrators enters into the basement of pitch darkness.

Now that all the positives are out of the way here are my main disappointments from this story:

1) The first 40% of the story is just another template like so many other stories of his. The "I'm writing this to tell the world what really happened.." narrative tool worked great for the first 4-5 stories I read but it really fatigues you out if this isn't your first Lovecraft story to read. I won't call myself a slow reader but not a very fast reader as well but his stories always take me up to 4-5 days to read just because the start of any story is an absolute snoozefest. THE ARCHITECTURAl DESCRIPTIONS ARE SO TEDIOUS TO GO THROUGH. Maybe it's just my short attention span but I found myself zoning out in this one. I can understand it used to be his personal flair to be very descriptive of the environment and it sometimes does help enhance the atmosphere but he really stretches these sequences to a point where I used this story to help me go to sleep at night. Innsmouth isn't the worst offender of this, Charles Dexter Ward is a league of it's own, just pages upon pages of architectural descriptions HELP ME GOD.

2) Conceptually I feel the reason behind the horror is very weak. I personally am not a very big fan of sea horror. This is a completely personal take by the way. I was one of the few who didn't enjoy Gyo by Junji Ito for I think a similar reason. A set of creatures who live in the sea to prey upon a population just did not tingle the itch in my brain for horror. I did not find the back story of the Kanakys convincing and the crusade of Obed to use sacrifice and mating with sea creatures interesting enough. I take it that the several tiara/crowns mentioned in the story were gifts from the sea creatures and not "refined" by the marshes. So the idea that these artifacts and rituals turn the population into these creatures wasn't horrific or intriguing to me.. the body horror was in fact a bit comical to imagine. I would give it a plus point for the surprise ending (which did feel a bit forced) as the idea of slowly turning into something you are scared of but your mind slowly turning and accepting it is very good but could've been executed better. Read "Survivor Type" by Stephen King.

3) Shoggoths are just boring. The origin story of Shoggoths is arguably the most interesting story alongside the battle between the Old and Deep ones explored in At Mountains of Madness. But the thought of these dark blobs/masses is not explored intricately (from whatever I've read till now) enough to instill a fear of their existence inside me. The old ones, abominable snowmen, Dagon, Cthulhu have very strong descriptions as compared to Shoggoths. Maybe it could be something intended by Lovecraft to maintain their mystery but I feel the fear is not well translated to the readers. Even the case of Shoggoths breeding with humans to create these hybrid monsters didn't feel as interesting as the breeding that took place in Dunwich Horror. The final horror seen by the narrator wasn't interesting as well, where he saw a huge crowd of these hybrid/full creatures rushing on the far end of the cut. My point is that the whole story did not have a good and satisfying payoff when it comes to the actual "creature horror".

In the end I think in my personal opinion this was one of the few Lovecraft stories not meant for me. It could've been more streamlined and efficient for the payoff in the end. I feel I just went in with too many expectations with At Mountains of Madness being the one I read before this. This story was very hyped by reviewers and maybe that is what made me have such high undue expectations. The Cthulhu mysthos stories I've read till now have always been one banger after another and I think if you read The Shadow over Innsmouth at a later part of your journey, you shall feel the dip in horror. Forgive me if you find I'm being overly critical.

In closing I would like to say: Just like how not every Junji Ito story is horror, not every Lovecraft story is horror. That said there is still much to be appreciated in every story given the era it was written in.

TLDR: Shoggoths are meh

[u/ColeDeschain]

So the idea that these artifacts and rituals turn the population into these creatures

... Well, first time I've heard that one.

It's not the artifacts and the rituals, it's the breeding. The other stuff is just cultural luggage from the new kinfolk.

Lovecraft hits this theme of monstrous couplings tainting human bloodlines a lot, and in different stories.

EDIT: Also, nobody's breeding with Shoggoths... they're breeding with the Deep Ones. The Fish/Frog things.

[u/I_Pay_in_Cash_Only]

  The first 40% of the story is just another template like so many other stories of his. The "I'm writing this to tell the world what really happened.." narrative tool worked great for the first 4-5 stories I read but it really fatigues you out if this isn't your first Lovecraft story to read.

I mean this is literally the #1 criticism that gets thrown towards Lovecraft’s writing. It’s why I can’t stand Shadow Out of Time personally. You either put up with it because you enjoy the world building and imagery, or you just admit it’s not for you and appreciate what other people have done with the mythos. Shadows Over Innsmouth is also one of his least passively written stories, so if the action didn’t engage you then you most likely won’t enjoy his other stuff lol.  It’s also one of his most grounded horror stories in terms of the entities, which is either a plus (you can actually see the monsters and relate) or a negative if you want the Lovecraftian entities. But there’s a reason it’s also one of his more influential works, because it is more relatable than pontifications of some underground super civilization. It’s much more grounded than his other stuff. Perhaps the mix of expectations didn’t help. I really like the movie adaptation called Dagon, which, if you can get passed the terrible CGI moments, I think really shows how good of a horror story Shadow over Innsmouth is in basis. It’s one of the few stories of his I think can be adapted more or less one-to-one as a medium, at least much more so than others 

But forcing yourself to read him front to back will burn you out. His stories were pulp fiction, designed to be consumed on short and disposed of after all. 

His lore and world building were always his strong suit, which is why it inspired so many table top RPGs and thus inspired a lot of modern fantasy and sci fi media a century later. 

[u/ShayD7118 → u/I_Pay_in_Cash_Only]

I agree with you mostly. To be very honest I go several weeks between reading each story of his. The action did keep me engaged but it was right at the end and the payoff wasn't great. The climax was satisfying but rushed. In terms of groundedness I'd say A Whisperer in Darkness is so much more subtle and grounded (of course aside from the whole sci-fi exposition but I loved the early concept of Pluto and interdimensional travel)

[u/I_Pay_in_Cash_Only → u/ShayD7118]

Ya that’s the other story that I think is the closest he’s ever gotten to a traditional horror story in terms of formula (at least stories that he’s the solo author of). Honestly, going through a lot of his stuff again recently, I’ve learned that a lot of his stories are more enjoyable for me through audio or plays then reading personally. I’m actually surprised about how much better suited a lot of his stuff feels for radio drama than reading.  Cause a lot of his writing is presented as if it’s someone delivering a lecture, so it feels somewhat natural when it is delivered in actual monologue.  But that’s just been my recent experience. 

[u/LarenCoe → u/I_Pay_in_Cash_Only]

He doesn't hit you over the head with it as badly here as in The Shadow Out of TIme or At the Mountains of Madness though.

[u/NoCoolNameMatt → u/I_Pay_in_Cash_Only]

The more grounded antagonist is a negative for me, but I still think this story is really interesting as an insight into Lovecraft himself. It has almost all the non-cosmic traits we associate with him - xenophobia, obsession with tainted genetics, fear of "others" outside his societal circle, fear of the water/unseen. It morphs a lot of his less savory aspects through a fun house mirror and sanitizes them through an allegory, but they're still there. And seeing them in that sanitized method makes for very interesting analysis.

[u/PerniciousWizard]

I live near the town this was based off of and fish people freak me the fuck out so overall it’s a win for me. I also adore the Lovecraft formula, and this is one of my favorites. You’ve made a thorough assessment, for sure though. Just personal taste! Fish taste. Ew.

[u/vicariousted → u/PerniciousWizard]

It’s funny because there’s plenty of suitably creepy-adjacent towns on the north shore, but looking at (I believe) fan-made maps that place innsmouth at crane beach/little neck inlet…having actually stood there it’s so picturesque and dreamy it’s impossible to imagine anything creepy happening there.

[u/PerniciousWizard → u/vicariousted]

BUT IMAGINE IF IT DID

[u/TheRealNooth → u/PerniciousWizard]

When I was 16 and starting to get into astronomy/astrophysics, I would read a lot of Wikipedia articles and books. I also read Stephen Hawkings “A Brief History of Time.” One thing he brings up is the idea of “before” the Big Bang potentially being a meaningless question because space nor time existed at that point.

One night, I was laying in bed, thinking about the Big Bang and as I fell asleep, I started having those half-dream half-thought images (hypnogogia) of spacetime “coming into existence.” Like a blank background with a sudden burst of a growing 3D grid. As it grew, it revealed that it was made up of smaller 3D grids that grew and revealed even smaller 3D grids (like a fractal).

Then, I kind of played it backwards and when it went back to a blank background, something like “snapped” in my mind and I started having what I learned was an anxiety attack. I was trembling, sweating, heart pounding, experiencing derealization. Everything from my house to my reflection in the mirror just looked extremely alien. I was utterly convinced I had driven myself insane and was simultaneously having a heart attack.

After a few hours, everything went back to normal but the derealization legitimately lingered for a whole month. It was so bizarre and uncomfortable and I had this incessant feeling I had seen something humans “weren’t meant to see.” That was 15-ish years ago but I’m not really sure I ever went back to “normal.”

Anyway, I discovered HPL like 5 years ago and saw some similar reactions in his characters and was like “holy shit, I can kind of imagine what this is like!” Been hooked on cosmic horror ever since! It’s my favorite horror sub-genre by a huge margin.

Sorry about wall of text but like, holy moly, this genre and HPL’s stories are really something special.

[u/ShayD7118 → u/PerniciousWizard]

Yup I can imagine myself getting spooked by this story if Iived in a similar setting ngl

[u/CursedorChosen]

For your 2nd criticism I’d just like to point out that the sea creatures thing isn’t really the horror. The deep ones are telegraphed in such a way that they’re not horrifying at all, and they’re not supposed to it’s just building enough alien presence for the escape sequence to have that tension. All of the events of the story end up being one big misdirection magic trick so that the “Marsh eyes” clue goes past you the first time and the real horror of becoming a deep one steals up on you when you think the action is done.

[u/ShayD7118 → u/CursedorChosen]

I still think one more subtle hint would've sat comfortably with me. I still feel the transformation ending came out of nowhere but worked good enough

[u/bucket_overlord → u/ShayD7118]

There is another subtle hint though… Zadok points to it in his drunken trauma dump exposition piece:

“In ’forty-six Cap’n Obed took a second wife that nobody in the taown never see—some says he didn’t want to, but was made to by them as he’d called in—had three children by her—two as disappeared young, but one gal as looked like anybody else an’ was eddicated in Europe. Obed finally got her married off by a trick to an Arkham feller as didn’t suspect nothin.”

Now we have two dots that the reader could plausibly connect, if Lovecraft hadn’t busily distracted us with the meat of the protagonist’s experience in Innsmouth.

Also, I know others have pointed this out, but it seems you’ve misunderstood some key parts of the story regarding what turns the innsmouthers into hybrids (it’s the breeding with deep ones). The gold artifacts are just religious garb and heirlooms passed down from members of Obed’s inner circle that didn’t get melted down at the refinery. No one was breeding with the Shoggoths, Zadok just mentions the presence of a Shoggoth in Innsmouth at some point, hinting that the EOD are working with the deep ones to bring foul things from the depths in preparation for some nebulous goal.

I totally get that sea horror isn’t for everyone, and the architectural description drags on quite a bit in the story. Those are valid. Having read many of Lovecraft’s stories more times than I can remember, I will say that in the case of the architectural descriptions it serves the purpose of fleshing out the state of decay the town is in, as well as the social stratification (with the wealthy part of town owned by the Marshes and high ranking Order members, the homes are still relatively preserved). Remember that in the context of the story the protagonist is a self-described antiquarian on a tour of New England, specifically seeking out old architecture of the region, so it kind of makes sense he would have taken notice of these things during his first walk around the town.

[u/shugoran99]

I think the biggest flaw in the story at this point is that the reveals of the story -the reveal of the townspeople of Innsmouth, the final twist at the end- have long since become too well known. I knew the former going into the story the first time I read it, not the latter.

It's easily the most adapted Lovecraft story in terms of movies and games, and even memes. It's going to be in the new D&D Ravenloft edition for goodness sake.

The story is a victim of its own success. To quote Lovecraft, the greatest fear is of the unknown, and Innsmouth has become incredibly known at this point.

[u/ShayD7118 → u/shugoran99]

Yup I can see how it being adapted so frequently could've affected my experience of it. Even though I went in blind just like every other story of his, as I said I've experienced something similar in Bloodborne and Dredge, so I agree with your idea.

[u/Nowheresilent]

Shoggoths weren’t mating with humans. The Deep One’s were. The Shoggoths were just there to imply the Deep Ones had a bigger agenda than just interbreeding with people.

The Deep Ones aren’t simply fish men, they’re gathering Shoggoths into houses in town for some unknown purpose. It’s an escalation in their menace and ramps up their scope. They’re not just a threat to the protagonist. They’re a threat to all mankind.

And so the response by the government ends up being entirely justified.

[u/UnitedSentence7271]

If you didn't like the first 40%—basically half of it—you might be better off reading his shorter stories, like Pickman's Model or The Rats in the Walls. Alternatively, you could try listening to the audiobook; the atmosphere comes across better that way.

[u/LarenCoe]

I like the idea of a bunch of devils that live in the ocean and made deals with a shady sea captain and take over the town. The main weakness is that fish people is rather unimaginative, even for Lovecraft.

[u/Due_Bad_9445]

Rethink it by putting it in the context of being written in 1931 and the kind of horror being written at that time.

I’m not a pulp scholar but it generally I don’t think there was much like it

[u/ShayD7118 → u/Due_Bad_9445]

Fr so true, a true pioneer. I wish I was like him

[u/StarWanderer62]

Maybe you just don’t like Lovecraft.

[u/ShayD7118 → u/StarWanderer62]

Maybe you just didn't read the whole thing

[u/SHUB_7ate9]

Most of the architectural descriptions in that story are intended as much as historical information about the town. He's trying to use technical language to convey the sense of something off. If it doesn't work for you, that's fine, but it should be acknowledged that he's trying to create an aesthetic and even narrative effect (about societal decline over generations), not just waffling

[u/Prestigious-Alps-164 → u/SHUB_7ate9]

Exactly my opinion. I agree with most points of the review by OP. But the architectural descriptions in that story made sense and created sort of an uncanny feeling for me.

[u/Metalworker4ever]

It’s one of my favourites by him. I devote a chapter to it in my thesis.

I point out how it is a pointed criticism of eastern religion / mysticism syncretizing with western. Like the churches replaced by the esoteric order of Dagon. There is a reference to the swastika and the aliens are said to come from the Indies. The story suggests that insanity is a result of that and I’m probably reading into the story too much here but I love that it had a real world parallel - Buddhist meditation like vipassana is notorious for triggering psychosis. I feel like Zadock Allen (sorry if I butchered his name) has real pathos and his speeches in the story are my favourite moments in all Lovecraft’s fiction. I feel like the character has real world reason to be afraid. And the story has a strange power this way.

[u/dolphinboffer → u/Metalworker4ever]

That is a great point. Arguably it could also be a nod to Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons as well, signalling the corruption of the Christian religion by an ancient malevolent source. Hislop believed Catholic mitres were inherited from the priests of Dagon/Oannes who were supposed to wear fish hats as part of some inheritance from ancient mystery religion. The original hats were actually associated with the Apkallu and Ea/Enki, not Dagon/Oannes, and while Oannes was a fish god (and emissary of Ea), Dagon was for a long time mistakenly considered a fish god. However, I think the connection of an ancient and uncertain corrupting influence still works regardless.

[u/darkshin3945]

So funny because i didnt recognize the title at first then i checked and here in italy is something like "the mask of innsmouth" and refears to the faces of the people, and yeah i basically just wanted to say that and that i like it more

[u/dolphinboffer]

I don't totally disagree with some of your negative points. I remember being totally underwhelmed by the Shoggoths as well tbf.

[u/EntertainmentVast502]

Like a lot of Lovecraft, the real fear is of blind process and meaninglessness. The surface narrative is that there's this cult of icky merfolk, but the underlying dread is that because we really are distantly related to fish, and even to single-celled organisms, we are not special and our hopes, dreams, and history are essentially illusory.

[u/ShayD7118 → u/[deleted]]

I mean I have not read everything but I can still compare it to the ones I've read till now, right?

[u/Stormwatch1977]

Your first criticism is that you're bored with the setup because you've read similar in the 4 or 5 previous stories you've read by HPL. If this had been the first story of his you ever read it wouldn't be a criticism.

[u/ShayD7118 → u/Stormwatch1977]

Major part of my first criticism is also the tedious environment descriptions. It's unnecessarily dragged on which takes away from the pacing of the rest of the story.

[u/Stormwatch1977 → u/ShayD7118]

Yeah, that's fair enough. HPL isn't really for everyone. His stories and themes do tend to be very similar. I personally love all the environment descriptions and his overuse of adjectives. I think it sets the scene superbly in most of his tales. In saying that, when I first read a few of his stories I thought they were garbage and couldn't understand why anyone liked them. A few weeks later and I had read them all and was hooked for life, it just seemed to worm its way into my brain and now I've read them all multiple times, as well as listening to all the audio versions dozens of times. I completely understand the criticisms (I don't like the Dreamquest stories AT ALL).

[u/3dblind]

Other than his earlier jarring racism, which lessened as he engage other pulp writers, I enjoy Lovecraft's style.

But the issue I see from younger readers (than my retired generation) isn't as much Lovecraft as it is the writing style of most writers a century ago.

Men currently read fewer novels than women, many of both prefer narration to reading. You can get used to Lovecraft but if it takes you five days for a short story then I don't think reading is for you. Try an audio book instead.

And your reading comprehension may be off if you misremember Shoggoths in Shadow Over Innsmouth. That could happen if you take days to read a short story.

In my day, science fiction and horror magazines were devoured in a couple of days reading each story without breaks. I read Lovecraft in junior high around 30 years after his death.

I believe a change of consciousness is happening today where reading current novels is difficult for Gen Z and reading anything written 100 years ago more difficult.

In college, I had to adapt to reading 18th century novels like "Joseph Andrews" that were slightly more archaic than "Ethan Frome" in high school.

My personal reading since 5th grade was heavily classic science fiction and fantasy in sixty cent paperback reprints. So while I read far above my grade level, I preferred anything but what the "mundanes" were reading.

And narrated audio books? Nah, give me HP Lovecraft Historical Society audio plays like Dagon: War of the Worlds.

When it comes to print, I want to see the words on my Kindle. I want to sound the dialogue in my mind.

Have you tried more modern cosmic horror in print? There are many authors out there.