What I read this «November»
Nov. 30th, 2023 16:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elidelioWelp, it's been a while since I've done one of these, but I read an actual book! And listened to a few more.
Elsewhere by Yan Ge
This was a collection of short stories tied vaguely by the theme of "elsewhere", some dreamlike in their occasional surreall-ness, some almost jarringly grounded to reality. Reading the whole book was definitely an interesting experience, some stories failed to grab me and others still have a chokehold on my mind even days after I finished them. My favourites were definitely Free Wandering and When Travelling in the Summer, though both stories starring Pigeon, the only recurring character in the series, come very close. As much as I would love to give spoiler-free summaries of the stories featured in the book, I'm afraid it would be basically impossible given the nature and length of these narratives.
I find it hard to try to articulate my thoughts on this book, in the same way I found it hard to read it all in one sitting — not because the book failed to keep my interest, but rather I had to give myself time to digest the story I'd just read before moving on to the next one. It's definitely not a book I'd recommend to anyone, but those who enjoy the sort of mundane magical realism of classic latam stories (Pedro Páramo comes to mind, possibly because it's the one I remember best from my foray into the genre, though the talking dead may have something to do with it as well) but in a sort of chinese setting would for sure find something worthwhile in it. The range in stories is so vast (there's first person and third person narration, male and female povs, modern and ancient narratives) that it's a little hard to talk about them as a whole, but I can say that each one is a journey well worth embarking on. I don't think I could give this a numerical rating, but I will say this is one of those books that I will remember on a random day years down the line and think "oh yeah, that was an interesting one, I should try finding it again".
Lovecraft Stories
I never pictured myself reading Lovecraft, to be honest. I didn't see the appeal on an old racist's alien horror novellas, and I was always much more interested in Poe's work when it came to the old-timey horror genre. That being said, I caught a little glimpse of the mythos in a few of the actual play ttrpgs I listen to and I was very much intrigued, so I dove right in and I have to say... the old racist wrote some pretty neat stories.
Call of Cthulhu
The very first Lovecraft story I tried, which is maybe why it's one of my least favourites? It definitely left me the most confused. I'm sure if it had been my second or third it would have left a better impression, even now I want to revisit it now that I have gotten a much better grasp of the mythos, but as it stands, my first impression was sort of... eh. The first part of the story, the piecing together of the nightmares and the deaths and talking to the witnesses, was easily my favourite, and would have probably elevated the story to top 3 if it hadn't strayed from that into the actual cthulhu stuff. Not that it wasn't good, in retrospect I appreciate the narrative of the impossible city a lot more, but jumping in fresh to the genre, being generally confused about the mythos, and having my only association with tentacles being... well... let's just say Not Scary, made it so that the big reveal fell kinda flat. Which is a shame because I can definitely see what it was building up to and R'ylegh is such a core part of the mythos agh. Def revisiting this one.
The Dunwich Horror
A solid spook, just the right amount of uncomfortably creepy. A little slow, but it was in the service of building the unsettling story of the goatish man, which paid off quite nicely by the end. I probably should have started with this one (or another story like this) to build up to the inevitable eldritch horror lmao.
The Shadow Over Insmouth
Taken at face value I quite liked this one, just the right amount of mystery and creepy and build up and the twist in the end was fun. Taken at not face value, is it supposed to be a veiled metaphor for race-mixing? If so yikes. Other than that fish people are cool I guess.
The Color Out Of Space
One of my favourite ones, love the whole narrative and the slow descent into madness/decay that happens to the farm family. Also idk what it is about scary well stories but they just stay with me man, are wells just inherently creepy? Anyway the colour out of space is probs my favourite cthulhian monster.
The Shadow Out of Time
Oh boy this one, this one is my favourite so far. Why? I have no idea. It's so absolutely bonkers and I ate it the fuck up. I especially loved when he went to australia to see if the ruins were real and he found the library and oh man the whole premise was so unhinged and I loved iiitttt. I mean, time-travelling aliens replacing people's minds for a bit so they could learn about society for a bit and then bring them back? Amazing. 10/10 I wish it was me.
Under the Pyramids
When I first started this one I had to drop everything and look up if Lovecraft had honest to god written Houdini RPF, but then I saw that it was a collab and i was a little disappointed (i so wanted it to be 20th century Houdini RPF). Anyway the story was fine? I don't remember much about it aside from my wish to see genuine Houdini RPF.
The Shuttered Room
It was so obvious that it was the frog that it just made it so frustrating when the MC was all confused about what had happened, which I guess made sense in context but for fuck's sake my dude you had ONE job. The mystery was interesting I suppose, but I spent most of the time thinking about the goddamn frog so I was mostly distracted as the story happened.
In the Walls of Eryx
I was not expecting space! Tbh I have gone into these 100% blind so when the story started and they were in fucking Venus I was like ????? Tbh I almost skipped it, but I'm glad I didn't because that whole torturous maze shit was great. Don't know how I feel about the portrayal of the lizard people tribe but I guess I can just chalk it up to the old racist's old racist views so like eeeh. The maze by itself was great tho.
The Nameless City
I.... don't actually remember this one? Damn, I definitely listened to this one and I remember it was a little more lore-heavy? But rn I cannot for the life of me remember the plot, shit. Might have to come back to this.
At The Mountains of Madness
Very long but very good. Something about a good old fashioned arctic expedition that ends in horror and tragedy just hits all the right spots. The sciency bits got a bit tedious at times but all in the name of discovering alien horrors so it was all good. I wish they had told us what the dude saw on the plane though, I'm really curious about that haha.
Record of the Missing Sect Master / 教主走失記 by 一世华裳
I actually finished reading this one back in August, but since I did it specifically to fill a request for an as of then unrevealed exchange, I decided to err on the side of caution and hold off on my little review.
Anyway, it was really nice! I quite liked the plotting and the mystery and Ye You was a delightful piece of shit I love him. Wenren Heng was, in my honest opinion, a little bland, but that was probably because he was surrounded by such a colorful cast of side characters that just made him seem very meh in comparison. I still liked him, though, he's definitely high up on the list of MLs and he is like actually a good person.... the bar is on the floor for these danmei MLs huh? Jk.
The highlight of the story was definitely Ye You, the eponymous missing sect master. He was such a wonderful character to read and try to figure out, especially in the beginning when he himself was trying to figure the plot (that he unwittingly laid out for himself! what a fun twist on the amesia narrative!). I was so glad when he got the closure he needed and the new family he made along the way, I'm glad the boy is happy now :')
I really wish we had gotten even more from the side characters, again, they were such a colourful cast I want to know everything about them! What happened to Ding Xilai? I NEED to know!!! Anyway highly recommend it was plotty and sweet 9/10
Elsewhere by Yan Ge
This was a collection of short stories tied vaguely by the theme of "elsewhere", some dreamlike in their occasional surreall-ness, some almost jarringly grounded to reality. Reading the whole book was definitely an interesting experience, some stories failed to grab me and others still have a chokehold on my mind even days after I finished them. My favourites were definitely Free Wandering and When Travelling in the Summer, though both stories starring Pigeon, the only recurring character in the series, come very close. As much as I would love to give spoiler-free summaries of the stories featured in the book, I'm afraid it would be basically impossible given the nature and length of these narratives.
I find it hard to try to articulate my thoughts on this book, in the same way I found it hard to read it all in one sitting — not because the book failed to keep my interest, but rather I had to give myself time to digest the story I'd just read before moving on to the next one. It's definitely not a book I'd recommend to anyone, but those who enjoy the sort of mundane magical realism of classic latam stories (Pedro Páramo comes to mind, possibly because it's the one I remember best from my foray into the genre, though the talking dead may have something to do with it as well) but in a sort of chinese setting would for sure find something worthwhile in it. The range in stories is so vast (there's first person and third person narration, male and female povs, modern and ancient narratives) that it's a little hard to talk about them as a whole, but I can say that each one is a journey well worth embarking on. I don't think I could give this a numerical rating, but I will say this is one of those books that I will remember on a random day years down the line and think "oh yeah, that was an interesting one, I should try finding it again".
Lovecraft Stories
I never pictured myself reading Lovecraft, to be honest. I didn't see the appeal on an old racist's alien horror novellas, and I was always much more interested in Poe's work when it came to the old-timey horror genre. That being said, I caught a little glimpse of the mythos in a few of the actual play ttrpgs I listen to and I was very much intrigued, so I dove right in and I have to say... the old racist wrote some pretty neat stories.
Call of Cthulhu
The very first Lovecraft story I tried, which is maybe why it's one of my least favourites? It definitely left me the most confused. I'm sure if it had been my second or third it would have left a better impression, even now I want to revisit it now that I have gotten a much better grasp of the mythos, but as it stands, my first impression was sort of... eh. The first part of the story, the piecing together of the nightmares and the deaths and talking to the witnesses, was easily my favourite, and would have probably elevated the story to top 3 if it hadn't strayed from that into the actual cthulhu stuff. Not that it wasn't good, in retrospect I appreciate the narrative of the impossible city a lot more, but jumping in fresh to the genre, being generally confused about the mythos, and having my only association with tentacles being... well... let's just say Not Scary, made it so that the big reveal fell kinda flat. Which is a shame because I can definitely see what it was building up to and R'ylegh is such a core part of the mythos agh. Def revisiting this one.
The Dunwich Horror
A solid spook, just the right amount of uncomfortably creepy. A little slow, but it was in the service of building the unsettling story of the goatish man, which paid off quite nicely by the end. I probably should have started with this one (or another story like this) to build up to the inevitable eldritch horror lmao.
The Shadow Over Insmouth
Taken at face value I quite liked this one, just the right amount of mystery and creepy and build up and the twist in the end was fun. Taken at not face value, is it supposed to be a veiled metaphor for race-mixing? If so yikes. Other than that fish people are cool I guess.
The Color Out Of Space
One of my favourite ones, love the whole narrative and the slow descent into madness/decay that happens to the farm family. Also idk what it is about scary well stories but they just stay with me man, are wells just inherently creepy? Anyway the colour out of space is probs my favourite cthulhian monster.
The Shadow Out of Time
Oh boy this one, this one is my favourite so far. Why? I have no idea. It's so absolutely bonkers and I ate it the fuck up. I especially loved when he went to australia to see if the ruins were real and he found the library and oh man the whole premise was so unhinged and I loved iiitttt. I mean, time-travelling aliens replacing people's minds for a bit so they could learn about society for a bit and then bring them back? Amazing. 10/10 I wish it was me.
Under the Pyramids
When I first started this one I had to drop everything and look up if Lovecraft had honest to god written Houdini RPF, but then I saw that it was a collab and i was a little disappointed (i so wanted it to be 20th century Houdini RPF). Anyway the story was fine? I don't remember much about it aside from my wish to see genuine Houdini RPF.
The Shuttered Room
It was so obvious that it was the frog that it just made it so frustrating when the MC was all confused about what had happened, which I guess made sense in context but for fuck's sake my dude you had ONE job. The mystery was interesting I suppose, but I spent most of the time thinking about the goddamn frog so I was mostly distracted as the story happened.
In the Walls of Eryx
I was not expecting space! Tbh I have gone into these 100% blind so when the story started and they were in fucking Venus I was like ????? Tbh I almost skipped it, but I'm glad I didn't because that whole torturous maze shit was great. Don't know how I feel about the portrayal of the lizard people tribe but I guess I can just chalk it up to the old racist's old racist views so like eeeh. The maze by itself was great tho.
The Nameless City
I.... don't actually remember this one? Damn, I definitely listened to this one and I remember it was a little more lore-heavy? But rn I cannot for the life of me remember the plot, shit. Might have to come back to this.
At The Mountains of Madness
Very long but very good. Something about a good old fashioned arctic expedition that ends in horror and tragedy just hits all the right spots. The sciency bits got a bit tedious at times but all in the name of discovering alien horrors so it was all good. I wish they had told us what the dude saw on the plane though, I'm really curious about that haha.
Record of the Missing Sect Master / 教主走失記 by 一世华裳
I actually finished reading this one back in August, but since I did it specifically to fill a request for an as of then unrevealed exchange, I decided to err on the side of caution and hold off on my little review.
Anyway, it was really nice! I quite liked the plotting and the mystery and Ye You was a delightful piece of shit I love him. Wenren Heng was, in my honest opinion, a little bland, but that was probably because he was surrounded by such a colorful cast of side characters that just made him seem very meh in comparison. I still liked him, though, he's definitely high up on the list of MLs and he is like actually a good person.... the bar is on the floor for these danmei MLs huh? Jk.
The highlight of the story was definitely Ye You, the eponymous missing sect master. He was such a wonderful character to read and try to figure out, especially in the beginning when he himself was trying to figure the plot (that he unwittingly laid out for himself! what a fun twist on the amesia narrative!). I was so glad when he got the closure he needed and the new family he made along the way, I'm glad the boy is happy now :')
I really wish we had gotten even more from the side characters, again, they were such a colourful cast I want to know everything about them! What happened to Ding Xilai? I NEED to know!!! Anyway highly recommend it was plotty and sweet 9/10
