Tony's Review of The Lurking Fear

The Lurking Fear opens with a slaughtered mountain village, a deserted mansion, and the belief that something comes out when the thunder rolls. Lovecraft makes the woods, the storms, and even the small mounds in the ground feel threatening. Typical of him he goes after the toll fear takes on the mind as part of the horror.

I like how the mystery changes as the narrator investigates. It feels as events are being uncovered. At first, the fear could be a ghost, an animal, or something much worse. Every new clue brings him closer to an answer, but it also makes the next storm more frightening. The final reveal has a nice kick, and it changes how you see details that were there from the beginning.

Lovecraft’s prose can be overly luscious at times, and I personally dislike that. Sometimes he spends so long describing how horrible something is the punch is lost. This is always a barrier to reading him, but he is more than worth the effort.

Even with those faults, this is an effective horror story. It starts with a haunted house and leaves you wondering what might be moving beneath your feet.

A link to a copy for free: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/lf.aspx