A fantastic “Lovecraftian” anthology that pays its debt to the father of cosmic horror with a really innovative and unexpected premise. Each story is its author's response to a quote of their choosing from Lovecraft's seminal essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" that speaks to them in some way or sparks an idea or an argument. This makes for some incredible stories that cover a much broader range of ideas and tones than the usual Lovecraft-inspired anthology. The subtly skin-crawling "Past

So the premise is this: Letters to Lovecraft is eighteen tales, from a number of authors in a variety of styles, that approach Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s work through his essay, ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature.’ By doing so, the writers and its editor hope to ‘compile a collection of responses to Lovecraft’s ethos, in the form of original fiction.’ (page 7).As you might therefore expect, the results are diverse.Jesse’s Introduction is a great start to the book. It summarises the point of the...

This wasn't exactly what I was expecting, which is my fault because I didn't read the blurb properly. I was expecting some fun modern pastiches of Lovecraft's work, and further tales relating to his 'Cthulhu Mythos'. What I got was a lot of original weird fiction derived from themes in his famous essay on Supernatural Horror in Literature. I think on balance I'd have preferred the pastiche.There are some decent stories here - the standout for me was 'Glimmer in the Darkness' by Asamatsu Ken (a w...

Pretty good collection. Past Reno by Brian Evenson was good. Only Unity Saves the Damned by Nadia Bulkin was interesting, but wasn't a real favorite. ______ by Paul Tremblay is a very good and extremely frightening story. Allochthon by Livia Llewellyn was interesting. Doc's Story by Stephen Graham Jones was painful and good. The Lonely Wood by Tim Lebbon was interesting and kind of confusing. Help Me by Cameron Pierce was odd? I don't know that I liked it. Glimmer in the Darkness by Asamatsu Ken...

It's due back at the library and I guess I'm not in a cosmic horror mood. Read the first few stories and they were very good, not just a collection if hackwork so maybe when I feel like a horror read I will pick it up again.

Excerpted from my blog (jenna-bird.blogspot.com):Up front, I must say Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature" has been a touchstone for me in academic papers and in conversations about the importance and impact of horror literature for many years. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I was exceedingly excited to get my hands on an Advance Review Copy of this collection. (I pursued it before I came down with what would be a 4 week viral ordeal, with ripple effects I'm still feeli...

Most of the stories in this collection were excellent. The addition of the sections of Lovecraft's essay at the beginning of each story with which it connected plus that particular story's author's interpretation and explanation of why they chose to address that section of the essay was a pretty awesome touch. I'd say out of the 18 stories in this collection there were only really two for which I didn't really care.

I’m a Lovecraft fan. I was introduced to his worlds through the tabletop roleplaying game ‘Call of Cthulhu’ way back in the 1980s, and I got into his work soon after. I’m a huge fan of his Mythos, especially because it doesn’t directly deal with the physical, blood-spattered type of horror that seems to permeate popular culture these days. It’s horrific in the sense that it utilises the fear of the unknown and that sense of hopelessness that gives you the chills, as if everything is out of your

If your skin crawls at Lovecraft pastiche or sub-par mythos shenanigans, don't be put off this book. The premise is intelligent - to engage with Lovecraft through his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature". The eighteen authors picked a quote, and wrote a story inspired by it. The results are variable, and the introduction could certainly have been pithier. But although non-Euclidean geometries and Deep Ones raise their fish-eyed heads, refreshingly the majority of the stories are non-mythos,...

I've had this on my Kindle for ages, but for some reason put off reading it long enough that I came across almost a quarter of the stories in collections by their authors. I knew Jesse had a knack for getting weird authors to do great work from Swords v Cthulhu, but I was impressed to realize that the contributions from Evenson and Tremblay in this book were also some of the highlights of their short fiction, and Graham Jones' story here (which he wrote in two hours, jfc) was the seed of his who...

I enjoyed it, but unfortunately not as much as I'd hoped. It was a mixed bag, as anthologies so often are. Some stories I really enjoyed and a few I skimmed for the sake of moving along. I entered fully aware that these would not all necessarily be Lovecraftian stories, rather stories as responses to Lovecraft's essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. Nevertheless I expected more. But there are a few, such as Past Reno, that I will definitely read again with pleasure.

This was a very diverse collection of short stories that I really enjoyed reading. I haven't gotten around to reading Lovecraft yet (he's on my list!), but it was very interesting to seen 18 different authors write 18 very different stories all based on just one essay that Lovecraft wrote, an essay that the editor Jesse Bullington felt summed up the genre well. Gemma Files' "That Place", Robin D. Laws' "The Trees", and Molly Tanzer's "Food from the Clouds" were three pieces that really stuck wit...

Full disclosure: This book contains my story "Lovecrafting" and it was edited by my good friend Jesse Bullington.Starting with a particularly clever logline--all of the contributors were asked to read H.P. Lovecraft's seminal essay on the genre, "Supernatural Horror in Literature," pick a passage, and write an original story in response--Jesse has assembled one of the most creative anthologies to come out of the huge boom in Lovecraft-themed anthos. The stories in Letters to Lovecraft are all ov...

Very strong Lovecraft related anthology. The premise is that the stories are inspired by passages from Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature." The authors work with this very well and it adds a valuable thread through the collection.

Good snapshot of the state of weird fiction today (makes for a welcome lightweight companion piece to the Kelley/Barron Year's Best Weird FIction Vol. 1) but mainly an interesting experiment in the 'anxiety of influence' as it pertains to the increasingly ubiquitous and divisive figure of HP Lovecraft. It's refreshing to see a Lovecraft anthology with a specific angle to it, which makes for a nice change from the dozens upon dozens of pastiche volumes that are piling up each year. Making its con...

This is my favourite horror anthology of all time. I first read this five years ago, upon moving to Edinburgh, and there are parts of the city that still feel infused with the strangeness of the stories that I was reading at the time. Reading this again, it doesn't disappoint; I don't think that there's a single weak story in the collection.I particularly like the theme/premise of having lines from Lovecraft's essay on supernatural horror function as inspiration for the stories included. It leav...