I kept seeing parodies of Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu, so I figured it's about time I read the originals. I actually bought this book mainly for Nyarlathotep, which turns out to be the shortest story, but referenced a lot elsewhere.
Most of these stories involve indirect descriptions of things happening around some event as opposed to the event itself, told by some person who learned of the event from some other person. It seems that Lovecraft spent a fair bit of effort setting up these levels of indirections, while intentionally keeping some bits ambiguous, such that readers can complete the scenario with their own imaginations. It's a style suitable for urban legends, but takes getting used to.
Among these stories, I like "The Colour Out of Space" the most, which I thought had the most complete image, covering all 5 senses in great detail. I also liked "The Call of Cthulhu" (exactly what I expected), and "The Rats in the Walls" (least predictable outcome). Some of the stories are a bit repetitive, but mostly it was well worth reading.
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