Waking Up Screaming: Haunting Tales of Terror

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Waking Up Screaming: Haunting Tales of Terror

by H.P. Lovecraft, Denise L. Fitzer (Editor)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 358 ratings · 35 reviews

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
–H. P. LOVECRAFT

Welcome to the world of H. P. Lovecraft, the undisputed master of terror. His work has inspired countless nightmares, and this collection of some of his most chilling stories is likely to inspire even more.

Cool Air–An icy apartment hides s...more

Paperback, 370 pages

Published January 1st 2003 by Del Rey

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Feb 12, 2011 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Every reader should read a tiny bit of Lovecraft to get exposed to his distinct style. He is well known for his stories of dread that invoke terrors by describing them as indescribable. I found myself thinking it was a shame that he got stuck in his own little sub-genre, because he had a powerful gift of discernment and vocabulary that worked just as well when he creates a scene of a New England town who's fishing industry has collapsed as when he creates a scene of the Indescribable Horrors of...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Ben A rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have vague memories of reading a Lovecraft book back in high school. If I did, I don't remember anything about it, even the title. So for all practical purposes this was my introduction to Lovecraft.

He's just as good as they say he is. For the most part. There are two stories in here I really didn't like.

The first was "Herbert West--Reanimator". The story was fine but I hated the way it was written. I know the story was originally serialized in a magazine, so the recaps at the beginning of e...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Brandon Cardona rated it 5 of 5 stars

I forgot just how good Lovecraft was. When people think of horror writers, the first name that usually comes to mind is Stephen King. After that, they would probably name Poe. Lovecraft fell in between the two. I first discovered his writing back in my first year of Junior High, and then they put out a movie version of his short story (which is included in this collection) Herbert West - Reanimator. The movie did not do his story justice at all, but seemed to want to go more for shock value than...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Short stories, horror, weirdness lovers

Recommended to Jason by: Many

I bought this book a couple of years ago. Many friends had suggested checking him out due to my affinity for horror. A month ago I was reading a book which proved to be FUBAR due to missing about 50 pages, and had to order a replacement online. I wanted to read something light that I could put back down when the replacement arrived, so I grabbed this. I thought it would be light since it was a bunch of short stories, but I was mistaken. Lovecraft is best enjoyed with a dictionary, thesaurus, and...more I bought this book a couple of years ago. Many friends had suggested checking him out due to my affinity for horror. A month ago I was reading a book which proved to be FUBAR due to missing about 50 pages, and had to order a replacement online. I wanted to read something light that I could put back down when the replacement arrived, so I grabbed this. I thought it would be light since it was a bunch of short stories, but I was mistaken. Lovecraft is best enjoyed with a dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia standing by if you wish to understand everything he's talking about. I was able to glean the meaning of most unfamiliar words due to the context, but there were a couple I had to look up. This was actually kind of exciting because those words weren't in the regular dictionary, and I had to consult the unabridged. I love going to the unabridged. It's like a half foot thick, and looking in it makes me feel like a powerful sorcerer consulting a spell. (I really need to get a lectern for it).

In order to enjoy Lovecraft properly, one must take him into historical context, and realize that he is quite dated. He's considered by some to be one of the fathers of modern horror right alongside Poe. Lovecraft wrote in the 1920s and 30s, and his themes have been so thoroughly explored and packed into books, movies, and television shows since then that one can see the "surprise ending" to the original stories from a mile away. While this didn't detract from my enjoyment of reading them, I was still amazed when considering that not only did someone write this kind of stuff down (a lot of thick demonology [or daemonology as he would've spelled it; he seems to like archaic terms and spellings] in these stories), but he also had the cojones to attempt to get them published in that day and age when such things were hardly mainstream.

I enjoyed the stories in this book, but I must confess that I'm relieved to be done with it. I don't think I'll get another one of his random story books (most of what he wrote was short stories), though I do intend to check out "The Call of Cthulhu" and a story about a painter if I can find it. While the stories are good, sometimes they get really thick, and extremely slow, and I was reminded of the old Dick Tracy comic strip in the newspaper where the man would enter a room in the first panel, walk across the room in the second, and then reach a door at the other end of the room in the third; it took him fucking forever to do anything. This was the case for many of Lovecraft's characters. He would be standing somewhere, then would take a step, consider the terrain and other deep matters, then take another step, pause, look around, consider more deep thoughts, then take another step... Sometimes I wanted to shout to the author "God dammit, man, would you just get his ass down the road? Hemingway would've had him enjoying his retirement by now." The story I have specifically in mind for this observation is “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” I understand this is a suspense building technique, but I found it to be a bit distracting. However, please don’t think that I didn’t enjoy that story; it was actually one of my favorites in the book, his slow speed escape notwithstanding.

Here are some things I enjoy about Lovecraft: he could occasionally throw out a good turn-o-phrase, which I always love. I'll give a couple of examples further down. He was also extremely racist, and said some things that were awesomely awful. Being a history dude, I love to see this kind of stuff in books and writings for historical purposes. The world really was a different place back then, and nobody batted an eye if horrible things were said about black people. Recall that the second KKK was enjoying its major heyday at the time that Lovecraft was doing most of his writing, and it was nothing for people in full Klan gear to be marching around the streets. In fact, the KKK was never more popular than it was during the 1920s when it was estimated to have six million members, which was just a bit more than 5% of the population, a HUGE percentage comparatively. (In 2008, KKK membership was estimated at 0.002% of the US population).

And there I go again. I tell ya, never get me started on historical stuff. Sorry about that; back to the book. Here's a description of a Negro in one story from the “Herbert West – Reanimator” series: “The negro had been knocked out, and a moment’s examination showed us that he would permanently remain so. He was a loathsome, gorilla-like thing, with abnormally long arms which I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable Congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon. The body must have looked even worse in life – but the world holds many ugly things.”

Yeah, try getting THAT past an editor or publisher today. Oh. My. GOD! One of the stories even had a black cat named Nig, and he goes whole hog in another story (which isn’t in this collection), and names the cat Nigger Man. So, if such things offend you, it’s probably best that you not check out Lovecraft at all, for many of the stories are peppered with unflattering descriptions of persons not Anglo-Saxon.

“The Terrible Old Man” was probably my favorite story in the book, and was also the shortest, totaling 3 pages to the sentence. You can see the ending coming from about the first couple of paragraphs, so it’s not the surprise factor that does it for me. No, it was the witty way in which most of it was written. Here are a couple of examples, paraphrased: “It was the design of (3 names) to call on the Terrible Old Man. (He was) reputed to be both exceedingly rich and exceedingly feeble; which forms a situation very attractive to men of the profession of Messrs. (3 names) for that profession was nothing less dignified than robbery…. Messrs. (3 names) selected the night of April 11th for their call. (2 names) were to interview the poor old gentleman, whilst (3rd name waited in the hidden car). Desire to avoid needless explanations in case of unexpected police intrusions prompted these plans for a quiet and unostentatious departure.”

Great stuff!

I also thoroughly enjoyed “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” and “From Beyond” due to their intensely cerebral foci, and the first one did have an ending that caught me a tad off guard. “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” was probably my favorite, and it’s actually more of a novella (about 140 pages). Since I don’t want to mark this review as “containing spoilers,” I’m going to leave it at that, and let you read it yourself to find out what’s so great about it.

So: 3 stars for Mr. Lovecraft. Good stories, but a bit weighty at times. I didn’t wake up screaming while reading it, and in fact I occasionally fell asleep yawning from time to time. (This is due to no fault of the author; it’s just something I do when reading late at night). Also, I’m not a major fan of short stories to begin with, so that alone drops it by one star. If you DO like short stories, horror, and bizarre weirdness, then you should definitely check him out.

-Pierce(less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Michaela Alsberg rated it 2 of 5 stars

Did I finish this book? I did not. The last short story (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) was excruciatingly boring and I couldn't get myself to finish it. Some of the stories were okay, but that last fucker really lowers my over-all rating. I think that maybe I just don't like old books? When I read horror, I want real fucking gory shit, not some old bloke telling me how something is "too gruesome to put down in writing". The best tale was "The Shadow over Innsmouth", because we got to sort of...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Tony Go rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: will-not-get-you-laid

You inquire about my immunity to trivial social problems, the cure of which, according to my social interactions and compounded by steady hands, I appear to be the author of? The truth is, I carry a weight of drama upon my back heretofore unseen by the likes of typical men and women. You ask me if I ever tire of the inflexible circumstances presented to me on behalf of my so-called brothers. And I reply, nay. For it is the outside forces of others' unrelenting evil that keep my darkest days at b...more You inquire about my immunity to trivial social problems, the cure of which, according to my social interactions and compounded by steady hands, I appear to be the author of? The truth is, I carry a weight of drama upon my back heretofore unseen by the likes of typical men and women. You ask me if I ever tire of the inflexible circumstances presented to me on behalf of my so-called brothers. And I reply, nay. For it is the outside forces of others' unrelenting evil that keep my darkest days at bay.

But, friend, you say, all is not lost. Surely the entirety of the world is a brighter painting than the ink and oil you have chosen to contribute to it. I find I cannot answer in any satisfactory manner.

Spare me the righteous speak of pits in pears and clouds with silver lining. I know your type- young and naive to think the world so malleable as to be changed by free will alone. You have witnessed wind change direction by the work of man, and water swell above its natural desires, and thus you view the capacity of man in similar light. Well, I have seen what men are capable of, and justice is not one of them.

They come to me in droves, troubled souls, hell in hand, and ask that I may dispell their woes with my powerful words and “borrowed” virtues. But this is not the tongue of a god. Mine are the army of demons. To send away the pain and suffering, I extract the very essence of humanity capable of such vivid passions. Leaving behind a bleak and empty heart, they are well. They do not feel again until such travesties as greed and lust force a savage and brutal residence in this newly evacuated host.

I recall, for wanton use of the term nightmare, a memory of the most haunted of these procedures. He arrived at my estate on a night thunderously vigor. His fear of collapsing skies subsided to the lurking evil that had irrevocably assumed his companionship. Unrestricted by the tardiness of the night, he propositioned to me a request for salvation. Salvation not of any such simple natured things as harm or theological sins. This was a man beset by fear in it’s most depraved form.

In years before, laying eyes upon his dearest love had consumed all forms of aberration; much to the point that his well being had become dependent on the sight of this loved one. It was in this sense that his wife had become a potent and crudely effective medicine keeping this man from insanity. But exactly twenty days earlier, and indeed on this very night, the spitting image of his beloved had become infused with that of another man. Tonight was to be the last night his eyes would lay upon the bereft image of his almighty love in the arms of another man. So to me he came, the side effect of his altered medication causing a massive tremble in his hands.

I spoke with marionetted cadence. Each word gilded by the presumption of my apparent stability. In what way could I save this man from his torment? I knew the answer long before I reasoned with myself to hide from it. This was the horror I have rejected from myself and in turn deflected into others.

Papers and columns have henceforth read of a man who, upon stumbling upon his wife making love with a stranger killed both in an exorbitance of passion. In those same words, I recognize rested souls and deserved outcomes. For you, I hope your queries of both my doppleganger disposition and reading preferences are settled.*

(less)

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Apr 16, 2009 Annie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, 2009

So Lovecraft's definitely the man in terms of influencing modern horror... I can appreciate that. Something about his writing kind of keeps me at a distance, if that makes any sense, so I find it hard to really FEEL when reading these stories. That's a big part of what makes or breaks a story for me.

Overall, I think he's at his best doing short, atmospheric stuff, the longer stories just don't hold my attention as well - "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" especially dragged for me. Spooky stuff,...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Leah rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book so much. I started some time last year though, and I was somehow interrupted in such a manner that I had put down this one, and put it completely from my mind! I can't believe I had forgotten about it, and on the very last story too. I love H.P. Lovecraft though, and I find his name quite ironic, but fitting. He is definitely a role model of mine....when it comes to writing, of course.

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Jul 22, 2009 Dana rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection really seems to put together several stories that make me think that HP Lovecraft was on the verge of creating a full-length novel and ended up with several versions of shorts as leftovers. With similar themes and settings, it is surprising how original each tale is.

Zombie fans, meet your creator!

His love of Providence really shines through in this anthology as well.

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Nov 02, 2011 Brandon O'Neill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The list of horror writers/directors who credit Lovecraft at the beginning of the book is impressive - Clive Barker, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and John Carpenter. These are very well written horror novels, some of which were made into TV episodes in the '70s for Night Gallery. Stories run the gamut from the living dead to grave robbing to strange villages where something is not quite right. Really would give 3 1/2 stars if it was possible.

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Aug 31, 2009 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

A very uneven collection of Lovecraft stories. Contains 2 of his worst (Reanimator, Lurking Fear) and arguably his best (Charles Dexter Ward) and a spread of just about everything in between. I'm tempted to give this 5 stars because the good stuff is _really_ good and there's enough it for a full length book, but I have to honor the pages devoted to lesser stories and knock it down to 4 stars.

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Sep 21, 2012 Marissa Wilk rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: lovecraft

A confused mishmash of HPL stories with no particular rhyme or reason to the order that I can see. As I say a LOT in my HPL reviews (and I'm sorry to repeat myself, I must be annoying), there is really no reason to get a book like this when better editions exist with corrected texts and annotations.

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Apr 02, 2010 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

In my opinion, the best collection of Lovecraft's short stories. These are the stories that didn't deal with dreams or much of the Cthulhu Mythos. They are still vintage Lovecraft, but they are dealing with some of the other stuff in his universe. Mad scientists, evil wizards, and cultists are the fare for this book. Well written, mostly approachable, and overall well done. The only one I thought was sub-par was Dagon, which was merely mediocre. But 1 out of 16 is pretty good.

If you are into ho...more

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Sep 23, 2007 tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

There are 16 "short" stories from H.P. Lovecraft. Well, 15 short stories and one 120+ page story that I just couldn't get through, no matter how much I tried.

What I liked:
Cool Air
The Terrible Old Man
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Herbert West - Reanimator
Arthur Jermyn
The Moon-Bog
Dagon

What I didn't like:
The Hound, The Lurking Fear, and The Unnameable were all basically the same "monster" story told in three different ways.

The White Ship was just a simple morality story. I totall...more

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Nov 27, 2010 Wonderbunny rated it 4 of 5 stars

This a collection of some of H.P. Lovecraft's best stories (like The Shadow of Innsmouth). I enjoyed many of them it just took me forever to get through because I do much of my reading at night and I couldn't do that with this book, it brought on too many weird dreams. I also would only read one or two stories at a time and then think on them. It is very hard to put down in the middle of a story though. I really enjoyed The Shadow of Innsmouth and The Unnameable. I enjoyed parts of the largest s...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Dustin Morris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lovecraft was truly a master of his art form. I would say prior to Stephen King, he was the one who revolutionized the horror platform. His name will always be synonymous with terror.

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Jun 04, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good mixture of Lovecraft's more fun and bad short stories, plus a couple great long works too. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is my new favourite Lovecraft story

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Oct 19, 2010 Bre rated it 5 of 5 stars

My intro to the old school master of terror. This is a great place to start HPL school, where Cthculu presides, ready to whip you into shape. Sadly, no ctchulu in this one just intense tales of madness and the like. You know...uh...just your typical book. My fav from this was Beyond the walls of sleep. LOTS of new words in here for ye young uns that you can haul out the Websters for. Or...well, you could just google it but that sucks out the fun, doesn't it?

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May 29, 2013 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Uneven, but still enjoyable. The last story in the collection, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," was by far the most enjoyable, most likely because it was also by far the longest, and hence had the most developed of all the stories.

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Apr 25, 2012 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, dark

Lovecraft is wonderful!

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Jun 16, 2008 Aprille rated it 3 of 5 stars

Book#9, 2008: I have to be honest. Lovecraft had been so hyped as a master of terror, that I felt I must be horribly jaded as I read most of this book. Creepy, gross things, yes. Terrifying, no. In most stories, I figured out the deal early on, so all of his work building suspense was just in the way. That said, I did really enjoy "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" - the novella at the close of this collection. I didn't have it totally right at the start and I enjoyed the history of Providence it...more

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Jun 25, 2009 Louis Joseph Fis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dec 26, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

So apart from H.P. Lovecraft's raging racism, it is hard to deny that the man was truly a master of his craft. I particularly liked "The Lurking Fear" "The Shadow over Innsmouth" (I enjoyed the nod to the Cthulu universe) "Herbert West - Reanimator" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward."

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Nov 01, 2007 Charlie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Lovecraft gets so much hype that I finally got around to checking out his work. What I can say is it is very hit and miss. Some of the stories I thought were fantastic and some were utterly terrible, the final one I did not manage to completely finish. Though I may go back to it at a later day..

The ones I recommend checking out though are:

-Cool Air
-The Hound
-The Terrible Old Man
-The Shadow Over Innsmouth
-Herbert West-Reanimator
-Dagon
-From Beyond

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Jun 03, 2012 Ragnheiður marked it as to-read

This is on hold until later this summer, when I've gone through the other books I look forward to reading.

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Jun 15, 2012 Sean Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 06, 2012 Kris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, ebook

Actually did not fnish but read enogh to get a taste, and now I can say I've read some Lovecraft!

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Mar 28, 2012 Larissa Seda rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had never heard of H. P. Lovecraft but have come to enjoy his writing style and the scary stories. I can only imagine how shocking these stories must have felt for the readers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries (the time this writer lived). Cemeteries, strange and horrible creatures of the night, reanimation...all delivered in short story style that you won't be able to put down.

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May 09, 2008 Erica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: unfinished

Bah...I give up on H.P. Lovecraft for now. His stuff is just too much at the end of the school year when you have just enough sanity to brain long enough to write a 2 page paper, let alone read this complicated explosion of madness. Maybe I'll pick it up again when I have more time, but I did enjoy this book much more than I did the last collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories.

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Dec 20, 2012 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nice selection of Great Lovecraft stories.

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About H.P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a...more

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The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

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