Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft

by Joseph Fink (Editor / Contributor), Marcus Goodyear (Contributor), Will Hartwell (Contributor)

Upon his untimely death, H.P. Lovecraft, the early twentieth-century master of "weird fiction", left behind descriptions of 221 unwritten stories. Some were only a few ambiguous words long, others were complete plot outlines, and all of them died with their author. Now, 70 years later, writers from all over the country have come together to bring these untold stories to life. The only requirement for the writers: to create a piece that fulfilled every part of Lovecraft's original vision. The results are as varied as the artists behind them. Inside this book waits horror, science fiction, comedy, memoir, experimental text art, and one extremely short novel. Some of these stories will take away your worries. Others will take away your sleep. And a few will take you to another world, a world where weird fiction still lives, and the way home may prove difficult to find indeed.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Novels

240 pages, Unknown Binding

First published October 18, 2010

About the author

Joseph Fink is the creator of the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead podcasts, and the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Welcome to Night Vale, It Devours!, and The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home (all written with Jeffrey Cranor) and Alice Isn’t Dead. He is also the author of the children’s novel, The Halloween Moon. He and his wife, Meg Bashwiner have written the memoir, The First Ten Years. They live together in the Hudson River Valley.

Reviews

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

As mixed a bag as a bag can be. The Joseph Fink novella which ends the collection is excellent and there are a couple that are pretty good. The rest are either bad or entirely forgettable.

[Maki ⌒☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea behind this anthology was fun - the authors who agreed to the project were given a randomized prompt from a list of unused (supposedly) Lovecraft story ideas. And looking at the list at the back of the book, it seems likely that the list was genuine, although a couple of them I recognized as actually used Lovecraft ideas - The Cats of Ulthar (which, granted, was never completed), Pickman's Model, and The Tomb, off the top of my head.*

*Went back and looked up the descriptions that had sparked my memory. I take my Lovecraft seriously.

28. The Cats of Ulthar. The cat is the soul of antique Ægyptus and bearer of tales from forgotten cities of Meroë and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle's lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.

132. Mad artist in ancient sinister house draws things. What were his models? Glimpse.

165. Terrible trip to an ancient and forgotten tomb.

I was (and still am) a huge Lovecraft fan, and I needed something to try to shake me out of this Welcome to Night Vale hangover I've had since marathoning every single current episode, so I picked this up.

The collection itself is about what you'd expect of any anthology - I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. Some stories tried harder to stick to the spirit of Lovecraftian writing, while others just took their premise and ran with it.

I'll admit, I was most interested in Cranor and Fink's stories. And they were, indeed, the two stories I enjoyed most in the collection. But as I read them, it hit me - I could hear pieces of Night Vale through their respective stories.

Cranor's "The Man from Providence" read like a typical Night Vale ad. (I kept hearing the Home Depot commercial from The Sandstorm in my head as I read it.)

Plate.

Black.

Light.

Plate.

Plate. Plate.

Plate. Plate.

Plate.

Black.

Turned over, it's okay. We're all plural. Plural as water. As deer. As mice.

Fink's "Relative Damnation", meanwhile, had parts that smacked of Night Vale politician speech.

"How was the trip, Dad?"

"It was, ah. Let's say I know how to make a deal."

"What did the deal make you this time, Dad? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand?"

"The deal. Well. Hm."

Father drank his bowl in three quick gulps. It clattered back onto the table and he wiped his face with the back of his hand. Mother glared at him. Red droplets landed in the empty bowl, a puddle of blood and milk and oatmeal.

"The deal made sense."

The realization that their respective voices were so clear was almost jarring. But jarring in a good way.

I also particularly enjoyed ▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋ ▋▋▋▋▋. Which is the actual name of the story, and not just me censoring it. ▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋ ▋▋▋▋▋ reminded me very much of "In the Walls of Eryx", which Lovecraft co-wrote with Kenneth J. Sterling.

Altogether, it was an enjoyable way to pass the morning. Lovecraft fans will probably get more out of this book than just Welcome to Night Vale fans, although it could certainly appeal to both demographics.

(Also, am I the only one who sat stumped at the intro, trying to figure out if this was the real Joseph Fink, or one of his many imposters? - I admit, I probably got more amusement out of that then I should have...)

Finally, I'm just going to...leave this unused story idea here. Hidden behind spoilers.

Why?

No reason. It certainly has nothing to do with any particular theories I might be spewing...

177. The dreams of one man actually create a strange half-mad world of quasi-material substance in another dimension. Another man, also a dreamer, blunders into this world in a dream. What he finds. Intelligence of denizens. Their dependence on the first dreamer. What happens at his death.

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of short stories each taking inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's "commonplace book," A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft is the result of an early communal writing project by Welcome to Night Vale creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Lovecraft's commonplace book was a diary of sorts in which the infamous cosmic horror author sketched out various story ideas, snippets of source material, and random thoughts, out of which which the contributors were each assigned one as a "writing prompt." Basing their stories on these unfinished ideas from Lovecraft, they branched out in interesting and unique ways. The collection concludes by reproducing the Commonplace book in its entirety so that you might attempt the experiment yourself.

For the most part, I feel they approached the material in ways that I don’t think would have occurred to many more traditional horror writers, including memoir pieces, poetry, and even surreal experimental text art. At the same time, not each piece completely works. I enjoyed seeing Lovecraft’s idiosyncratic ideas being harvested to such disparate interpretations. Based on Joseph Fink’s later thoughts on Lovecraft, it was interesting that he would choose this source to challenge his writers, and that they went to such unique places with it. Fink and Cranor’s work on Welcome to Night Vale channels much of the cosmic horror tropes Lovecraft brought into the popular culture, while subtly challenging it as well in a way that makes it the most influential weird fiction today in its own right.

I discuss this and other books focusing on the current relevance of H.P. Lovecraft at Harris' Tome Corner, The Lurking Fear.

[Ross Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

As most people will tell you: this collection is hit-and-miss. But the "hits" are memorable enough for me to call this a good collection of stories.

Joseph Fink's novella "Relative Damnation" is the clear standout in my opinion, which should not be a surprise, given the writing talent he's already demonstrated in the Night Vale podcasts (and also the fact that he had more space to develop a story than any of the other writers). But "Levittown (36. Disintegration)" by Mark Farr stands out as the most "Lovecraftian" story of the bunch; none of the other writers came near as close to capturing the nihilism-as-horror theme that holds Lovecraft's weird stories about tentacle monsters together.

Beyond those two, "The Horror on the Ebon Stair" is a very enjoyable parody of Lovecraft's style as well as an interesting story in its own right, and "Vacancy at the Fenrick Inn," though I have a hard time defending it from a literary perspective, is a memorable-enough scary story. "Odoriko Music" is incredibly bizarre and impressionistic little sketch, but I can't forget the image of Rururururu The Many Dog, and it deserves a mention for that creation alone.

A handful of the other stories falter on doing poorly what "Ororiko Music" and "Levittown" did well: at least half of the works in this collection rely on avant-garde structures and imagery rather than straightforward storytelling, and in many instances it feels like a bit of a cop-out in absence of a solid story idea (I thought "KPZ STRAZ HYPHEN STARS" suffered from this especially).

Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A few of the stories are fantastic, most of the others range from great to decent, and there are only two or three real duds. If you like Lovecraft, this is at least worth a look.

[Erik Waiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of tales based on a list of story ideas written by HP Lovecraft over several years. Only a handful are fleshed out and several were used by Lovecraft himself (the list is at the back of this book, each numbered and giving a few words up to several paragraphs of idea/plot).

These definitely had the lovecraft taint, though some include subject matter never found in his works in life. I would recommend this for any fan of Lovecraftian literature.

It certainly whets my appetite for the Annotated HP Lovecraft I received over Christmas.

Side note, this was edited by Joseph Fink, the creator of the excellent "horror" podcast entitled Welcome to Nightvale. I strongly urge anybody who likes to be entertained by a public radio station from a strange (and sometimes humorous) city out in the desert to look up Welcome to Nightvale and give it a listen.

[Tepintzin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. I'm already a devoted listener of "Welcome to Night Vale" and this book is promoted at the end of every episode.

The premise is that each person received an unused idea from HP Lovecraft (he left a list) and wrote a story based on it. Unfortunately, the majority of the stories are surrealistic, overly-styled, and reminded me of a college literary magazine.

There are a couple of scary gems in the dross, including Fink's own story, which is the last in the collection, but overall, I didn't enjoy this book and that left me sad.

[Seawood]

Bookriot Read Harder Challenge 2015: Task 4, published by an indie press

Why I chose this book: been in the TBR pile ages, plus I LOVE Welcome To Night Vale and the Mythos, so it's a great way to support Commonplace Books & WNTV since I already have a t-shirt.

On Reading: Well. I do struggle with short stories in general, they are not my favourite style. So I knew I would have some issues from the outset. There are some first-class tales in here - Joseph Fink's is particularly good - but tbh these were just not my cup of tea at all. Which is a pity as I really wanted to love this book.

[James Jandebeur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a perfect book, even as such collections go. The four star rating is for a few reasons, mostly because I think the best stories in it deserve it. I also believe that most people that enjoy weird fiction will come away with at least a few gems, though what those gems are will vary and it may require some effort to get through the rest. Finally, while I did not give much weight to this, the concept is ambitious, and the fact that the ideas supposedly listed by Lovecraft (and regardless of my misgivings about the man himself) are looking through at the end of the book.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"After a while, I'd throw it out, whatever it was, because it's importance - why I kept it around, why I tried to preserve it - was lost to me."

This book was between 3.5 and 4 stars for me.

The premise is fascinating - taking H.P. Lovecraft prompts and writing stories based on however the writer interprets it. Some stories are better than others and there's a wide range of prompts and styles. I think my biggest issue is that it could be longer, or some of the stories could be.

But overall it's a great collection that showcases some interesting writers.

[neko cam · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is sad that so few of these stories are worth reading, and that because of the chaff I cannot in good conscious recommend the collection just to get to the gems. What I will say is that the final entry, a short novel by Joseph Fink, is very good indeed and if there is some other way to read it I would definitely recommend doing so.

[Christin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some are much (much) better than others but the ones that are good are really good. Unfortunately, the best one is the first one so it really raises the bar.

But that's my preference, your mileage may vary.

[Becka · Rating 4 out of 5]

as with all short story collections, the stories vary in quality, but here the quality is better than most. the contributors clearly put a lot of effort into their offerings, and always in the spirit of the Weird, slyly tipping their hats to Lovecraft, which I loved.

[Thea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag, as is usually the case with multiple-author anthologies. Fantastic concept though, I'd love to see a second volume with more of the same.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fantastic premise leads to a very, very mixed bag of stories.

[Louis Mynhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept. Some of the stories I dis not get, but there were a few good ones too. The list of Lovecraft's ideas at the end of the book is something fantastic.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were somewhat less creepy than I had imagined but they were indeed exciting and strange nonetheless. Jeffery Cranors story may be my favorite in this collection of stories and poems

[Scott von Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real mixed bag. Depending on the author... stuff can be great, or weak.

Fink's story is great.

[SB Senpai Manga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag.