Cool Air

by H.P. Lovecraft

"Cool Air" is a short story by the American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in March 1926 and published in the March 1928 issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery. The narrator offers a story to explain why a "draught of cool air" is the most detestable thing to him. His tale begins in the spring of 1923, when he was looking for housing in New York City. He finally settles in a converted brownstone on West Fourteenth Street. Investigating a chemical leak from the floor above, he discovers that the inhabitant directly overhead is a strange, old, and reclusive physician. One day the narrator suffers a heart attack, and remembering that a doctor lives overhead, he climbs the stairs and meets Dr. Muñoz for the first time.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Lovecraftian, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Science Fiction

16 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

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 series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely creepy and uncanny story. What is the mysterious doctor practising upstairs and why does he need such a number of ammoniac to cool down the temperature in his room. Accompany a lodger who pieces together sinister details on that strange doctor. The conclusion seems utterly absurd. Well, here you really get goosebumps. I hope you don't see any stains of water on your ceiling at home or in your flat. Reasons for them could be different to what you thought... Intriguing, bizarre and very scary. Absolutely recommended!

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy cool reading!


FREEZING HORROR

This tale is about the peculiar friendship...

...between a cranky person and a medical doctor,...

...shaped up after the latter saved the life of the former.

Set in an era way before of any modern air conditioning system,...

...the doctor is obssessed on developing ways to keep quite chilly his apartment.

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

With this tale of horror set in 1923 New York City, H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) touches on two subjects that, judging from the proliferation of films and novels spotlighting these peculiar topics, have continually aroused our human imagination: cryonics and zombies.

I say ‘touches on’ since Cool Air is neither a story of low-temperature preservation for the sake of future resuscitation nor is it about voiceless, emotionless blank-faced corpses brought back to life, however, quite strangely and quizzically, what happens is a close fictional cousin to both.

The tale begins when our young narrator takes up residence on the third floor in a four-story brownstone on West 14th Street in downtown Manhattan and tells us, “You ask me to explain why I am afraid of a draught of cool air; why I shiver more than others upon entering a cold room, and seem nauseated and repelled when the chill of evening creeps through the heat of a mild autumn day. There are those who say I respond to cold as others do to a bad odor.”

As it turns out, the tenor of the entire story unfolds not within an atmosphere we customarily find in horror stories, an ambiance of darkness, silence and isolation but revolves around feelings of cold and smells that disgust during the midday and evening hours in the middle of a bustling city.

All goes well at the apartment for our gentlemanly, well educated, well-bred, well-mannered narrator until one evening he hears a dripping coming from the apartment above as he becomes simultaneously aware of the stench of ammonia. He summons his Hispanic landlady who explains how there is a Dr. Muñoz with his special equipment up on the fourth floor, a Dr. Muñoz who is an accomplished physician, a physician who, through the goodness of his heart, gave emergency care to a workman injured completing a job at the apartment. She then hurries up the steps to deal with this issue.

Days pass and one afternoon the narrator suffers one of his recurrent heart attacks, an attack where he needs the intervention of a doctor; he then recollects the landlady’s words and makes his way as quickly as possible to the fourth floor. When his knock is answered, we read: “Nevertheless, as I saw Dr. Muñoz in that blast of cool air, I felt a repugnance which nothing in his aspect could justify.”

And this is only the beginning – the narrator has further reflections during his initial encounter leading to future meetings and dealing with the good doctor.

Rather than noting and commenting on the subsequent eerie happenings of this Lovecraft tale, permit me to offer a few reflections on the two topics I cited above: cryonics and zombies:

Firstly, pertaining to cryonics, there is an actual Cryonics Institute founded in the United States in 1976, about 50 years after the author penned this tale, an institute that continues to conduct research in effectively freezing people for years and then unthawing them so they can take advantage of future medical breakthroughs. What appears as a subject for science fiction and horror stories one day can becomes technological and scientific reality another day.

Moving on to zombies, is there anything more alarming than the living dead walking around serving an evil leader, confronting, harassing, haunting, or even attacking innocent men and women and children? I recall watching those old black-and-white films made back in the 1940s and 1950s with zombies at the command of some demonic mastermind, usually marching in pairs, mentally and emotionally zoned-out, usually in dark underground passages,. Those un-dead beings created from the remains of corpses really gave me the creeps.

Such was the climate within the publishing world, when H.P. Lovecraft submitted Cool Air to the pulp magazine Weird Tales where his tales were regularly accepted, the head editor rejected his work. In its own way, an unthinkable thumbs-down since Lovecraft was one of the prime contributors to the magazine. However, in this instance, the head editor feared a tale with such a gruesome, shocking, hideous, ghastly and otherwise grisly ending would provoke the censors to forbid the magazine to continue.

Of course, what people find acceptable or unacceptable changes with the times, but it is well to keep in mind how positively shocking Cool Air was to readers when first published in 1928.

Available on-line: http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/t...

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in Tales of Magic and Mystery (March,1928), “Cool Air” is one of only three stories that Lovecraft composed in New York City--and it is the only one of those three that is not racist. Moreover, although short in length and narrow in its range of effects, it is a very good horror story as well.

It is a tale told by a tenant of an old NYC brownstone, who wishes to explain to his listener why he loathes the touch of cool air. He tells of an ancient tenant who once lived upstairs: Dr. Munoz, a man irrationally afraid of death, who kept himself cool (56 degrees F.) with a self-designed air-cooling system powered by a gas engine. One night, the gas engine goes on the fritz, and hideous consequences ensue.

This minor work is close to perfection. The adjectives are kept to a minimum, and his one lapse in taste, the thick Spanish dialect of Mrs. Herrero the landlady (“Doctair Muñoz. . . he have speel hees chemicals. He ees too seeck for doctair heemself—seecker and seecker all the time") is mercifully brief. It is a lot like Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of Monseiur Valdemar” and a little like Machen’s “The Novel of the White Powdeer,” but this work—perhaps the first of Lovecraft’s mature period—has a distinctive chilly charm all its own.

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 4 out of 5]

An audiobook in Portuguese. I found this short story very peculiar and interesting. This story is about a poor man who knows an old and sick Spanish doctor with an obsession of defying death through all available means and therefore he keeps his apartment cold.

[Eloy Cryptkeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Me piden que explique por qué siento miedo de la corriente de aire frío; por qué tiemblo más que otros cuando entro en un cuarto frío, y parezco asqueado y repelido cuando el escalofrío del atardecer avanza a través de un suave día otoñal"

Un doctor que no concibe la muerte como un acto natural, ni una posibilidad.
Si bien no es el arquetípico DR Frankenstein, Igualmente juega a ser dios, por valerse de cualquier medio parar eludir la muerte y preservar "la vida". En este caso tratándose de la suya propia y utilizando el frio y e encierro como medio.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude

An underpaid writer (? he does something for a magazine, anyway) finds an acceptable cheap boarding house. One of the other residents, a medical professional, is obsessed with keeping the temperature low. He has a particularly urgent reason...

This was very short, moderately icky, and surprising in that the hapless young fellow is actually okay at the end, which isn't often the case with Lovecraft protagonists!.

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forced by circumstances to take lodging in a cheap rooming house, the narrator is delighted to discover that one of his neighbors is a well-educated doctor - a man of 'quality,' even if he's a bit eccentric. The most obvious oddity is that he's a recluse, never leaving his rented rooms - and he keeps those rooms air-conditioned to a shockingly low temperature. However, it will eventually be revealed that there was a reason for his 'madness.'

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read here

Opening: You ask me to explain why I am afraid of a draught of cool air; why I shiver more than others upon entering a cold room, and seem nauseated and repelled when the chill of evening creeps through the heat of a mild autumn day. There are those who say I respond to cold as others do to a bad odour, and I am the last to deny the impression. What I will do is to relate the most horrible circumstance I ever encountered, and leave it to you to judge whether or not this forms a suitable explanation of my peculiarity.



A month of Halloween 2015 reads:

#1: 3* Nobody True by James Herbert: fraudio
#2: 4* The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: fraudio
#3: 1* Brain Child by John Saul: fraudio
#4: 3* Domain (Rats #3) by James Herbert: fraudio
#5: 3* The Mourning Vessels by Peter Luther: paperback
#6: 2* The Doom of the Great City: ebook short-story
#7: 5* Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury: fraudio
#8: 5* The Dead Zone by Stephen King: fraudio
#9: CR The Chalice: hardback
#10: WL Seven Gothic Tales
#11: 4* Tales of Men and Ghosts: gutenberg
#12: 2* Shattered by Dean Koontz: fraudio
#13: 5* The Dunwich Horror: e-book: gutenberg
#14: 4* Death At Intervals: paperback
#15: 3* Alone: gutenberg
#16: 3* The Shunned House: gutenberg
#17: 4* The Thing on the Doorstep
#18: 2* Shadows by Saul: fraudio
#19: CR Precious Cargo: paperback
#20: 2* The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: ebook
#21: 2* The Book of Black Magic
#22: 4* Beyond the Wall of Sleep
#23: 3* The Haunting of Hill House
#24: 2* Inferno
#25: 4* Monkey's Paw
#26: 4* The Pit and the Pendulum
#27: 3* William Wilson
#28: 4* The Moonlit Road and Other Stories
#29: 3* The Black Cat
#30: 4* The Cask of Amontillado
#31: 4* The Tell-Tale Heart
#32: 3* The Devil Rides Out
#33: 3* The Omen (I, II, and III)
#34: 3* Cool Air

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

The narrator is afraid of the cold. People say he responds to the cold the same way others respond to bad odour. Cool Air is why he can't stand a draught of cool air and why he acts the way he does when the weather starts to change.

'It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude.
I found it in the glare of mid-afternoon, in the clangour of a metropolis, and in the teeming midst of a shabby and commonplace rooming-house with a prosaic landlady and two stalwart men by my side.'

Looking for a better and still affordable place to live in New York the narrator, a writer who has to work for some magazine, finds a four-storey house where traffic seems to be the only annoying thing.

Three weeks later, an ammonia leak from the fourth floor introduces his upstairs neighbour. Dr. Muñoz is a man with peculiar habits. After a heart attack, the narrator comes to the doctor for help. It marks the beginning of a strange friendship. Still, his neighbour's appearance doesn't leave a good first impression. He doesn't look right and 'the abnormal always excites aversion, distrust, and fear'.
The doctor's apartment is cold and he is very interested in death. Even though he is obviously ill, he refuses to get help. Dr. Muñoz uses cold to stay alive and whole, but he also doesn't laugh at 'incantations of the mediaevalist' because he believes he can find helpful formulae in them.
While watching the doctor's decline, the narrator soon begins to realize the truth behind his bizarre behaviour.

[Warren Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect short horror story to read for summer! After all, it's about early air conditioning!

This is not one of Lovecraft's more famous stories, but it is very good nonetheless, with an interesting sci-fi concept, and a classic Lovecraftian ending where what is implied, not described, is the payoff.

SCORE: 4 broken pump pistons out of 5

[Ebony Eldritch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spectacularly sick tale of oozing gore and mess, a style of body horror which is reimagined now in Lovecraft's signature blend of the incomprehensibility of death and the disgusting, fetid world in which we find ourselves.

Once more, Lovecraft's less-than-tasteful views of those who do not share his skin tone are made apparent, but I shall say no more on the matter beyond warning those who might find this offensive component of the content personally upsetting.

Lovecraft's infamously problematic views aside, I simply adore the mystery which follows this strange tale as our protagonist lodger slowly pieces together exactly what has befallen his friendly doctor neighbour from upstairs, as stranger and stranger happenings come to pass in the building.

Finally, we are given a payoff which is in every way unsettling, yet pays off the lingering threads with a genius and unforeseen solution.

Once more I find myself reading a tale by a master of horror which demonstrates the true power of the genre and how creepy the world can be.

[Aishu Rehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uff !! Wonderful .I really Loved this story.Perhaps because it reminded me strongly of Edgar Allen Poe. The reveal towards the end didn't surprise me, probably because I've read and seen so much horror, that the behaviors of Munoz immediately pointed towards his condition. Despite my anticipation, this story packs a nice solid punch, and maintains a genuine creepiness.SO this is a science fiction meets horror tale with an excellent twist at the end of the story.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if I can say much about the story without spoiling it. The last few words left me disturbed, because I spent many words getting to know this guy, and his strange dependence on cool air.

[Norman Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am strongly reminded of Poe's "The facts in the case of M. Valdemar."
Physician, heal thyself, I say. I may have trouble with air-conditioned doctor's offices after this.

I hadn't realized that Randolph Carter appears in so many of Lovecraft's stories. That man is truly unlucky!

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have arranged my takeaway thoughts on this story into a haiku:

"Lengths one might deem fair,
For slowing the reaper's steps,
Might leave others chilled."

[Graeme Rodaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young boarding house lodger discovers his animated upstairs neighbour has been dead for quite a long time.

4 'It's a REFRIGERATION UNIT!' stars.

[Preetam Chatterjee]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Horror Short Stories #Anthologies # American Horror Masters

“Cool Air” by H.P. Lovecraft is one of those compact yet lingering pieces that never really leaves the reader alone, even after its seemingly simple premise has been absorbed. I read it with the sense that Lovecraft, who so often thrusts his audience into cosmic abysses and tentacled immensity, here chose a smaller, more intimate canvas. Instead of sprawling mythologies and unknowable horrors from beyond, he tightens the narrative focus to a single apartment in New York, a peculiar doctor, and a dreadful revelation that manages to be both grotesque and sorrowfully human.

At first glance, “Cool Air” feels like a deviation from the sprawling Cthulhu Mythos, more in line with gothic morbidity than eldritch terror. But that’s precisely where its brilliance lies: Lovecraft trades the vastness of outer gods for the claustrophobic atmosphere of a boarding house. The narrator’s chance encounter with Dr. Muñoz—an eccentric physician whose rooms are kept unnaturally cold by a constant stream of ammonia—is both unsettling and compelling. Muñoz is intelligent, charming even, but the reader senses from the start that something is amiss. The oppressive atmosphere of that cold, machinery-filled apartment becomes as alive as any creature in Lovecraft’s pantheon, and the longer the story lingers there, the more it turns suffocating.

Comparatively, where “The Thing on the Doorstep” explores psychological domination and “Pigeons from Hell” dramatizes a violent haunting in raw Southern Gothic fashion, “Cool Air” has the austerity of a medical case study disguised as horror. The clinical, almost detached tone mirrors Muñoz’s scientific obsession with defeating death itself. Lovecraft’s personal fears bleed into the story too: his lifelong dread of physical decay, his hypochondria, and his horror of bodily corruption all pulse through the tale. Unlike cosmic monstrosities who dwarf mankind into insignificance, Muñoz is terrifying because he is too close to us—he is a man whose intellect, genius, and sheer will attempt to overcome mortality, only to succumb in a grotesque collapse.

When placed beside other American horror masters like Robert E. Howard, Algernon Blackwood, and even the later Kelly Link, Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” shows his versatility. Howard thrives on violence and gothic legacy, Blackwood on mystical atmosphere, and Link on postmodern surrealism. Lovecraft here leans into a Poe-like morbidity: a story that could almost pass as a medical parable until the macabre ending reveals its full horror. The tightness of its narrative makes it one of his more accessible stories; there are no difficult genealogies of alien gods, no archaic New England town history to wade through—just a direct, unnerving descent into decay.

One of the things I love most about this story is its ability to blend science and horror in a way that still resonates. In an age where refrigeration was new, where medical technology was advancing but death remained an undefeated enemy, the story tapped into contemporary anxieties. Today, it feels like an eerie allegory for transhumanist dreams, for attempts to digitally or biologically prolong life at any cost. Muñoz’s obsession with the cold echoes the modern world’s flirtation with cryogenics, body preservation, and the denial of death. In that sense, “Cool Air” feels disturbingly timeless—Lovecraft may have dressed it in early 20th-century scientific trappings, but its moral warning still cuts sharp.

Yet for all its clinical chill, there’s also a strange sadness to it. Muñoz is not a cackling villain but a tragic figure whose brilliance could not reconcile with the inevitability of decay. When the machinery fails and the ammonia gives way, the horror is not only in the grotesque revelation of what remains, but in the futility of his struggle. It’s horror rooted not in monstrosity, but in our most universal truth: no matter how fiercely we fight, we all must die.

For me, “Cool Air” stands as a small but powerful piece in Lovecraft’s oeuvre. It does not overwhelm the reader with cosmic madness, but chills with intimacy and inevitability. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the scariest place isn’t the cosmos—it’s the locked, icy room next door, where genius has turned against nature

[Jesús · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simplemente Lovecraft, es un relato que está exquisitamente escrito y que no te deja indiferente, me habían dicho varias veces que lo leyera, pero sí, tendría que haberlo hecho antes.

[David Loza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siento que no tengo demasiado que decir. Lovecraft destaca siempre por la construcción de una atmósfera tensa e intrigante. A estas alturas, creo que es algo que se tiene que esperar de sus obras. Esta habría sido un tres estrellas seguro de no ser por el giro final.

[Franky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suffice to say, I do believe Lovecraft(ian) stories are best read when going in cold (pardon the weak pun) without knowing anything about the tale and what strange twists or happenings will ultimately happen. I did so with several others from Lovecraft and did so with "Cool Air" as well.

What I do love about the Lovecraft tales is that you, as a reader, are transported to something far off the track of imagination in some way and that there is always a first hand account of this experience being dictated to us through one of the characters within the plot of this tale. "Cool Air" is no exception.

"Cool Air" concerns a reclusive doctor who lives in very cold room and must maintain these temperatures. The narrator, experiencing a heart attack, calls upon the eccentric and odd doctor to help him. As he starts to visit the room of the doctor, he begins to try to uncover the oddities and the mystery of the room conditions that must be maintained.

To reveal too much that happens in the course of later stages of this short story would really be a disservice and give much away. But, let's just say that the final page and passage of this story is quite disturbing and, yes, quite weird. I couldn't imagine how the public would have reacted to this story in Lovecraft's time.

[Marc D. ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 estrellas.

Me impresionó un montón, ya de entrada la historia me tenía atrapado con todo su ambiente frío e inquietante. Me podía ver dentro de esa habitación oliendo el amoníaco.
Me encantó, sinceramente. Leer a Lovecraft es esta sensación única en la que el disgusto se vuelve un placer.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

there a man had this idea in his mind in 1923 !
i love this kind of fantastic horror , because it depends in mind , ideas and difference .. and that what make the good story .

this short one tell about man has arrive to new York , learns that a reclusive doctor lives in the apartment above his owns , he had a heart attack so he go to the doctor and soon become friends and more he spend time with him more he discovery a horrifying truth about him .

this story is good .

"It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude. I found it in the glare of mid-afternoon, in the clangour of a metropolis, and in the teeming midst of a shabby and commonplace rooming-house with a prosaic landlady and two stalwart men by my side."

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For such a short story I was surprised at how slowly the plot in this one moved. It was a fun read nevertheless, but rather paint-by-numbers writing. Lovecraft broke little new ground here and seemed almost to be imitating his previous works. His attempt to write Spanish dialect was rather unconvincing as well.

The story does have features of interest. In an age before air conditioning how would people try to artificially cool the air? The use of ammonia never occurred to me as a possibility. The setting was in New York, but not much of the story necessitated or took advantage of the urban milieu. I enjoyed the ending and the tale as a whole, but it is not one I think I ever need reread.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very cool short story.

I liked that I was able to read another short story about a weird neighbour as I really enjoyed ‘The Music of Erich Zann’ and I was able to connect to the protagonist quickly as I actually just shivered today a bit 'cause I felt cold too.

Having a weird musician as a neighbour is a tragedy but having a weird doctor as a neighbour will give you a deathly chill.

[Ahsan Mahim]

"It's a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude. I found it in the glare of mid-afternoon, in the clangour of a metropolis, and in the teeming midst of a shabby and commonplace rooming-house with a prosaic landlady and two stalwart men by my side."

[Britton]

Lovecraft's certainly an interesting author, capable of writing moody, atmospheric pieces, and then writing terribly inept, though still imaginative pieces. But then he'll come along and write something as strange as Cool Air, and then my interest in him ignites.

While my favorite Lovecraft story remains The Color Out of Space, Cool Air follows closely behind. It certainly has the Lovecraftisms: droning purple prose, racism, sexism, and general misanthropy, and so much self pity that even Edgar Allan Poe would tell him to shut the hell up. But with the problematic aspects of Lovecraft's overture there also comes the good aspects, which remains his gift for mood and atmosphere, as well as his ability to build tension throughout several pages, though it can peter out in some of his longer works such as In The Mountains of Madness or The Call of Cthulhu. There's also his ability to carry a mystery from start to finish that redeems some of his longer works like Call of Cthulhu or The Shadow over Innsmouth.

But my problems with Lovecraft persist, mostly the stuff that I already mentioned above, there's also his issues with character, as most of his characters are usually the same person, a white guy who's oogling in horror while some strange stuff is happening around him, and the strange stuff that is going on is so indescribable that it starts to parody itself after a while, there's also my assertion that other authors who followed Lovecraft, such as King, Moore, Mignola, or his contemporary Robert E. Howard (to avoid confusion with HP's initals Howard Phillip) have surpassed him in terms of quality and character, though few have rarely reached his talent for atmosphere and mood, asides from Mignola.

I suppose what I like so much about this story is its unique approach to the zombie concept, while I like flesh eating zombies just fine, it's nice to see a zombie that's frankly a normal man or, more likely, as normal as HP Lovecraft's characters could be. The zombie of this story is a normal man who's frightened of death and is trying his damndest to keep himself alive by any means necessary, but to his realization is fruitless as he eventually dies at the end. With those praises, there's once more a criticism, which is as crazy the idea is, I would've expected Lovecraft to try and add a humorous spin to the story, but Lovecraft keeps things dead serious, much to this story's detriment. But like I said, the main reason I like this story so much is how out there and strange the subject matter is, and that's what keeps me coming back to this story.

While he could've been more ironic with this rather silly concept, the story that we did get is still solid and enjoyable and one that I'm proud to call a favorite of mine from Lovecraft's bibliography.

I've found some great resources for reading Lovecraft and some of the other 'weird' authors, there's the Lovecraft website with most of, if not all, of his writings as well as Ian Gordon, aka HorrorBabble's readings of the 'weird' author's tales, including Lovecraft.

I might add to this review sometime later, but I'm not sure yet.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cool Air is on par with your average creepy pasta, but significantly more racist. I feel like there are hints that this story ties into the Cthulhu mythos with its mentions of ancient incantations and the work of "the medievalists." I just can't find a lot of value in this one. Often I can give Lovecraft credit for at least having an interesting idea, but in this case the central idea is just really dumb.

[Amy Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would work better as SF than horror, as the horror element seems a bit of a stretch to me. As an SF story about going to extreme lengths to preserve one's existence, it's fairly interesting. It's unclear to me why this is so horrific to the narrator. Odd and extreme, sure. Not really horrific, imo.

[A Mig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The horrible Lovecraftian imagery is tuned down a bit to give way to the acrid smell of ammonia. An interesting reading experience, this strong stimulus complementing Lovecraft’s usual palette of the mad scientist.