Medusa's Coil

It's of the weaker stories I think. I'm not sure which parts of it were contributed by the co-writer as I felt that the style of the prose was distinctly Lovecraft. The racist elements in Lovecraft's stories are at an all-time high in this one - even when taking into account the era in which this was written.

While I found the racism very distasteful, that's not my primary dislike of it. I could pretend that Lovecraft was simply writing his characters to be very in-character. What I found weak was the subject matter - it's trying to tie the origins of the medusa to R'lyeh and the whole Cthulhu mythos. To me, the medusa is very mainstream (due to my interests) these days and it failed to evoke any sense of foreboding or dread. With a title like the Medusa's Coil and pointedly talking hair, basically makes the story rather predictable.

I did like reading it though. The prose, as usual, is very enjoyable to read (minus certain words obviously). It's presented from a typical (for Lovecraft) unnamed narrator, a traveler forced to take shelter at a rundown mansion, who then had a strange host narrate the story of how the mansion came to be in this state. The build-up was great, but the ending fell flat. It ended too suddenly and quickly. The last twist at the final chapter regarding the truth of the mansion and its occupants took away my second star. I think it was added to provide an extra dose of dread, but it feels like a cop-out to me, and leaving certain things an unsatisfactorily dangling.