The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers is a collection of loosely connected short stories. Some tales seem connected by a shared cosmic horror mythos of The King in Yellow, and others were simply romantic stories with little if any connection to the former. I read this book because two stories in it were selected by the HOWL Society book club as a reading to accompany our book of the week, The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling, which is a contemporary expansion on Chamber's King in Yellow mythos. I enjoyed those cosmic horror stories, and was reminded of Lovecraft as mystery, madness, menace, and the supernatural seemed to weave together throughout The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask, In The Court of the Dragon, and The Yellow Sign. I also enjoyed The Demoislle D'ys which had dark fairy tale vibes and reminded me a bit of Angela Carter. The remaining stories did not interest me as much. Even the stories I liked seemed to lack a certain something to completely gel. Perhaps, like Lovecraft, I felt there was too much non-supernatural content, building up to a climax with too few answers. I would give the stories I liked 4/5 and the stories I didn't care for as much 2/5. Overall I rate this collection ⭐️⭐️⭐️