08 November 2012

Review: Professor Gargoyle


Professor Gargoyle
Professor Gargoyle by Charles Gilman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



SO TORN.

So I'm on board with anything Lovecrafty at this point, and the fact that a) a middle grade Lovecrafty novel exists that b) is pretty much exactly a book I had started to write a year ago? Well, I can stop being annoyed that my idea got preempted and start reading it.

It's pretty much exactly what you expect - two kids are now going to the newly-opened Lovecraft Middle School, and something's not quite right. There's weird things going on, and there's also Professor Goyle, who's the strangest of them all. We then fall into fun horror tropes, some extra-dimensional stuff, nods to the Great Old Ones, and even a little R'lyehian tossed in for good measure.

While it's pretty good, and a solid not-to-scary introduction to horror as a genre, I can't help but feel like something was missing, or that it might have been aping other stuff a little too much. I enjoyed it enough, but didn't feel strongly about it, either, and I'm not entirely sure why. A strange read, but a decent one.

The Slither Sisters is out in January. I'll be looking forward to trying that one out.



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1 comment:

  1. You're right-- something missing. Maybe it feels like it was written to spec? The students pick it up because of the cover.

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