Contemporary Lovecraftian Books

[Moogs Parfait]

Hi everyone.

Does anyone read Lovecraft or has read it and is a fan?  I got through one of the compilation books, and was wondering if there were current examples in that style or even the setting.

I ask because I feel Lovecraft's stuff didn't age well, it was so influential I felt more interested as a history lesson.  Also his imagined worlds are really interesting, so I felt like I liked the stories for the wrong reasons.

I've heard House of Five Leaves is scary as hell if you let yourself get into it, but other than that I don't know.

Things that are actually scary are good, but so are things that build on the setting he created.

[commandercool]

I've never been a huge fan of direct Lovecraft tributes/followups because I find that they rarely capture the essence of what actually makes Lovecraft good. August Derleth is probably the most famous example of someone writing Mythos stuff after Lovecraft's death, but his work is pretty controversial. He writes from a Christian point of view that re-contextualizes everything Lovecraft established, and he's just not a great writer from what little of his stuff I've read. Of course, Lovecraft is also not a great writer, but someone who isn't incredibly skilled building on something written by someone who also wasn't incredibly skilled can get kind of messy.

I mentioned this in another thread a while ago, but the best contemporary Lovecraftian story I've ever read is probably Gen Urobuchi's visual novel Saya No Uta. I don't know if I can actually recommend it to anyone since there's some reprehensible rape stuff in it. but the ideas are scary in a remarkable way and by the end it's clear that the world it's set in is authentically Lovecraftian. Read at your own risk, but it might be the kind of thing you're looking for.

[Reiko]

I've read and enjoyed a fair amount of Lovecraft's works, but I'm not too aware of his direct follow-ups.
However, if you like this kind of weird settings, rich prose and scary stuff as a whole, I'd advise you to look at Thomas Ligotti's work. He writes mostly short stories and has a very personal imagination, but you might find here and there some subtle shout-outs to Lovecraft (and others). Ligotti's stories are, in my opinion, much more bleak, hopeless and disturbing than Lovecraft's, and in a more "psychological" way.
There is one of his short stories available online, you can find it here.

[Sect]

One of the stories in C.L. Moore's "Black God's Kiss" anthology has some pretty creepy Lovecraft-esque stuff going on, but it's mostly sword and magic fantasy. You could probably think of "John Dies At The End" as a humorous version of the genre, too. Can't think of any others off the top of my head, though.

Ligotti's stories are, in my opinion, much more bleak, hopeless and disturbing than Lovecraft's,

That's honestly impressive: the only non bleak Lovecraft story I can think of is "The Dunwich Horror", where they're actually successful in fending off whatever the hell is going on.

[Moogs Parfait]

I'm familiar with Urobuchi's works.    :V  I don't think I could read Saya no Uta though because I'm one of those people who can't distance themselves from fictional rape.

Derleth sounds like someone to avoid.

Ligotti sounds good, Flowers for Algernon gave me my first existential crisis as a child.   :ohdear:  In general I find death and dismemberment less bad than say, alzheimer's.

I'll have to read the story by Ligotti and get back here. 

[Sapz]

There is one of his short stories available online, you can find it here.

This was fantastic. I'll have to check out more of his works.

[nav']

I don't have a clue about literature and could never tell that Lovecraft is not a good writer, so I've enjoyed his works to death. I really need to refresh my memory, since this is pretty much the only kind of fiction that I'm still able to enjoy. Sadly I don't have any new ideas for the OP, I'm just popping in to thank Reiko for recommending Ligotti and support the recommendation myself. Nethescurial is excellent. I've already started reading Songs of a Dead Dreamer (it can be borrowed digitally on OpenLibrary, by the way) and the second short story is already quite exquisite. There's a lot of reading waiting for me. Thanks!

[Reiko]

Well, I'm glad you both enjoyed it.
Ligotti isn't very well known and I can't even remeber how I heard of him in the first place, but it was a very interesting discovery indeed. I have only read Teatro Grottesco (and Nethescurial) myself, so I can only recommend these.
Have fun ! (sort of...)

[Sect]

I don't have a clue about literature and could never tell that Lovecraft is not a good writer, so I've enjoyed his works to death.

That's the thing with a lot of stories in general: generally speaking, so long as you're enjoying the book/story/whatever, you're not going to notice the quality of the writing unless it's unusually competent/inept, and even if you notice that the writing isn't great, so long as you're enjoying reading it you're probably going to forgive the writer for their mistakes.

Mind you, that's a generality and everyone has different standards they hold books to, or even different standards depending on who's writing: I know I hold certain published authors and fanfiction authors to a higher standard than others, because I expect more from them, and if I'm reading a book that displeases me halfway through I'm going to be critical of things I was willing to give a bye on.