I keep trying with this guy, I do, but I can't seem to get on with him. Every so often I read something by him, because Lovecraft is a giant in the field and I want to be well-read, but it's the same nearly every time. I find him histrionic and over-written. In this story, he's also repetitive. Admittedly, that's not his fault: "Herbert West" was originally written as a six-part serial, so repeated recapping is only to be expected.

On the bright side, there are some disturbing scenes. They remain disturbing even as the science (or what passes for it) become steadily more ridiculous, and it's clear to me how much sheer common sense Mary Shelley showed in passing so lightly over Frankenstein's actual experiments. Inspired by frogs' legs she might have been, but not to the total undermining of narrative. Lovecraft could have taken not, but still: disturbing. I got the odd chill.

However - and it's always however with me and Lovecraft - his ongoing tendency to throw everything at the wall stretches my disbelief to breaking point. His stories are so desperately overburdened with clutter that I tend to come away with impressions of muddle rather than mystery, and his deeply irritating reliance on fires or explosive shells or what have you to shut down scenes he doesn't want to continue does not for interesting stories make. Worse, the characterisation here is just plain inadequate - the narrator, especially, is a big bland blank. Why is he always so passive? Does he have no moral centre of his own? Who can tell?

There's a potentially good story here that's struggling to get out. Unfortunately it's buried under great swathes of bullshit.