What I’m Reading: The Broken Hours

The Broken Hours: A Novel of H. P. Lovecraft

Baker, Jacqueline

Apr. 2016. 320p. Skyhorse/Talos, hardcover, $24.99  (9781940456553). 
REVIEW.  First published March 3, 2016 (Booklist Online).

Here is the draft of the review I turned in to Booklist:

The year is 1836 and Arthor Crandle, desperate for a job and needing space from his troubled homelife, accepts a temporary position in Providence working as the assistant for a reclusive and mysterious author. But all is not as it seems in this “novel of H.P. Lovecraft,” and Crandle is quickly thrust into a world where nightmares, ghosts, and giant tentacles are now a part of his everyday life. This novel is a homage to Lovecraft, his work, and his legacy, but told with only a hint of the terror found within the master’s own stories. Rather Baker’s intent is to authentically recreate the eerie atmosphere that surrounded Lovecraft, before wrapping the reader up in a compelling, Hitchcock-esque plot that keeps everyone on edge, constantly questioning the real versus the imagined, up to the final shocking pages. Lovecraft fans will delight in seeing the author’s biography unfold on the page, but, those with no previous attachment to the horror master will easily be drawn into this satisfying, Gothic tale on its own merit. Suggest to fans of last year’s historical, horror hit The Quick or backlist darling The Thirteenth Tale.

Three Words That Describe This Book: eerie, Gothic, biographical

Readalikes: Besides the two titles mentioned in the review-- to which I have added the links to my blog reviews that contain MANY more readalike options-- I would also suggest:

• Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel
• Anything by Shirley Jackson
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

Some may want to read Lovecraft after reading this novel. To those people I would suggest trying his stories from Weird Tales, the ones which are referred to throughout Broken Hours.