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The Children of Cthulhu is one of those Lovecraftian-tribute anthologies that the small-press horror scene of the early 2000s produced in volume. Benjamin Adams and John Pelan have curated a collection that ranges from straight Mythos pastiches to stranger pieces that use the Lovecraft frame for genuinely contemporary horror writing.
The strongest pieces are the ones that depart farthest from the source. There are several authors here whose names will be familiar to small-press horror readers and who turn out to have written some of their best short work for this volume. Some of the more strict Mythos pastiches are competent rather than memorable.
Three stars. Recommended to Lovecraft completists and to readers of the contemporary literary horror tradition.
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