Public reader discussion about The King in Yellow in the WeRead Catalog by Robert W. Chambers.
By storyhawk
If they end up doing a second season, I’d really like to see an episode focused on The King in Yellow. And if they adapt one of Robert W. Chambers’ original stories, I’d love for them to do The Yellow Sign. Also, for anything that isn’t Chambers, I think Karl Edward Wagner’s The River of Night’s Dreaming would be an awesome episode.
By BookmarkTide
So I’m a bit confused—could someone break down what the King in Yellow / Hastur is supposed to be? I only just started paying attention after rewatching True Detective, but I wanted to understand it from the whole Mythos angle. And I’m also not really sure what Carcosa is in all of this, so any info would be great.
By Plashet_Cedar6
This wasn’t really an easy read for me. A bunch of the stories felt kind of confusing, and I think it was mostly because Robert goes into way too much detail. I’m also curious what you all thought about the newest one though. Like, what actually happens at the end? Was it a letdown? he shows up drunk, climbs into her room through the window, sits there super awkward for like three minutes, and then she just lets him out the front door?
By hidden_fox
I just read a fanfic called *The Star IN Yellow* that’s based on *The King in Yellow*. The original premise actually sounds really intriguing—like, the whole idea of people going mad from reading a book feels right up my alley. I’m planning to buy *The King in Yellow* soon, but I keep hearing that the second half drops off and that only the stories in the first half are really good. I don’t know what to believe yet, so I’m stuck figuring out if it’s still worth reading. And please, no spoilers.
By RedBright
Just finished Robert W. Chambers’ book and now I really want to dive into more stories like The King in Yellow.
By UnnoisedPages57
I mostly came to this through the whole “weird fiction” chain of recommendations. I liked it, but it mostly felt like it was just picking up the decadent/romantic vibe, which is kind of weird given its place in the horror family. Honestly, there isn’t much horror happening on the page. There are some cool ideas in here, and I can tell they’re tied together with recurring themes/motifs, but it also feels like Chambers never fully commits to what the connections are or what the point is. The way I ended up reading it was that the characters are kind of living in the heads of people in his present-day world to try to get away from the King in Yellow, but then once they slip into the real world, the King itself seems to push things back so their outcomes match the book versions. Later stories made me wonder if that reading isn’t quite right though. Either way, I think it’s probably better going in without expecting it to line up with how later writers treated it—because that kind of muddles its vibe. Would love to hear what other people thought about it.
By Bolter49
Been getting driven around more lately, and I realized I can actually read on my phone without feeling sick, unlike with a normal book. Also a .html file barely uses any data, so I’ve been going through some old horror/spec fic stuff on Project Gutenberg that’s in the public domain. A lot of it is kind of a miss, honestly — cool ideas but the writing doesn’t always land for me (The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood, The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson, The Call of Cthulhu by Lovecraft) — but some of it is really good (The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith, The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen). The King in Yellow is definitely in that better group. [Side note: I’m not totally done with Lovecraft. Someone told me to try The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. But Cthulhu itself is great. The Call of Cthulhu the story? Not so much. Still, even if I’ve mostly thought Lovecraft was just okay, I do think his taste is pretty good — it’s from stuff he liked that I found this, The Willows, and The Horla, and those were all great.] As far as the Gutenberg version goes, I think only the first few stories are actually supernatural/horror. The first four are about The King in Yellow, and the fifth is a separate horror story, but it’s good too. They’re really short, too — most people could probably finish them in a few hours if that. Quick, free, old-school, and kind of perfect for this time of year, so I’d say it’s worth picking up. The stories are about the title play, The King in Yellow, which is supposed to be pretty harmless at first, then somehow makes you keep reading and drives you insane after the second act. Very classic cosmic horror, with that whole unknowable, madness-through-knowledge thing. One thing I like is that it doesn’t spell the play out for you. We only get bits and pieces: the Lake of Hali, Carcosa and its towers behind the moon, black stars, Camilla and Cassilda and the Stranger, yellow rags, the Pallid Mask... What makes these work for me is that, unlike a lot of stuff from around then, they don’t spend forever trying to set everything up. No fake “this really happened” framing, no endless “my friend told me about a manuscript” kind of thing, no dragging out the ordinary before anything weird happens — they just get on with it. There are also some neat tricks with unreliable or limited narrators, dreams bleeding into reality, and art mixing with truth. There’s not a ton I can say about each individual story, really. They’re short, they move fast, just read them. But I do recommend them, especially if you like short fiction, want some of the genre basics, or just want some spooky-season reading. Edit: formatting. Short stories are italic, novels are bold? I have no idea, I haven’t taken an English class in like ten years.
By BlueRaven60
Just wrapped up Yellowface and I honestly loved it. One thing I can’t stop thinking about though: the cover. If you hold the book up to your face while reading, it totally makes it look like you’re “wearing” the cover like a mask. It kinda feels like it could be a quiet little nod to what’s going on in the story (I don’t wanna spoil anything) and how something ugly can seem so normal that people end up being part of it without even realizing. I have no clue if that was intentional, but if it was… wow.
By blue-eagle
What do you think of it? Like, how would you even describe it, and would you recommend it? I’m kinda doing a paper on horror fiction, so this might actually be useful for me. Also, I saw that the first time the “king in yellow” shows up is supposed to go all the way back to Ambrose Bierce’s short story “Haïta the Shepherd,” but I’m not totally sure.
By thunderMarket7333
I’m honestly super, super happy with what I got. I kinda wish I could add a picture though. This was my first time buying anything that’s even sort of Lovecraft/weird fiction/cosmic horror territory. I’m really excited because I’ve played stuff like The Sinking City, Bloodborne, Signalis, and a few other games that feel inspired by all that, plus some related works, so I was going in pretty hard on one of the more well-known books in the genre. In my human opinion, it was totally worth it. Thanks for reading.
By rose
I never really caught that continuity between the stories mentioned here. Pretty interesting, though.
By violet
Heyo! I’m pretty new to horror stuff, and I picked up *The King in Yellow* by R. W. Chambers mostly because of the game Deadlock. I was curious if there are any other books that follow the same mythos as the first five stories—the whole “yellow sign,” madness vibe, you know. Also, I kinda didn’t like how the last few stories just went straight into romance. It felt like a big switch from the rest.
By Library-Swan1991
I first heard about this because of a video saying it inspired H.P. Lovecraft, so that was basically enough to get me interested right away. I went into it only knowing it was a set of stories tied together by a made-up reality, and that they were supposed to be more strange than actually scary. The writing was really well done, and a lot of it was honestly very pretty when it came to describing places and the way the women show interest in the male characters. I won’t say that part out loud too often, but yeah, I do like a bit of romance. And the warning that these stories were weird was definitely accurate. As I kept going, I started to feel like Chambers wanted them to read almost like dreams, where you just slip into whatever bizarre situation shows up next, especially in the later ones. I can see why that might throw people off, and it took me a little while too, but if you’re dealing with things that don’t follow normal reality, weird is kind of expected. My only real disappointment is that The King in Yellow itself doesn’t seem to matter as much as I thought it would in the book with its own title, and I’m not even sure some of the stories connect to the play that much at all. Still, I liked it overall. If anyone else has read it, I’d be interested to hear what you thought.
By AtomCarrot97
I’m a pretty big fan of cosmic horror, and I’ve been working my way through Lovecraft (I’ve got a bunch of books with his solo stuff in order, I think it’s chronological at least). But I’ve basically been living in HPL for a while, so I figured I’d try *The King in Yellow* since it gets brought up a ton in Lovecraft-y media—honestly I was mostly pushed to it by the Myskatonic Mysteries MC mod. I will say I liked the first short story, but it wasn’t really what I expected at all. I had this different picture in my head based on what fandoms talk about, so I ended up a little disappointed. Anyway, that’s my rant 😅 Now my real question: where can I find good stories with the King in Yellow / Hastur / Carcosa? I still really like the whole concept, I just feel like the best stuff might be coming from somewhere else rather than this book. Thanks for reading my little rant :3
By PlasmaOlive
I had no idea this was even a thing. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
By greenbeaver
I honestly don’t know much about the characters—at least not yet. From what I’ve gathered, they’re really powerful rulers and they somehow have magic. Like, does the King in Yellow actually have access to the Necronomicon? I’m not totally sure.
By CoastRound4
Some books just stick in your head for years, like there’s this heavy secret sitting behind your eyes. My go-to example is *Battle Royale*—especially that poisoning part. The way everything slowly ramps up in people’s heads almost makes you understand how they end up doing what they do, and then it all just lands. And *The Road* too, honestly. The cannibals stuff messed me up. I can totally picture myself in that same awful situation and I don’t think I’d be any better—I'd probably snap and go full Mad Max. Anyway, I’m curious what other books hit people like that, where you look back and feel like you crossed a bridge way too fast.
By AcarusBrisk
This is really good—if you end up starting your own little imprint, let me know.
By orangeFinch
0/1 on the self-read loss scale—just from seeing “Howie Lovecraft.”
By Sunny-Valley
Hi, I started reading a book called *The King in Yellow* today. English isn’t my first language, but I can follow most of it, except I’m confused about one thing. Why does the narrator suddenly say he’s a servant of the King in Yellow while he’s talking to Mr. Wilde? Is that just his obsession from reading the book? I’ve only gotten to the start of the third act, so any help would be appreciated!