When the well-known French comic artist, Phillipe Druillet, was asked by his followers on X if he could recommend any writers or books, he suggested Lovecraft's “The Colour Out of Space”. He then stated that after he first read it he “...couldn’t sleep for 15 days straight.”! A statement that piques the curiosity and begs the question - exactly how scary and disturbing can this story be?

First appearing in the September 1927 edition of Hugo Gernsback's science fiction magazine “Amazing Stories” (Experimenter Publishing), “The Colour Out of Space” has become became one of Lovecraft's most popular works, and remained his own personal favourite amongst all of his short stories. It is a pretty short tale of only forty-one pages and is accompanied in this Penguin Classics version by two other short stories featuring a similar blend of Lovecraft's horror and science fiction: “The Shadow Out of Time” also published in “Astounding Stories”, this time in June 1936, and “The Whisperer in Darkness” published in the August 1931 issue of Henneberger’s “Weird Tales”.

All of the stories are set in and around Lovecraft’s infamous fictional city of Arkham in Massachusetts, New England. “The Colour out of Space” is a grim tale that concerns a deserted area west of Arkham known as “Blasted Heath”. This was a land of fertile gardens and orchards before a meteorite strike and the subsequent “strange times” saw it deteriorate into five acres of lifeless grey desolation that is shunned and avoided by all who live nearby. Everything living becomes afflicted and slowly consumed by a mysterious and devastating luminous extraterrestrial force with an indescribably strange hue. After a while, the deserted heath is designated the site for a future Arkham reservoir. However, when the surveyor for the reservoir arrives he is told a story by the last remaining resident that is so horrific that he immediately flees back to Boston and resigns his job!

We are firmly in “alien monster” territory with the second story, “The Whisperer in Darkness”, where the bodies of strange creatures are sighted floating in the surging waters of the Vermont floods of 1927. These creatures appear to relate to old tales from elderly rustics in the mountains of New Hampshire about a hidden race of monstrous beings lurking somewhere amongst the remoter hills. There are also Indian tribal legends such as “The Pennacook myths” which describe creatures called the “Winged Ones” which are not native to the earth, but come from the “Great Bear in the Sky”. Interestingly, the origin of the creatures is given as the “ninth planet” in the solar system and this story was written shortly after Pluto was discovered in 1930.

The main body of this story follows the correspondence between a local resident claiming to be beset by the creatures, Henry Akeley, and the main protagonist and folklore expert, Albert Wilmarth, who is a Professor of Literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham. Initially dismissive of the bizarre claims of strange creatures, Wilmarth becomes increasingly convinced by Akeley's testimony. Having consistently warned Wilmarth to stay away, Akeley's last letter abruptly changes tone and invites the Miskatonic professor to come and see the creatures for himself. Overcome with curiosity, Wilmarth willingly waltzes into trouble whilst the reader will be screaming for him to stay away and avoid the obvious trap.

Completing the trilogy, “The Shadow Out of Time”, is a tale of possession where the mind of another professor at the Miskatonic University is inhabited by a time-travelling inhuman entity from Earth's distant past. This time the professor is Wingate Peaslee, an Instructor of Political Economy, who is subjected to disturbing events. The story relates to his unexplained amnesia of 1908-1913 which commenced suddenly after he mysteriously collapsed unconscious whilst conducting a class.

Upon reviving, over sixteen hours later, he has a changed personality with stilted diction, strange pronunciation and an inexplicable command of relatively unknown knowledge. The occupying alien personality exhibits an insatiable thirst for learning and a fast reading ability with abnormally rapid assimilation that indicates a vastly superior intelligence.

After the professor finally regains his rightful faculties over five years later, this story follows his quest to understand the origin and nature of the entity that possessed him and eventually leads to a disturbing find in Western Australia that confirms his investigations and the weird dreams that have started haunting him.

In all of these stories, the protagonists typically start off as strong sceptics about the strange things happening around them but slowly become reluctant believers in the alien nature of the horrors taking place as more and more fantastical evidence is uncovered. The poor human characters are always overwhelmed by, and completely helpless to contend with, the powerful otherworldly forces that they are faced with. These stories end with unnerving, and sometimes shocking, conclusions so those looking for a happy and comfortable resolution to events will be left wanting.

Generally, the horror in this book is inferred rather than described explicitly. Information about the weird and disturbing events is slowly drip-fed to the reader and you will likely find your mind racing ahead and engaging in all manner of wild speculation. Lovecraft knew exactly how much to leave to the reader's imagination and that makes these stories much more impactful as a result.