You gotta love occultists and mad scientists sprinkled with pagan gods! It's great that Machen doesn't describe anything too precisely, but leaves the most horrible things to the mercy of the reader's imagination. I usually like descriptions, but some authors manage to make the story work without it. The characterisation wasn't the best, and the story itself was somewhat predictable. I still enjoy reading Victorian gothic and horror tales, which usually stops me from giving less stars than three. The stories are always full of atmosphere, and it's fun to see what kind of things made people's skin crawl back in the day.