History Literature / TheShadowOverInnsmouth

* DisappointingHeritageReveal: Near the end of the book, the narrator discovers that [[spoiler:he is a distant descendant of Obed Marsh, and is therefore destined to change into a Deep One himself. Although he becomes increasingly horrified and contemplates suicide, he eventually accepts and embraces his fate.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: Implied by the ending. The Deep Ones are definitely ''weird'', but the final chapter presents them as strangely noble and merciful, and far more advanced than humans.

* AmbiguousEnding: Has the protagonist [[spoiler:lost his mind, or does he genuinely believe the Deep Ones [[DarkIsNotEvil aren't so bad after all]] and that [[LivingForeverIsAwesome immortality sounds pretty nice]]? Notably, the writing itself seems a lot more cogent than the stream-of-consciousness style Lovecraft would often adopt when some of his other protagonists truly lost it.]]
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler:The protagonist realizes at the end that he shares the ancestry of the monstrous Innsmouth residents, and ultimately accepts and embraces it.]]

* CrazyPrepared: The protagonist. Given the unreliable technology, one hardly expects a gent to carry a flashlight, or have the '20s equivalent of a multitool in his keyring. Both tools see use [[spoiler:and ultimately save his hide]].

* BenevolentConspiracy: When [[spoiler:the federal government takes action against the Innsmouth cult by arresting everyone involved in it and detaining/executing them without trial]], they are almost certainly acting unconstitutionally. Moreover, all the details of the case are kept secret under the aegis of a GovernmentConspiracy. However, in the given context this is considered understandable (for obvious reasons), and [[EveryoneHasStandards even the news media]] eventually go along with the cover-up.

!! Tropes in this work include:

* AmbiguousEnding: Has the protagonist [[spoiler: lost his mind, or does he genuinely believe the Deep Ones [[DarkIsNotEvil aren't so bad after all]] and that [[LivingForeverIsAwesome immortality sounds pretty nice]]? Notably, the writing itself seems a lot more cogent than the stream-of-consciousness style Lovecraft would often adopt when some of his other protagonists truly lost it.]]

* AuthorAvatar: The narrator shares his antiquarian interests and frugal travel habits with Lovecraft. Some critics have even interpreted him as an EscapistCharacter for Lovecraft, who struggled to find a place where he felt like he really belonged, in a constantly-changing, ruthlessly meritocratic world that, he felt, was losing touch with the past. The protagonist of this story gets to [[spoiler: escape all of that for a place where he knows he belongs, where nothing much ever changes, where art and culture are valued over productivity, and where the events of thousands of years ago are within living memory.]]

* BlindAlley: A variation of this trope. [[spoiler: The narrator hides in a ditch and the huge search party just passes him by]].

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The narrator is in Massachusetts on a ''genealogical'' tour]].

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: The narrator's uncle, after learning of his heritage. The narrator himself considers it at the end of the story, but he doesn't go through with it.]]
* DyingTown: Innsmouth. Everyone is poorer, even the Marsh family; half the buildings are abandoned and crumbling, and population is going down. But if you think of it as a [[spoiler: breeding ground for Deep Ones...]]
* EasilyForgiven: The protagonist causes the Deep Ones ''a lot'' of trouble, but when [[spoiler: he appears to be joining them at the end, they assure him that his penance will not be heavy.]]

* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler: The Deep Ones have an entire huge search party, and it ''never'' occurs to them to spread out instead of just all following the railroad. The narrator eventually faints from horror too, so it's not like he was making a conscious effort to hide.]]

--> It was the end, for whatever remains to me of life on the surface of this earth, of every vestige of mental peace and confidence in the integrity of nature and of the human mind. Nothing that I could have imagined—nothing, even, that I could have gathered had I credited old Zadok's crazy tale in the most literal way—would be in any way comparable to the demoniac, blasphemous reality that I saw—or believe I saw.

* InterspeciesRomance: The Third Oath of Dagon that Zadok could never bear to take: marrying a Deep One and bearing or siring its child. Doesn't necessarily involve the ''romance'' part. But you never know. [[spoiler: Obed's still living Deep One wife seems distantly fond of him still.]]
* ItRunsInTheFamily: Deep One blood is hereditary, of course, and, [[spoiler: depending on your interpretation of the ending, may also cause profound psychological changes]].

* ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts: [[spoiler: While the US military was able to clean up Innsmouth, thus defeating the Deep Ones' invasion attempt, and even managed to damage their base at Y'ha-nthlei with depth charges, the epilogue reveals that this was more of an inconvenience than a serious setback to the Deep Ones. They are already planning a new operation, and next time they will target a larger and more important city.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: The narrator is a Deep One hybrid himself, descended from Obed Marsh and one Pth'thya-l'yi]]. And he's alright with that.

* UncannyValley: {{Invoked}} via the "Innsmouth Look."

* UnreliableExpositor: Zadok Allen zigzags this. The narrator initially dismisses him as a TalkativeLoon, but then learns that at least the gist of Zadok's account [[CassandraTruth is correct]]. However, the ending implies that Zadok didn't have the whole story, since [[spoiler: the Deep Ones that reach out to Olmstead in his dreams don't seem to be quite as bad as Zadok had assumed.]]