Badverb of the Week

From “The Call of Cthulhu,” by H.P. Lovecraft:

Johansen and his men … clambered slipperily up over titan oozy blocks….”

They clambered slipperily.

I admire the adverbial experimentation, and if this example stood alone in the story (or huddled with a few friends), I’d have loved it.

Unfortunately, the last half of the text is covered with gambols like this one, while the plot attempted to pull me deeper into a dread of weird aliens and mystical beings.

But how can you feel dread when people are clambering slipperily?

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