The Ballad of Black Tom

Paperback, 149 pages

English language

Published Feb. 16, 2016 by Tor.com.

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-8661-8
OCLC Number:: 962317494

(1 review)

”The Ballad of Black Tom” — the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Award finalist and Shirley Jackson and British Fantasy Award-winning excavation of Lovecraftian mythos by Victor LaValle—is given new life in a brand-new hardcover edition.

“Full of rage and passion.”—The New York Times

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops.

But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic and earns the …

”The Ballad of Black Tom” — the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Award finalist and Shirley Jackson and British Fantasy Award-winning excavation of Lovecraftian mythos by Victor LaValle—is given new life in a brand-new hardcover edition.

“Full of rage and passion.”—The New York Times

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops.

But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

2 editions

Thomas Gaffney reviewed The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Glorious

5 stars

A retelling of HP Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook, but from the POV of Black Tom. Takes the racist story from the notoriously racist Lovecraft and puts the power of The Great Old Ones in the hands of a Black man who suffered from society. Black Tom is set entirely in Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos where the original story predated Cthulhu and was spottily tied to the mythos at best.

Overall, The Ballad of Black Tom was brilliant and amazing. HIGHLY recommended for anyone, but especially for those who like/prefer cosmic horror. I don't know what took me so long to read this book, but I'm glad it was required reading for my The Haunted Library lit class at Emerson.

I'll take Cthulhu over you devils any day.

Subjects

Fiction
Horror
Supernatural
Suspense
Fantasy
Historical fiction
Novella