You need to read the subversive cosmic horror novel The Ballad of Black Tom

Things HP Lovecraft was good at: Creating a myth. Building atmosphere.

Things HP Lovecraft was bad at: Writing dialogue. Create compelling characters. Don’t be racist.

As a fan of horror in general, I can’t pretend Lovecraft isn’t The important touchstone. But the man’s blatant racism is also impossible to ignore, especially since it often finds its way into the pages of his stories. One of the most famous is Horror in Red Hookwhich follows Detective Thomas Malone as he uncovers a sinister cult in the titular Brooklyn neighborhood.

Black Tom song is a retelling of that story, but from the perspective of Charles “Tommy” Tester, a black man from Harlem who finds himself unwittingly caught in the middle of one man’s quest for power and the police. Author Victor Laval fluctuation the Explicit xenophobia The original, turning it into a commentary on police brutality, racism, and the psychological effects of living as an oppressed person. Lovecraft would be like that Hated He – she.

Tommy is a con man and we understand early in the book that he works as a courier or middleman to make ends meet. We are also led to understand that Tommy is somewhat knowledgeable about magic and arcane artifacts. There’s no long exposition to explain the nature of magic, nor are we given some explanation as to how Tommy obtained this knowledge. It’s just an accepted fact of the world we’ve fallen into.

In a longer book, this can be frustrating when you’re trying to understand the logic behind its supernatural elements. But in 149 pages, Black Tom song He doesn’t have time to waste detailing the magic system, he has a story to tell.

Tommy embarks on a new mission that takes him to Flatbush, where he hopes to make a few bucks working on the street, even though he is not a particularly good musician. He was spotted by an elderly man named Robert Suydam, who hired him to throw a party at his house. This exchange was witnessed by Officer Malone and private detective Mr. Howard, who shook Tommy and tried to scare him from returning to Flatbush. Of course, the promise of $300 in the 1920s is too hard to pass up, and Tommy returns, allowing the rest of the story to unfold.

warning: spoilers for Black Tom song ahead.

Between the evocation of cosmic horrors in the Suydam household, the assault on the Redhook cult complex, and the police harassment, we get a few scenes with Tommy and his father, fleshing out the characters in a way Lovecraft never did. Tommy has a real arc, motivations, and personality. When the climax of the book arrives, we are fully invested in Tommy (now known as Black Tom).

The association with Black Tom is important because he is not the hero. In fact, there are no heroes in this story, really. There are villains, and there are victims, but it’s hard to call anyone a hero. Black Tom attacks white men who seek to exploit and oppress him. It’s cathartic and satisfying for the reader, but his revenge is also random, and it’s implied that it will lead to the end of all of humanity.

Tommy Tester is a broken man at the end of the story. One who is so tired of the indignities of being a black man in a white man’s world that he prefers the destructive indifference of old men like Cthulhu to the destructive indifference of the white man. Systemic racism.

Black Tom song It’s not an exact book, but it’s also a quick, fun read that takes Lovecraft’s famous mythology and gives it real heart. Horror in Red Hook Not a particularly good story. It has almost no plot, the storyline is a straight line, and the characters have less depth than a loose leaf. Black Tom song It rescues what makes Lovecraft compelling, at least in theory (despite how awful he was as a person), and gives us something worth reading in the 21st century.

Black Tom song Available on most E-book StoresBut I highly recommend you go and buy a physical copy in your neighborhood Independent bookstore Or your support Local library.