Things that HP Lovecraft was good at: Creating a mythos. Building atmosphere.
Things that HP Lovecraft was bad at: Writing dialog. Creating compelling characters. Not being a racist.
As a fan of horror in general, I can’t pretend that Lovecraft isn’t an important touchstone. But the man’s blatant racism is also impossible to ignore, especially since it often finds its way onto the pages of his stories. One of the most notorious is The Horror at Red Hook, which follows Detective Thomas Malone as he uncovers a sinister cult in the titular Brooklyn neighborhood.
The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of that story, but from the perspective of Charles “Tommy” Tester, a Black man from Harlem who finds himself inadvertently stuck in the middle of one man’s quest for power and the police. The author, Victor LaValle, flips the explicitly xenophobic original, turning it into a commentary on police brutality, racism, and the psychological effects of living as an oppressed person. Lovecraft would have hated it.
Tommy is a hustler who we learn early on operates as a courier or a fixer to make ends meet. He’s also somewhat knowledgeable about magic and arcane artifacts. There’s no long-winded exposition dump to explain the nature of the magic, nor are we spoon-fed some backstory about how Tommy gained this knowledge. It’s just an accepted fact of the world we’re dropped into.
In a longer book, this might be frustrating as you try to understand the logic behind its supernatural elements. But at 149 pages, The Ballad of Black Tom has no time to waste detailing a magic system; it has a story to tell.
Tommy embarks on a new hustle that leads him to Flatbush, where he hopes to make a few dollars busking, although he’s not a particularly good musician. He catches the attention of an elderly man named Robert Suydam, who hires him to perform at a party at his home. Officer Malone and a private detective, Mr. Howard, witness this exchange and attempt to scare Tommy away from returning to Flatbush. However, the promise of $300 in the 1920s is too hard to resist, so Tommy goes back, allowing the rest of the story to unfold.
Warning: Spoilers for The Ballad of Black Tom ahead.
Between the conjuring of cosmic horrors at Suydam’s home, the assault on the cult compound in Red Hook, and the police harassment, we get several scenes between Tommy and his father, which flesh out the characters in a way Lovecraft never did. Tommy has a real character arc, motivations, and personality. By the time we reach the climax of the book, we’re fully invested in Tommy (who now goes by Black Tom).
Getting invested in Black Tom is critical because, well, he’s not the hero. In fact, there are no true heroes in this story. There are villains, there are victims, but it’s tough to label anyone a hero. Black Tom lashes out at the white men who seek to exploit and oppress him. It’s cathartic and satisfying as a reader, but his vengeance is also indiscriminate, and it’s implied it may lead to the end of all mankind.
By the end of the story, Tommy Tester is a broken man—someone so exhausted from the indignities of being a Black man in a white man’s world that he would prefer the destructive indifference of the great old ones like Cthulhu to the destructive indifference of systemic racism.
The Ballad of Black Tom is not a subtle book, but it’s also a quick and enjoyable read that takes the iconic Lovecraft mythos and infuses it with real heart. The Horror at Red Hook isn’t a particularly strong story; it lacks a real plot, its story arc is straight, and the characters have less depth than a sheet of loose-leaf paper. The Ballad of Black Tom resurrects what makes Lovecraft compelling, at least in theory (despite his awfulness as a person), and gives us something worth reading in the 21st century.
The Ballad of Black Tom is available at most e-book stores, but I highly recommend you buy a physical copy at your local independent bookstore or support your library.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
Terrence O’Brien
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
FollowFollowSee All by Terrence O’Brien
Book Review
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
FollowFollowSee All Book Review
Books
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
FollowFollowSee All Books
Column
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
FollowFollowSee All Column
Entertainment
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
FollowFollowSee All Entertainment
