The Ballad of Black Tom
One of NPR's Best Books of 2016, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the British Fantasy Award, the This is Horror Award for Novella of the Year, and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards
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? "LaValle's novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do."-- Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All "[LaValle] reinvents outmoded literary conventions, particularly the ghettos of genre and ethnicity that long divided serious literature from popular fiction."
-- Praise for The Devil in Silver from Elizabeth Hand, author of Radiant Days "LaValle cleverly subverts Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos by imbuing a black man with the power to summon the Old Ones, and creates genuine chills with his evocation of the monstrous Sleeping King, an echo of Lovecraft's Dagon... [The Ballad of Black Tom] has a satisfying slingshot ending." - Elizabeth Hand for Fantasy & ScienceFiction
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Community Reviews
I really thought I wouldn't like this book. The first couple of chapters took a bit to get going and made me question if I would continue. I am so glad I continued listening to the book.
Being an avid World of Warcraft player I probably took this book a bit different then most. All I could picture was the raid battles against Yogg Saron and N'zoth & the sanity mechanics that went with it. Also, I haven't read any of Lovecraft's books.
Despite it being all male characters it made sense that is was. My grandma was bornin 1920 and the stories she would tell - the book was pretty much accurate on that count. Would I have loved to see all the characters female? Kind of. It would have just been another trope thrown on if there where only females - which would more then likely bog the story down. I was happy to see racism tackled in this book. I think knowing Lovecraft was a racist is one reason I subconsciously stay away from his books.
Black Tom grew on me as well. Loosing his parents, dealing with racism (and classism?), and trying to keep yourself sane with what he saw & knew - does it surprise anyone he just had enough?
Being an avid World of Warcraft player I probably took this book a bit different then most. All I could picture was the raid battles against Yogg Saron and N'zoth & the sanity mechanics that went with it. Also, I haven't read any of Lovecraft's books.
Despite it being all male characters it made sense that is was. My grandma was bornin 1920 and the stories she would tell - the book was pretty much accurate on that count. Would I have loved to see all the characters female? Kind of. It would have just been another trope thrown on if there where only females - which would more then likely bog the story down. I was happy to see racism tackled in this book. I think knowing Lovecraft was a racist is one reason I subconsciously stay away from his books.
Black Tom grew on me as well. Loosing his parents, dealing with racism (and classism?), and trying to keep yourself sane with what he saw & knew - does it surprise anyone he just had enough?
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