A review by caitgriff
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

2.0

As someone who has not read The Horror at Red Hook, I can acknowledge that this wasn’t written for me, and that I likely missed a lot of the nuance and the nods to original Lovecraft in it. That being said, I felt that the non-narrator characters were very hollow and beyond Ma Atta’s presence, there wasn’t a single female character (she had the whole supreme alphabet for a WHILE before it was stolen back from her— why didn’t she use it at all?). While the tale of revenge was compelling, and certainly made juicer for the racial overtones, it lacked enough clarity for me to be able to get through many parts without wondering what was going on.

As a reinterpretation of Lovecraft, I’m sure this book is on point. As an entry point, it did not thrill me.