Scan barcode
A review by billyjepma
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Intoxicatingly excellent. In barely a 100 pages, LaValle tells a story that upends the grotesque xenophobia of H.P. Lovecraft and exposes how real evil isn’t found in the cosmic unknown, but in the very known prejudices and violences American society uses against its own people.
This isn’t a horror story, at least not in the traditional means, but it is a horrifying story. The Lovecraftian elements are fantastically unsettling, and are easily elevated by LaValle’s crisp, humanistic, almost poetic writing style. It’s that writing that makes the all-too-familiar racism and violence—spearheaded by society’s elite, the police force, and the foundation of our country— cut so deep, too. I wish the it had a little more meat to it, because there’s so much left to mine, but I can’t wait to read a helluva lot more of LaValle’s work.
This isn’t a horror story, at least not in the traditional means, but it is a horrifying story. The Lovecraftian elements are fantastically unsettling, and are easily elevated by LaValle’s crisp, humanistic, almost poetic writing style. It’s that writing that makes the all-too-familiar racism and violence—spearheaded by society’s elite, the police force, and the foundation of our country— cut so deep, too. I wish the it had a little more meat to it, because there’s so much left to mine, but I can’t wait to read a helluva lot more of LaValle’s work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Racial slurs, and Violence