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A review by pastelwriter
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
5.0
I fucking loved this novella! It was brilliant. It was layered. For such a short read, it sure packed a punch.
One of the things that made me love this novella was that it did not sugar coat the time period it was dealing with. It did not gloss over the racism of the 1920s. It did not try to hold your hand and say, “Not all white people are bad.” It’s the kind of book that expects you to face the facts and deal with them. If you can’t, then you just don’t have the spine for the story being told.
To go into more detail, one of the topics this novella covered was how cops not only get away with murder but deliberately plan it. Mr. Howard and Malone were perfect examples of this. They embodied the way in which cops think they are above the law. To this day, the police think that feeling “threatened” by a black person holding a “weapon” is enough for them to murder them not by shooting them once but multiple times. Cops still will use the collective power of the police to intimidate black communities with little thought spared to how this negatively impacts the communities. Ugh. Honestly, it made me so angry to see how Malone and Mr. Howard behaved and what they said. Law enforcement should never be used to protect men who break the law in the most heinous ways.
This novella also perfectly represented how invisible and hypervisible black people are to white people. When the novella shifts to Malone’s perspective, we see this more starkly as Malone can hardly make himself think of Tommy beyond the color of his skin. Despite him being the “nicer” of the two cops, he still dehumanizes Tommy and disregards him until Tommy can be of use to him.
Furthermore, this novella perfectly tackled the white savior trope. Mr. Suydam was the prime example of a white man who tries to sell himself as the savior of people of color. He preaches that he sees their plight and only wishes to fix it, but he ultimately sees the people of color he’s “saving” as beneath him and unable to save themselves. Uff. Just so well done.
In terms of Tommy, we saw through his experiences the way frustration at being treated as subhuman and as a monster leads to an accumulation of rage. When individuals have done nothing wrong, or petty wrong-doing, the fact that they are only viewed as monsters can make someone want to embody this. At least there, there’s a twisted sense of being in charge. There is power over deliberately living into what is assumed about you. The way this novella tackles this is just 👌🏼
Finally, the writing style of this and the paranormal elements were fantastic. The writing was just so atmospheric. It really got the heart pounding! I could hardly unglue myself from the pages because of it. We love to see it.
One of the things that made me love this novella was that it did not sugar coat the time period it was dealing with. It did not gloss over the racism of the 1920s. It did not try to hold your hand and say, “Not all white people are bad.” It’s the kind of book that expects you to face the facts and deal with them. If you can’t, then you just don’t have the spine for the story being told.
To go into more detail, one of the topics this novella covered was how cops not only get away with murder but deliberately plan it. Mr. Howard and Malone were perfect examples of this. They embodied the way in which cops think they are above the law. To this day, the police think that feeling “threatened” by a black person holding a “weapon” is enough for them to murder them not by shooting them once but multiple times. Cops still will use the collective power of the police to intimidate black communities with little thought spared to how this negatively impacts the communities. Ugh. Honestly, it made me so angry to see how Malone and Mr. Howard behaved and what they said. Law enforcement should never be used to protect men who break the law in the most heinous ways.
This novella also perfectly represented how invisible and hypervisible black people are to white people. When the novella shifts to Malone’s perspective, we see this more starkly as Malone can hardly make himself think of Tommy beyond the color of his skin. Despite him being the “nicer” of the two cops, he still dehumanizes Tommy and disregards him until Tommy can be of use to him.
Furthermore, this novella perfectly tackled the white savior trope. Mr. Suydam was the prime example of a white man who tries to sell himself as the savior of people of color. He preaches that he sees their plight and only wishes to fix it, but he ultimately sees the people of color he’s “saving” as beneath him and unable to save themselves. Uff. Just so well done.
In terms of Tommy, we saw through his experiences the way frustration at being treated as subhuman and as a monster leads to an accumulation of rage. When individuals have done nothing wrong, or petty wrong-doing, the fact that they are only viewed as monsters can make someone want to embody this. At least there, there’s a twisted sense of being in charge. There is power over deliberately living into what is assumed about you. The way this novella tackles this is just 👌🏼
Finally, the writing style of this and the paranormal elements were fantastic. The writing was just so atmospheric. It really got the heart pounding! I could hardly unglue myself from the pages because of it. We love to see it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, and Murder