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A review by travelling_bookworm
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
4.0
"You can't choose blindness when it suits you. Not anymore."
--
Imagine everything that makes a good H.P. Lovecraft story. The mystic power of "The Great Ones", slowly brewing in a cosmic, ominous, and insidious fog. Remove the toxic racist bullshit Lovecraft is known for, and turn it on its head. This is what this novella is.
I did not quite know what I was in for when I started this book, but it was blood-chillingly poignant at this moment, when the BLM movement is at its strongest.
The Ballad of Black Tom is the story of a black man in the racially charged setting of New York, faced with racism, police brutality, and oppression through silence (Sounds familiar? No, this book isn't set in 2020 but in 1920s). And consequently, what Tommy does, is say "You know what? I would rather an enormous cosmic creature with tentacles in its face take over the world and destroy it with all of us on it, rather than let you get away with your BS." I mean, can you blame him?
--
Imagine everything that makes a good H.P. Lovecraft story. The mystic power of "The Great Ones", slowly brewing in a cosmic, ominous, and insidious fog. Remove the toxic racist bullshit Lovecraft is known for, and turn it on its head. This is what this novella is.
I did not quite know what I was in for when I started this book, but it was blood-chillingly poignant at this moment, when the BLM movement is at its strongest.
The Ballad of Black Tom is the story of a black man in the racially charged setting of New York, faced with racism, police brutality, and oppression through silence (Sounds familiar? No, this book isn't set in 2020 but in 1920s). And consequently, what Tommy does, is say "You know what? I would rather an enormous cosmic creature with tentacles in its face take over the world and destroy it with all of us on it, rather than let you get away with your BS." I mean, can you blame him?