Elena May's Reviews > The Ballad of Black Tom

Nobody ever thinks of himself as a villain, does he?

The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Horror at Red Hook.” Full disclaimer: I’m not familiar with Lovecraft’s works. I’ve read quite a bit about him but never read his actual writing. Fans will probably perceive this differently, but from my newbie point of view, this was an atmospheric, pleasantly weird page-turner that easily stood on its own.

I have to admit I liked the historical fiction elements much more than the fantasy parts. We see this richly described and absolutely beautiful version of 1920s Harlem through Thomas Tester’s eyes:

Walking through Harlem first thing in the morning was like being a single drop of blood inside an enormous body that was waking up. Brick and mortar, elevated train tracks, and miles of underground pipe, this city lived; day and night it thrived.

Before Thomas Tester goes through a creepy transformation, he can see beauty in everything despite the poverty and oppression . Seeing Harlem through his eyes, I also found it charming. And that’s unusual – in the recent years, I’ve lost my ability to find charm in busy, crowded cities. When I first visited NYC, I thought it was amazing and loved how alive it was. But then, I spent some time in very overcrowded places, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, and then over a year in London, and now I’d choose a quiet place where you can hear the birds singing over a crowded metropolis on any day. And yet, I read this and I loved 1920s Harlem.

And then we get Cthulhu...



Yeah... I admit I never got the appeal.



The fantasy elements aren’t as impressive as the historical. There isn’t much world-building as the book is essentially a Lovecraft fanfic, so the mythos is already there. I’m not the best judge on how well that was done, but still some things didn’t make sense. A mysterious old lady, who is hinted to be a powerful non-human entity, goes through a lot of trouble to get The Supreme Alphabet, and then never seems to use it. The Alphabet has been in her possession for a week when she is easily defeated and doesn’t seem to put in any struggle. Also, our protagonist, Thomas Tester / Black Tom, becomes powerful off-screen. I would have preferred to see how he gets there.

The book’s greatest strength seems to be that it takes the incredibly racist source material and creates a critical retelling. Indeed, in some ways The Ballad of Black Tom tackles the topics of racism, prejudice, and police brutality in the US really well. It may all seem a bit cartoonish and heavy-handed at first, but not in the way that makes readers pat themselves on the back and say, “Well done! It was sooo bad back then, but we don’t have these problems anymore!” On the contrary – while we see that it was indeed horrible back then, the parallels to what is happening nowadays are clear and uncomfortable. The real horror is that almost a hundred year later, things haven’t changed all that much.

But this is also what bothers me the most about this book. It tries to be a reaction to Lovecraft’s racism, but at the same time it creates an exoticised, mystical, violent, and dehumanized image of immigrants. Robert Suydam , the rich white man who plans to summon Cthulhu, invites a group of fifty recent immigrants he plans to use as allies:

Tester knew how to recognize a room full of roughnecks. This bunch qualified. Suydam had haunted waterfronts and back alleys to find this crew of cutthroats. The kind of place Tommy imagined the Victoria Society would be was what these criminals called home sweet home.

We never hear them speak. We never learn anything about their lives or even learn their names. All we see is their reaction to Robert Suydam’s plan to destroy the world as we know it and rise from the ashes:

They shouted back. They clapped each other on the shoulders. Founding fathers of a new nation, or even better, a world now theirs to administer and control.

ALL OF THEM??? Not a single one questions the plan? Not a single one disagrees? They are an indistinguishable, monolithic block, and the only one who stands out is Thomas Tester – the one born and raised in the US.

While immigrants are mentioned all over the book, not a single one ever speaks. The only kind of exceptions are when a woman says something in a language the detective doesn’t understand (so we are practically told she speaks, but not what she says) and when Thomas Tester’s friend remembers two brothers from Fiji, long dead, who mentioned Cthulhu. Hmmmm. Fiji has a rich and original mythology, and all of this is erased and replaced by Lovecraft’s creations. Not cool.



I also have to mention that there are no female characters in this book (and, no, I’m not going to call the non-human entity that barely speaks or the nameless witness “characters.”) Since the majority of main characters could have been gender-swapped easily, this skewed all-male world in an urban setting appears to be the author’s choice, for whatever reason.

Overall, while not perfect, the novella is fun, fast-paced and thought-provoking . Readers, unfamiliar with Lovecraft, can still understand and appreciate it. Perhaps Lovecraft fans will enjoy it even more.

I read this book as a part of my goal to read all Hugo finalists.