The Ballad of Black Tom

The Ballad of Black Tom was Tor.com's free download back in October. I'd been hearing good things about Victor LaValle for years (The Changeling is currently sitting on my shelf waiting to be read), and besides, who can say no to free? So I downloaded it. But it took me a while to get around to reading it.

The thing is, this novella is a direct response to one of HP Lovecraft's stories: "The Horror at Red Hook". And I really meant to read that one first. It's available for free on line and I even have a copy in a collection of Lovecraft's work at home. But I never quite got around to it. It's widely considered the most overtly racist piece of work by a horrifically racist author. And who wants to read a story with an endorsement like that? I ended up skimming this article about the original story and then dove in to LaValle's response.

I really ought to have actually read Lovecraft's original story first. The Ballad of Black Tom is such a direct response that I felt like I missed a lot. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I were better acquainted with the source material.

But oh well. The story was fine on it's own. LaValle isn't quite the master of the uncanny as some other authors, so those parts ended up feeling a bit flat to me. But I can appreciate what he was trying to do, and I was mostly entertained. This just ended up feeling more like an academic exercise than a fun story. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it wasn't quite what I was in the mood for when I reached for it.

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