The Ballad of Black Tom
In 1920s New York, Charles Thomas Tester, a young Black man, finds himself drawn into a world of ancient, unspeakable horrors. When a seemingly simple errand leads to a terrifying discovery, Tom must navigate a city where cosmic dread lurks beneath the surface. This story reimagines a classic tale through a vital new lens, exploring the true monsters of society and beyond.
While the novella is a direct response to Lovecraft's 1927 story The Horror at Red Hook, it functions as a self-contained narrative that can be fully understood on its own. Reading the original story beforehand serves as a decoder ring that highlights how the author subverts and dismantles the original's xenophobic worldview.
The book is dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft with all the author's conflicted feelings, signaling the work's intent to engage with and critique the legacy of a writer whose influential cosmic horror was often intertwined with virulent racism.