Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Harper Perennial (2017), Edition: Reprint, 400 pages
Description
Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George-- publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide-- and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite, heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus's ancestors, they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours. At the manor Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus.
Media reviews
“Lovecraft Country” centers on two African-American families navigating the Jim Crow ’50s. These pages are rife with unwelcoming diner workers, violent lawmen, unwarranted and belittling verbal and physical attacks that are both omnipresent and unrelenting.... At every turn, Ruff has great
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fun pitting mid-20th-century horror and sci-fi clichés against the banal and ever-present bigotry of the era. And at every turn, it is the bigotry that hums with the greater evil. Show Less
Lovecraft’s works of horror and science fiction in the early decades of the 20th century have had an outsized influence on popular culture.... Less highly regarded are Lovecraft’s ideas regarding race; a vehement believer in the superiority of white individuals over others, many of his stories
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were rooted in a fear of immigrants, miscegenation, and mixed ancestry....The superficialities are there — strange cults, rituals in the night, monsters with more body parts than strictly necessary — but none of the psychic horror of Lovecraft is found in Ruff’s work, none of the existential dread. The threats are real and obvious: a white man, often with a gun. Show Less
...the most terrifying moments in the story don’t come courtesy of the monsters. It turns out that even many-tentacled void hounds are nowhere near as scary as white people in Jim Crow America. Matt Ruff is to be commended for combining two genres that I couldn’t have considered further apart
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before now, and doing justice to both. You’ll come for the sci-fi, and stay for the history lesson. Show Less
This timely rumination on racism in America refracts an African-American family’s brush with supernatural horrors through the prism of life in the Jim Crow years of the mid-20th century....Ruff (The Mirage) has an impressive grasp of classic horror themes, but the most unsettling aspects of his
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novel are the everyday experiences of bigotry that intensify the Turners’ encounters with the supernatural. Show Less
Some very nice, very smart African-Americans are plunged into netherworlds of malevolent sorcery in the waning days of Jim Crow—as if Jim Crow alone wasn’t enough of a curse to begin with....If nothing else, you have to giggle over how this novel’s namesake, who held vicious white supremacist
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opinions, must be doing triple axels in his grave at the way his imagination has been so impudently shaken and stirred. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member orkydd
Matt Ruff draws his readers into a different kind of alien world in 'Lovecraft Country'. It is the alien world of Jim Crow America, barely 70 years past that will be unfamiliar to many, and repressed from memory by others. It is different because that world reallly existed.
This vividly realised
Most of all it is the story of a the extended Turner/Green family as they make the best of a difficult world. It would be hard enough to make ends meet if one only had to deal with corrupt policemen, prejudiced and discriminatory laws and irrational fears of frightened and ignorant white folks and their all too knowledgable leaders. Finding that ones ancestors are descendents of powerful warlocks, who need their blood, and are not particularly concerned whether they survive its extraction does not make for a happy life. How they come to deal with the challenge makes for a real page turner.
It is eligible for the Hugo award in 2017, and goes straight on to my longlist for best novel.
This vividly realised
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world is overlaid with elements of Lovecraftian horror, covens of sorcerors battling each other for dominance, stolen magical books, portals to distant planets, haunted houses and poltergeists, disastrous magic rituals, plus plans for revenge and redemption. That the heroes of the story are African Americans, even African American women might have that misogynistic old racist Lovecraft spinning in his grave is an added pleasure.Most of all it is the story of a the extended Turner/Green family as they make the best of a difficult world. It would be hard enough to make ends meet if one only had to deal with corrupt policemen, prejudiced and discriminatory laws and irrational fears of frightened and ignorant white folks and their all too knowledgable leaders. Finding that ones ancestors are descendents of powerful warlocks, who need their blood, and are not particularly concerned whether they survive its extraction does not make for a happy life. How they come to deal with the challenge makes for a real page turner.
It is eligible for the Hugo award in 2017, and goes straight on to my longlist for best novel.
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LibraryThing member adamwolf
This was great. I loved the almost explicit "immunity" as privilege callout at the end. Idiot me didn't pick up on that. I liked how the chapters were individual stories. I would like to see more in this world.
LibraryThing member dukedom_enough
With "Lovecraft" in the title, you'd expect this book to include uncanny monsters, far places in the universe that are not friendly to humanity, ancient books filled with terrible knowledge, deadly cults, and haunted houses. And all of these appear in this tale of people in and pursued by a cult of
In 18th century Ardham, Massachusetts, a crucial spell went wrong for Titus Braithwhite, supreme magician and founder of the Order of the Ancient Dawn. His mansion burned down, killing him and his followers. The people who later revive the cult regret that loss, since a direct descendant of Titus would present possibilities for supernatural workings. But Titus's enslaved servant Hannah did survive the fire - and she was pregnant with his child. In the 1950s, Atticus Turner, an African-American recently mustered out of the army, is her descendant, and thus of great interest to the Order. The connection launches Atticus, and his family and friends, on a series of encounters with the Order, its artifacts, and its ghosts.
Ruff's story is thus partly an inversion of Lovecraft's fear of nonwhite people. Black protagonists are menaced by the everyday horrors of racism in 1950s America, where the monsters are as likely to be murderous sherrifs or lynch mobs as man-eating shadows. Atticus's dad Montrose makes a living publishing The Safe Negro Travel Guide, a fictionalized version of the real-life [15700919::Negro Motorist Green Book], which guided Black Americans through the dangers of travel in segregated America, pointing them to safe lodging and dining. The senior Turner is a survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race riot. And smaller encounters also happen. Atticus and his uncle George are science fiction and fantasy fans. Montrose objects to Atticus's fondness for H. P. Lovecraft and digs up that poem by Lovecraft - and no, I'm not linking it here, and Ruff does not reproduce it, but Atticus's dismay is conveyed in a quick couple of lines.
Writing about Black characters is tricky for a white author, but Ruff seems to do a good job. The Turners and their circle come to life not only as heroes, bravely facing down racial peril and the supernatural, but as ordinary people, thriving in spite of the society around them. They prove equal to the sinister, white magicians who want to use them. Note that this success makes the book not especially Lovecraftian - lots of magic and excitement but not much cosmic dread. Even when one character travels interstellar distances, the universe feels fairly cosy.
The book has an episodic nature, as characters, solo and in combinations, face off against various aspects of magic. An interview with Ruff in the back of the book notes that the story was originally meant to become a television series, whose segments have become chapters here. I'm happy to have the story as a solid, entertaining book that connects to the racial problems we all live with.
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magicians. In 18th century Ardham, Massachusetts, a crucial spell went wrong for Titus Braithwhite, supreme magician and founder of the Order of the Ancient Dawn. His mansion burned down, killing him and his followers. The people who later revive the cult regret that loss, since a direct descendant of Titus would present possibilities for supernatural workings. But Titus's enslaved servant Hannah did survive the fire - and she was pregnant with his child. In the 1950s, Atticus Turner, an African-American recently mustered out of the army, is her descendant, and thus of great interest to the Order. The connection launches Atticus, and his family and friends, on a series of encounters with the Order, its artifacts, and its ghosts.
Ruff's story is thus partly an inversion of Lovecraft's fear of nonwhite people. Black protagonists are menaced by the everyday horrors of racism in 1950s America, where the monsters are as likely to be murderous sherrifs or lynch mobs as man-eating shadows. Atticus's dad Montrose makes a living publishing The Safe Negro Travel Guide, a fictionalized version of the real-life [15700919::Negro Motorist Green Book], which guided Black Americans through the dangers of travel in segregated America, pointing them to safe lodging and dining. The senior Turner is a survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race riot. And smaller encounters also happen. Atticus and his uncle George are science fiction and fantasy fans. Montrose objects to Atticus's fondness for H. P. Lovecraft and digs up that poem by Lovecraft - and no, I'm not linking it here, and Ruff does not reproduce it, but Atticus's dismay is conveyed in a quick couple of lines.
Writing about Black characters is tricky for a white author, but Ruff seems to do a good job. The Turners and their circle come to life not only as heroes, bravely facing down racial peril and the supernatural, but as ordinary people, thriving in spite of the society around them. They prove equal to the sinister, white magicians who want to use them. Note that this success makes the book not especially Lovecraftian - lots of magic and excitement but not much cosmic dread. Even when one character travels interstellar distances, the universe feels fairly cosy.
The book has an episodic nature, as characters, solo and in combinations, face off against various aspects of magic. An interview with Ruff in the back of the book notes that the story was originally meant to become a television series, whose segments have become chapters here. I'm happy to have the story as a solid, entertaining book that connects to the racial problems we all live with.
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LibraryThing member ehousewright
This was not a great book to multitask with as it got hard to keep the various story lines together. But it was a good counterpart to another recent read, "Between the World and Me" and a good book to read now in order to see how far we’ve come, or not, with regard to “Jim Crow America”. And
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maybe there does exist, somewhere, a magic that can destroy long-held, not always even conscious, ideas that have “immunity”. Show Less
LibraryThing member norabelle414
In the 1950s, Atticus Turner, his uncle George, and his friend Letitia travel into the darkest depths of Massachusetts to find what happened to Atticus' father Montrose, who disappeared and left behind a mysterious note. They arrive at a mansion in the midst of a meeting of white "philosophers",
This book, both in story and in format, was so much fun. The beginning section seems like the start to a straightforward novel, but the middle section is a series of short stories. Each member of the family is the main character of a different, but intertwined, fantastical short story similar to Lovecraft or Ray Bradbury. There's time travel, monsters, ghosts, everything! It's perfect! The ending brings all the characters back again to wrap up like a novel, but I found that kind of disappointing after the delight of the stories.
Highly, highly recommended.
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intent on discovering the secrets of the universe. They rescue Montrose and race home, but the mystical society of white men will follow them back home to Chicago, and will continue to affect each of them in unusual and mysterious ways.This book, both in story and in format, was so much fun. The beginning section seems like the start to a straightforward novel, but the middle section is a series of short stories. Each member of the family is the main character of a different, but intertwined, fantastical short story similar to Lovecraft or Ray Bradbury. There's time travel, monsters, ghosts, everything! It's perfect! The ending brings all the characters back again to wrap up like a novel, but I found that kind of disappointing after the delight of the stories.
Highly, highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
“New Year’s Day, Ruby woke up white.”
Imagine “The Negro Motorist Green-Book” - as written by Stephen King! That’s this book!
Atticus Turner, called home by a letter from his father, stumbles into a mystery. And he drags along his uncle George and childhood friend, Letitia, to figure it
The first adventure, and all of the race relation writings are very interesting! There are even mentions of the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. But, I felt like the overall book became very disjointed after that. Lots of side stories that do come together eventually, but feel very separate as written. And the Lovecraftian 'stuff' was not at all interesting to me. I actually started skimming the parts where characters explained the magics, spells, and legends in this story. The author's writing felt much, much stronger when he described how life was for black people back then - the racism, hate, and separation of life from white people. That writing totally held my interest!
an aside...
Early on in this book, "Dark Carnival" by Ray Bradbury is referenced, a book I'd never heard of. Turns out it was sort of re-released as "The October Country", which I've read! So, I picked that book up again and re-read the two short stories that this author referenced, "...one story about a vampire family reunion and another, very strange tale about a man who had his skeleton removed,...". So thanks Matt Ruff for that blast from the past!
Imagine “The Negro Motorist Green-Book” - as written by Stephen King! That’s this book!
Atticus Turner, called home by a letter from his father, stumbles into a mystery. And he drags along his uncle George and childhood friend, Letitia, to figure it
Show More
out.The first adventure, and all of the race relation writings are very interesting! There are even mentions of the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. But, I felt like the overall book became very disjointed after that. Lots of side stories that do come together eventually, but feel very separate as written. And the Lovecraftian 'stuff' was not at all interesting to me. I actually started skimming the parts where characters explained the magics, spells, and legends in this story. The author's writing felt much, much stronger when he described how life was for black people back then - the racism, hate, and separation of life from white people. That writing totally held my interest!
an aside...
Early on in this book, "Dark Carnival" by Ray Bradbury is referenced, a book I'd never heard of. Turns out it was sort of re-released as "The October Country", which I've read! So, I picked that book up again and re-read the two short stories that this author referenced, "...one story about a vampire family reunion and another, very strange tale about a man who had his skeleton removed,...". So thanks Matt Ruff for that blast from the past!
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LibraryThing member rivkat
In the mid-20th century, African-Americans who wanted to travel had to use guides to find places that would let them eat and sleep. Ruff’s protagonists are part of a family that publishes such a guide; it turns out that one member is the last direct lineal descendant of a powerful sorceror, and
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thus highly in demand for various rituals. Except that this is Jim Crow America, so racism is at least as much a threat to them as the mystical machinations of the white sorcerors who are trying to manipulate Lovecraftian forces, which the white sorcerors exploit but never fully understand. Ruff is a good writer and I found myself very eager to find out what would happen next, though this is less a novel than a series of connected stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
Three things, right off the top.
First, ignore that whole "novel" proclamation on the cover of this book. It's a collection of tightly interconnected stories, but it ain't a novel.
Second, for the most part, you can ignore the Lovecraft thing, too. It's only tangentially connected to Lovecraft by
Third, who gives a shit if it's a novel or a collection, or if it's Lovecraft or not? This thing was awesome.
I've never read any Matt Ruff before, but that's seriously gotta change. Ruff's got a great style of writing, his characters are very real, and his imagination is second to none. I was constantly astounded by the situations and plot devices he busted out.
I honestly loved every thing about this book.
First, ignore that whole "novel" proclamation on the cover of this book. It's a collection of tightly interconnected stories, but it ain't a novel.
Second, for the most part, you can ignore the Lovecraft thing, too. It's only tangentially connected to Lovecraft by
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the most gossamer of threads.Third, who gives a shit if it's a novel or a collection, or if it's Lovecraft or not? This thing was awesome.
I've never read any Matt Ruff before, but that's seriously gotta change. Ruff's got a great style of writing, his characters are very real, and his imagination is second to none. I was constantly astounded by the situations and plot devices he busted out.
I honestly loved every thing about this book.
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LibraryThing member invisiblelizard
(Previously read this on 2017-04-18) So of course I re-read this before the HBO series came out because I wanted it fresh on my mind. My thoughts after the second read:
1. The juxtaposition of Lovecraft's horror and his racism is brilliant.
2. Writing this novel as a series on interconnected short
3. Because of the above, we never get quite as much depth into any one character as I would like. Hardly any backstory on any of them (except Montrose and George). But we get enough to propel the plot forward, and this book is very plot heavy. Which it should be. If you invoke Lovecraft's name in the title, this had better not be a character study.
4. Good writing, plotting, dialog. I think Ruff did a fine job.
was (and have been) a little uneasy about a white man writing a book about racism affecting African Americans in the Jim Crow era. I think he did a decent job, but I just can't say for sure if he hit all the high notes.
Overall, worth a (re-)read and I will be looking for more of his books to enjoy.
1. The juxtaposition of Lovecraft's horror and his racism is brilliant.
2. Writing this novel as a series on interconnected short
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stories (à la Lovecraft's own stories collected in books) is another level of brilliance. Connecting them in the end was icing on the cake.3. Because of the above, we never get quite as much depth into any one character as I would like. Hardly any backstory on any of them (except Montrose and George). But we get enough to propel the plot forward, and this book is very plot heavy. Which it should be. If you invoke Lovecraft's name in the title, this had better not be a character study.
4. Good writing, plotting, dialog. I think Ruff did a fine job.
was (and have been) a little uneasy about a white man writing a book about racism affecting African Americans in the Jim Crow era. I think he did a decent job, but I just can't say for sure if he hit all the high notes.
Overall, worth a (re-)read and I will be looking for more of his books to enjoy.
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LibraryThing member SharonMariaBidwell
I love books that blend genres surprisingly. With richly portrayed characters and a real feel of both fantastical magic, and the more frightening and bitter horror of racism, the historical setting adds an uneasy depth that’s all too realistic. My one criticism is that I felt a little detached
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from the true cruelty of the era, and would have liked more emotional insight to the characters’ feelings; saying that, it’s all too easy to fill in the blanks. The book is easy to read in a series of individual but linked stories with a noir pulp feel running through them. (Side note: the book is not the same as the series, with a subtle tone down of the magic and mayhem, and with less blatant sex.) Show Less
LibraryThing member MontzaleeW
Lovecraft County by Matt Ruff is set in the time of the Jim Crow deepest times. We follow a couple of black families and through their adventures we as readers experience the horrors of that time. There is magic, spells, warlocks, and more included which make up most of the adventure. Other
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adventures have horrors of the redneck kind. Mixing the monsters of both worlds, and beyond, really works! This author made it a page turned, unforgettable, and entertaining. Totally loved it. I can see why it was on HBO, too bad I don't have HBO! Show Less
LibraryThing member wyattbonikowski
A highly entertaining series of linked cosmic horror and science fiction adventure stories revolving around a black family in 1954 Jim Crow America. Like Victor Lavalle's Ballad of Black Tom, Lovecraft Country is a welcome response to Lovecraft's racism. The stories are loosely based on
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Lovecraftian tropes (such as secret religious orders and magic books), but while there are some direct allusions to Lovecraft stories it never falls into pastiche, developing its own internal logic. The best thing about this book, though, is the way Ruff bases the adventure stories on the real history of Jim Crow. Excited to see what Jordan Peele and Misha Green do with this in their just-announced HBO series. Show Less
LibraryThing member alanteder
Adamite Mythos
Review of the Harper Perennial paperback edition (2017) of the original Harper hardcover (2016)
Lovecraft Country is very well done, but it actually builds its own mythos which is entirely separate from that of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The tie-in is that several characters in
Researching places for the Guide requires members of the family to travel across the United States to verify the friendliness of various restaurants and motels/hotels for the Black American traveller. These trips invariably lead to their encounters with dark forces from a cult called the "Order of the Ancient Dawn," who are seeking a passage into the Garden of Eden times with the use of the language of Adam. This cult is not so coincidentally loaded with racists as well, although one of the big bads does seem to take a more tolerant attitude, but it is more for their own ends really.
Each story is built around a featured character of the Turner family and the TV series (of which I've only seen the first 3 episodes to date) does seem to generally follow the book fairly closely but does make several changes for dramatic and visual effect.
Trivia
It is a bit deceptive to use a tentacled monster in the cover design (thus hinting at Lovecraft's Cthulhu) but then not actually having any plot in relation to Lovecraft's Mythos. The effectiveness of the monster design blending with the KKK hoods though is brilliant.
Review of the Harper Perennial paperback edition (2017) of the original Harper hardcover (2016)
Lovecraft Country is very well done, but it actually builds its own mythos which is entirely separate from that of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The tie-in is that several characters in
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Ruff's short story series are fans of fantasy and speculative fiction, esp. the John Carter/Barsoom series of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The plot centres around the Turner family that produces the "Safe Negro Travel Guide", a fictional equivalent to the "Green Book" used in the recent film.Researching places for the Guide requires members of the family to travel across the United States to verify the friendliness of various restaurants and motels/hotels for the Black American traveller. These trips invariably lead to their encounters with dark forces from a cult called the "Order of the Ancient Dawn," who are seeking a passage into the Garden of Eden times with the use of the language of Adam. This cult is not so coincidentally loaded with racists as well, although one of the big bads does seem to take a more tolerant attitude, but it is more for their own ends really.
Each story is built around a featured character of the Turner family and the TV series (of which I've only seen the first 3 episodes to date) does seem to generally follow the book fairly closely but does make several changes for dramatic and visual effect.
Trivia
It is a bit deceptive to use a tentacled monster in the cover design (thus hinting at Lovecraft's Cthulhu) but then not actually having any plot in relation to Lovecraft's Mythos. The effectiveness of the monster design blending with the KKK hoods though is brilliant.
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LibraryThing member macha
wanted to read this before the HBO series started; Jordan Peele's company is doing it. liked it a lot, but then i have liked all the Matt Ruff books i've read. the book introduces a black family that makes a journey into Lovecraft Country in the Jim Crow era of the Fifties and encounters a
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conspiracy of cultists incidentally bent on their destruction. this sets the book up to play off Lovecraft's own racist ideas, black perception of the sf fantasy, horror, and comics literature of the day, the essential black guides published to make it possible to navigate Jim Crow America when needs must, and institutions like the Klan. so basically the result is that for the family, encountering the Lovecraftian cultists as a horror pales next to the horrors of everyday life, which makes for an irony that's hard to miss. a very fast read, this is a carefully researched and measured representation of what it was like in that day to navigate America while black (though some may not like to acknowledge that this world was real, not the slightest bit picturesque for many, and not so long ago either). these concerns reminded me most of the great mystery writer Walter Mosley (try his book Little Scarlet to start, and then just keep reading through his Easy Rawlins series). Show Less
LibraryThing member ericlee
Matt Ruff has taken a long, hard look at what life was like for African Americans in the early 1950s and reimagined it as horror fiction written by the master, H.P. Lovecraft. All the main elements of traditional horror are here — haunted houses, spells, magic wands, ancient incantations, secret
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societies — but in the end, they all pale before the genuine horror of Jim Crow. Many of the elements of the book feel ‘borrowed’ — for example, quite a bit revolves around a story much like the one told in the film ‘Green Book’. One of the stories reminded me of Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’. And of course Lovecraft himself inspires it all. Show Less
LibraryThing member RedQueen
This is a great book. The target market would necessarily be small, with both historical fiction and old-style horror combined. The main characters are a black extended family, dealing with Jim Crow laws and attitudes in the 1950s. The secret society/creeping horror a la Lovecraft is woven into the
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story seamlessly. I find myself thinking about it a great deal & recommend it with enthusiasm if you think this combo fits your interests. Show Less
LibraryThing member xiaomarlo
The stories, the characters, the history and the symbolism are all great. The writing style bogged me down a bit - it seems too simple, or surfacey, and I would often lose focus while reading. It makes total sense to me that this was originally developed as a TV series, and I really think it will
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fare better that way. (I'm thrilled Jordan Peele is involved in the adaptation, as well.) Show Less
LibraryThing member Lucky-Loki
Very well written fantasy horror cycling effectively through the various pulp tropes of the same, with memorable characters (I particularly love Montrose Turner), assembled with an interesting in-between feel of both being a mosaic novel and a regular one, and where the the 1950s USA brand of the
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horrors of racism is appropriately omnipresent without getting preachy or repetitive. Show Less
LibraryThing member ElleGato
I really wish I could've like this book more than I did. The concept was really interesting and the characters were very interesting as well. But I feel like this story wasn't the author's to tell; it made me incredibly uncomfortable to read a white man speaking through black characters about being
As for the story itself, there were many fascinating aspects but I felt overall it read as far too disjointed; I also felt too much was accomplished far too quickly and with very little effort or cost. I feel like it read as rough and unfinished. Also the title seemed less about the content of the book than an overarching concept that the author didn't really succeed in imparting. This was my first book by this author and I'm not certain I'd read another.
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black in the 1950s. I respect books that feature diverse characters but there's a difference between telling a story with black characters and telling a story about being black; white authors can and should do the former but the latter? I don't feel right about it. As for the story itself, there were many fascinating aspects but I felt overall it read as far too disjointed; I also felt too much was accomplished far too quickly and with very little effort or cost. I feel like it read as rough and unfinished. Also the title seemed less about the content of the book than an overarching concept that the author didn't really succeed in imparting. This was my first book by this author and I'm not certain I'd read another.
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
While I liked the idea of this book it is a type of fantasy that I don't really care for so I am not rating it as high as most reviewers. Apparently former President Barack Obama really enjoyed it but he and I will have to agree to disagree on it.
The place is the USA and the time is the early
There was lots of enjoy in this book but it was rather too fanciful for my tastes. The idea of having black prime characters is really great but I wonder if the author (who looks Caucasian in his picture on the back of the book) is going to face accusations of cultural appropriation. I also wonder about the choice to have one black character change to white for a day by virtue of Caleb Braithwhite's magic. Ruby really enjoys being white and it appears at the end of the book like she is going to continue because she knows how Caleb did it.
The place is the USA and the time is the early
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1950s. Racism and segregation against African-Americans abounds even in the northern states. Chicago travel agent, George Berry, publishes a handbook of safe places for blacks to stay and eat. His nephew Atticus uses a copy when he is called back to Chicago from Florida by his father. Except when Atticus gets to Chicago his father, Montrose, has disappeared with a white man. Atticus believes his father has gone to the village in Massachusetts where Atticus's mother's family originated because Montrose is obsessed about finding out his wife's (now deceased) origins. So Atticus, his uncle George and a neighbourhood freind, Letitia Dandridge, get in George's car and drive after him.The village of Ardham is remote and appears to have no roads leading to it but Letitia's brother finds an old map of the neighbourhood that says there is a road through the woods from the town of Bideford. The sheriff of Bideford has a bad reputation of harassing and assaulting blacks so the rescue party decides to go in the middle of the night. They manage to get to Ardham but it was a close thing. The manor house that presides over Ardham is where they believe Montrose was headed so they go there. The butler tells them that Montrose and the owner, Samuel Braithwhite, have gone to Boston to see the lawyer but they are welcome to stay. Something feels off to Atticus and he thinks his father is being held prisoner which he is. Mr. Braithwhite wanted to lure Atticus to Ardham because he is a direct descendant of the founder of Ardham and a lodge of "natural philosphers" (read magicians/alchemists) called The Adamite Order of the Ancient Dawn. Mr. Braithwhite wants to use Atticus in a ceremony to increase his power but his son, Caleb, who wants to take over the order arranges things so his father and not Atticus is destroyed in the attempt. Atticus, his father and uncle and Letitia get back to Chicago safely but strange occurrences follow them and soon Caleb Braithwhite also shows up. The challenge for our friends is to get him to leave them alone which is made harder because Caleb is protected by an immunity spell and he can cast some pretty impressive spells himself. There was lots of enjoy in this book but it was rather too fanciful for my tastes. The idea of having black prime characters is really great but I wonder if the author (who looks Caucasian in his picture on the back of the book) is going to face accusations of cultural appropriation. I also wonder about the choice to have one black character change to white for a day by virtue of Caleb Braithwhite's magic. Ruby really enjoys being white and it appears at the end of the book like she is going to continue because she knows how Caleb did it.
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LibraryThing member BruceCoulson
A horror novel where more horror is derived from regular human beings and real life than from indescribable monsters. (Although they're in here too.) Sadly, the most horrific sections aren't fantasy. A very good novel.
LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
This is a creative twist on discussing the Green Book, sundown counties, and other horrors of Jim Crow America. I was prepared for a bit more oogly boogly nonsense, but this is a solidly inventive novel. I cannot wait to see Jordan Peele bring this to life!
LibraryThing member wvlibrarydude
I read it again while watching the series. The series is quite different, so don't worry if you watched it before reading.
LibraryThing member avanders
Matt Ruff impresses me yet again. This time, he's written a lovecraftian, sci-fi story starring/from the perspective of a black family in the 50s. Racial tensions are extremely high, and Ruff manages to offer the black perspective without coming across as preachy. I was just very impressed with his
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character-building. The sci-fi/Lovecraft story is also interesting, with secret societies and evil intentions at its core. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone to whom that description appeals. I know some people hate sci-fi/Lovecraft type books... you are probably not the intended audience. But for everyone else, quite an impressive feat. Show Less
LibraryThing member Othemts
This horror/fantasy novel contains 8 interconnected stories that revolve around the Black Korean War veteran Atticus Turner and his family and friends in Chicago. Atticus and company find themselves in conflict with a secret society of sorcerers known as The Order of the Ancient Dawn and the
I haven't ever read any of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, so I'm probably missing out on nuance and references, but this is an entertaining and historically-formed collection of stories. I've also learned that Lovecraft was horribly racist so the connection of Lovecraftian horrors to white supremacist terror seems appropriate.
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machinations of a white man named Caleb Braithwhite. The characters in this story experience horrors that include a haunted house (with a chess-playing ghost), a portal to another planet, a potion that turns a Black woman into a white woman, and a devilish doll. But the real horrors are the constant threats to the life and safety of Black people in Jim Crow America.I haven't ever read any of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, so I'm probably missing out on nuance and references, but this is an entertaining and historically-formed collection of stories. I've also learned that Lovecraft was horribly racist so the connection of Lovecraftian horrors to white supremacist terror seems appropriate.
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Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — 2017)
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 2017)
Washington State Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2017)
Endeavour Award (Winner — 2017)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2016-02-16
Physical description
7.9 inches
ISBN
0062292072 / 9780062292070