The Ballad of Black Tom -

Victor LaValle

Tor.com

2016

160 páginas

5h 20m

ISBN-10: B0166PX1Z8

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

"LaValle's novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do."
— Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

"[LaValle] reinvents outmoded literary conventions, particularly the ghettos of genre and ethnicity that long divided serious literature from popular fiction."
— Praise for The Devil in Silver from Elizabeth Hand, author of Radiant Days

“LaValle cleverly subverts Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos by imbuing a black man with the power to summon the Old Ones, and creates genuine chills with his evocation of the monstrous Sleeping King, an echo of Lovecraft’s Dagon… [The Ballad of Black Tom] has a satisfying slingshot ending.” – Elizabeth Hand for Fantasy & ScienceFiction

Resenhas (111)

0

"Qualquer dia desses, vou trazer Cthulhu para vocês, demônios."

Pegue o conto mais racista e xenofóbico de H. P. Lovecraft e transforme em uma história com crítica social e puro horror cósmico, é isso que Victor LaValle faz, dominando o tempo todo a narrativa e surpreendendo o leitor no momento certo.

Para quem curte esse gênero, A Balada do Black Tom é um banquete. O autor traz uma crítica incrível e uma história de terror de arrepiar.

Recomendo demais.