Lovecraft Country: A Novel

Plot was good, characters were great. The opening scenes pull you right into the setting and you know your in for a ride.

This book interestingly both is and is not Lovecraftian. It is, in that it uses some of the same horrific elements used in (a very few of) Lovecraft's stories; it is not, in that (a) it does not use Lovecraft's primary material, and particularly not the Cthulhu "mythos"; and (b) it plays havoc with Lovecraft's inherent racism by telling its stories from the point of view of a pair of African-American ("Negro") families during Jim Crow days.Only a few pages take place in the actual Jim Crow South; the rest is in New England, Wisconsin, and especially Chicago, where the families actually reside.A step back.Matt Ruff is an idiosyncratic sort of a writer, who doesn't like to do the same thing twice. His _Sewer, Gas and Electric: the Public Works Trilogy_ is a deconstructive pisstake on (among other things) near-future science fiction, conspiracy theory fiction, and Ayn Rand's philosophy, while his _Bad Monkeys_ does much the same for action-adventure thrillers. Here he deconstructs Lovecraft with a sharp-but-rusty scalpel.I've mentioned in the past that we need a word for books like Wolfe's _Fifth Head of Cerberus_, Le Guin's _Four Ways to Forgiveness_, and Robinson's _Icehenge_: things that are made of individual stories, but aren't exactly novels, but aren't fix-ups either because the stories interact in a way more complex than that of the typical series-of-stories-made-into-a-fixup-"novel." Well, whatever the term winds up being, _Lovecraft Country_ is one of them.In the first story, Atticus Turner returns from service in the Korean War to find his father, Montrose, (with whom his relationship is, at best, strained) missing; the only clue he has leads him to Ardham - that's _Ardham_, with a D - Massachusetts. With his uncle George (Montrose's brother) and cousin Letitia, they head for Ardham.Now, let us be clear. It is not as if they don't know what they're heading into here. George is the publisher of "The Safe Negro Travel Guide," an analogy of the "Green Book" African-Americans used to carry to find places where it was safe for them to travel, eat, and spend the night in what was still a _very_ overtly racist society. Because of this, George knows that Ardham is in the midst of a "sundown county," a place where African-Americans had best not let sundown catch them. And, indeed, they have a rather nasty run-in with the county's racist Sheriff, and survive only due to an unseen ally.Arriving at Ardham, they find themselves the guests of Samuel Braithwhite, a leader of the Order of the Ancient Dawn, a gang of "natural philosophers" who want to use Atticus in a ritual that will make them all-powerful and immortal and all that there stuff. Well, Braithwhite's son Caleb sabotages the ritual, helps Atticus and company escape, and that's the end of the story.Except it isn't; for in a series of further stories, mostly (as noted) set in Chicago, Atticus's relatives and friends undergo a series of mystical or just creepy adventures, often involving Caleb Braithwhite and Chicago's own racist police ... including the local leader of the Order of the Ancient Dawn. These adventures include haunted houses, shapeshifting, obscure ancient texts, and gateways to other worlds, one story for each of the major characters in Atticus's circle.Several details emerge.First, that the supernatural stuff is nowhere near as scary as the way the Braithwhites, the police, and white folks in general, treat our protagonists: at the very best, as means to their ends. Ruff - as far as is possible for a white man in the early 21st Century - has done his best to recreate what life was like for "Negroes" in that time and place; and I suspect that if he has erred, it is on the conservative side.Second, that Ruff sees the quest for power (at least through "natural philosophy," but, I suspect, any quest for power) as inherently corruptive. Caleb Braithwhite is not exactly a _bad_ man. He betrays his father, but he has, or thinks he has, good reasons for doing so; he manipulates others, but always seems to think that his ends justify the means. While this is not Orwell's vision of power ("Imagine a boot..."), it is clear that the people who seek power are generally not the ones you want to _have_ it. Indeed, Caleb is one of those charming villains like Victor von Doom that you can't help liking even as you root for him to be defeated.And, third, that Ruff is one hell of a writer. His characters live and breathe, sweat and bleed, love and hate, and we feel their pains and (all too few) joys.Probably stone Lovecraft fans will hate this book. Thoughtful Lovecraft fans - hell, thoughtful people in general - will love it. I did.

This is a good show. The price was right and we enjoyed watching it.

What an incredible concept that Lovecraft Country pulls off showing the horrors that an African American Family deal with as they deal with the Jim Crow South in 1945 and an added layer of supernatural elements. This novel will make you think just how hard it was to be a person of color at time. This novel does tie into the movie The Green Book as it was the book The Negro Motorist Green Book was inspiration for the Safe Negro Travel Guide in the book. This novel blends Science Fiction and Horror most notably H. P. Lovecraft, but it twist the tales to fit the black audience. H. P. Lovecraft told great tales but they have tend to be racist and reactionary of the times, so it was cool to see his flipped.The Plot: This book is told as short stories that are all connected involving two black families (the Turner's and Dandridge) and friends, as deal with magic, power, racism, and freedom. The main story is Atticus is found to have an ancestry of Braithwhite blood who are a powerful elitist cult of warlocks, with ties to the Klan. They want to perform a spell that requires a sacrifice of a Braithwhite, and they think Atticus is perfect for this. The kidnap his father and torment his friends and family. There's story that involve space travel, potions that can turn people white, possessed African voodoo dolls, and Haunted houses.What I Liked: This book is heavy in racism, but it is balanced in humor, how the Turners get out of a racist town, and a great moment when the reparations are paid back. The cover really captures the book having the Klan robes also double as tentacles. The Ruby story where she drinks a potion to turn white, and gets back at a white woman who accused her of stealing. The story of the Haunted house that's full of a racist ghost, but come together when the home is threatened by other racist. The characters are all written pretty memorably it is a little hard keeping track of who is related to who, but I eventually caught on.What I Disliked: It took a little to long for the short stories to all start connecting, I honestly thought for the longest time they were not going to connect, so I ended up breaking up this book between other books, which I wouldn't recommend doing, because at the half way point everything starts connecting and I was like crap let me go back and reread to make sure I get everything and their connections. I would've liked for the ending to be a little bit more epic, it good but it had a really great potential to be extra special. It took me about 40 pages to get in to this one.Recommendations: This book is my first 5 star of the new year, I will say it barely made it when I feel out a review I fill out the stars first, but going through all the things I liked and the difficult tone of this book that it did a really great job to pull off I gave it a rare 5 out of 5 stars. I think this is a great on to check out if you like historical fiction, supernatural, and science fiction, this is a great blend of all those mixed in with a dash of horror. I will say as horror element go the racism and tension of possible death by racist is scarier than any creature or horror in this book. Trigger Warning if racist language is a trigger for you, just be warned there's scenes of it used and brutality that comes with it but a lot of little pay off through out. happy reading, every one, would love to hear others opinions on this book since it was like a best of both worlds mix of horror science fiction and history.

Love the book, love how textured the cover is, the one singular issue I have: the HBO "sticker" that's actually not a sticker. It's been printed as a part of the cover taking away the overall look of the book. It's a superficial issue, I know, but still, have it be an actual sticker that can be removed or a pamphlet inserted between the cover and first page.

Assisti à série, que foi muito boa. Comprei o livro em inglês para treinar minha leitura e para ver se a série foi fiel à obra.

Si estás esperando una aventura a fin al universo de Chtulhu o una historia de terror cósmico, este libro no lo es. Es una historia sobre la experiencia de vida afroamericana y el racismo, aventuras y sociedades secretas. Fácil lectura rápida y, sobretodo, entretenida.

I was actually expecting something very different. I thought it would be a fantastical journey into Lovecraft and to a certain extent it was. Still enjoyable.

A bit disjointed plot and storywise but the jim crow background added a layer that could be explored in future horror novels.