* major spoilers for The Horror at Red Hook and The Ballad of Black Tom*
Charles Thomas Tester lives in Harlem with his disabled father in the 1920's. While he could destroy his body doing honest construction like his father, the racist standards of pay and hiring practices simply don't appeal to him. He opts to do more covert, esoteric work in the hidden industry of magic that offers more risk and more reward. One day, he delivers a tome to an old woman for a large amount of money, but tears out the last page, rendering the whole thing useless. This simple act of sabotage doesn't technically violate any rules or agreements, but it exposes him to the scrutiny of both corrupt law enforcement and an even more ambitious sorcerer.
The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of Lovecraft's most appallingly racist short story, The Horror at Red Hook. In the original story, Malone investigates the sorcerer Suydam and witnessed unknowable horrors, human sacrifices, and the man's corpse reanimate. This is placed alongside the most dehumanizing, monstrous descriptions of people of color you will ever read. The Ballad of Black Tom, on the other hand, places a Black man at the center of the story instead of a cop and views this same population more as it was. This story is better than the original in every possible way from prose and characters to plot developments and conclusion.
Charles Thomas Tester navigates his world deftly, knowing when to look unaware or foolish to be underestimated and when to show his true intelligence. The strategy doesn't always work and he's often at the mercy whatever mood white men around him are in. Police are corrupt and only serve to protect the tender feelings of white people at the expense of black and brown lives. When Charles is forced to stay in Suydam's house overnight, the police kill his father over the complaint of the old woman with the missing page. They describe the murder so nonchalantly and then mock him for not being more upset. At every turn, Charles is at the mercy of the white men around him who can change their mind whenever they want and expect him to comply. If he doesn't, his life is expendable to them.
The second section of the book is narrated by Malone, the original protagonist. He is not as virtuous here and shows the casual racism of the time (and of the present) on full display. The most egregious moment is when a white woman complains about a nearby tenement populated by people of color. She hysterically describes them as threatening and calls on him to protect her daughter (who cried over hurting herself). He soothes her and invades the tenement, where the climax of the story occurs. Malone also has a minor supernatural sight that shows him things ignored by others. He's been obsessed with the occult for years, which ultimately leads to his downfall. His ending is deserved.
Previously, he had posed as a street musician with a limited repertoire and a subpar singing voice to obtain jobs. His father taught him a powerful song before he died that he sang many times throughout the course of the novel, most notably for hours and hours after his father's death to absorb the loss in an uncaring world. The song comes back when he seems to be a mindless servant to Suydam, but turns around and murders him with the weapon his father gave him. In addition, he opens the portal for Cthulhu and becomes the monster white people see him as. The book ends with eyelidless Malone seeing the monstrosity looking down at him from the sky, unable to ever work as a cop again and with no hope of anyone sharing his knowledge, and Charles questioning his decision to unleash the monster on the world. Malone's fate is deserved and Charles was able to wield power in way he was never able to in the nonmagical world to get revenge for himself and his father. I don't blame him at all and find his actions justified.
The Ballad of Black Tom improves upon The Horror at Red Hook exponentially. It shows New York in the 20's closer to as it was with immigrants forced into slums and attacked just for existing instead of through an idealized, white lens as we usually see it. This very short book packs a punch and transforms a damaging piece of literature into one that portrays the injustice and pain people of color still experience today alongside amazing cosmic horror.
My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins
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