The Ballad of Black Tom - Review
Link to the author's (V. LaValle) personal website
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Type: Book
Tags:
- Average Age of Main Characters (20)
- Length (2 / 10)
Link to Goodreads
Blurb: 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?
Review: The book manages to be a lot of things in not many pages, and keeps you entranced the whole time. I thoroughly enjoyed both the writing style and the setting. In general I don't deal with the horror genre well, but somehow despite the full spectrum from scary vibes to outright atrocities, I still enjoyed every moment. This a great short read that I didn't expect myself to enjoy so much!