The Ballad of Black Tom

In Jazz Age New York, Charles Thomas Tester, a young Black man known as Black Tom, navigates the systemic injustices of 1920s America, hustling from Harlem to Red Hook to provide for his family. He understands the subtle and overt forms of discrimination, seeing the "curse written on his skin" that draws the malevolent gaze of society. His life takes an ominous turn when a seemingly mundane delivery of an occult grimoire to a reclusive sorceress in Queens opens a door to a terrifying, deeper magic. Unwittingly, Tom becomes entangled with ancient, slumbering cosmic entities, drawing the attention of "things best left sleeping," including the monstrous Sleeping King, an echo of Lovecraft's Dagon. Victor LaValle masterfully reimagines H.P. Lovecraft's infamously racist "The Horror at Red Hook" through the eyes of a Black protagonist, subverting the original narrative to explore themes of race, power, and existential dread. As a storm of world-ending proportions brews in Brooklyn, Tom must confront the terrifying forces he has awakened, questioning his place in a universe far stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined.