The Ballad of Black Tom
The Ballad of Black Tom is a 2016 fantasy-horror novella by Victor LaValle, revisiting H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Horror at Red Hook" from the viewpoint of a black man. Synopsis. In 1924 Harlem, Tommy Tester is a small-time hustler whose regular guise as a street musician brings him in contact with reclusive millionaire Robert Suydam, who wants him to participate in a nefarious scheme involving the Great Old Ones. Among the tools that Tester uses to thwart the scheme is the Supreme Alphabet of the Five-Percent Nation. Reception. "The Ballad  of Black Tom" won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for best novella, and was a finalist for the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction, the 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novella, the 2017 British Fantasy Award for best novella, the 2017 Theodore Sturgeon Award, the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novella, and the 2017 World Fantasy Award—Long Fiction. "Slate" called it "riveting", "clever", and "compelling", and noted LaValle's comparison of "cosmic indifference" to targeted racist malice and brutality. "Vice" described it as "tightly written, beautifully creepy, and politically resonant", and emphasized that despite its nature as  a literary "rebuttal", it is still "a thrilling Lovecraftian tale of mystery, monsters, and madness". Nina Allan commended LaValle for "making (...) 'The Horror at Red Hook' (into) an actual story (...) featuring real characters with real motivations – a claim that can not safely be made for the original tale", but observed that — when compared to the vivid "lunacy" of Lovecraft's writing — LaValle's prose is "grounded and sound in both mind and body" and ultimately "pedestrian". Conversely, "the Philadelphia Inquirer" preferred LaValle's "sharp and direct sentences" to Lovecraft's "spongy prose". Adaptations. In 2017, AMC announced that it was  planning a TV adaptation of "The Ballad of Black Tom", with LaValle as co-executive producer.