Lovecraft Country: A Novel

This series of short stories is wounderful. It real drags the reader into this family and wont let go. I love how smart everyone is. So much of what is done is the best possable choice. I love seeing what happens next. I love that I never think oh if I was their it would have gone diffrently. No everyone is navigating a tough , odds against you world, but not losing hope. I love how everyone works togeather.

The guy that wrote this book did an excellent job of dealing with racism and Lovecraftian horror at the same time. Whoda thunk? Although one of my favorite aspects of Lovecraft is "mindbendingness," which didn't happen much here, I was amazed at how much depth there was to the stories. My mind kept going back to the book when I wasn't reading it, which I think is a high mark for fiction. I loved how each part of the novel addressed one or more aspects of Lovecraft's stories without being a direct rip off of any of it. This book is great for talking about. I highly recommend it.

An absolutely visceral description of experienced racism, and a powerful allegory of institutional racism in the US, set in first half of the 20th century US. Also, a most impressive creative rendering and inversion of H. P. Lovecraft's (racist & misogynist) work.

Lovecraft Country blew me away. I can't remember the last time I read a book that was so complex and so ... connected-each theme, each arc, each character so compelling in their own right, but also so clearly coherent and related to others in the context of the whole. This book gives new meaning to the adage, "the whole is larger than the sum of its parts".

First, the characters are so empathetically drawn. And I don't mean sympathetically, which would imply pity or some other emotion that would be akin to a patronizing tone. I mean, we are drawn into their experiences through poignant descriptions of external events, not through an analysis of the characters' emotions, in such a way that we are called on to imagine their emotions. And, of course, this is itself an emotive, not purely cognitive experience.

A more concrete example: the novel opens with a man, Atticus, driving home. He is stopped and harassed by a cop. He has to use a restroom but he is turned away from public ones reserved for whites, and so he takes a moment on the highway in the bushes. He then worries about which roads to take, because on some, he will certainly meet violence. He consults a publication he hangs on to for dear life, "The Safe Negro Travel Guide", to locate a place he can sleep the night, otherwise he will have to do so in his car. No preaching from Ruff, no philosophizing, but still, the reader is right there with/ as Atticus, and one can't help but feel the absolute despair/ anger at the injustice/ compliance/ resistance/ silencing effect of the situation. He's just trying to get home, what the heck...

Second, the structure of Lovecraft Country is brilliant and works so well to both convey the story and to mirror its message. The novel consists of interconnected stories, all featuring the same cast of (~12) characters, the ancestors of a black family and of their previous white "owners". Each of these stories is fascinating in its own right, and offers a "twist" on Lovecraftian lore- there is metamorphosis (a potion that can turn a black person white), time-travel (to distant planets, on which blacks have been exiled), hunted houses (with ghosts "tamed" and befriended by a determined black woman who moves in and refuses to be deterred by ghosts from the past), nightmares that reflect past horrors not experienced by the dreamer but by his ancestors (lynchings), and more. Throughout it all, it soon becomes clear that the "monsters" Ruff conjures are only mirrors or incarnations of racism -both "personal" and institutionalized.

The broader arc that ties these narratives together is the relationship between the characters, especially that between the ancestors of the slave-owners and of the former slaves. In true Lovecraftian style, there are lodges of power-hungry whites eager to use the black family (who are in fact descendants of the slave-owners as well as those of slaves) for their own ends. And, although in each story, it seems as if the black family only comes out unscathed due to the protection of one of these white men, in the end it is their prioritization of family and relationships that prevails, even over their patronizing "protector". So, as each vignette is a reflection of the particulars and manifestations of racism, the grander arc is an indictment of systemic racism.

HIGHLY Recommended!

Approaching this book you may worry that it will be dull--preachy or didactic. It is not; it is a true page turner. Ruff understands that a book based on pulp and genre of the 1920s to 1950s must be driven by a high-speed plot. You can forget about the political point and just enjoy a great story

This book is a MUST READ! So many interesting and intriguing characters. An exploration of Jim Crow America without being heavy handed as every bit of information is essential to the story. Find out about a mysterious cult. Alchemy. Magic. Sunset Towns. The Green Book. All wrapped in a mystery concerning one family’s obsession with the occult and the biggest Boogieman of all, race in America. A good read. Looking forward to Jordan Peele’s movie in 2019.

It all starts with a letter. Atticus, a Korean war vet, gets a letter from his father saying he is on his way to Lovecraft Country (New England) to go get his inheritance. The inheritance comes from his mother’s past, a past his mother begged his father to let go.

A good look at Jim Crow’s America, but the plot around it is weak, honestly. I think this would have done better as a non fiction book then to throw Lovecraft in there willy nilly, which is kind of how it felt to me. I loved the characters, namely the ones of color, the white characters felt one note and flat. All in all though, it was an entertaining read.

Other reviewers have done a good job of summarizing the plot. I'll add my comments and opinion but try not to rehash the story again, This is an atypical Ruff book for many reasons: it's a series of pulp/noir/fantasy stories with a common set of characters and an overall story arc. All Ruff's other works have been more-or-less straight novels (although the Public Works Trilogy -- not really a trilogy but single book -- is episodic and disjointed so a casual read might mistake it for a fix-up). It's also written in a very simple narrative style unlike the more sophisticated approach of _The Mirage_ or _Set this House in Order_, and to a degree, most his other novels. Another reviewer calls it Ruff's "most accessible" book and I agree. It's fun and engaging from the start but there's enough of a serious story and context (1950s Jim Crow Era) to prevent the book from degrading to slapstick. I currently rate it third in my Ruff favorites: after _Fool on the Hill_ and _Set this House in Order_, pushing _The Mirage_ out of that third-place slot. All-in-all, a fine story and a good introduction to Matt Ruff's work for a newcomer to his stories. It would also make a hell of a good mini-series on the store, Netflix, or a cable network. One clarification: I'd call it a homage to the Mythos rather than a pastiche but that's just my interpretation. However you classify it, it's worth a read by Ruff fans and anyone looking for an alternative to the current crop of urban fantasy.

This collection of smartly-paced, interwoven short stories brings a unique and delightful new flavor to Lovecraft's themes. The stories combine varied and likeable characters with moments of true terror that draw from all across "weird fiction"-style horror. Loveceaft Country is a joy from beginning to end and I would welcome a second volume featuring these themes and this world.

I really really enjoyed this book. I was a little hesitant in the early chapters that it might be heavy/depressing but once the book got rolling and i realized what direction it was headed in i couldn’t put it down. An extremely fun and surprising read that i will recommend to others

This book feels like a celebration of early geek culture with a focus on Lovecraft's horrors; it touches on some difficult and troubling topics (race and identity during Jim Crow) and, I believe, deals with them skillfully. It is a nice book to relax with, despite the tones of horror in the setting.

Highly recommended for lovers of literature, science fiction, and H.P. Lovecraft (particularly those who appreciate the horror but are also disturbed by the xenophobic and racist underpinnings). The author brilliantly juxtaposes the horrors of Lovecraft Country with Jim Crow country. It's an ambitious, spot-on concept; well-executed. The author has chops. He employs all of the delightful and kitschy Lovecraftian tropes, but brings in interesting characters and leaves out the florid language.

I loved the deftness of one scene in which a Ruff character must face a supernatural situation, "Ruby saw then she had a choice to make: She could give up and go completely mad, or she could just deal with the situation. Being Eloise Dandridge's daughter, she decided to deal." — especially when compared with many an overwrought Lovecraftian story where the characters just go completely mad.

Writers, read this for: Structure. It's a series of interlinked stories (works perfectly to invoke Lovecraft, who is best remembered for those short stories).

Pairs well with: Ruff's novel about multiple personality disorder, "Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls"; Octavia Butler's "Kindred"; Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness"

Quotable: "That's the horror, the most awful thing: to have a child the world wants to destroy and know that you're helpless to help him."

Notable: With the Black Lives Matter movement and the recent decision by the World Fantasy Convention to no longer use Lovecraft's image as a symbol of its award, it's the perfect time to read this novel. The author was inspired, in part, by Pam Noles' essay "Shame," about being a black science fiction fan.

This is brilliantly written, tightly plotted noir that draw on the horror of the mythos. It also gains a great deal from having characters who go from a normal world of uncertainty and occasional horror to the full, otherworldly secrets man was not meant to know horror. It also has a lot of loving shout outs to various golden age pulp sci-fi. Ruff has an excellent hand for weaving together something that is almost equal parts James Elroy and Lovecraft, and it works so very hard. The characters are well fleshed out, their struggles very real, and the horror well done. The humor also sparkles.

The reason for the "not a wimp" bit in my heading though must be addressed. This is set during the period of legal segregation, of America's secular original sin. Moreover, you aren't addressing it through the eyes of (another) white person; you will be seeing the view from under the boot, exclusively. But, if you have the strength of character to address a book where people who look like you are the villains - it's a great noir, it's one of the better takes on the Mythos, and it's really funny. Again, the characters living their lives - only to have racism stump in and crash the party, makes it all the more affecting.

I give you this caution, because I've noticed that while there is still a constituency for Golden Age sci-fi and Lovecraft, I've noticed that much of this constituency of late are self-identified manly men. And this manly men tend to have delicate, fragile feelings that get quite hurt when reminded of this original sin - or be confronted with the reality of how many people were unapologetic, enthusiastic racists. If you're the type to read this book and then bawl "it's racist against white people", please save us all the time and steer clear until you've done some growing up.

While the writing is polished, there's just a lot of it to get through. The first act feels more like a novella or short story than something that belongs in this book proper. It's still an engaging book, but I am struggling to get through it, even when not reading for days. It's likely a better editor would've been able to tighten things up a but more.

I reached 63% before I decided to stop. Many times in the past, I would have told myself to keep going just to finish it. But that was the old me. Each time I picked it up, I'd sigh and look at how much more I had to go.

The anthology format doesn't work for me. It usually doesn't. The racism part is what intrigued me. I heard about this book from Scalzi's big idea, and the excerpt hooked me in. Lovecraft monsters + the soft racism of Driving Miss Daisy. I love that genre-mixing. But if you came to this looking for Cthulhu, you'll be disappointed. There is little horror and the social commentary becomes its own character, overshadowing the already shadow-thin cast therein.

They aren't interesting enough for me to want to continue. True, they have more depth than just "they're black", but I also couldn't care whether they lived or died. Maybe it's because of the format. Each story focuses on a different person in this family that's connected to another family of cultists. None of them are distinct or sympathetic enough. The writing style is blah too. Descriptions of physical environments are mechanical and go on too long. The author describes each step a character takes instead of summarizing it.

The big idea is great. It just needed to be executed better. Needed some condensing or editing to give more pressure per square word. But I look forward to seeing Jordan Peele's take on it.

Lovecraft Country left me feeling so many different emotions, I find it difficult to start this review.

Perhaps the most obvious starting point for this review is the racial component. I'm a white guy. This story starts right off with Atticus Turner who's traveling from Florida to Chicago in the early 1950's being attacked by every white person he passes on the road. From malevolent looks, to insults, to outright confrontation. The sheer enormity of the racial divide left me reeling. I wanted to defend my being white and ask the author if he really saw the world through such lenses.

But then a strange thing happened. I started to perceive this novel from a different perspective. Atticus is such a archetype of the the hero on a journey you can't help but see the incidents with white people as akin to a knight on a quest dealing with trolls and bandits. Only my heart pumped a lot faster in Lovecraft Country only because I could relate to corrupt cops thumping on poor upstanding black folk much more readily than I could with some hobbit fighting with a goblin.

I haven't read too many books by black authors, so I looked Matt Ruff up online. I wanted to read about this guy that was really making me look at things from a black perspective. The funny thing is Ruff looks pretty white to me in his photos. What does this say? Why is it that the first book about black injustice that I could really get behind is written by a white guy?

OK... beyond the racial component, this is still a great story. The writing style is complex. It weaves several short stories that could stand on their own together into a novel that works brilliantly. Ruff is an adept enough writer to shift story telling styles from one vantage point to another so that everything isn't straight forward and linear. Instead the writing bobs and weaves with a music of its own.

The characters are VERY WELL developed.

The only thing that threw me off a little was the essential story itself. I didn't really get into the 4th dimension Lovecraft magic thing.

The works of H. P. Lovecraft have developed a cult following among science fiction, fantasy, and horror fans, and countless writers, filmmakers, and other artists have drawn inspiration from the mythos he developed... but today Lovecraft is regarded as a controversial figure, mainly due to the fact that he was famously racist. Some people have disowned him and his works for this reason, others try to enjoy his works regardless of his personal views, and still others have taken pen in hand to write their own works reconciling Lovecraft's legendary work with his racist views. Matt Ruff is among the latter category, and with his book "Lovecraft Country" he has deftly woven Lovecraftian elements into a story of an ordinary black family struggling to survive during the Jim Crow era... and uncovers the terrible truth that sometimes the worst monsters are the ones wearing human faces.

Atticus Turner has just returned from fighting in the Korean War to his hometown of Chicago, where his uncle George works for a black travel agency specializing in planning safe vacations for African-Americans in the racial minefield of 1950s America. Atticus comes home expecting a fight with Montrose, his hot-tempered father... but instead discovers his father has gone north into Lovecraft Country, chasing down a lead on Atticus' mother's heritage. Atticus, George, and family friend Letitia make the journey to a small village ruled by an enigmatic figure to find Montrose, only to find that their family is uncomfortably linked to a secret cabal calling themselves the Order of the Ancient Dawn -- and they have designs on Atticus and his family. And as Atticus and those closest to him find themselves caught up in the scheming and machinations of the Order, they find themselves facing otherworldly horrors... but as African-Americans living with hostility and violence on a day to day basis, they're no stranger to horror, and perhaps have the grit and strength to stand up to the Order once and for all.

"Lovecraft Country" is more a collection of short stories than a complete novel, but said stories interweave to form a coherent whole. The story moves along at a brisk pace, which I appreciated -- with such a hot topic as racism it would have been all too easy for Matt Ruff to let the story get bogged down in trying to preach a message to the reader. Ruff, however, lets the story convey the message, not flinching away from showing the atrocities and brutality blacks in America faced on a regular basis for much of American history, but at the same time not letting it drag the plot to a standstill. It also helps that the characters in this novel, while not very complex or fleshed out, are still quite likable and sympathetic, and we can't help but root for them and long for something better for many of them.

Despite the themes of horror, sorcery, and otherworldly creatures and phenomenon, the Lovecraftian elements don't dominate this novel. They're there, make no mistake about it, but they're not particularly horrifying, especially if you go into this novel already familiar with Lovecraft's more famous works. The true horror comes from the monstrosity of humans against other humans -- which is most likely what Ruff was going for in the first place. The characters of "Lovecraft Country" don't need to face down shoggoths or ghosts to be terrified, as they experience terror and horrific dealings every day of their lives. And in a way, that better enables them to stand up to the supernatural elements of the story -- it's hard to be scared of a ghost or a tentacled monster or a self-styled sorcerer when you're threatened with violence, destruction, and murder on a regular basis.

A fascinating blend of cosmic horror and racial commentary, "Lovecraft Country" is a valiant effort to reconcile the themes of Lovecraft with the controversial views of the man himself. The melding of Lovecraft-inspired horror with the story of an African-American family could have easily been a mere gimmick, but Ruff manages to tie them together and deliver a strong (but not heavy-handed) message at the same time. And on top of that, it's a highly enjoyable story that will hook you and not let go until the very last page.

Lovecraft Country is a collection of inter-connected stories about an extended African American family in the mid to late 1940's and their encounters with things not of this world, notably sorcerers, a gateway to another world, and a haunted house.

Lovecraft Country is an early front-runner for the best book I've read in 2016. Here's how it all went down.

Lovecraft Country is the story of the Green/Turner family, an African American family trying to make ends meet in the Jim Crow era. Matt Ruff does a great job of contrasting the cosmic horror of the Lovecraft mythos with the everyday horrors of racism and ignorance. I loved how each story used Lovecraft staples as a starting point and interjected a member or two of the Turner family.

The ages-long connection between the Turners and the Braithwaites was very well done. For an evil mastermind, Caleb Braithwaite was a well-drawn character, far from the scene chewing villain he could have been. The magic system was well done and true to the tale's Lovecraftian roots. The Turners were capable but not superhuman by any means.

Honestly, I can't think of anything bad to say about this book. It hit all the right buttons for me. It has the momentum of a collection of pulp yarns but the writing is far superior to most stories of this kind and the Jim Crow era setting and the well drawn characters set it several notches above most books of this type.

Five out of five stars. Good luck impressing me after this, next book.

Speculative fiction writer Matt Ruff uses Lovecraftian tropes as a conduit for examining racism in mid-20th century America. His latest excursion, Lovecraft Country, comprises a series of interconnected chapter-stories that advance a master narrative told from the perspective of an accomplished African-American family beleaguered by a sinister cabal of so-called “natural philosophers," sorcerers obsessed with ancient mysteries and ritualistic sacrifices to unnameable deities residing just beyond our celestial universe.

When his estranged father Montrose goes missing in New England, a young veteran named Atticus Turner embarks on a perilous journey with his Uncle George—dedicated publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his resourceful friend Letitia. Montrose’s trail leads them to a rustic white enclave presided over by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb, the leaders of a secret society known as the Order of the Ancient Dawn. Although the Braithwhites are keeping Atticus’s father chained in a cellar, it’s Atticus whom the Order has set its sights on, Atticus being the direct descendent of an illicit affair between a mighty mage and a runaway slave girl. As if the racial intolerance and oppression wasn’t bad enough, the ensuring mayhem plunges Atticus and his loved ones into a menacing world of arcane magic, tentacular monsters, and malevolent spirits.

Following the initial set-up, chimerical events spanning huge swaths of time pit each member of the Turner and Perry clans against eldritch forces and the omnipresent Caleb Braithwhite. Every episodic chapter stands well enough alone, reflecting the kind of pulpy weird tales penned by Lovecraft himself. Ruff successfully interweaves Lovecraftian dread with the horrors of the Jim Crow era. The searing racial violence ratchets up the tension to ghastly levels with the inclusion of dark warlocks, ghosts, inter-dimensional portals, and even animated devil dolls; the existential terror and racism fueling one other. Interestingly, very little of the novel is actually set in the eponymous Lovecraft Country, the fictional New England landscape in which Lovecraft set most of his tales. Lovecraft’s legacy is somewhat tarnished by his bigoted beliefs—and yes, this book is about racism, first and foremost.

Despite its rushed denouement, Ruff’s anthology-esque novel thrillingly and effectively weds racism and nightmarish horror. There’s believable dialogue, well-developed characters, and countless allusions to Lovecraft pseudo-mythology that’s sure to hit home with fans and readers wholly unfamiliar with Lovecraft’s influential works.

An enjoyable read that I think suffers from its problematic core premise. The core premise being a Lovecraftian pulp-horror-adventure story, but told from the perspective of African-Americans in the 1950s and 60s; the problem being that the author is white and absolutely all of his POV characters are not. Ruff has clearly done his research, but I never stopped feeling like the story was diluted because it was coming from a white perspective, that a POC author would have been able to elevate the material. Perhaps because of that, I also found myself a little less forgiving of some fairly minor literary sins -- the voice is often pretty staccato, and the pacing always feels a little bit off. However, with all that, this is an enjoyable, fast-paced horror-adventure yarn, and he does capture some of the Lovecraftian feel without ever just aping the Mythos, which I really appreciate as a way to handle the material. If the concept has you curious, I think you'll enjoy it, but I wouldn't recommend it to those not already intrigued.

Lovecraft Country was a book mainly comprised of elements that I don’t particularly enjoy. It was set in a time period (the 50’s) that means nothing to me. One of the main themes of the book (racism) is something that I can understand intellectually, but not really emotionally. The chapters were also allotted to various members of the family. While some people like this, I hated that I never got to really know any one character. So it would be easy for me to say I didn’t particularly enjoy this book. But, surprisingly, I did like it.

It took a while for Lovecraft Country to hook me. I was always interested in it, but never to the point that I had to sit down and read it. It probably wasn’t until around page 260 or so that I felt compelled to finish the story. I don’t think it was until the supernatural elements were taking hold in the story that I perked up. Until that time, I felt sorry for the struggles of the Turners and curious about the bits of supernatural elements.

Even though stuff does happen almost from the beginning, Lovecraft Country has a slow-burn feel to it. Matt Ruff lets the atmosphere of that era in history build up to horror inside your mind before he introduces the horror you were expecting. I can’t speak for how accurate the dialogue is during that time, but it felt believable. The action scenes, both supernatural and otherwise, were well-written. While I wasn’t particularly invested in any of the characters, I did find myself admiring Letitia and Atticus. Specifically, Letitia’s spirit and Atticus’ refusal to back down from anything. Letitia is the type of spirited female you want to cheer for.

Lovecraft Country does a good job of making us aware of just how far we’ve come in a relatively short amount of time. It also sends shivers down my spine considering the current state of unrest our country is in.

Past horror and supernatural horror combined is a surprisingly effective combination that Matt Ruff utilizes at near maximum efficiency. Lovecraft Country isn’t a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but it’s one you won’t quickly forget.

First of all, the cover: is it eldritch abomination with tentacles hanging down, or is it pointy white hoods coming up in the night? Yes. It is.

If you read Lovecraft, you probably know Mr. Braithwaite. I didn't, so I met the sorcerer in this book. It took a while to realize he was a recurring and important character.

*Which is scarier, sorcerers of the Bright Lights from the Dawn of Time [tm] or long-lost white branch of the family that turn out to be racist sorcerers looking to sacrifice a new-found - and therefore disposable - family member?"

*If you have to retrieve something from a ghost... how can you pay for it?
This one was so, so sad. I guess horror also, but mostly sad.

*It is hard to read this book straight through, because some of the stories are delightfully weird and some are just a punch in the heart."

*If a black woman could drink a potion and be a white woman for 15 hours, does she want to do it? (yes, or there's no story.) But you know there's going to be a catch... Mr. Braithwaite is not offering the potion out of the goodness of his heart."

*Which is harder to deal with? Being the first black woman to move onto a 1960s white block, or moving into a house where the dead former owner has terrorized the last three white attempted homeowners into /leaving/ running right out the door and giving up their down payments?

But Ruby doesn't take nothing from no one, and when Daddy's gambling legacy is just the price of a down payment, she aint afraid of no ghosts.

4.5 stars. Lovecraftian horror and themes are put to supremely clever use in this book, where the supernatural has to struggle to be as terrifying as the realities of living as an African-American during Jim Crow times. Through a series of interlocking tales, Ruff introduces you to Blacks living in a segregated America, old and young, male and female. He manages to sketch out their lives with bold and concise strokes, never losing momentum in the larger tale of occult practices and intrigue. The marriage of supernatural terror with Jim Crow realities is genius, the many protagonists in these tales have to simultaneously avoid the known dangers of white America while contending with being pawns in the hands of the power-hungry (and too clever by half) Caleb Braithwhite and his designs on vast, unnatural power. The stories give voice and life to those downtrodden but not broken, showing how they navigate a country that does not want them to succeed, and yet allowing them to demonstrate intelligence, ingenuity, and perseverance. A wonderful book. Highly recommended.

Matt Ruff blends a grim snapshot of America's segregated past with some hauntingly good supernatural elements. Each chapter was a self-contained mini-masterpiece that left me in awe.

The one problem with the book was a few absences to the underlying core of the story beneath the plot. There were no real character flaws overcome, nothing sacrificed, no "all is most" moment. I thought the last chapter was slightly disappointing. Matt did much better with that stuff in A Fool on the Hill(which has given me multiple recurring nightmares, btw), Bad Monkeys, and Gas, Power, and Electric.

Yet despite my nitpicking, it was an amazing, creepy read. F that devil doll. It made me sad for the past but appreciative that I live in a time that, while not perfect by any means, ignorance is less automatic. He's up there with Steven King and Kurt Vonnegut as great teachers if the craft. Looking forward to more from him soon.

Brilliantly executed work of horror, both real and supernatural. I have found nothing like this in all my decades of reading. It stands apart from anything else I've read as a unique in idea and expression.

It expertly handles experiences of racism that were very real and very horrific. This alone was enough to evoke real horror. But when you add in the well-crafted supernatural tales, it takes it to another level. This author knows Lovecraft quite well, and has done his research on all the racist and bigoted aspects of Lovecraft and his work. He exposes it well here, in the course of these tales.

The book is structured as several interconnected stories about the family. The characters are well fleshed out. They feel like real people.

It at some points made me, a white person, feel a bit uncomfortable. But that's good. I need to understand the experiences of others and the impact our words and actions can have on others. It's the kind of uncomfortable that makes me grow as a person. The author manages to achieve this without seeming preachy, either. It's a difficult task.

Jim Crow was a time of horror for black Americans, which makes it a natural fit for this novel about an extended black family coming up against the sorts of cosmic nightmares written about by H.P. Lovecraft. (Lovecraft himself was also an infamous racist, so there's an element of reclaiming his narratives here, although that might have been stronger coming from a black author.) In a series of interconnected stories, Matt Ruff presents the Turner family's dealings with power-hungry sorcerers, mystic cultists, incomprehensible cosmologies, and more. Throughout it all, his characters face the daily oppressions and terrors of black life in the 1950s, which in many ways overshadow the Lovecraftian ones. It's a smart blend of racism with classic horror tropes, and a thrilling pulp read.

Need to preface my comments by saying my edition is an NLS audio book for the blind and I did not finish it.
The writing and ideas seem good but there's just not any depth. Some characters, names, and elements just seem to pop up out of nowhere, either because the situation needed something in order to continue or because the author didn't want to take time to explain things/histories any deeper.
I found it interesting that another reviewer mentioned Scooby Doo. That's what I kept thinking while reading (listening). Replace the supernatural element (there's not many) with a thief, throw in some music, adolescent humor, and a dog and you got Saturday morning Scooby!
Oh and there wasn't much of anything remotely like Lovecraft.

Need to preface my comments by saying my edition is an NLS audio book for the blind and I did not finish it.
The writing and ideas seem good but there's just not any depth. Some characters, names, and elements just seem to pop up out of nowhere, either because the situation needed something in order to continue or because the author didn't want to take time to explain things/histories any deeper.
I found it interesting that another reviewer mentioned Scooby Doo. That's what I kept thinking while reading (listening). Replace the supernatural element (there's not many) with a thief, throw in some music, adolescent humor, and a dog and you got Saturday morning Scooby!
Oh and there wasn't much of anything remotely like Lovecraft.

The works of HP Lovecraft are more popular than ever. More authors of science fiction and horror are citing him as an influence and even writing stories set in his mythos, and more fans of those genres are snapping up tabletop games and reading stories based on the franchises. Cthulhu is even becoming more of a household name now that geek-chic merchandisers have discovered that he is so darn marketable. However, there is one hitch to being a Lovecraft fan in 2016: Lovecraft himself. Basically, he was a racist.

He was not just "racist for the 1920s," racist, either. To put it in context, rumor has it that he wrote The Shadow over Innsmouth, a novella describing the indescribably horrifying offspring of the mixed breeding between New England townsfolk and fish-monsters of the sea, after discovering that his great-great-grandmother was Welsh. If something like that freaked him out, you can imagine how he felt about people of different races. The nativist and white supremacist beliefs of a deeply influential and imaginative author is something that fans and critics have to grapple with and debate about today.

Lovecraft Country is the way that Matt Ruff, an American author and fan of Lovecraft's work, deals with this. The book is a collection of Lovecraftian horror stories in which the racist subtext of the Cthulhu Mythos is blown wide open and made the subject. Each one has a complete arc that can stand on its own for the most part, but they also form an overall story centering on the Turner/Berry family, a black American family wary of a white sorceror, Caleb Braithwhite, who intends to use them in a plot to rule over an ancient order of monster-worshipping magicians.

The book is a collection of eight episodic stories plus an epilogue, ranging in length from short fiction to novellas and in style from haunted house tale to social justice sci-fi. This diversity is also reflected by the way Ruff puts different family members, varying in age and sex, in the starring role of each story. All of them are intriguing and maintain a balance of fun with genre fiction and exploration of real-world issues.

That said, I prefer some over others. The title story is an excellent tale in its own right and a great way of introducing us to some of our major characters, and the opening, in which heroic son and sci-fi reader Atticus Turner faces a racist cop, is fantastic. "Dreams of the Which House" is the most exciting and outright thrilling of the stories, and like many great stories of spooks and monsters, the true antagonist is a very real and dark part of society. And the writing in "Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe" is an outstanding door into the mind of an astronomy enthusiast (I'm a sucker for space-themed metaphors).

The weaker stories are the ones that mostly serve the purpose of forwarding that aforementioned "overall story" of Caleb's cult subterfuge. "Abdullah's Book" is a weightless heist story. "Jekyll in Hyde Park" may have an interesting premise, but it does not feel like it is explored as much as the other concepts in the book (for example, the impact of racist imagery on a black child in "Horace and the Devil Doll"); and while it has a strong twist, I find something problematic, in an otherwise considerate and well-researched book, about the final decision that Ruby makes (maybe it's realistic, or maybe it's just plain troubling). But I make an exception for "The Narrow House." It's mostly a character piece and devoid of any stakes, but that's because most of it is a flashback that so strongly humanizes the previously one-note character of Atticus's irritable father Montrose.

And those are the best moments of the book as a whole. The creepy cults and spooky spirits are engaging and all, but they wouldn't be if Ruff didn't make us know the characters so well. Atticus, Montrose, George, Letitia, and the rest of the family are not just protagonists who exist solely to move the stories forward, and more importantly, they are not just victims of racism. All of them are distinct individuals with different personalities, hopes and dreams, pet interests, and favorite book genres. True diversity in popular culture is not shifting the races of established white characters, but telling stories unique to a certain and intersectional group of human beings. Lovecraft Country may have been written by a white man, but the book definitely feels like the story of black men and women, and it can be enjoyed by anyone.

Lovecraft Country is a term used to describe the fictional New England in which Lovecraft set his stories, but Ruff's stories take his characters around the United States. The whole country *is* Lovecraft Country for black Americans, and racism can be as incomprehensible, maddening, and inescapable as any Elder God. But this means that the Turners and Berrys are more well-equipped to deal with these eldritch beings and their followers than any of Lovecraft's protagonists. And that's the way to deal with Lovecraft's problematic reputation: by transforming his fiction to deal with a changing world. Lovecraft was always an antiquarian anyway, but his Mythos, thankfully, is timeless and malleable.

Random Notes:
- Other reviewers online have been critical of the insertion of sci-fi book analysis in the text, but I don't mind them. They establish character, mostly appear in lighter moments between tense scenes, and tend to contribute to the themes of the stories. I found the dissection of Dr. Jekyll's true morality especially interesting.
- It is notable that the book takes place over the course of the year 1954. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was syndicated in Playboy Magazine; Richard Matheson published I Am Legend; Toho Studios released Gojira, the modern paragon of consciously political monster stories; and the seminal decision of Brown v. Board of Education, seen by many as the start of the civil rights movement, is reported at the very end of the book.
- I haven't talked much about Caleb Braithwhite, a man of fascinating contradictions. He's a villain who's not really an antagonist, the one white guy in the book who's not racist, and a master manipulator who still takes care of the people he uses. He appears in almost every story and it's always a delight to see him.
- The most satisfying part of the book is definitely Caleb's last interaction with the family.
- There's something earthy in the way most of the characters speak: "If we weren't in Dimension X we'd be crossing the railroad tracks by now." (Montrose, in "Abdullah's Book")
- Some of that cool spacey writing in "Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe": "A wanderer in darkness, she followed an eccentric orbit ..."

I wasn’t expecting the loose, short story format, so the transitional lulls put me off a bit. But overall the book does achieve a novel-like feel by the end, although the conclusion sort of comes out of nowhere, even though it’s true to the Lovecraftian roots implied by the title.

I did like the handling of the Lovecraft elements—a less complex, more scientific interpretation, minus the purple Latinate prose.

Refreshingly, there is no attempt to render African-American dialect. Some of the expressions are way too contemporary for 1954: “It is what it is,” “Let’s do this,” etc.

Lovecraft aside, the best thing about this book is the insight given to what it was like to be an African American in the “free” society of 1954 America and beyond. This is where the novel departs from its fictitious namesake of its title and casts readers into a world of horrifying reality. If you’re confused about the term “white privilege” LOVECRAFT COUNTRY will set you straight. I grew up in this era and found the reality startling, although much of the attitude shown in recent election activities confirms an uncomfortable truth.

Now that I've read Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country, I am even more eagerly awaiting the TV series finishing production.
The book lends itself perfectly to that format, being less a cohesive novel than a series of novellas and shorter stories revolving around the same cast of characters with numerous smaller adventures feeding into a larger narrative.
This is a fascinating horror tale, being about equal parts humor and horror, with as much of the terror and discomfort arising from the ever-present specter of racism in 1950's America as from the otherworldly and supernatural elements. It will be a great thing to see this adapted for television.

This follows an African-American family through a bit of a journey in the time where racism was far from a fringe population. They're sent to do the bidding of some shady cult characters, which leads to trying to help someone they think is trying to do the right thing. There's a decent amount of some of the Lovecraftian horror stuff, but I wish there was good bit more. I still really enjoyed the book and liked how it would jump around to the different family members and take you through each one's part in all of it, kind of like little short stories within the story.

Awesome cover design. Not exactly a novel, more a series of connected novellas and novelettes. Worth buying for "Lovecraft Country", "Dreams of the Which House", "Jekyll in Hyde Park", and "The Narrow House". Everything else was pretty mediocre.

This novel was incredibly inventive. It was a fascinating mix of genres, containing a host of original ideas. Also, the pacing was quick- the story hit the ground running and didn’t stop. Combining elements of sci-fi and horror with 1950s Jim Crow period detail was not a combination I would have thought of but it really brought American institutional injustices into a stark relief and cast them in a unique lens. It’s not like any period piece I’ve ever encountered. (Great cover art as well!)

Wow. One of the most interesting stories I've read in a long time. It feels familiar but also drips with familiarity. The marriage of Cthulhu-style horror and real-life racism and Jim Crow themes is terrifying and makes an amazing comparison/contrast. The characters are great and realistic and suffer from real change through both real and fantastical plots.

Lovecraft Country is an episodic novel which features a large cast of colourful characters (who are also characters of colour), each of whom is sufficiently well-drawn to carry the weight of their own story. They must navigate not only the Lovecraftian horrors the inventive Ruff throws at them, but the all-too-real horrors faced by people of colour in 1950s America. Questions of race, in genre fandom and in society at large, are treated with disarming honesty and inform each of the stories, which are woven together masterfully in a generation-spanning narrative of cosmic horror, science fiction, and social commentary. The audiobook version is brilliantly read by actor Kevin Kennerly, who brings a lot of warmth to the already sympathetic characters.

Pulp writer (and racist) H.P. Lovecraft wrote about unspeakable horror from other planets. In this book, set in 1950s America, the Black protagonists experience the real horror of racial discrimination and violence. As one character notes, "That's the horror, the most awful thing: to have a child the world wants to destroy and know that you're helpless to help him. Nothing worse than that. Nothing worse."

Yeah, compared to that, Cthulhu is no big deal.

This book is extremely well written and includes many classic SF/fantasy tropes such as time travel, magic, secret cults, ghosts, and enchanted beings. The accounts of racism feel believable (I was unsure about this book because it is written by a White author), and there was also an unexpected amount of humor. For a reluctant fantasy reader (like myself) this work would be a great introduction into the genre.

Last year I read an article in the Guardian about science fiction films:
[...]
The point that struck me most from this article, salient to this book, was the following: "Black film-makers probably don’t see the point of making films about future societies where injustice is rampant and children go hungry and the poor are persecuted. Minorities are already living in that world. So are poor people in general."

Highly recommended for all public libraries.

This novel by Matt Ruff combines a 1950s African American family's encounters/entanglement with dark magic with their entanglements with the virulent racism of the Jim Crow 1950s. If you're wondering why black Americans can't simply "get over" their history, this book will help you understand. Jordan Peele will be producing an upcoming HBO series based on the book. Can't wait.

This was an interesting book. Each chapter was an almost independent, supernatural/sci-fi story revolving around the same family of characters. At the end it wraps up all the stories in to one satisfying ending.

This is a damned good book. In addition to having a pretty cool plot and nicely developed characters, it is both a love letter to classic pulp fiction and a tale about race relations. The end seemed a little bit abrupt to me, otherwise I'd give it five stars.

I listened to this on audible. The cover was cool enough to make me stop and take a look, and I'm glad I did. Great book, a lot of fun, and just the right amount of mythology to keep me listening. I really enjoyed it.