Victor LaValle
Author of The Ballad of Black Tom
About the Author
Victor D. LaValle is an assistant professor in the graduate writing program at Columbia University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Image credit: Victor LaValle
Series
Works by Victor LaValle
A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers (2019) — Editor — 540 copies, 20 reviews
Reimagining Lovecraft: Four Tor.com Novellas: (The Ballad of Black Tom, The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe, Hammers on Bone, Agents of Dreamland) (2017) — Contributor — 24 copies, 1 review
Daddy 3 copies
Black Stars: A Galaxy of New Worlds 2 copies
The Best of Richard Matheson 2 copies
Wolverine (2020-2024) #50 1 copy
Eve (2021 Boom) #1B Variant 1 copy
Les esseulées 1 copy
USA Fellows Celebration 2010 1 copy
Hellraiser: Bestiary (#1-6) 1 copy
Associated Works
Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases (2020) — Contributor — 259 copies, 5 reviews
Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History (2014) — Contributor — 230 copies, 17 reviews
The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic (2020) — Contributor — 157 copies, 5 reviews
The Worst Years of Your Life: Stories for the Geeked-Out, Angst-Ridden, Lust-Addled, and Deeply Misunderstood Adolescent in All of Us (2007) — Contributor — 93 copies, 1 review
Significant Objects: 100 Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things (2012) — Contributor — 64 copies, 1 review
Sunspot Jungle: The Ever Expanding Universe of Fantasy and Science Fiction (2018) — Contributor — 38 copies, 1 review
Freud's Blind Spot: 23 Original Essays on Cherished, Estranged, Lost, Hurtful, Hopeful, Complicated Siblings (2010) — Contributor — 19 copies
Wonder and Glory Forever: Awe-Inspiring Lovecraftian Fiction (2020) — Contributor — 14 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1972-02-03
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Columbia University (MFA)
Cornell University - Awards and honors
- Whiting Writers' Award (2004)
- Relationships
- Raboteau, Emily (wife)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Discussions
Found: Magical realism, monster/sci-fi novel in NYC with kidnapping in Name that Book (April 2025)
Big Machine by Victor LaValle in African/African American Literature (February 2013)
Reviews
When Ricky receives a bus ticket to Burlington, Vermont and a letter telling him it’s time to honour a promise he made several years earlier, he walks out of his latest in a line of dead-end jobs to do just that. At journey’s end he finds other misfits and they are put to work looking for clues to the existence of the paranormal. Just what a cult-surviving junkie needs. After some time finding his feet Ricky is selected for a field mission and that’s where things really start to get show more weird.
This novel fits somewhere in the bracket of if Murakami wrote noir or Chandler wrote magical realism. Even though the reader doesn’t really know what’s going on until late into the story it’s still a fascinating read. The narrator of the tale has an interesting turn of phrase and is more than likeable enough. The writer mixes things up quite well, playing with your emotions throughout where one minute you’re on a downer but a few paragraphs later you’re laughing again. There are some big themes examined along the way with race, religion and cults at the forefront but the story is never compromised and even with a slowish start it’s never less than entertaining. show less
This novel fits somewhere in the bracket of if Murakami wrote noir or Chandler wrote magical realism. Even though the reader doesn’t really know what’s going on until late into the story it’s still a fascinating read. The narrator of the tale has an interesting turn of phrase and is more than likeable enough. The writer mixes things up quite well, playing with your emotions throughout where one minute you’re on a downer but a few paragraphs later you’re laughing again. There are some big themes examined along the way with race, religion and cults at the forefront but the story is never compromised and even with a slowish start it’s never less than entertaining. show less
Nominated for a Hugo, Nebula, and Shirley Jackson Awards, Victor LaValle’s riveting horror tale The Ballad of Black Tom, which is a spin and critique of the Lovecraft mythos, a man is beckoned to the threshold of apocalypse with the promise of seeing beyond the fabric of reality. The story is about Tommy Tester, a 20-year-old black man hustling to pay rent and take care of his father in Harlem in 1924. After being hired to deliver an arcane book to a mysterious woman in Queens, Tommy gets show more entangled in the plans of the wealthy Robert Suydam, who is intent on calling forth ancient gods, and Detective Malone, who investigates him.
As mentioned in LaValle’s tale, Tester is invited to be a part of Robert Suydam’s plot to conjure the Great Old Ones, ancient, tentacled creatures that are at the core of Lovecraft’s mythos. Suydam opens Tester’s eyes to the frightening cosmic indifference of the monsters. But when getting involved with Suydam brings down the law on Tommy, he realizes that in light of the racist criminality of the NYPD,
"a fear of cosmic indifference suddenly seemed comical, or downright naïve… he saw the patrol cars parked in the middle of the road like three great black hounds waiting to pounce on all these gathered sheep. What was indifference compared to malice?"
The world will always be a devil’s bargain, Tommy realizes. It’s just a matter of which devils he wants to deal with...
This is a story that juxtaposes Lovecraftian mythology against the racism and inequality of 1920s New York. It's poetic and it is frightening. The constant inequality that Tommy faces ends up being reason enough to justify drastic, desperate action to bring about the end of the novella, by dealing with forces Tommy doesn’t fully understand, but welcomes wholeheartedly by declaring:
"I'll take Cthulhu over you devils any day."
Lovecraft pulled back the veil to show us his racist monsters. A writer of intense, morbid and cloistered passions, Lovecraft expressed a pervasive disgust with physical existence itself, as well as the cosmic dread for which he has often been celebrated. Yet he reserved his most intimate revulsion for those human beings he regarded as, for example, "a bastard mess of stewing Mongrel flesh without intellect, repellent to the eye, nose and imagination."
LaValle pulls back the veil to show us how the monster of racism dooms us all. And The Ballad of Black Tom, although set in 1920s New York, couldn't be more timely. For the devil of racism and racial inequality is still with us today. show less
As mentioned in LaValle’s tale, Tester is invited to be a part of Robert Suydam’s plot to conjure the Great Old Ones, ancient, tentacled creatures that are at the core of Lovecraft’s mythos. Suydam opens Tester’s eyes to the frightening cosmic indifference of the monsters. But when getting involved with Suydam brings down the law on Tommy, he realizes that in light of the racist criminality of the NYPD,
"a fear of cosmic indifference suddenly seemed comical, or downright naïve… he saw the patrol cars parked in the middle of the road like three great black hounds waiting to pounce on all these gathered sheep. What was indifference compared to malice?"
The world will always be a devil’s bargain, Tommy realizes. It’s just a matter of which devils he wants to deal with...
This is a story that juxtaposes Lovecraftian mythology against the racism and inequality of 1920s New York. It's poetic and it is frightening. The constant inequality that Tommy faces ends up being reason enough to justify drastic, desperate action to bring about the end of the novella, by dealing with forces Tommy doesn’t fully understand, but welcomes wholeheartedly by declaring:
"I'll take Cthulhu over you devils any day."
Lovecraft pulled back the veil to show us his racist monsters. A writer of intense, morbid and cloistered passions, Lovecraft expressed a pervasive disgust with physical existence itself, as well as the cosmic dread for which he has often been celebrated. Yet he reserved his most intimate revulsion for those human beings he regarded as, for example, "a bastard mess of stewing Mongrel flesh without intellect, repellent to the eye, nose and imagination."
LaValle pulls back the veil to show us how the monster of racism dooms us all. And The Ballad of Black Tom, although set in 1920s New York, couldn't be more timely. For the devil of racism and racial inequality is still with us today. show less
I read the book in one sitting, all 86 pages of it. It was that good.
Having read Lovecraft Country, I could empathize with Tom and understand his struggle and challenges of living in white America. The humiliation, pain, and powerlessness of having to deal with systemic racism shine through the pages quite well. This quote, in particular, summarizes it well:
More than that, it handles the Lovecraftian themes quite well, especially in its vagueness regarding the ancient Ones. I loved how he brought in Cthulhu, especially in how Tom becomes a symbol of vengeance, drawing upon Cthulhu's power to destroy humanity (in due time) that he's come to loathe.
I also loved the idea of the Outside and how simply Lavalle depicted it. I especially liked the integration of Ma Att and the vagueness of the enormity of her power. I loved how Tom transformed into an entity beyond time and space, yet still grounded by his father's razor and music. And finally, I loved how Lovecraft, on whose story this novella is founded on, is integrated into the story.
It's a great, quick read. Highly recommended. show less
Having read Lovecraft Country, I could empathize with Tom and understand his struggle and challenges of living in white America. The humiliation, pain, and powerlessness of having to deal with systemic racism shine through the pages quite well. This quote, in particular, summarizes it well:
His night with Robert Suydam returned to him, all of it, all at once. The breathless terror with which the old man spoke of theshow more
Sleeping King. A fear of cosmic indifference suddenly seemed comical, or downright naive. Tester looked back to Malone and Mr. Howard. Beyond them he saw the police forces at the barricades as they muscled the crowd of Negroes back; he saw the decaying facade of his tenement with new eyes; he saw the patrol cars parked in the middle of the road like three great black hounds waiting to pounce on all these gathered sheep. What was indifference compared to malice?
"Indifference would be such a relief," Tommy said.
More than that, it handles the Lovecraftian themes quite well, especially in its vagueness regarding the ancient Ones. I loved how he brought in Cthulhu, especially in how Tom becomes a symbol of vengeance, drawing upon Cthulhu's power to destroy humanity (in due time) that he's come to loathe.
I also loved the idea of the Outside and how simply Lavalle depicted it. I especially liked the integration of Ma Att and the vagueness of the enormity of her power. I loved how Tom transformed into an entity beyond time and space, yet still grounded by his father's razor and music. And finally, I loved how Lovecraft, on whose story this novella is founded on, is integrated into the story.
It's a great, quick read. Highly recommended. show less
A people's future of the United States : speculative fiction from 25 extraordinary writers by Victor LaValle
Both utopian and dystopian futures, and ones in between, are represented here, with stories from N. K. Jemisin, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, Tobias S. Buckell, Tananarive Due, Justina Ireland, Seanan McGuire, Catherynne M. Valente, and others. Omar el Akkad’s story about a former internee returning to the broken-down US and the monument it had made of her internment camp was really good (by contrast, I hated his novel). It was about if-this-goes-on treatment of show more Muslims and people who kind of looked Muslim to white Christians, and it was brutal. The protagonist describes two words of hateful graffiti scrawled on a house: one was “the only truly American word. And the first word was SAND.” Elsewhere: “This country is a man trying to describe a burning building without using the word fire.” Tobias Buckell’s The Blindfold, about the intersection of (1) racialized law enforcement with (2) technological measures designed to eliminate bias with (3) Russian manipulation of the system in order to further destablize the US, was also excellent, delivering exactly the kinds of clever speculation that make sf a productive lens for thinking about the present. Those were my favorites, but there’s more to be found. show less
Lists
Diverse Horror (4)
Short and Sweet (1)
To Read - Horror (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 54
- Also by
- 35
- Members
- 8,069
- Popularity
- #3,001
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 394
- ISBNs
- 102
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 11
