← Back to Horror rankings
The Ballad of Black Tom cover

The Ballad of Black Tom

Victor LaValle · Horror · 154 pages

43 Pulse Score

Based on recommendations from independent creators

cosmic horrorpsychological thrillersurvivalurban fantasy
cosmic horrorsupernatural horror
🌶️🌶️Mild — romantic tension, kissing, nothing explicit

#188 All Time

About this book

One of NPR's Best Books of 2016, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the British Fantasy Award, the This is Horror Award for Novella of the Year, and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards 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? "LaValle's novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent

Check your library

Books with similar tropes

Last refreshed just now