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Elle Maruska's Reviews > Lovecraft Country
Lovecraft Country (Lovecraft Country, #1)
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I really wish I could've like this book more than I did. The concept was really interesting and the characters were very interesting as well. But I feel like this story wasn't the author's to tell; it made me incredibly uncomfortable to read a white man speaking through black characters about being black in the 1950s. I respect books that feature diverse characters but there's a difference between telling a story with black characters and telling a story about being black; white authors can and should do the former but the latter? I don't feel right about it.
As for the story itself, there were many fascinating aspects but I felt overall it read as far too disjointed; I also felt too much was accomplished far too quickly and with very little effort or cost. I feel like it read as rough and unfinished. Also the title seemed less about the content of the book than an overarching concept that the author didn't really succeed in imparting. This was my first book by this author and I'm not certain I'd read another.
As for the story itself, there were many fascinating aspects but I felt overall it read as far too disjointed; I also felt too much was accomplished far too quickly and with very little effort or cost. I feel like it read as rough and unfinished. Also the title seemed less about the content of the book than an overarching concept that the author didn't really succeed in imparting. This was my first book by this author and I'm not certain I'd read another.
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Reading Progress
January 1, 2017
– Shelved
January 1, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 3, 2017
–
Started Reading
January 4, 2017
–
23.0%
January 4, 2017
–
35.0%
"Ugh I feel like I would like this a lot more if it wasn't written by a white guy trying to adopt the voice of black men and women in post-War America. I keep just getting really...Idk...grossed out almost? Like damn this isn't this dude's story to tell"
January 4, 2017
–
50.0%
January 4, 2017
–
Finished Reading
February 8, 2017
– Shelved as:
2017-reads
February 8, 2017
– Shelved as:
horror
February 8, 2017
– Shelved as:
lovecraftian-horror
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Mary
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rated it 5 stars
Sep 19, 2018 02:18PM
A similar thought crossed my mind, but good writing is good writing, and I feel like Ruff did his research and did justice to his African American characters. Apparently, Jordan Peel & Misha Green are turning this into a series for HBO. It will be exciting to see the material reinterpreted by black artists & writers.
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i didn't really know anything about this book going into it, but found out the author was white after finishing. I feel the same sense of ambivalence about it. near as i can tell, he did do a great job of capturing the experience of being Black in the us in the 1950s, but that's still me as a white person making that judgement call.
And then if your black friends tell you they agreed it was great, those just your black friends and don't count? is it only outraged people who get to decide who get to tell the stories of people with their grandparent's perspective? Only the blind can write from POV of blind people? If an important novel about the KKK comes out, the well-intended white writer needs to either compose his novel from the POV of the KKK, or some precious white person suffering vicariously through black people he sees around him? These rules seem like virtue signalling to me.
There's a cosmic horror movie coming up by Black creators which is the biggest middle finger for the racist and antisemite L*vecr*ft was, and if my anxiety wouldn't stop me from watching horror, i would watch it ASAP
I bought this book before I realised he was white as I'd seen all the Black people I follow on twitter raving about the tv show. Which kinda shows how it's important to support Black creatives
I'm 3 pages in and baffled at the stellar reviews. It's written for a White audience to try to imagine what it's like to be Black. The characters don't think or behave in any way that's realistic. As a Black person it reads like a White person who suddenly woke up Black. I will give it 100 pages. But I'm glad I wasn't the only one thrown off.
