LaValle, Victor

LaValle’s gorgeous prose and dynamic characters, combined with the horrific supernatural, make for a compelling listen. Share with fans of Alma Katsu, Erin E. Adams, and Isabel Cañas.

LaValle grips readers with the subtle terror of inevitability, only to hold tight with tenderness.

LaValle (The Devil in Silver) crafts a gem of a Lovecraftian novella, cleverly keeping his horrors just offstage. The real power of the story is Tom's experiences of prejudice as a black man living in early 20th-century Harlem, and how he overcomes and subverts that prejudice, taking on whatever role he has to in order to get by: he is "Charles" to his father, "Tommy" to his friends, and eventually "Black Tom"—one to be feared.