I watched Lovecraft Country the TV show on HBO back in 2020 and thought it was pretty good. It is too bad the TV show was cancelled before it got a second season. I have had Lovecraft Country the novel on which the TV show is based sitting in my TBR pile for a long time and finally got around to reading it. It is too bad I took so long to read it because I really enjoyed the novel and was disappointed that it had to end. As is usually the case, I thought the novel was better than the TV show.

Lovecraft Country is set in the 1950s and is about a young, Black army veteran named Atticus Turner who discovers that he is the descendant of a white man who founded a secret cabal called the Order of the Ancient Dawn. The present-day leader of the Order, Samuel Braithwaite, and his son, Caleb, lure Atticus to Braithwaite’s manor in New England, aka Lovecraft Country, a country full of murderous white racists and terrifying supernatural creatures that roam the woods, when Atticus’s father disappears. The Order is made up of a bunch of (old white) magicians, or as they prefer to call themselves “natural philosophers”, who want to sacrifice Atticus for the sake of a ritual.

I cannot say too much more without spoiling the entire novel, but the novel consists of a series of interconnected vignettes centering around Atticus’s family and friends, with the presence of Caleb Braithwaite weaving throughout the stories. The title Lovecraft Country is fitting as it refers to the area in New England in which H. P. Lovecraft set his novels, and because H. P. Lovecraft was a racist POS. He was also an influential fantasy, horror and science fiction writer. Both Lovecraft Country the novel and the TV show have all the elements of fantasy, horror and science fiction featured in Lovecraft’s works, although the TV show makes many changes from the novel in order to lean more heavily into horror and gore. I did not find the novel to be a scary read (except for the Devil Doll towards the end of the novel that gave me the heebie jeebies), but I was very intrigued by the overarching plot and the presence of ghosts (which the TV show mainly leaves out).

The most horrifying element of the novel (and the TV show) is the Jim Crow era in which it is set, and the way white people killed Black people without compunction (although who are we kidding, white cops still kill Black people without compunction in US even today). Sundowner towns, the murder of an interracial couple and their child, the Tulsa massacre in 1921, and the general sense of fear of white people is so difficult to read about without feeling rage and disgust towards white racists. However, the great thing about Lovecraft Country are the Black protagonists who are all strong, brave and resilient as they navigate a racist world and outsmart the white villains. Thankfully, Lovecraft Country the novel has a much more satisfying ending than the TV show.