I Got a Book in the Mail!
I get most of my books through the amazon kindle store. As much as I like physical books, I have limited space. Besides, moving house four times in recent years has made ebooks seem very appealing; I don’t have any problems carrying them.
But now that I can only access the kindle store from Amazon’s Australian site, there are some books I cannot get this way. In particular, there was a book released last year that really grabbed my interest, and when I couldn’t get it on my kindle I was rather disappointed. Fortunately, good old-fashioned online delivery combined with gift cards meant I could finally get my hands on it. Can you guess which book I’m talking about?
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff interested me for several reasons. The big one is my interest in cosmic horror, but also the premise of the story. A young army veteran named Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip across New England (USA) with his uncle George and childhood friend Letitia to find Atticus’s missing father. Before we even get to the crazy rituals and magic, this is already a terrifying and dangerous prospect for Atticus and co because they are black, and the year is 1954. To quote the New York Times Book Review;
“At every turn, Ruff has great fun pitting mid-twentieth-century horror and sci-fi clichés against the banal and ever-present bigotry of the era. And at every turn, it is the bigotry that hums with the greater evil.”
The one thing I hated about Lovecraft’s stories were the constant racist overtones, so it seems fitting to read a book that uses Lovecraftian themes to tackle the horrors of racism. I know I have a lot of other books to read, but Lovecraft Country will be jumping to the head of the queue. You can expect a review soon, and hopefully it lives up to the hype I’ve given it.
In the meantime, 10/10 on that front cover. I wasn’t sure what to make of the ‘pretend to look old and well used’ look at first, but I feel it works well. And what do you see first at the bottom? Tentacles? Or the KKK?
Jayde Holmes 
I have not heard of this one but it sure sounds interesting!
And that is a unique cover – I thought it was strange that you’d ordered a super used copy of it when it just came out. Lol.
As far as the bottom I thought it was just ghosts at first.. but now that you mention it, it could be the KKK.
It was strange opening it, because I’d never realised how weathered they’d made it look. But even though the cover has it’s pretend creases and wear marks, the pages look and smell brand new. It’ll be interesting seeing how the book ages.
The best part about that cover is that whether they’re ghosts or the KKK, given the themes in the book they still fit. I sure hope this story is as interesting as it sounds.
I hope so too! 🙂 You’ll have to let me know, or I’ll check back! 🙂