Howard Phillips Lovecraft is the kind of writer who provokes mixed emotions. On the one hand, he has become the face of the cosmic horror subgenre and his influence on modern horror in general is undeniable. When you sit down to actually read his stories, however, you’ll find that they tend to be permeated by his rampant bigotry—extreme even for his own time—and many of his plots fall into repetitive, predictable patterns. Even his best stories (I particularly enjoyed The Shadow over Innsmouth and “The Thing on the Doorstep”) have at their core an intense xenophobia and complete disregard for women. But whether you’re a hardcore Lovecraft fan or uninterested in ever reading anything from the man himself, you can enjoy the many new stories coming out from authors who play in Lovecraft’s sandbox while critiquing some of his views and adding new perspectives into his worlds. Here are just a few examples of books that put a fun, new twist on Lovecraft’s immortal mythos:
Lovecraft Country by Matt Russ
I’m currently reading this 2016 novel, which inspired the popular television series of the same name and follows a Black family in the 1950s as they navigate both the indignities of Jim Crow America and the strange machinations of a secret society of white occultists. Atticus and his uncle George, whose family business is publishing the Green Book travel guides, are huge science fiction fans despite the racism they all too often encounter within the pages of their favorite paperback pulps. Their knowledge of Lovecraft and his ilk comes in handy when they discover that their family history is tied up with that of the Braithwhites, a wealthy white family obsessed with magical texts, alternate dimensions, and enacting powerful rituals that could endanger the entire world. The book is structured episodically, following different members of the family through various encounters with the monsters—both human and interdimensional—that could have come straight out of one of Lovecraft’s stories.
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
One of my personal favorites, Winter Tide (2017) blends elements of Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep” and The Shadow over Innsmouth and focuses on the types of people that are usually Othered in his writings. The central character is Aphra Marsh, one of the fish-frog-like people of the seaside town of Innsmouth who—in this version of the story—were interned alongside Japanese Americans during WWII. When a Russian spy gets ahold of the dangerous body-snatching magic once used by her people, Aphra teams up with Jewish FBI agent Ron Spector and various students and staff at Miskatonic University to uncover the plot endangering their country. You can read my original review of Winter Tide here.
Maplecroft by Cherie Priest
How about some lesbians in your Lovecraft? Cherie Priest combines the real-life story of accused axe-murderer Lizzie Borden with cosmic horror in this 2014 novel. After the death of their parents, Lizzie and her sister Emma are living in their Massachusetts mansion called Maplecroft, which they have turned into both fortress and laboratory to battle the strange things that emerge from the sea. When an unexplained illness starts spreading among their neighbors, making them resemble the fish-frog people from The Shadow over Innsmouth, Lizzie readies her axe once more. But keeping the town safe while maintaining their family’s secrets becomes much more complicated when Lizzie’s lover Nance comes for an unexpected visit. Check out my original review of Maplecroft here.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
I haven’t had the pleasure of reading this one yet, but it’s next on my list! In this 2016 novella, Victor LaValle takes on one of Lovecraft’s most overtly racist stories and explores it from a Black perspective. In Lovecraft’s original story “The Horror at Red Hook,” Detective Malone of the NYPD investigates occult activity in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood but is just as horrified by the area’s diversity and racial intermixing as he is by dark rituals and human sacrifice. LaValle’s retelling centers a Black musician named Tommy Tester who gets tangled up in the world of dark magic and eldritch gods.
Have you read any of the books above? Got any other fresh takes on Lovecraft’s mythos to recommend? Let me know in the comments!
I do like Lovecraft’s stories. One of my favorites is The Music of Erich Zann. Erich Zann is a Renaissance viol-player and a mute with a wrinkled satyr-like face. He lives in the one-windowed garret of the peaked boarding house on the Rue d’Auseil in Paris. Every night Zann plays his ghoulish music. Like so many of Lovecraft’s stories, there’s an edge of madness. I like your reviews—inspiring.
In my opinion, the racist aspect of Lovecraft’s work is secondary. In the sense that it is certainly present, but it is not the central theme – in his time there were writers (including those in speculative fiction) who brought the racial issue to the forefront. Take away Lovecraft’s suspicion of “colored people”, and you will see much more – horror before a cruel and unreasonable reality, where the role of the supreme being is played by the “Blind Idiot”.