*A version of this review first appeared as an article in Auxiliary Magazine*
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys is the perfect book for lovers and haters of Lovecraft alike. H. P. Lovecraft, often considered the father of modern horror fiction, is famous for inventing the Cthulhu Mythos, which was been continued by many others in decades’ worth of novels, movies, games, and pop culture. But he’s also notorious for his rampant racism and serious lack of female characters. In Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys takes the amazing world that Lovecraft created, but subverts his negative aspects by using her story to explore the complexities of race and gender in post-World War II America. Winter Tide was published last year, but its sequel, Deep Roots, will be coming out in July.
Winter Tide is inspired primarily by Lovecraft’s novella The Shadow over Innsmouth, with elements also taken from his less famous short story, “The Thing on the Doorstep.” The first of these tells of a town whose inhabitants are the product of interbreeding with an amphibious society known as the Deep Ones. Their descendants start out life as ordinary humans, but they transform into grotesque fish-frog men as they get older. While these creatures are the source of horror in Lovecraft’s story, one of them is the main character in Winter Tide. Aphra Marsh is one of only two Innsmouth residents to survive the internment camps during World War II. Now, a few years later, all she wants is to live a quiet life with the Japanese family that has taken her in and to try to rediscover the magic and rituals of her people with the help of her bookseller friend, Charlie. But FBI agent Rob Spector has a different idea. When he learns that the Russians may have discovered dangerous body-snatching magic, he wants Aphra to come with him to Miskatonic University to help him read the esoteric texts and find out who the Russian spy is and what he may have learned. Aphra doesn’t trust the government, but she can’t resist the opportunity to return home and gain access to her family’s sacred books.
Ruthanna Emrys cleverly weaves her Lovecraftian story into the true history of our country’s complicated relationship with race during and after World War II. Mythical half-human hybrids are interned beside Japanese Americans, drawing connections between Lovecraft’s genetics-based horror and the racism that pervaded (and to an extent continues to pervade) society. Yet while a number of different groups—some historical, some fictional—face oppression and discrimination, they don’t all have the same goals. As a Jewish FBI agent, Spector has sympathy for those who have been put in camps, but also faces pressure from the government to prove that he is more loyal to America than to the newly created state of Israel. Meanwhile, female students challenge the gender hierarchy by turning to Aphra for the guidance they won’t receive from the all-male institution of Miskatonic, or else hide their true genius behind the title of secretary. As these characters struggle with forming alliances while still pursuing their own personal agendas, Ruthanna Emrys paints a nuanced picture of a diverse society plagued by cosmic, as well as all-too-human, horrors.
Winter Tide is a fascinating look at who the monsters really are and what happens when we apply that label to an entire group of people. If my review piqued your interest, you can find a copy at your local retailer or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process by clicking this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Once you read it, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments!