Showrunner Misha Green ( Underground, Sons of Anarchy) preserves much of the book's central premise and main characters in this HBO adaptation. But the worst monsters are not eldritch terrors or a Shoggoth in the woods it's the stark racism and bigotry our protagonists encounter along the way. There are plenty of sly references to the works of Lovecraft for the astute reader along the way: a secret cabal called the Order of the Ancient Dawn, a haunted house, a strange pocket universe, time shifting, shape-shifters, and a cursed book. Subsequent stories focus on Letitia, George's wife, Hippolyta, and their daughter, among others, giving each member of the extended family their time in the storytelling spotlight.

He's accompanied by his Uncle George-publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide-and his childhood friend Letitia (aka Leti). When his estranged father disappears after encountering a well-dressed white man driving a silver Cadillac, leaving a cryptic message, Atticus sets out on a road trip from Chicago's South Side to rural Massachusetts. Lovecraft fan, despite the author's notorious racism. The first quarter of the book focuses on Atticus, a Black Korean War veteran and big H.P. Set in the Jim Crow era of the 1950s, Ruff's book is structured as a series of short stories, although everything is inter-related. (Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)

And social relevance aside, it also works as pure entertainment. Like the novel that inspired it, the series' pointed juxtaposition of supernatural Lovecraftian horrors against more mundane, but equally horrifying racial inequalities of that era is especially timely in a year that has seen widespread civil rights protests against the brutal killings of Black men (and women) by police officers. A Black family in 1950s Chicago struggles to reclaim their lost ancestral legacy while warding off monsters and magic spells in HBO's Lovecraft Country, based on the 2016 dark fantasy/horror novel of the same name by Matt Ruff.

Lovecraft country book reviews