Lovecraft Territory it is a book for a few and at the same time for many. Ambiguous? Yes, because the first reading of the title, a part of the readers may think that it is a work of the own HPLovecraft. But not. This title is a new adventure that uses the entire universe created by Lovecraft, as a formidable tribute in the form of social criticism.
The author, Matt Ruff, manages to capture all the racism involved in the USA in the 1950s and show in a masterful way that the greatest fear we have is not monsters from the imagination, but white monsters. As well described in the book, "Is a figure in white more frightening if it is a ghost or a member of the Ku Klux Klan?".
Well, the author gives this answer very well and still leaves an interesting reminder of how many of the authors we admire so much were racists. Even though it is a different time, those characters created by consecrated authors, came from places where they fought against the end of slavery, as well remembered by Matt Ruff in his pages, while we go along with very well constructed characters.
In addition to being well built, the characters are people who suffer from prejudice that often, for those who have never been there, seems to be a matter of fiction and even a joke. But this is all real and serious. And building a narrative using monsters to talk about racial segregation is great. While traveling with Atticus in search of his father and then on several other journeys, we see that the years just change, but racism remains the same, even more dangerous.
Matt Ruff managed to create memorable characters, in a world full of supernatural elements, portals to other realities, magic and many other elements from Lovecraft's books.
It is truly a Lovecraft Territory! And going back to the beginning of the article, the book is also for many, because any fan of horror novels will be delighted with the criticisms embedded in each city where the characters pass by. Every corner of a house or a dark road.
These are elements that only the readers most passionate about the genre will notice. Not that others don't catch every veiled criticism in a sentence or event, but this is a book that goes beyond the universe of the supernatural, immersing itself in every coldest and densest aspect of the soul and society, reaching the point of almost drowning if we don't take careful to separate reality from imagination.
Lovecraft Territory it is more than a book to be read. It is to be appreciated, to take into account every aspect of human evil, to realize how much prejudice is in each simpler part that you never thought or thought possible. There you realize that when you “separate” people even in trivial things, you are being somewhat prejudiced, whether consciously or not.
Lovecraft Territory Matt Ruff brings a map to be looked at and studied. It is certainly one of the best books of recent years.