We are not that frightened of the horrors from outer space, we are frightened of white men. The most nerve breaking thing is the political commentary that happens in an emotional level, within the reader. If that's not meta at it's finest, I don't know what is. Instead, it actually makes it an intrinsic part of the plot. It's incredibly clever how not only does it have black protagonists using elements of a magical universe created by a known racist (eat shit lovecraft) but it also mentiones this fact again and again without being trite of boring.

This book has chilling horrors, great characters, intriguing sci-fi, political commentary and a heavy dose of race issues and historical racism. Never before have I seen so eloquent and smart a use of the Cthulhu Mythos. I feel whatever I write for this one would be making it a disservice. You'll love this book if you enjoy a touch of fantasy set in a historically accurate period of American history. Just adding that in case anyone is scanning reviews looking for that information specifically.

And while that author is mentioned in the book, it's not the writing style etc. I would not say 'if you love Lovecraft you'll love this book' because I wouldn't say that the book is Lovecraftian at all. Just the scenes as an onlooker would describe them as they unfold. Some of the jumps are months, where as some are days or weeks. No one having a breakdown, or falling apart over what they just went through. It hops from one charged scene to the next with no time for the characters to unpack what happened. But the book doesn't do the best job of capturing this emotion. The characters are going through their day to day, discovering mind blowing occult things, plus dealing with hate that is still dealt with today. Each chapter in this book could be dripping with emotion. Where the story feel short for me was in the presence of emotion. While I did not see the ending for the alchemist coming, I loved how it wrapped it all up.

Plus family drama, we all know any organization that thrives on lineage is going to have it's fair share of family drama. The occult aspects were fantastic, I loved the way the author mixed political intriguing in with a long standing secret underground of alchemists. From clothes, to speech to how people treated each other. Each scene was well crafted, and felt as if it came out of the time period. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone that loves occult woven into the fabric of our reality. Discovered this book through the show, wanted to read it before I watch it.

Matt ruff lovecraft