History Literature / LovecraftCountry

* DaylightHorror: Before any CosmicHorror elements appear, the reader is treated to a different type of terrifyingly uncaring world: life as an African American trying to travel through Jim Crow era south, and how the injustices of this world often happened in broad daylight.

''Lovecraft Country'' is a 2016 novel from Matt Ruff. Set in the Jim Crow era, it stars the [[ShoutOut aptly]]-[[Literature/ToKillAMockingbird named]] Atticus Turner as a 22 year old African American army veteran, whose father Montrose goes missing in Main/LovecraftCountry. Despite the threats posed by a [[TheOrder secret order]] hiding in a village of questionable temporal geography with [[BlobMonster shoggoths]] roaming about the woods, Ruff effectively uses the CosmicHorrorStory as a foil to show [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters just how horrific racism can be]].

* AngryBlackMan: Montrose is understandably resentful of the systemic racism African Americans of the period had to endure, but unlike all the other characters he is far more likely to lash out about it and berate his fellow black people for not fighting it tooth and nail. He goes as far as assaulting children on the street he doesn't even know over it.

* CorruptHick: Unsurprisingly given the period and setting, Atticus and his family as well as anyone else traveling as part of the Safe Negro Travel Guide meet these. These range from police officers who stop and harass them for a pretext to police officers who will kill any African-American who enters their county.

''Lovecraft Country'' is a 2016 novel from Matt Ruff. Set in the Jim Crow era, it stars [[ShoutOut the aptly named]] Atticus Turner as a 22 year old African American army veteran, whose father Montrose goes missing in Main/LovecraftCountry. Despite the threats posed by a [[TheOrder secret order]] hiding in a village of questionable temporal geography with [[BlobMonster shoggoths]] roaming about the woods, Ruff effectively uses the CosmicHorrorStory as a foil to show [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters just how horrific racism can be]].

** [[spoiler:Lancaster has no scruples about putting a lethal curse on a 12 year-old boy just to send a message to Caleb.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the end of the story [[spoiler: Caleb Braithwaite has been stripped of his powers and run out of Chicago]], but what does this mean for [[spoiler:Dell, who was being kept in a magically induced coma by him and used as raw material for Ruby's transformations into Hillary?]]

* WitchSpecies: Talent for magic runs in families, and some bloodlines are more powerful than others. [[spoiler: The reason the Braithewhites are interested in Atticus is that he is the last living descendant of Titus Braithewhite, one of the most powerful sorcerers ever.]]

* AscendedFanboy: The gang at one point need to retrieve a magic book from a museum. One of the people they bring along for help is a group named Mortimer, who is a Lovecraft fan and becomes positively giddy when he witnesses supernatural phenomena.