A sequel to Lovecraft Country, this is a continuation of the characters and the worlds in that novel. I enjoyed this but it was not quite as good as the original.

Highly recommended for fans of weird fiction, historical fiction, and adventure-horror.
Three years have passed since the events of Lovecraft Country, and Atticus, Letitia, and their families have struck a balance between going back to the real world while still bearing the weighty knowledge of everything they have seen and done.
Again, there are multiple plots happening at once, culminating in a final showdown.
Atticus and his dad, Montrose, are on another family journey, this time exploring the path to freedom that their ancestor took through the swamps of North Carolina when he escaped enslavement, awakening powerful forces that have been waiting for their visit.
Ruby has been hiding in Chicago, using a daily potion to take the form of a white woman named Hillary, but her potion supply is running short, and she is not keen on giving up the independence and professional success she has found as Hillary.
Hippolyta has been secretly working for the ghost of Hiram Winthrop in the hopes that he will grant her another opportunity to travel across the planets and stars. Meanwhile, her husband George, has been pursuing a Faustian bargain of his own with his buddies from the Masons, trying to reverse a secret terminal diagnosis. Their teenage son knows that each of them is hiding something and is determined to figure it out.
I was initially a bit flustered trying to remember who is who and what their previous story was -- it has been like 6 years or so, right? -- but it didn't take long to fall back into the story, and I consumed in a just a couple of sittings.
I would be happy to revisit these characters a third time.

Ruff continues the story that began in "Lovecraft Country" with the same characters trying to make their way in a racist-fueled world. Still mixed up with bad-intentioned sorcerers and trying to do their best, magic gets in the way. It was a joy to visit the characters again and fun to go along with them.

Matt Ruff's THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS was such a disappointment. I loved LOVECRAFT COUNTRY (long before the HBO adaptation). DESTROYER is a classic example of a much weaker sequel to a book that didn't need a sequel. Like the HBO adaptation, it leans too heavily on the racial themes, at the expense of the storytelling.

A good follow-up to Lovecraft Country. Ruff expands on characters given a side role in the first book while keeping the same beats to the story. The antagonists are the same as in the first book: malicious spirits, magic-using cults, and society. This book should be recommended to fans of Lovecraft Country, who want to see more adventures of the world previously created. The book does not take any major risks but was still an enjoyable read.

The same characters that leapt off the pages of his first novel return to face old horrors and new in this sequel to Lovecraft Country. Similar to the first book the narrative switches between Atticus, Hippolyta, and Ruby among others building tension with every transition until the reader is on tenterhooks waiting to see how the strings of the story are linked and whether everyone will all make it to the end. Again, the story leaves room at the end for further adventures, and danger, to come.

I was surprised and delighted to see a sequel to Lovecraft Country. Between the cancelled television series and how things ended, we all knew that our heroes had unfinished business with Hiram Winthrop, Caleb Braithwhite, and other forces of evil. This continues the adventures of Atticus, Montrose, Hippolyta, Letitia, George, and Rose.

In my review of the original Lovecraft Country, I wrote that this book shows how powerful genre fiction can be because it turns a mirror on us and our world. The first volume cleverly engaged with H.P. Lovecraft's legacy and emphasized that the real horror in this world is racism (but some of these racists also use magic in addition to their physical, social, financial and systemic advantages). This continues in the sequel. Our heroes are living their lives best they can, now aware they are surrounded by both all-too-real and outworldly horrors. The book has a different feel than the first as a result of this— they are now cognizant of the magic around them, and some work to use it to support their needs and their loved ones and to get something like fair treatment.

I learned from reading interviews with Matt Ruff that the concept of the book was tied to the possibility of a TV series, and that episodic structure with a very "monster of the week" feel was deliberate. Unlike the first novel's episodic feel, the various subplots are much more woven together, occasionally running parallel to one another and informing one another. I found the stories of Hippolyta (now a courier for Hiram Winthrop) and Ruby (yes, continuing her daily transformations) the most compelling.

This certainly leaves room for a third volume, which I'd love to read.

For readers similarly concerned with a white author writing about the experiences of Black characters, you might find Matt Ruff's responses to some reader questions helpful:
https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

Matt Ruff returns to the world of "Lovecraft Country", continuing the adventures of Atticus, Letitia and the rest as they encounter evils both supernatural and societal in Jim Crow-era America.

I had read "Lovecraft Country" initially in preparation for the HBO TV series. While the author admittedly wrote the book to be something of a bible for that TV series, I still found myself enjoying it more than the show. With the cancellation of the series, I felt a little sadness at the possibility of not continuing with these characters. So it was a pleasant surprise to discover this follow-up from Ruff.

In some ways, I feel this book works better than its predecessor. Perhaps no longer having to feed a TV series freed Ruff up to get more creative in the structure of the book, but it's written in a slightly less linear fashion, moving back and forth between the different adventures being experienced by the characters. T
It felt to me like Ruff paired and interleaved thematically similar narratives, which I feel serves the overall book quite well.

In terms of the story, a couple of years have passed for the cast, but they are written with a confident hand and feel very familiar, with little need to reintroduce them. The adventures they encounter here all build off the first book without being simply a retread. And, as in the earlier book, Ruff neatly ties together the seemingly disparate stories early in the book in a finale which is reliant on elements from all the adventures leading up to it. I also appreciate Ruff's mix of science and the supernatural, creating an atmosphere In which neither the reader nor the characters can be completely certain of what the are dealing with or how events will turn out.

In the end, I found this a welcome and enjoyable return to Lovecraft Country. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this in exchange for an honest review.

I was quite excited to see a return of the cast of “Lovecraft Country,” and my anticipation was not at all in vain. The story wastes little time and starts right off with Atticus, Hippolyta, Montrose, and all the other familiar characters scattered across the country already in the thick of various trips and plans. Things only proceed to almost immediately pick up for everyone from there, and the separate but eventually interconnecting storylines stay in high gear and don’t let up until the end.

Besides making for a grippingly fun read, it also continues to engage head-on with the racial baggage of Lovecraft’s legacy. I would be more than happy to see Ruff carry the series onwards, and continue to develop this world that is both distinctly Lovecraftian but also increasingly embracing in its distinct blend of the weird and supernatural.

An excellent follow up to the original book. Very strong stories for Lettie, Hippolyta and Ruby. I can’t wait to read the next installment.