Community Reviews
”Mankind doesn’t make messes. Mankind is the mess”
Tommy Tester
The Ballad of Black Tom
Meh, it was ok. Not really the scary type of story I was hoping for. Personally, I found the constant identification of the ethnicity, nationality and behavior and mannerisms for every person Tom met kind of annoying. Maybe it’s just because I’m white, but it just seemed kind of, I don’t know, racist??? Maybe it’s just the way that Tom talked about them that made his attitude seem kind of prejudiced or, once again, maybe it’s just me. Tom just seemed prejudiced to any and all the people around him (even his neighbors in Harlem) and that would certainly be a sign of the times back then that hasn’t changed much, for some. Unfortunately, in certain parts of the US, a black man can still be killed by white, racist, @$$#*!%$ for simple being in a particular neighborhood.
Anyway, the story started out interesting enough. It takes place in the 20’s, 1924, I think. Tom, a 20yr old hustler from Harlem, who lives with his father, that he loves and adores and now takes care of since his father can no longer work. His father, a former bricklayer, was injured on the job, no worker’s comp back then. Tom takes a job delivering a book to a known sorceress. Knowing what the book is, Tom tore out the last page of the book so that the book would be useless to her. She didn’t like that and sent her lackeys (a local detective and a PI) after him for the page. It doesn’t end well and Tom is angry.
There is another storyline where Tom meets Suydam, a rich, white man in Flatbush, that offers Tom $500, a $100 now (the $100 is later stolen by the lackeys) and the rest when he plays for him at his home in three days. Tom shows up and discovers it’s an audition (he only gets $200 now) and he has to come back the next night to actually play again (he’ll get the remaining $200) for Suydam and his guests. The next night comes and goes and Tom’s life, as he knows it, was never the same.
At 154pgs, there’s not much character development, plot or storyline, but what there is was interesting enough to at least finish the story, although I did consider DNFing it in Part 1 of story. I’m going to rate this a solid 3star read, even though I did find it a little disappointing. Part 2 of the story was interesting enough to compensate for the disappointment of Part 1.
Tommy Tester
The Ballad of Black Tom
Meh, it was ok. Not really the scary type of story I was hoping for. Personally, I found the constant identification of the ethnicity, nationality and behavior and mannerisms for every person Tom met kind of annoying. Maybe it’s just because I’m white, but it just seemed kind of, I don’t know, racist??? Maybe it’s just the way that Tom talked about them that made his attitude seem kind of prejudiced or, once again, maybe it’s just me. Tom just seemed prejudiced to any and all the people around him (even his neighbors in Harlem) and that would certainly be a sign of the times back then that hasn’t changed much, for some. Unfortunately, in certain parts of the US, a black man can still be killed by white, racist, @$$#*!%$ for simple being in a particular neighborhood.
Anyway, the story started out interesting enough. It takes place in the 20’s, 1924, I think. Tom, a 20yr old hustler from Harlem, who lives with his father, that he loves and adores and now takes care of since his father can no longer work. His father, a former bricklayer, was injured on the job, no worker’s comp back then. Tom takes a job delivering a book to a known sorceress. Knowing what the book is, Tom tore out the last page of the book so that the book would be useless to her. She didn’t like that and sent her lackeys (a local detective and a PI) after him for the page. It doesn’t end well and Tom is angry.
There is another storyline where Tom meets Suydam, a rich, white man in Flatbush, that offers Tom $500, a $100 now (the $100 is later stolen by the lackeys) and the rest when he plays for him at his home in three days. Tom shows up and discovers it’s an audition (he only gets $200 now) and he has to come back the next night to actually play again (he’ll get the remaining $200) for Suydam and his guests. The next night comes and goes and Tom’s life, as he knows it, was never the same.
At 154pgs, there’s not much character development, plot or storyline, but what there is was interesting enough to at least finish the story, although I did consider DNFing it in Part 1 of story. I’m going to rate this a solid 3star read, even though I did find it a little disappointing. Part 2 of the story was interesting enough to compensate for the disappointment of Part 1.
