Lovecraft Country

Very briefly, the stories are as follows:

Lovecraft Country is about a visit to a manor where dangers (of all kinds) await.
The Dreams of the Which House is about trying to turn a (possibly haunted) mansion into a multi-unit apartment building.
Abdullah's Book is about a task to track down an ancient tome.
Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe is about the discovery of a portal to another planet.
Jekyll in Hyde Park is about a black woman who wakes up white.
The Narrow House involves an encounter with ghosts.
Horace and the Devil Doll is about a sentient, murderous doll.
And finally, The Mark of Cain involves a final encounter between the many characters in book.

Chapter One: Lovecraft Country

Atticus Turner, a black man, gets a letter from his father, Montrose, asking him to go to Ardham Massachusetts. Atticus travels there with his Uncle George (and his childhood friend Letitia stows away with them, too). There are rumors of Lovecraftian monsters in that area, but they mostly just encounter racist cops.

At the mansion, Atticus learns that he is the most direct descendant of Titus Braithwhite, a wealthy white man who died in 1795. The house now belongs to Samuel Braithwhite (a more distant descendant). Titus had once led a coven of men, a strange religious order, that is now being led by Samuel. The members kidnapped Atticus's father to lure Atticus there. They need Atticus's blood to perform a ritual. However, Samuel's son, Caleb Braithwhite, gives Atticus an incantation to kill off the entire order. Atticus is able to leave safely, along with his father, George and Letitia.

Chapter Two: The Dreams of the Which House

Letitia and her sister Ruby are given money from an anonymous man who claims to be paying off a debt owed to their late father, Warren. They purchase The Winthrop House, a house located in a white neighborhood that is rumored to be haunted. The seller wishes to remain anonymous. Letitia encounters a phantom in the house, but is undeterred and even friendly towards it. Those in the neighborhood are angry about a black woman owning property there and try to vandalize her house, but the phantom fights them off.

Later, Atticus finds a photo of Hiram Winthrop (original owner of the house) with Samuel Braithwhite. Atticus suspects Caleb Braithwhite is involved in all this somehow. He tells the realtor, John Archibald, to send Caleb a warning to leave Letitia alone.

Chapter Three: Abdullah's Book

George and Montrose find out a book that has been passed down for generations (the Book of Days from their great-grandmother Adah) is missing. The book is a record of what Adah should have been paid for her slave labor, plus interest. They learn that Caleb has stolen it. To recover it, Caleb wants them to steal a different book for him, a (possibly magical) tome called The Book of Names. Caleb's father had tried to get it from Hiram Winthrop unsuccessfully. Now, he believes it is hidden in the Museum of Natural History.

George and Montrose engineer a plan (with the help of the Freemason lodge they are a part of) to find the book and give Caleb a fake. They find The Book of Names, but Caleb foils their plan. Reluctantly, they hand over the real book. Caleb returns Adah's Book of Days and gives them the balance of Adah's unpaid labor, plus interest, totaling around $300,000.

Chapter Four: Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe

At the Winthrop House, Hippolyta, discovers a key to Hiram's observatory, which is also a machine that is able to generate a portal to another planet. On that planet, in a gated area, Hippolyta meets Ida, a former employee of Hiram Wintrop. There are monsters that roam outside the perimeter.

Ida and a bunch of other employees were brought here after a maid, Pearl, ran off with Hiram's son. Hiram wanted to scare them into telling him where they went. Hiram intended to leave them for a few days, but in the interim, Hiram's business partner Samuel Braithwhite must have killed Hiram. (The others are dead from various causes.) After a Scylla consumes two watchmen that followed Hippolyta here, Ida tells Hippolyta to leave. Ida believes Hiram's spirit lured Hippolyta here to bring Ida back to earth, so he can continue to hunt down Pearl.

Ida gives Hippolyta a box that contains a creature intended to kill Hippolyta. But as Hippolya heads back to her car, it ends up attacking some white men that are hassling Hippolyta instead. Back at home, Hippolyta notices a comic book her son Horace drew about a female space traveler is missing from her car.

Chapter Five: Jekyll in Hyde Park

Ruby wakes up as a white woman after Caleb offers her an elixir, which temporarily transforms her into a beautiful white redhead. He then offers her a job working for him as he works to unify all the lodges of the Order of the Ancient Dawn. (Ruby has recently been fired from a job after being accused unfairly of stealing.) In exchange, he will give her the deed to a townhouse and a supply of elixirs, giving her the power essentially to choose her race.

Ruby performs some tasks for Caleb, including hiding a magical charm in the office of Captain John Lancaster. (Lancaster leads the Chicago lodge of the Order and hopes to be the leader of all the ledges, but Caleb wants it for himself.) However, she goes into the basement of the townhouse one day to discover the body of the red-headed woman, Delilah, whose blood is being used to power the elixir. Caleb claims Delilah would have died anyway, and the story ends with him telling Ruby that she needs to decide who she wants to be.

Chapter Six: The Narrow House

Caleb asks Atticus and Montrose to find Henry Winthrop, the son of Hiram Winthrop. Henry took some of his father's books when he ran away, and Caleb wants to acquire them. He's especially interested in Hiram Winthrop's old notebooks. Atticus and Montrose go to Aken, Illinois, where Henry is rumored to be going by the name "Henry Narrow". However, they find out that the Narrow family died at the hands of a racist mob that was angry about having a interracial family in their neighborhood.

When they go to the Narrow house, Montrose finds himself meeting the ghosts of the Narrow family. The ghosts exist in some strange limbo state where they relive the last day of their lives. Henry and Montrose chat, but afterwards a mob descends and murders the Narrow family. Montrose also sees the ghost of his deceased father. Afterwards, Atticus finds Montrose in the Narrow house, in the real world, clutching Hiram Winthrop's notebooks. Montrose tells Atticus that they are going to tell Caleb that they found nothing here.

Chapter Seven: Horace and the Devil Doll

Horace is approached by Detective Noble, Detective Burke and Captain Lancaster. A comic book (Orithyia Blue) Horace drew was found near Hiram's observatory. They demand that Horace ask Hippolyta about it and report back to them. When Horace won't cooperate, Lancaster performs a spell that causes inanimate objects to move and another to prevent Horace from telling others what happened.

Horace notices that all sorts of cartoons and images of black people are staring at him or grinning. Horace's friends bring a strange African Pygmy Devil Doll to their clubhouse, and it eventually attacks Horace. However, Horace manages to use Scrabble tiles to spell out to Ruby what happened. Ruby tells Caleb. Caleb shows up, kills the doll and removes the curses. Caleb thinks Lancaster must have assumed Hippolya was at the observatory on Caleb's orders, and Lancaster tried to kill Horace in order to punish Hippolyta for working with Caleb. Caleb plans to kill Lancaster.

Chapter Eight: The Mark of Cain

Everyone (Montrose, Leticia, Hippolyta, et al.) gets together to discuss and share stories about their experiences with Caleb. Caleb has a plan to get rid of Lancaster, but they decide that they need to get rid of both of them. They decide to pretend to go along with Caleb's plan, but ask Winthrop's ghost for help.

Caleb meets with Lancaster to work out their differences, but Caleb (along with everyone's help) lures Lancaster into a room where a monster swallows Lancaster and his croonies up. Then Atticus enacts his plan, where he uses magic (thanks to Wintrop) to alter Caleb's Mark of Cain. The altered mark prevents Caleb from entering into certain geographic areas and prevents him from doing magic. They toss Caleb into their truck, drop him off in Indiana and drive off.

Epilogue

Hippolyta asks Letitia to get the combination from Wintrop so she can go back and find Ida and tell her what happened to Pearl (despite Ida having tried to kill her with that monster). Meanwhile, Ruby (as Hillary) goes back to the employment agency, introducing herself as Hillary Hyde, looking for a new job. Finally, George, Montrose, Atticus and Horace put the rest of the money Caleb gave George into a safe. The book ends with Atticus and Montrose agreeing to take Horace along for their next trip around for the Guide.

For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary.

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