John Hornor JacobsCritiques

Two brilliant novellas that meld Lovecraftian weird fiction with Latin American magical realism ("The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky") and Southern Gothic ("My Heart Struck Sorrow"), respectively, to make for some very refreshing and imaginative cosmic horror. Searing, smart, and scary as hell.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this title.

It's creepy, cosmic horror, southern gothic, cynical detective story. I absolutely loved it. A great plot with very cool characters. It begins when a brute of a detective tries to track down an R&B artist in a racially charged post-WW II south. It's a great setting.

Until...

That ending. Just ... no. It blew all of the atmosphere and creepiness out of the water and ruined the book.

The villains were straight outta Saturday Morning Cartoon casting. I really hate that. Their motives and personalities are one dimensional. There's nothing about what happened to them to make them so evil or turn them so horribly wrong. They just give overlong speeches about what they will do to humanity once they get them in their evil clutches.

The villainous mother makes a speech about how the world will change when the Elder Gods rise and my first thought during her screed was, "Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!"

Seriously. No one should think that while reading cosmic horror.

Then the author "subverted expectations" with a rape and a death, then reversed it with a semi-literal "hand of god". By the time that was over, I was cringing so hard my face hurt. And everyone lived kinda sorta happy ever after the rapes and deaths. Seriously. WTF.

Then there were the speeches about the death of religion. OMG, staahhhhhp.

If not for the terrible ending, Southern Gods would have been a solid five with a 'top pick'. Such a waste.

not sorry to have read this but not wowed either. I listened because Ian Lynch recommended it on his podcast on the strength of the second story, the ethnomusicology one. I enjoyed that story a lot more than the first, though I don't rate either all that highly -- they're both overwritten and neither does a *great* job integrating the horror elements with the themes of the rest of the story, especially in the first story the cursed manuscript stuff feels to me like it's been bolted onto the torture / state repression / midcentury US imperialism stuff without much real reason for the two to be joined

A harsh, spare little chunk of Lovecraftian brutality. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in full-on speed.

The follow up to the Incorruptibles slows down the pace and cranks up the stakes. The purely Western journey of the first book is replaced by political intrigue, Far Eastern adventure, and one devastation after another.

The book is somewhat dissatisfying though, in that it's essentially just setting up the third book and so lacks any great resolution.

As an ending, this is a book full of loss, sin, and misery. There is hope, though, and enough of our heroes make it through to make an ending that is happy enough. There are threads that I felt still needed tying up, but there is real closure here.

A fine ending. A red ending.

I have just finished the first story called The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky. It's about this young literature lecturer in Spain, she is originally from a fictional country in Latin America called 'Magera'. Magera is under a dictatorship, and her parents were among those who have been 'disappeared'. While out one day, she meets this older man who it turns out is the missing Mageran poet Avendaño. From there, a series of events leads her back to Magera in order to deal with the tragic history of her country and her own past.

First off, the plot rings close to home because I am from the Philippines, where we also had/have the phenomenon of 'desaparecidos'. Thousands of people - students, activists, civic leaders, ordinary citizens were disappeared by agents of the state bent on fighting the supposed scourge of communism. This had its heyday in the 70s and 80s during the Marcos dictatorship, but this pattern of 'enforced disappearances' has continued in the succeeding administrations up to the current one under Duterte.

The integration of the supernatural with the mundane, as well as the quality of the prose reminds me of Clive Barker's works. Surprisingly, I did not expect how good the action/fight scenes would be. I feel like this novella would make for a really good movie. Overall, it is a tightly-written supernatural tale against the backdrop of a horrific political reality.

"Grab your headknocker and get ready for some wet work in the murderhole."

A zombie novel, with nuclear apocalypse to boot. The zombies are pretty gross and well, they're zombies--they just keep coming. There is lots of head-bashing and limbs falling off and guts squirting everywhere. Many of the survivors are pretty bad as well: slavers, rapists, torturers, idiots. Things seem very bleak and hopeless, but this is the apocalypse after all. If it's not zombies that get you, it's radiation sickness. I myself would put a bullet in my brain.

So what sets this apart from the bazillions of other zombie novels? First, it has an unusual structure. It is a novel, but the chapters read like stories, each one describing a specific incident and told from a different point of view, although they are connected by characters and proceed along a linear timeline starting from Day 0.

Second, I thought the characterization was very well done for this type of novel. Each character seemed unique, nonstereotyped, flawed, and relatable. The varying perspectives kept the story fresh, and it was a fast and entertaining read. But still, zombies. I may have had enough of them.

Showing that there is plenty of mileage to be had from Lovecraftian cosmic horror, stripped of its period racism and insularity. Two disturbing novellas, in marvellously fertile settings: a lightly-anonymised version of post-coup Chile, and the Library of Congress's folk music project in the '30s and today. Both felt just a little over-researched, with the sources or advisors showing – something Lovecraft was guilty of too. But great stuff.½

Southern Gods
Author: John Hornor Jacobs
Publisher: Nightshade Books
Publishing Date: 2011
Pgs: 270
Dewey: F JAC
Disposition: Interlibrary Loan - Central Library IFICW via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. The mysterious blues man's dark, driving music - broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station - is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur's trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil. But as Ingram closes in on Hastur and those who have crossed his path, he'll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell... In a masterful debut of Lovecraftian horror and Southern gothic menace, John Hornor Jacobs reveals the fragility of free will, the dangerous power of sacrifice, and the insidious strength of blood.
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Genre:
Gothic Fiction
Historical Fantasy
Dark Fantasy
Lovecraft Mythos
Blues Music
Crossroads Myth
INSERT HERE

Why this book:
The Blues and Cthulhu. A many tentacled trip to the crossroads.
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The Feel:
Eerie AF.

So after we start off with a Crossroads vibe, it picks up both a Lovecraft Country and an American Gods kind of vibe. Very nice.

Favorite Character:
I like Bull Ingram, but no one would ever accuse him of being the most intelligent character.

Favorite Concept:
Music that will raise the dead.

Hmm Moments:
Arkansasylvania? Transylsas? I expect Hickthulhu any second.

At the least, this book is a fellow traveller with Lovecraft Country. It definitely shares roots in the part of the country that it's taking place in and in Lovecraft.

So within the space for an hour she saw a bedridden sickly old woman start speaking in tongues and lashing out and, then, sees a shadow staring at her from the bottom of the stairs and doesn't tell anybody about it, not the smartest character in the world. Course I guess she could already be under Hastur's spell. She has been translating the Little Book of Shadows and sitting with and listening to the old lady speak in tongue. What could possibly go wrong?

Juxtaposition:
The scene in Ruby’s on the Bayour: Grover's introduction of Hastur reminds me of King's Man in Black. Interesting juxtaposition, Hastur and Flagg.

So, Sarah belittles the Father Andrez and makes fun of him and, then, runs away from him. Then, she remembers Uncle Gregor telling her stories that line up with what the priest was talking about.

Dreamcasting:
Peter Dinklage as Father Andrez.
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Pacing:
Once Bull, Sarah, and Father Andrez gather at Gethsemane the pace picks up a lot.

Last Page Sound:
Damn...that ending was both horrible and awesome...mostly horrible, in a horror movie way. And that epilogue...that's not really a happy ending. It’s awesome. But...damn.

Questions I’m Left With:
So...Wilhelm survived the boat...or was that Hastur in another form?

Author Assessment:
Very good. Will read more by this author.
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Life changes drastically for Shreve when he meets Jack. Well, life started changing when Shreve landed in juvenile detention. But, he feels life in a cell is better than living with his drunk, neglectful mother. One day he's making money selling candy to the other inmates....and the next he's got a new, and very strange, cellmate. Jack not only has 12 fingers .... six on each hand....but he has strange superpowers that seem to manifest themselves when he is angered or threatened. Unfortunately there are some dangerous people who know about Jack and what he can do....and soon the boys will find themselves on the run. But it seems that escaping will be difficult if not impossible, as those chasing after them have powers too.

This is such an action-filled, fun read! I do admit that when I first started reading it, I almost put the book down. I didn't want to read a book about kids who are incarcerated....too difficult for a Mom to read about neglected kids who end up in prison. But the story soon morphed into something entirely different. Then I couldn't put the book down!

I love the strong friendship that grows between Shreve and Jack. And I completely detest the "bad guys'' in this story -- but, I'm supposed to. It's classic good vs evil...with supernatural elements thrown in for good measure.

The Twelve-Fingered Boy is the first book in the Incarcerado Trilogy. I'm definitely going to read the other two books. I have to find out what happens next! :)

John Hornor Jacobs is also the author of The Incorruptibles Trilogy.

4.5/5 stars!

MURDER BALLADS AND OTHER HORRIFIC TALES is an excellent example of how wide and varied short stories can be, while still being compelling reading for genre readers.

Here, we have stories that are so far apart from each other: Viking women and southern bluesmen, from dog-fighting (that was a hard one) to creating artificial intelligence, how could anyone be bored? The humanity that binds us all as storytellers and story readers is still here.

I have started getting back to my love of science fiction tales lately and Single, Singularity is one of the best I've ever read, bar none. Seriously now, I was lounging outdoors on a ninety degree day and this tale gave me the shivers something fierce. It was that. Good.

Ithaca was about a man, miraculously surviving war, only to return home to find his wife missing.

Verrata was another sci-fi tale about a smart watch and other fabulous sounding technologies that, of course, turn out to be dangerous.

El Dorado was a nasty little story that had a noir feel to it. It also did not feature even one likable character.

I really dug the last tale, the sequel to SOUTHERN GODS. Having owned that book since I don't when, and still not having read it, (I'm ashamed), Murder Ballads struck a chord with me. I found myself traveling with another American bluesman, just as I did in A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL, and I loved every minute of it. However, I know I would have perceived a lot more depth had I read SOUTHERN GODS first. I will rectify that soon and then I'll have myself a reread of this great story.

John Hornor Jacobs is a relatively new discovery to me. I've become familiar with his name due to my fellow reviewers, whose opinions I trust. I have several books of his to read and I'm looking forward to them even more now. John Hornor Jacobs is the real deal folks. You need to climb aboard his train and do it right now.

*Thank you to the author for the eARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*½

After reading THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY, I became an instant fan of John Hornor Jacobs. A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL reassured me that my respect and high esteem for the man was earned and well placed.

This book is comprised of two stories, the first a novella, (the aforementioned THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY), and the second, a short novel titled MY HEART STRUCK SORROW. This review is going to focus almost solely on the second tale.

When I saw on Twitter that this book was coming out, I clicked the pre-order button right away. (There wasn't a description there yet, and I didn't know that THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY was going to be included. When I did discover that, I didn't care because...support.) You can find my review of THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2581295778?book_show_action=false&from...

I went into MY HEART STRUCK SORROW almost totally blind. I was excited to find out that music was a central theme to this tale. I'm a lover of Blues music and I'm fascinated by many of the old artists who were the basis for a lot of the popular music of today. You cannot imagine how stoked I was to find a deep connection with music from the old south in this book.

Cromwell and Harriet are called in to the Parker estate to itemize and catalog Parker's extensive collection of old acetate recordings and journals. I loved this way of framing the story as we are then taken to Parker's point of view for much of the book. He was traveling the south interviewing and recording musicians as an ethnomusicologist, (like the real-life Alan Lomax), dedicated to capturing and preserving music. He traveled with a SoundScriber, the heavy, awkward machine with which he recorded said musicians.

These artists and the areas in which they lived were brought to vivid life in my mind's eye. I easily pictured them. I smelled them. I felt the humidity and heat of the south. I felt the humanity in their songs, and how they changed from one town to another, especially the songs about Stagger Lee. (Or Stacker Lee, or whatever title was used.)

"In Mississippi, in the delta of Arkansas and northern Louisiana, they speak in harsh tones, clipped syllables, as if their entire morphology of communication were angry and inflamed."

One of the men he interviews, Honeyboy, is actually in prison. Parker is able to obtain permission to interview and record him. During those scenes I came across this passage:

"Even the guards laughed at this, and for a while the barracks were full of the laughter of incarcerated men. They sounded like any group of men gathered together. Each full of his own particular sorrow, his mirth, his guilt, the comet's tail of his existence pulling wreckage after him."

This got me to thinking about my comet's tail and what kind of wreckage I carry around within it.

Jacobs deftly weaves the threads of the past and the present, most especially those of Parker and Cromwell. Turns out they had a few things in common. I didn't see what they were at first, but as this tale unraveled, I did. Grief, loss and most of all, guilt, come to each life-how we handle those things, or not handle them as the case may be, made for an engaging and stunning denouement.

I find myself lacking the words and/or skills to properly communicate to you how this book made me feel and why I think you should read it. The tales within are distinctly different from each other, one more a tale of torture, politics and cosmic horror, the other- for me, being at heart a story of loss, guilt, and grief, well framed and partially hidden in a tale about blues and folk music. I'm not going to pretend that I "got" everything there is to get with this story, I already know I will read it again. I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about ethnomusicology, but I can say I want to learn more about it and about Alan Lomax in general.

Leaving behind my inadequacies in getting across how this tale made me feel, I'll wrap with saying that both stories here are extremely well written, unique, thought provoking and powerful. I'll leave you with this quote:

"We are sound waves crashing against the shore with no SoundScriber to take down our likeness, our facsimile. Words like these are just echoes of that original sound. We are but small vibrations on the face of the universe."

With that, my fellow small vibration on the face of the universe, I give A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL my HIGHEST recommendation!

Available October 6th, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/2kXiu92

*Thanks to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. I'm buying the book anyway, but I got to read it sooner this way!*

**Please forgive me for the quotes, but I felt they were necessary to help convey me feelings.**

This was an interesting horror novel. I am not usually a fan of Lovecraftian stories, but the creepy beginning pulled me in and helped me get beyond the gore and unexplained evil that developed later in the story. I liked the characters and character development throughout the story and the ending was satisfying if bittersweet.

A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror
by John Honor Jacob's
due 10-8-2019
Harper Voyage
4.0 /5.0

#netgalley #ALushAndSeethingHell

This pair is chilling tales have never been published. They explore the darker side of human nature. Exceptionally well written, this is top-notch haunting horror.
'The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky'
A once famous poet, Avedano, and his young student Isobel Certa, both exiles from the dictatorship of Magera, South America, are living in Spain. Isobel finds a journal kept by Avedano whose entries are so disturbing she begins to spiral into a world of corruption.

'My Heart Struck Sorrow'
A librarian discovers journals and acetate recordings of a man who recorded blues music in the Deep South, and begins to go mad as he uncovers the origins and roots of a popular blues song.

Thanks to netgalley for sending this e-book ARC for review.

I loved this. Bit of a wild west feel. The world building was top notch as was the prose. The sequels are certainly on my TBR pile.

The time of this story is presumably in the mid-eighties, though that's never explicit, except that key past events happened in the early 70s.

Isabel Certa and Rafael Avendano are two very different survivors of a violent coup and brutal junta in their home country, a fictional country in South America, near Argentina. Rafael Avendano is older, a poet, who had never been overtly political, but who had been close enough to the former, socialist, president of the country that he was damned by association in the eyes of the new rulers. Isabel Certa is younger, lost her mother and the rest of her family in the violence of the coup, and when we meet the two in Spain, she's teaching literature at a university.

When she meets an older, one-eyed man in the plaza during her lunch, at first she doesn't know who he is. He is, after all, believed to be dead.

They begin an odd sort of friendship. This leads, first, to him sharing his work with her. It's startling, gruesome, shocking. There's a translation he's working on, which is deeply unsettling. And there's his memoir of his experiences during the coup. In some ways, that's even worse.

Then he asks her to stay in his apartment and feed his cat while he goes back to Magera, looking for someone he lost during that time. She reminds him he'll probably get killed. He goes anyway--and she doesn't find out till he's gone that he's arranged for his bank to pay her an extremely generous monthly stipend. He had told her to feed his cat, Tomas, "for your protection," and Tomas does prove to be a big, black bruiser of a cat. But what is he going to protect her from

While continuing to read his translation and his memoir, Isabel also continues to teach her classes, see her girlfriend, Claudia, and have ups and downs in their relationship as Claudia is also happily involved with Laura.

And we continue to learn more, through the memoir, of what happened to Avendano during the coup.

It turns out there is something that Tomas needs to protect her from, and it's not of the mortal world.

Jacobs gives us a strong, capable woman, secure in her sexuality at a time when that was still dangerous. When she needs to confront the threats out of her own past, and out of Avendano's, she's tough, smart, resourceful. Avendano is also interesting and complicated.

This is an excellent novella.

I received a free electronic galley from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

My first zombie book!!! Liked the characters; could definitly see some spin offs; missing some substance on minor plot lines; but loved the new words; "damily" and " a damnation of zombies" awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fairly good characterization, somewhat relatable characters. Good world-building. Good potential for further development. Somewhat darkly realistic.
may read more by author

It is part 2, but it works as a stand alone. I had managed to forget that when I started the book. So just cos I was curious I read a few reviews about book 1. But yes it worked as a stand alone as I said. I came in with no expectations and knowing nothing about the two characters.

Shoe is the main character, a half dwarf, half human. A mercenary. His companion and friend is Fisk, the son of a traitor. Fisk is married to Livia, another main character. As her letters to Fisk tells of her journeys to a foreign land.

Oh, back up. I need to tell you what this is first. Why am I speaking of characters without mentioning the weirdness that is this book.

Right. So this takes place in a fantasy world. A fantasy world that reminds us of our world. There is Rume, ruling a vast land. There is Tchinee where Livia goes as an ambassador. And in the Ruman empire there is something that compares to the wild west. It's a steampunk world where engineers use demons to power machines. There are dwarves and elves (the latter being bloodthirsty beasts.) It's a weird world, a mix of things. Our world, so familiar, and yet not. So for this the fantasy world works, yes there is Rume. Tchinee. But it never feels like it's just borrowed from our world. It is its on world.

And in this world Fisk and Shoe tries to find an engineer on the run. Livia has her own issues as the emperor is angry with her family.

It took some getting into, mostly cos it was so strange. But then it became hard to put down and the end! Damn that emperor! Yes it does end with a cliffie. I thought it would be settled, but nope. It will make you want more.

Such an interesting world.

This Dark Earth is a zombie novel. Yes, let's get that out there right away. And you know what's coming next too, right? "But it's not like other zombie novels!" Well, that's not true entirely, from a zombie standpoint it's pretty much like every other zombie novel, but what separates This Dark Earth from the horde is the writing, and the characterization. Both are beautiful! Sadly, I am not going to do this book justice in this review, so forgive me.

I've sat her typing, deleting, and retyping this paragraph for several minutes now, attempting to summarize the characters. I can't, at least not accurately. Lucy is a doctor who witnesses the outbreak as it happens at a hospital. She's fiercely analytical, but once the direness of the situation sets in her primary focus is getting to her family. Knock-Out is a trucker, a tough-guy exterior with a soft heart, who has a more emotional outlook on the events in the book. Gus is Lucy's son, who is just a 10-year-old boy at the start of the novel, but has a mind for survival and an uncanny way of coming up with ingenious solutions to apocalyptic problems.

The book naturally details the trials of surviving a zombie apocalypse, but it's so much more. It subtly exemplifies the devolution of humankind, even as they slowly reclaim technology piece by piece their way of life constantly spins backwards, which may sound true for most zombie novels, but the author's way of going about it is certainly unique, though I won't spoil any of it here.

My only complaint is that the book isn't longer. Yes, it's one of those. I desperately wish it was 400 pages. Or 700 pages. Maybe 1,000 pages. Seriously, I could have stayed with the characters for that long, and I must admit turning the final page was a huge letdown, simply because I knew I would no longer be spending my afternoons with the characters. He did a terrific job of getting me attached to them, and I just wish there was more. Pretty remarkable, for what could easily be mistaken as just another gory zombie book.

**I am grateful to Nudge for providing me with a free review copy. I was reading an uncorrected manuscript proof, so some details might differ from the published book.**

Fisk and Shoe are two mercenaries in the Hardscrabble Territories, hired to protect the steamer Cornelian, along with its high-born Ruman patricians on board. Only gradually it emerges that Governor Cornelius and his four children are escorting a princess who is key to keeping the fragile peace between the Ruman Empire and the Kingdom of Mediera, which are both contesting land and mineral rights in the Territories, to the kingdom’s embassy in Passasuego. After two ill-fated hunting parties things go from bad to worse when the princess absconds secretly in the night – and not alone. Fisk and Shoe set off after them, but eventually Fisk is forced to ride on alone, while Shoe returns to the steamer. When Fisk is again back at the Cornelian, he has a grisly tale to tell, and in order to trace the still-missing princess, he enters into a dangerous bargain. Fisk and Shoe, along with several other companions and a prisoner as an exchange for the princess, set out to find her and so prevent a war that looks increasingly likely.

Told in the first person by Shoe, or Shoestring, half-man half-dvergar, this imaginative and inventive tale about loyalty reads like a fantasy cocktail, with disparate ingredients mixed together that you wouldn’t normally mention in the same breath, but which work all the same: there’s references to Ancient Rome and Greece, complete with terminology used in everyday speech; daemons and imps, used as a power source in engines, lamps as well as guns; non-human indigenous creatures, some hostile to humans – like the vaettir – some friendlier – like the dvergar, though regarded with suspicion by humans and ill-treated – and there’s also mention of dragons, though they don’t actually make an appearance in this book. Shoestring is a natural-born storyteller, forced by his half-blood status to the edge of society, which has turned him into an astute observer and excellent judge of character. The whole novel, the first in a trilogy, exudes a real frontier feeling of adventure and physical and emotional hardship, though also the possibility to forge some long-lasting friend- and partnerships. The characters are well developed, both major and minor, and really grow on you, in particular Shoe. This foreign world is described in lovely prose, and the various settings are realised in exquisite detail, taking the reader from a rather sedate pace to the breathless terror of a vaettir attack without loss of credibility. I thought I detected strong undercurrents of a certain stance towards religion and modern technology (nuclear energy?), but other readers might disagree and this viewpoint is certainly not essential to the understanding and enjoyment of this novel. The reason I decided to give it only four stars is that (a) one or two questions remained unanswered and (b) it is incredibly violent in places, with nothing left to the imagination; the last few chapters in particular are quite disturbing and make for a harrowing read, and have a nightmarish or fever-induced hallucinatory quality to them.

In short, this novel was a real surprise and must surely stand as one of the more original offerings in the fantasy genre. With such engaging characters, an interesting storyline and excellent world building, I’m already looking forward to the next offering.

Contains swearing and sexual references.

This was an excellent book. The characters were interesting, the action intense and the story well-developed. I highly recommend!

I think this would be described by the publisher or author as an homage of sorts to the X-men comic series/movies; I saw it as a blatant rip-off. Mentioning the comics within the story is sort of an ass-covering move, and ultimately weak. It also seems like a mild Stephen King rip-off (always mentioning the nosebleeds seemed like near-constant referencing to King's Firestarter).

Definitely not a surprise to learn it's part of a trilogy as there are definitely more questions than answers, but it's not compelling enough for me to want to find the answers. This was highly recommended by Cory Doctorow, and to be fully honest, I am not a fan of Doctorow's writing, so I guess it's not a surprise I didn't like what he recommended. I keep on trying to like him, but...... I bet people who love Doctorow's stuff will like this though. Just not for me.½

This is more than a 3 star read, but not quite enough to round up to 4 stars. The potential for a fabulous story carried me through until a sudden shift in point of view. The main character, Bull, seemed to take a back seat to Sarah and the action became hers, with Bull fading into the background like a supporting actor. I lost a bit of interest at that point. Bull's character and background were more interesting, and though I was sympathetic to Sarah, she would have been better as a support to Bull. In fact, the dynamic between Bull and Ramblin' John Hastur was excellent. With Sarah, the tension was lost since she never actually met Hastur. The story abruptly changed focus to her family and background.

As for zombies, and gore - the horror elements were all there. For some reason I was less drawn into those scenes than I have been with other horror stories, such as HORNS by Joe Hill. I'm not certain why - just saying. On the positive side, SOUTHERN GODS plot and characters, especially Hastur and Bull, were very well drawn. This was quite a decent book, and one I'll remember for several elements, such as oily mouth'ed zombies.