Ring Shout

"Fantastic short read. Intensely rich and fleshed out, and very interesting ideas brought together here! Must read!"

"Incredibly creative!"

"Slow start, but from chapter 3 on my attention was held."

"Ring Shout is a small book that really packs a punch! This is a creative and intense novella that blends elements of horror, fantasy, and historical fiction. The storytelling hooks you from the beginning, and it's a very visual story. It took me a little bit to grasp what was going on, but I was fully invested once I figured it out. Ring Shout has some great body horror, and I would really love to see more horror stories from this author. It's woven together really well with both heartbreaking and amusing storylines, and this is a book you don't want to miss in the fall!"

"It wasn’t really for me, but if you love fantasy and horror, you will LOVE it! This book is very cleaver and a interesting read!"

"This novella is something of a masterpiece of cosmic horror and folk horror. Set in 1925 in Macon, Georgia, Ring Shout pits a cast of badass Black women against the KKK and the other, even more dangerous occult horrors that lurk among them. In this imagining of the American south, the Klan has used an arcane summoning to invite eldritch entities to join their ranks, and the incendiary film the Birth of a Nation was their biggest conjuring. The protagonist Maryse is part of a team of monster hunters defending folks from these entities, called Ku Kluxes. The rest of their team includes: Sadie Watkins, a country-born sharpshooter; Cordelia Lawrence, a queer woman who passed as a man in order to serve with the Harlem Hellfighters in the First World War; Molly, a scientist whose family was enslaved by the Choctaw, and her two Afro-Indigenous assistants Emma Krauss, a German Jewish widow who has an anthropological interest in the music of the African diaspora and Nana Jean, a Gullah-Geechee root conjurer, bootlegger, and the brains behind the operation Clark blends dark fantasy, cosmic horror, and folk horror inspired by African diasporic cultures into a clever, creepy, and very fun take on the good-guys-vs-evil-monsters premise. It reads like the Dunwich Horror, except instead of a dismal vision of Massachusetts beset by fish people (who represent immigrants, because Lovecraft was a dick), you have a vibrant vision of 1925 Macon full of both racist oppression and Black resilience, and the monsters represent the hate that eats away at a racist's soul. And here I'll make a recommendation that I've never made before: THIS IS A BOOK BEST ENJOYED AS AN AUDIOBOOK. Channie Waites' performance is incredible. It's dynamic and truly does justice to the specific accents, colloquialisms, and the Gullah dialect that make the book feel so authentic."

"This was PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!! The writing was Beautifully fast paced but not too fast!!!!!!! The banter between the characters was my FAVORITE!!!!!!! And I grew so SO attached to the characters in such a short time!!!!!!! Also the whole concept was just So original that it hooked me Instantly!!!!!!!! Highly recommend!!!!!!!"

"I'm designating this book as a spearhead to "Jim Crow Horror" as its own distinct genre. The thought of monsters and cryptid like creatures behind the hate and horror of Jim Crow racism is chilling!"

"I loved the story telling in this book! The ups and downs of this book really hooked me in and the description of the characters made it feel more like a movie than a novel. Absolutely loved this book! "

"I enjoyed the audible narration of the book so much. Chennie Waites did amazing with all the different characters and dialects. A historical fantasy, it focused on the KKK in an alternate universe. I had to actually buy the written text as I will read again soon"