Read This Book…

Ring Shout is set in 1922 in Macon, Georgia. Our narrator and protagonist is Maryse Boudreaux. Her closest friends are Sadie and Chef and they’ve all set a trap for the creatures they are hunting. Nearby there is a KKK march/rally and it’s the 4th of July. While the human Klan members are awful, they are mostly vehicles for the real monsters called Ku Kluxes.

Ku Kluxes are terrifying beasts that are reminiscent of the aliens from the Alien films but Ku Kluxes are bone white with rows of eyes. So creepy. They gain power and feed off of hate and they often use human Klan members as disguises and hide right alongside them.

Maryse, Sadie, and Chef hunt Ku Kluxes. Sadie is amazing with a rifle and Chef is a delightful butch lesbian veteran who is brilliant with explosives. Maryse? She has a magic sword. Not everyone can see Ku Kluxes but these three have The Sight.

In the United States in 1915 there was a film released called The Birth of a Nation and it gave rise to and a lot of momentum to the KKK. This is actual history. In Ring Shout, the 1915 release of The Birth of a Nation was actually a magic ritual that white men used to summon demons, aka the Ku Kluxes. Ring Shout takes place seven years later when there are plenty of demons to be hunted. The person at the center of the demon-hunting is Nana Jean, who is a Gullah woman with some psychic powers. From some of the research that their little group’s scientist is doing and from Nana Jean’s visions, they can tell something is brewing. Something real, real bad.

Through horror, the author also offers us a really great examination of hate and the different kinds of hate. It’s a novella clocking in at just under 200 pages and it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Content warnings for violence, gore, racism, racist violence, and body horror.