Southern Gods

I'll tell you something: When I pick up a first novel, no matter who the author is, I expect to encounter a fair share of hiccups throughout the book. It's a first novel, there a bound to be some rough spots. And that's a fine and natural thing. But here, with SOUTHERN GODS, the fist thing I took note of was that John Hornor Jacobs writes with an assured and compelling voice throughout.

The prologue of this novel is as fine a piece of horror literature as any I've had the pleasure of reading. And when Jacobs moves us into the Arkansas of 1951, you know he's got it down cold. Ramblin' John Hastur is an engrossing character, Bull Ingram is a likable guy, all the characters are rich and alive in the pages, and I'll take odds that once you start turning the pages of this novel you won't want to stop. There are some nods to H.P. Lovecraft, but it's all filtered through a solid Southern Gothic lens and reads like nothing else I've read before.

Even if horror isn't your thing, you pick up this book, you'll be hooked, because Jacobs can flat out write. A true pleasure to read, this a book that has earned itself a permanent place on my shelf.

First things first: SOUTHERN GODS is a terrific novel. It is Southern Gothic, noir crime thriller and intense Lovecraftian terror rolled into one marvelous story of bad blood, demons both personal and real, and hard-earned redemption. And Jacobs writes with such a sure hand you'd swear he'd sold his soul to the devil just like the folks in 1951 rural Arkansas whisper about Ramblin' John Hastur in the novel. Of course, Ramblin' John's story is a great deal more complex--and more sinister--than that, but I have no intention of ruining the ride you have ahead of you. I'll just say this: if William Faulkner, Jim Thompson and H.P. Lovecraft had an orgiastic blood sacrifice ritual to honor the Old Ones in the Delta Swampland at the height of the muggy Deep South summer at midnight, Southern Gods would probably be the result. Yeah, it's that good.

I don't see writing this tight too often, and the mounting tension is so expertly paced that I found myself breathlessly turning the pages. The denouement smashed me in the face with breakneck madness and terror that included a rare element lacking in a lot of horror fiction--heart. Jacobs' characters are extremely rich, and their journey to the incredible close of Southern Gods all but left me gasping for air. This is the sort of book you just silently hold in your hands for a while after finishing it, thinking it over and basking in its masterfulness. That's what I did, anyway.

Highly recommended.

Alright, I don't know Cthulu from Gesundheit so all of this "Lovecraft-infused Faulkner" talk about this novel just breezed right by me.

After the ghost/horror story prologue, the book moves like a well crafted PI novel -- the search for the missing person. Of course, like all good PI search books before it, the searcher ends up unraveling more than he'd bargained for and turns to a new search.

What's magnificent about this particular novel is the way it stays true to this form, then expands and deepens the narrative, bringing in a creation narrative that feels both fresh and ancient.

As World War II veteran Bull Ingram searches for the mysterious Ramblin' John Hastur, he's pulled into a world of southern gothic horrors stretching back generations, weaving in characters' narratives like threads in an heirloom quilt.

This is a book you'll recommend immediately and then remember on dark nights for the rest of your life.

"Southern Gods" is an intriguing take on the Lovecraft Mythos. Here, author John Hornor Jacobs takes those Eldrich horrors from 1920's New England and transplants them to the blues soaked South of the '50s.

In his debut, Jacobs does a fairly good job creating that typical "Lovecraftian" sense of dread that he skillfully enables the readers to experience along side his characters. The premise has promise; music from an enigmatic Bluesman named "Ramblin' John Hastur" (a name that should be familiar to all Lovecraft devotees) randomly turns up on the airwaves and leaves nothing but chaos and terror in its wake.

The central mystery of just who...or what Ramblin' John is kept me hungrily devouring this novel. However, the Big Reveal left me gagging.

I'm not going to give it away, but I felt an opportunity was missed here. This was a chance to marry the Cthulhu Myth to the Crossroads Myth and take a truly American horror legend to the next level.

Instead, the sense of dread gives way to a sense of Deja Vu as Jacobs falls back on a lazy resolution. This was disappointing since he initially introduces some very fresh characters and concepts. By the end though, you're left with weak dialogue and cliche characters (the wizened master who knows more than he should, the life long loner who suddenly finds his compassion at the last minute, etc...)

I don't know if Jacobs simply lost direction or if he was forced to "rework" the ending at the urging of his publisher. But the last quarter of the book almost seemed (as noted by another reviewer) as if it had been written by a different author.

Still, the story was entertaining and the writing (aside from some circular and clunky phrasing) shows tremendous potential.

If you need to exorcise your internal demons by reading how fictional characters banish Lovecraftian monsters, this is not the book to read. It proffers initial promise but becomes revolting to read and the "happy" ending is forced. Unlike with 100 others of the genre in my personal library, this starts well written but ends up un-believably nastily (in every sense of the word), not cathartically. One wants to release the contents of his stomach thereafter.

I devoured the first 200 pages of this book. It was a fantastic lovecraftian tale set in the backwoods of the American south and I couldn't put it down. The last 70 pages or so though, were a slog. It seemed like an altogether different author.... cliched dialogue, predictable plot, deus ex machina devices, etc. Maybe it was just the huge contrast from the amazing start, but I caution other readers that you will probably be let down by the finale of this book.

Okay, up front let me say that I am both a Blues and Lovecraft afficianado, having collected, read and/or listening to both for over 40 years. This work uses these two wellsprings to drive its plot line and ends up only in misusing them. First off, the Blues: the timelines, and musical touchpoints are simply wrong. For example, the main character visits what is obviously Sun Records (the name is changed but not the address) in 1951. Sun wasn't started until 1952. There he is tasked to look for a Sun sales rep in Arkansas spreading 45's of Billy Lee Riley and Sonny Burgess (and some cash) around Arkansas. The problem is that the first issued 45's by Riley and Burgess for Sun were in 1956. Then there is a visit to a small radio station in Arkansas playing Robert Johnson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe - an almost impossible event!A Juke on the river has "halogen" lights focused on the stage, whcih is a cool trick since they weren't introduced for mass public use until 1960 and, even today, you'd be hard pressed to find them in any true Juke. I realize such continuity errors might seem petty, but for those attracted to the book for its promise of a blend of Lovecraft and the Blues they are dealbreakers.

On the Lovecraft side, this is another one of those books - or movies - that thinks by name dropping the "Old Ones," or using Lovecraftian metaphors they become a part of that mythos. And, like those others, this book fails.

I am shocked by the other literary comparisons in posted reviews as this book wouldn't belong on the same shelf, much less the same bookstore, as Faulkner! We can only hope that enough people were killed off to preclude a sequel.

This book was nothing like what I had expected. I had a gut feeling, after a couple of chapters (because of the gratuitous violence) that I should stop reading it, but after the introduction of a mother and child and another mother with children and some supernatural happenings, I decided I wanted to know what happened to these characters. Big mistake! There isn't much character development here with just okay writing skills and some editing mistakes. I read the Kindle edition. I hated this book! It's one of the worst things, if not the worst thing I've ever read! There is a horrifying amount of grisly, bloody, guts and gore! The things that happen in this book are vile, gruesome, nauseating, unthinkable, vicious and detestable. I can't think of enough words to describe this putrid, festering, pile of filth! Why did I continue reading, you ask? I kept reading because I was hoping for a happy ending and because nothing was that bad until the last few chapters when everything went south. Unthinkable things happen to a 6 year old girl, and there is no happy ending here. You hope for a savior for this mother and child, but there really is none. After wading through too much violence and profanity and all the time I spent reading it, I should have just stopped at the last couple chapters and saved myself the visual stain on my brain and the slithering nightmares I may experience. This book is completely blasphemous about Christian faith as well. There is a priest with no faith. Pagan gods is what this is about and it ain't pretty! Just about every horrendous behavior you can think of is done here, except maybe bestiality, and that may have happened when my eyes were closed. I don't know. Nothing is off limits here. And the scary thing is, after all this blasphemous, evil, sick, twisted filth, I find out the author is a husband and father. Wow! That's truly frightening that he could actually go there! I'm definitely not a fan of gratuitous violence (blood, guts and gore for the sake of it) and profanity everywhere either. But if you like that kind of stuff, then this is right up your alley. I sincerely hope this book isn't in high school libraries! Please don't read this book!

I was pretty excited about reading this novel after reading all the other reviews. It's a difficult thing to write a successful horror novel. Unfortunately I just didn't see what everyone else did. While I think the book is good and a great 1st novel, I definitely feel it's overrated.

So what did I like?

There's nothing in the description nor in most the reviews written here, but this is a Cthulhu Mythos novel. Jacobs draws his horror mythology from H.P. Lovecraft. Because I didn't read this in anyone's review I was really surprised when I started to see names from that world. Now I personally love H.P. Lovecraft so this was a real pleasant surprise and I'm not ruining anything for anyone reading this. You see the the Cthulhu Mythos reference very early in the story.

I absolutely thought the 1st half of the book was pretty damn good. It's immediately engrossing and very believable. The characters are painted with a lot of flavor and good depth. Very believable characters. It's about halfway though the novel when the main characters start to very blatantly encounter supernatural horrors that I felt the writing started to fall apart. I felt the characters overall accepted the occurrences of these events just too easily. Though at the same time Jacobs does do a really good job describing what it's like to experience mind-twisting effects of Cthulhu madness. But nonetheless I still felt the characters overall just accepted these events a little too easy. It made the 2nd half somewhat disappointing. I just wished Jacobs had written in some more moments in how all these characters decide to accept all the things they witness.

So, my recommendation is be forewarned. The book's not bad and I look forward to seeing how Jacobs' writing will mature but I honestly don't think this book rates a 4-5 stars.

I took a flier on this book because it sounded interesting and it had such great reviews here. I've also read most of Faulkner & Lovecraft, and like them both. IMHO this book can not be even remotely related to either one when it comes to the writing. It seems more like a rough draft, or maybe a screenplay; there just isn't any depth. If this book was printed with typical margins and type spacing, it would weigh in at about half its published size. Not that size matters (Lovecraft's work was mostly short stories & novellas) but it does help explain why there is so little character or plot development. And though it has a southern setting, it definitely does NOT have a southern "feel" in either atmosphere or language. If you want examples of current authors that can pack a ton of authentic atmosphere into some tiny books, check out folks like Kent Haruf, Daniel Woodrell, Toni Morrison, . . . . So, now that I seem to have thoroughly "trashed" this book, let me point out some of the things that I DID like: It moves fast and holds your interest to the point that you never want to "give up" on it. It's a good, light, pulp horror novel to fill a few summer nights, and can be easily enjoyed if taken in that vein - kind of like a light beer.