RING SHOUT

What if White supremacy was not only a monstrous philosophy, but was enabled by actual horrific monsters? Clark's feverishly inventive period adventure imagines this scenario in blunt and grisly detail.

The story begins in 1922 on the Fourth of July, with the Ku Klux Klan literally on the march in Macon, Georgia. At first glance, everything looks very much the way it did in real-life history, except it’s clear from the first chapter that there are in this white-hooded crowd of White people both human, garden-variety racist “Klans” and demonic carnivores hiding among them known as “Ku Kluxes.” The task of drawing out, hunting down, and killing the Ku Kluxes before they can wreak havoc falls to three fearless Black women: sharpshooter Sadie, who aims her trusty Winchester rifle from any distance with deadly precision; Cordelia Lawrence, who won her nickname, “Chef,” and her battle regalia while fighting with the Black Rattlers regiment during World War I; and their leader, Maryse Boudreaux, the narrator, whose way with a sword is as fearsome as her ability to commune with spirits. This motley trio has been a bulwark against the army of beasts during the early-20th-century peak of Jim Crow racial segregation and violence. But Maryse’s sixth sense tells her there’s even bigger trouble ahead, and its locus appears to be miles away at Stone Mountain, where both Klans and Ku Kluxes are gathering to mobilize for a near-apocalyptic assault. Clark’s novel is at once rousing, boisterous, and clever. He channels the kitschy motifs of early-20th-century pulp horror into a narrative that both spoofs and exalts that flamboyant tradition. In the process, he cunningly and pithily weaves in African folklore, American history, and sociopolitical tropes that resonate with our present-day racial upheaval. Devotees of Lovecraft Country, Get Out, and other horror adventures with African American themes: Take note.

Thrills, chills, macabre humor, and engaging heroines to root for: What more could a reader want?