2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel (nominee)
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.
Genre: Horror
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"A bit of HP Lovecraft, a touch of William Hjortsberg, Southern Gods is an effective combination of cosmic horror and southern Gothic traditions. John Hornor Jacobs will turn heads with this debut." - Laird Barron
"John Hornor Jacobs' fantastic debut novel, SOUTHERN GODS, is both terrifying and beautiful. His eye for detail and compelling characters makes this one you'll remember long after you've finished it." - Stephen Blackmoore
"Compulsively readable and definitely memorable, Southern Gods will ensure that you'll never hear radio interference quite the same way again." - Gary A Braunbeck
"In SOUTHERN GODS, John Hornor Jacobs turns the classic blues horror story of the devil at the crossroads into a true Lovecraftian nightmare. Steeped in Southern Gothic - and not for the faint of heart! - this is a bold and mighty debut written with breathtaking assurance. Powerful, horrific and beautiful, Southern Gods is a revelation and Jacobs is an author to shout about. Both deserve to go very far indeed." - Adam Christopher
"Southern Gods is scary, smart, and effective both as Lovecraftian fiction and as a Southern Regional novel set in 1951." - David Drake
"Great Yuggoth, what a great debut novel! With a sure hand for intriguing characters and deft plotting, John Hornor Jacobs establishes himself as an author to heed. The prologue to this exceptional novel is one of the most terrifying things I have ever shivered through. It will kiss your paltry soul with fear. With superbly handled echoes of Chambers and Lovecraft, we encounter the mystery of that Tattered Man, Ramblin' John Hastur, who escorts us to the arcane secrets beyond the sun, beyond the stars, beyond that long black veil!" - W H Pugmire
"Hell-hound blues! Zombies! Lovecraft! Jacobs' engrossing gris-gris will take ya down to the crossroads and on then to the Deep Places where the hungry Old Ones sho gon git'cha!" - Joseph S Pulver Sr
"John Hornor Jacobs. Remember the name, because if there's any justice in the universe, he's going to be a big deal one day soon. John's prose is by turns lyrical and tough-as-nails. He effortlessly conjures an eerie southern landscape that will surely haunt the dreams of anyone who reads Southern Gods." - Bryan Smith
"John Hornor Jacobs' fantastic debut novel, SOUTHERN GODS, is both terrifying and beautiful. His eye for detail and compelling characters makes this one you'll remember long after you've finished it." - Stephen Blackmoore
"Compulsively readable and definitely memorable, Southern Gods will ensure that you'll never hear radio interference quite the same way again." - Gary A Braunbeck
"In SOUTHERN GODS, John Hornor Jacobs turns the classic blues horror story of the devil at the crossroads into a true Lovecraftian nightmare. Steeped in Southern Gothic - and not for the faint of heart! - this is a bold and mighty debut written with breathtaking assurance. Powerful, horrific and beautiful, Southern Gods is a revelation and Jacobs is an author to shout about. Both deserve to go very far indeed." - Adam Christopher
"Southern Gods is scary, smart, and effective both as Lovecraftian fiction and as a Southern Regional novel set in 1951." - David Drake
"Great Yuggoth, what a great debut novel! With a sure hand for intriguing characters and deft plotting, John Hornor Jacobs establishes himself as an author to heed. The prologue to this exceptional novel is one of the most terrifying things I have ever shivered through. It will kiss your paltry soul with fear. With superbly handled echoes of Chambers and Lovecraft, we encounter the mystery of that Tattered Man, Ramblin' John Hastur, who escorts us to the arcane secrets beyond the sun, beyond the stars, beyond that long black veil!" - W H Pugmire
"Hell-hound blues! Zombies! Lovecraft! Jacobs' engrossing gris-gris will take ya down to the crossroads and on then to the Deep Places where the hungry Old Ones sho gon git'cha!" - Joseph S Pulver Sr
"John Hornor Jacobs. Remember the name, because if there's any justice in the universe, he's going to be a big deal one day soon. John's prose is by turns lyrical and tough-as-nails. He effortlessly conjures an eerie southern landscape that will surely haunt the dreams of anyone who reads Southern Gods." - Bryan Smith
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