Ring Shout

I'm not sure where I first heard or read about this book but I finished it today and it was an amazing reading experience. Ring Shout was a very dark fantasy historical character driven novel that gives a supernatural spin to the Ku Klux Klan reign of terror in the early 20th century. It was a terrific read and very Lovecraftian horror story.

It's a story of a black woman monster killer using a magic sword and undercover as a bootleg whiskey runner in Prohibition Georgia. She journeys to other worlds as she fights demons who feed on the hate of the Klan members with the help of her comrades in arms. The slavering monsters are called Ku Kluxers.

The plot has the Klan planning to unleash Hell on Earth using the sorcerer D. W. Griffiths' film The Birth of a Nation as a spell to channel hate from the heart of America. The book is an amazing concept that illustrates how hate can breed monsters in America. 

This genre bending novel was a terrific mix of Horror, Fantasy, African-American folklore and Gullah culture set in the very racist Klan infested 1920's Prohibition-era Georgia. I was also very interested in the Afterward of the book where the author describes his research and the influences on the story. He is also an academic historian specializing in the area of trans-Atlantic slave trade.

This is just one of several books I've read recently having something to do with the black experience in America both fiction and nonfiction.