Ring shout : or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the end times /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout , a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror

"A fantastical, brutal and thrilling triumph of the imagination...Clark's combination of historical and political reimagining is cathartic, exhilarating and fresh." -- The New York Times

A 2021 Nebula Award Winner
A 2021 Locus Award Winner

A New York Times Editor's Choice Pick!
A Booklist Editor's Choice Pick!

A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist
A 2021 World Fantasy Award Finalist
A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist
A 2021 Shirley Jackson Award Finalist
A 2021 AAMBC Literary Award Finalist
A 2021 British Fantasy Award Finalist
A 2021 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Nominee
A 2020 SIBA Award Finalist
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist

Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Library Journal | Book Riot | LitReactor | Bustle | Polygon | Washington Post

IN AMERICA, DEMONS WEAR WHITE HOODS.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Sorcerer D.W. Griffith is spinning dark thoughts into the hearts of Americans with The Birth of a Nation, and the Klan is ready to rise. But bootlegger Maryse Boudreaux has a magic sword (she chases monsters called the Ku Kluxes) and is ready to bring down evil. From Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner Clark; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Publishers Weekly Review

Nebula Award winner Clark (The Black God's Drums) vividly reimagines the Ku Klux Klan's second wave in this thrilling, provocative, and thoroughly badass fantasy. In Prohibition-era Macon, Ga., Maryse Boudreaux and friends--the scrappy Sadie and the unassuming WWI-veteran Chef--spend their days slaying Ku Kluxes, demons unleashed by a spell cast by Sorcerer D.W. Griffith in the form of the propaganda film Birth of a Nation. After a gripping and humorous battle between this ragtag trio and the Ku Kluxes, Klan ringleader Butcher Clyde, a creature who feeds on hate, reveals his master plan: use Griffith's spell to summon the Grand Cyclops. Maryse sets out to put an end to this reign of terror, but when Butcher Clyde makes Maryse an offer too tempting to refuse she must first conquer her own lust for vengeance. Clark expertly uses fantasy to highlight the mysticism underlying the nation's darkest moments. Lyrical interludes, mythicized "oral histories" of Gullah traditions, and haunting retellings of African American folklore add rich texture throughout. Readers will be both captivated and entertained by this fast-paced alternate history, which doubles as a meditation on the all-consuming power of hate and violence. Agent: Seth Fishman, the Gernert Company. (Oct.)

Booklist Review

This fantastical horror tale, set in early 1920s Georgia, has considerable resonance for the present-day United States. Maryse Boudreaux is a 25-year-old Black bootlegger who lost her family in a brutal Klan attack. She can see things that are hidden to most, and, in her pursuit of vengeance, wields a mystical blade tied to the spirits of African slaves and chiefs. Maryse and her friends with the sight--Sadie, a brash sharpshooter, and Chef, a female veteran of WWI--are called to Macon by Gullah matriarch Nana Jean to serve as soldiers in the ongoing war against Black bodies. Extradimensional monsters, which they call Ku Kluxes, have been possessing willing white hosts after being summoned by prominent Klan members, but an exponentially greater threat appears in the sinister Butcher Clyde, who spews a hateful noise that is the antithesis of the joyful shouts at Nana Jean's house and the singing of the spirits in Maryse's sword. Clark's latest is set in a visceral world, steeped in historical detail and full of engaging characters, that asks the question, "Who is to blame for the hate that hate made?" Highly recommended for all readers of speculative fiction, particularly fans of Lovecraftian monsters and body horror.

Kirkus Book Review

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? Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. Djèlí Clark spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn and the novellas The Dead Cat Tail Assassins , Ring Shout, The Black God's Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 . He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com , Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies , and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo . He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons .