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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
I found the first novella a bit bland and unsatisfying, unfortunately, and the main character of the second quite annoying and a bit gross. However, the second novella did an excellent job of the musical deal with the devil tale and definitely had me creeped out. He has a way with his unsettling imagery that rarely steers fully into gross and certainly is masterful in his creation of the traditional unreliable narrator (ie. the one that can't understand what's really going on vs. the modern "Girl/Woman/Wife" book-style one who is actively fooling the reader into not realizing that they are even more awful than they appear). Plus it had a shocking end that was sort of philosophically satisfying.
While I didn't absolutely love the second tale, it intrigued me enough that I'd try the author out again.
While I didn't absolutely love the second tale, it intrigued me enough that I'd try the author out again.
This was such a stunning book. The prose was absolutely beautiful. It’s the kind of writing you want to savor. It’s apparent how much research he did when writing these two stories. There’s so much rich detail packed into them. There’s even a bibliography included in at the end of the works he consulted while writing these 2 stories. In the 2nd story, “My Heart Struck Sorrow”, it shows his skill on how he’s able to take a real song like “Stagger Lee” and turn it into something supernatural and menacing.
The first story, “The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky”, was probably my favorite of the two by just a small bit. Simply because during my undergrad days at the University of Kentucky I took a course on the history of Latin America and had the opportunity to visit Argentina that same year, completely falling in love with the area.
“The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky” explores topics like the U. S.’s history of meddling in Latin American governments and the horrors we perpetrate on each other while “My Heart Struck Sorrow” explores the subjects of race, privilege, grief and guilt. While reading the 2nd story, it brought to mind Victor Lavalle’s novella, Black Tom, a little. Both stories are gorgeously layered and textured with much to unpack. There’s so many great discussions that could be had. If I ever get the chance to start a book club at my library this would be at the top of the list for my first pick.
The first story, “The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky”, was probably my favorite of the two by just a small bit. Simply because during my undergrad days at the University of Kentucky I took a course on the history of Latin America and had the opportunity to visit Argentina that same year, completely falling in love with the area.
“The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky” explores topics like the U. S.’s history of meddling in Latin American governments and the horrors we perpetrate on each other while “My Heart Struck Sorrow” explores the subjects of race, privilege, grief and guilt. While reading the 2nd story, it brought to mind Victor Lavalle’s novella, Black Tom, a little. Both stories are gorgeously layered and textured with much to unpack. There’s so many great discussions that could be had. If I ever get the chance to start a book club at my library this would be at the top of the list for my first pick.
Review originally published at Cemetery Dance Sept. 23rd, 2019
The cover of A Lush and Seething Hell depicts two figures standing in some brambles; a darkness looms behind them, above them, all around them. It’s a menacing tower of darkness bearing down, but also rising up. Upon closer inspection, the figures aren’t so much standing as they are cowering.
I know because I stared at the cover and the title for awhile before I ventured past it to get at the meaty insides. And it’s that posture of cowering I remembered after I finished this book.
There are two stories that make up A Lush and Seething Hell. The first is titled “The Sea Dreams it is the Sky,” and it’s about a poet named Rafael Avendano, also mysteriously known as The Eye, who strikes up a casual friendship with a woman named Isabel. They realize they have a lot in common and their relationship deepens. For the reader, Jacobs writes with so much attention to detail, it’s impossible to remember that what is unfolding are fictional events. I kept wanting to reach for my phone and Google “Rafael Avendano” so that I could read more about his life and poetry.
As a side note here, graphic scenes of torture are difficult for me and at some point in the story, Avendano finds himself in the hands of his enemies. What happens to him is so graphic and told in such an unflinching manner, I might have shied away from it, but Jacobs lured me in with describing Avendano’s mental escape into oblivion. There was this beauty to what was happening inside this poet—that even the cruelty he was experiencing physically couldn’t strip him of what was happening in his mind. I hope that makes sense. It does when I read it back to myself.
Eventually, Isabel and Rafael’s narratives experience a shocking confluence that leaves the reader suspended in mind-reeling bliss. I read one scene over and over again because it was just so powerful. It captured my imagination and lead me into a long spell of thoughtfulness. I couldn’t fully get my brain around it until I gave myself more time with it.
I came away from this story with a nasty, bookish hangover…the only cure? Jacob’s second story (and my favorite of the two) “My Heart Struck Sorrow.” This is the story of a librarian weighed down by grief and guilt. He goes on this assignment with a coworker to an estate left in their company’s possession by a philanthropist who has passed away. They find a long forgotten room filled with recordings and journals. As a lover of horror fiction, I get excited about stories with found footage/files—one of my favorite subgenres. The narrative splits into two at this point, with our present-day protagonist becoming immersed in the discovery of these forgotten memoirs and the tale that he’s reading about: Two men in the 1930s are commissioned by the Library of Congress to travel around America collecting the songs of the people for posterity. Folk songs. One song in particular catches their attention.
I’m not going to sugarcoat the facts here—this story terrified me. This song that keeps coming up and the strange events that happen after it is sung and listened to—it’s unnerving. Again, I was captivated by Jacobs’ storytelling style and his impressive use of specific details, which really must come from his extensive research. I kept experiencing this inability to remember that what I was reading was fiction. This illusion adds to the bone chilling nature of the story. I loved this novella. It’s one of my favorites now. I will be recommending this one a lot and keeping an eye on anything John Hornor Jacobs releases in the future.
The cover of A Lush and Seething Hell depicts two figures standing in some brambles; a darkness looms behind them, above them, all around them. It’s a menacing tower of darkness bearing down, but also rising up. Upon closer inspection, the figures aren’t so much standing as they are cowering.
I know because I stared at the cover and the title for awhile before I ventured past it to get at the meaty insides. And it’s that posture of cowering I remembered after I finished this book.
There are two stories that make up A Lush and Seething Hell. The first is titled “The Sea Dreams it is the Sky,” and it’s about a poet named Rafael Avendano, also mysteriously known as The Eye, who strikes up a casual friendship with a woman named Isabel. They realize they have a lot in common and their relationship deepens. For the reader, Jacobs writes with so much attention to detail, it’s impossible to remember that what is unfolding are fictional events. I kept wanting to reach for my phone and Google “Rafael Avendano” so that I could read more about his life and poetry.
As a side note here, graphic scenes of torture are difficult for me and at some point in the story, Avendano finds himself in the hands of his enemies. What happens to him is so graphic and told in such an unflinching manner, I might have shied away from it, but Jacobs lured me in with describing Avendano’s mental escape into oblivion. There was this beauty to what was happening inside this poet—that even the cruelty he was experiencing physically couldn’t strip him of what was happening in his mind. I hope that makes sense. It does when I read it back to myself.
Eventually, Isabel and Rafael’s narratives experience a shocking confluence that leaves the reader suspended in mind-reeling bliss. I read one scene over and over again because it was just so powerful. It captured my imagination and lead me into a long spell of thoughtfulness. I couldn’t fully get my brain around it until I gave myself more time with it.
I came away from this story with a nasty, bookish hangover…the only cure? Jacob’s second story (and my favorite of the two) “My Heart Struck Sorrow.” This is the story of a librarian weighed down by grief and guilt. He goes on this assignment with a coworker to an estate left in their company’s possession by a philanthropist who has passed away. They find a long forgotten room filled with recordings and journals. As a lover of horror fiction, I get excited about stories with found footage/files—one of my favorite subgenres. The narrative splits into two at this point, with our present-day protagonist becoming immersed in the discovery of these forgotten memoirs and the tale that he’s reading about: Two men in the 1930s are commissioned by the Library of Congress to travel around America collecting the songs of the people for posterity. Folk songs. One song in particular catches their attention.
I’m not going to sugarcoat the facts here—this story terrified me. This song that keeps coming up and the strange events that happen after it is sung and listened to—it’s unnerving. Again, I was captivated by Jacobs’ storytelling style and his impressive use of specific details, which really must come from his extensive research. I kept experiencing this inability to remember that what I was reading was fiction. This illusion adds to the bone chilling nature of the story. I loved this novella. It’s one of my favorites now. I will be recommending this one a lot and keeping an eye on anything John Hornor Jacobs releases in the future.
After reading THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY, I became an instant fan of John Hornor Jacobs. A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL reassured me that my respect and high esteem for the man was earned and well placed.
This book is comprised of two stories, the first a novella, (the aforementioned THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY), and the second, a short novel titled MY HEART STRUCK SORROW. This review is going to focus almost solely on the second tale.
When I saw on Twitter that this book was coming out, I clicked the pre-order button right away. (There wasn't a description there yet, and I didn't know that THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY was going to be included. When I did discover that, I didn't care because...support.) You can find my review of THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2581295778?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I went into MY HEART STRUCK SORROW almost totally blind. I was excited to find out that music was a central theme to this tale. I'm a lover of Blues music and I'm fascinated by many of the old artists who were the basis for a lot of the popular music of today. You cannot imagine how stoked I was to find a deep connection with music from the old south in this book.
Cromwell and Harriet are called in to the Parker estate to itemize and catalog Parker's extensive collection of old acetate recordings and journals. I loved this way of framing the story as we are then taken to Parker's point of view for much of the book. He was traveling the south interviewing and recording musicians as an ethnomusicologist, (like the real-life Alan Lomax), dedicated to capturing and preserving music. He traveled with a SoundScriber, the heavy, awkward machine with which he recorded said musicians.
These artists and the areas in which they lived were brought to vivid life in my mind's eye. I easily pictured them. I smelled them. I felt the humidity and heat of the south. I felt the humanity in their songs, and how they changed from one town to another, especially the songs about Stagger Lee. (Or Stacker Lee, or whatever title was used.)
"In Mississippi, in the delta of Arkansas and northern Louisiana, they speak in harsh tones, clipped syllables, as if their entire morphology of communication were angry and inflamed."
One of the men he interviews, Honeyboy, is actually in prison. Parker is able to obtain permission to interview and record him. During those scenes I came across this passage:
"Even the guards laughed at this, and for a while the barracks were full of the laughter of incarcerated men. They sounded like any group of men gathered together. Each full of his own particular sorrow, his mirth, his guilt, the comet's tail of his existence pulling wreckage after him."
This got me to thinking about my comet's tail and what kind of wreckage I carry around within it.
Jacobs deftly weaves the threads of the past and the present, most especially those of Parker and Cromwell. Turns out they had a few things in common. I didn't see what they were at first, but as this tale unraveled, I did. Grief, loss and most of all, guilt, come to each life-how we handle those things, or not handle them as the case may be, made for an engaging and stunning denouement.
I find myself lacking the words and/or skills to properly communicate to you how this book made me feel and why I think you should read it. The tales within are distinctly different from each other, one more a tale of torture, politics and cosmic horror, the other- for me, being at heart a story of loss, guilt, and grief, well framed and partially hidden in a tale about blues and folk music. I'm not going to pretend that I "got" everything there is to get with this story, I already know I will read it again. I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about ethnomusicology, but I can say I want to learn more about it and about Alan Lomax in general.
Leaving behind my inadequacies in getting across how this tale made me feel, I'll wrap with saying that both stories here are extremely well written, unique, thought provoking and powerful. I'll leave you with this quote:
"We are sound waves crashing against the shore with no SoundScriber to take down our likeness, our facsimile. Words like these are just echoes of that original sound. We are but small vibrations on the face of the universe."
With that, my fellow small vibration on the face of the universe, I give A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL my HIGHEST recommendation!
Available October 6th, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/2kXiu92
*Thanks to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. I'm buying the book anyway, but I got to read it sooner this way!*
**Please forgive me for the quotes, but I felt they were necessary to help convey me feelings.**
This book is comprised of two stories, the first a novella, (the aforementioned THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY), and the second, a short novel titled MY HEART STRUCK SORROW. This review is going to focus almost solely on the second tale.
When I saw on Twitter that this book was coming out, I clicked the pre-order button right away. (There wasn't a description there yet, and I didn't know that THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY was going to be included. When I did discover that, I didn't care because...support.) You can find my review of THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2581295778?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I went into MY HEART STRUCK SORROW almost totally blind. I was excited to find out that music was a central theme to this tale. I'm a lover of Blues music and I'm fascinated by many of the old artists who were the basis for a lot of the popular music of today. You cannot imagine how stoked I was to find a deep connection with music from the old south in this book.
Cromwell and Harriet are called in to the Parker estate to itemize and catalog Parker's extensive collection of old acetate recordings and journals. I loved this way of framing the story as we are then taken to Parker's point of view for much of the book. He was traveling the south interviewing and recording musicians as an ethnomusicologist, (like the real-life Alan Lomax), dedicated to capturing and preserving music. He traveled with a SoundScriber, the heavy, awkward machine with which he recorded said musicians.
These artists and the areas in which they lived were brought to vivid life in my mind's eye. I easily pictured them. I smelled them. I felt the humidity and heat of the south. I felt the humanity in their songs, and how they changed from one town to another, especially the songs about Stagger Lee. (Or Stacker Lee, or whatever title was used.)
"In Mississippi, in the delta of Arkansas and northern Louisiana, they speak in harsh tones, clipped syllables, as if their entire morphology of communication were angry and inflamed."
One of the men he interviews, Honeyboy, is actually in prison. Parker is able to obtain permission to interview and record him. During those scenes I came across this passage:
"Even the guards laughed at this, and for a while the barracks were full of the laughter of incarcerated men. They sounded like any group of men gathered together. Each full of his own particular sorrow, his mirth, his guilt, the comet's tail of his existence pulling wreckage after him."
This got me to thinking about my comet's tail and what kind of wreckage I carry around within it.
Jacobs deftly weaves the threads of the past and the present, most especially those of Parker and Cromwell. Turns out they had a few things in common. I didn't see what they were at first, but as this tale unraveled, I did. Grief, loss and most of all, guilt, come to each life-how we handle those things, or not handle them as the case may be, made for an engaging and stunning denouement.
I find myself lacking the words and/or skills to properly communicate to you how this book made me feel and why I think you should read it. The tales within are distinctly different from each other, one more a tale of torture, politics and cosmic horror, the other- for me, being at heart a story of loss, guilt, and grief, well framed and partially hidden in a tale about blues and folk music. I'm not going to pretend that I "got" everything there is to get with this story, I already know I will read it again. I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about ethnomusicology, but I can say I want to learn more about it and about Alan Lomax in general.
Leaving behind my inadequacies in getting across how this tale made me feel, I'll wrap with saying that both stories here are extremely well written, unique, thought provoking and powerful. I'll leave you with this quote:
"We are sound waves crashing against the shore with no SoundScriber to take down our likeness, our facsimile. Words like these are just echoes of that original sound. We are but small vibrations on the face of the universe."
With that, my fellow small vibration on the face of the universe, I give A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL my HIGHEST recommendation!
Available October 6th, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/2kXiu92
*Thanks to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. I'm buying the book anyway, but I got to read it sooner this way!*
**Please forgive me for the quotes, but I felt they were necessary to help convey me feelings.**
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.5⭐
A Lush and Seething Hell is comprised of two books - a novella called The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, and a short novel called My Heart Struck Sorrow. I read an ARC of The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky last year, so I'm copying my review into this one, and then will talk about My Heart Struck Sorrow below that.
The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky:
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, and I'm so glad that I picked it up. This story immediately drew me in, and I was hooked the entire way through.
I'm impressed with the author's ability to do a great character study in such a short amount of time, along with having the horror of being exiled from a war-torn country surrounding it. I really enjoyed reading about the characters in this book, and I would continue reading about them if there ever happened to be more stories.
This book is heartbreaking, and it's very easy to get wrapped up in what the characters are feeling. The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is a solid story across the board. I wish some more of my questions had been answered, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I gave The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky 4⭐.
My Heart Struck Sorrow:
I was really looking forward to My Heart Struck Sorrow since it has a fascinating synopsis, but I had a tough time connecting with this story. Cursed item & music horror stories will always grab my attention.
My Heart Struck Sorrow is very detailed (to the point that it felt overwritten for me). The spooky moments were few and far between, and most of the story was just mundane information about the jobs of the people who worked for the Library of Congress and were researching the music. It felt very repetitive after a while, and it was more like historical fiction with horror tones than the cosmic horror I thought it was going to be. The folk horror elements were intriguing, but I had a difficult time maintaining interest in the story.
I felt that the ending was sort of lackluster - I figured the story was ramping up to something big, but the slow burn just fizzled out. I didn't feel a connection to it as a reader, and there was a lack of emotion due to more telling than showing. This isn't a bad story; I just wasn't the right reader & was hoping for more. I gave My Heart Struck Sorrow 3⭐, so it's a 3.5⭐ for A Lush and Seething Hell as a whole.
A Lush and Seething Hell is comprised of two books - a novella called The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, and a short novel called My Heart Struck Sorrow. I read an ARC of The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky last year, so I'm copying my review into this one, and then will talk about My Heart Struck Sorrow below that.
The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky:
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, and I'm so glad that I picked it up. This story immediately drew me in, and I was hooked the entire way through.
I'm impressed with the author's ability to do a great character study in such a short amount of time, along with having the horror of being exiled from a war-torn country surrounding it. I really enjoyed reading about the characters in this book, and I would continue reading about them if there ever happened to be more stories.
This book is heartbreaking, and it's very easy to get wrapped up in what the characters are feeling. The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is a solid story across the board. I wish some more of my questions had been answered, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I gave The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky 4⭐.
My Heart Struck Sorrow:
I was really looking forward to My Heart Struck Sorrow since it has a fascinating synopsis, but I had a tough time connecting with this story. Cursed item & music horror stories will always grab my attention.
My Heart Struck Sorrow is very detailed (to the point that it felt overwritten for me). The spooky moments were few and far between, and most of the story was just mundane information about the jobs of the people who worked for the Library of Congress and were researching the music. It felt very repetitive after a while, and it was more like historical fiction with horror tones than the cosmic horror I thought it was going to be. The folk horror elements were intriguing, but I had a difficult time maintaining interest in the story.
I felt that the ending was sort of lackluster - I figured the story was ramping up to something big, but the slow burn just fizzled out. I didn't feel a connection to it as a reader, and there was a lack of emotion due to more telling than showing. This isn't a bad story; I just wasn't the right reader & was hoping for more. I gave My Heart Struck Sorrow 3⭐, so it's a 3.5⭐ for A Lush and Seething Hell as a whole.
Both stories deal with found manuscripts and hallucinatory weirdness. I found both stories slow to start and had trouble getting into them. It’ll depend on your taste as a reader–many readers are fine having the setting slowly detailed before starting to get to anything unusual. I tend to prefer my genre trappings a little more up-front and center. It’s up to you whether this book is likely to appeal to you in that area. Certainly those parts of the book are quite well-written.
The characters are really interesting. I’m not entirely fond of some of them (I really didn’t like Cromwell much, for example), but they have a fair amount of depth and interest to them. I would have liked a bit more of Hattie in the second book; she just seemed like a more intriguing character.
I loved the creepiness factor once it crept in! I was glued to the page as soon as things got weird. Jacobs’ treatment of the bizarre is wonderful–it slips in and grabs hold of you before you know what’s happening. I did think the end of the first story was a little abrupt, but it was still good. All in all this is a great book.
Content note for racism, torture, and sexual content. The second story mostly takes place (via the manuscript) in 1938 in the American South, so there’s a whole lot of racial tension.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/10/review-a-lush-and-seething-hell-john-horner-jacobs/
The characters are really interesting. I’m not entirely fond of some of them (I really didn’t like Cromwell much, for example), but they have a fair amount of depth and interest to them. I would have liked a bit more of Hattie in the second book; she just seemed like a more intriguing character.
I loved the creepiness factor once it crept in! I was glued to the page as soon as things got weird. Jacobs’ treatment of the bizarre is wonderful–it slips in and grabs hold of you before you know what’s happening. I did think the end of the first story was a little abrupt, but it was still good. All in all this is a great book.
Content note for racism, torture, and sexual content. The second story mostly takes place (via the manuscript) in 1938 in the American South, so there’s a whole lot of racial tension.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/10/review-a-lush-and-seething-hell-john-horner-jacobs/
Even the guards laughed at this, and for a while the barracks were full of the laughter of incarcerated men. They sounded like any group of men gathered together. Each full of his own particular sorrow, his mirth, his guilt, the comet's tail of his existence pulling wreckage after him.
Two novellas with writing that is several notches above the average fare. The type of stories that make you feel as if something unseen just brushed past you, raising the hair on your arms.
8/10
Two novellas with writing that is several notches above the average fare. The type of stories that make you feel as if something unseen just brushed past you, raising the hair on your arms.
8/10