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ghostsofthesouthernsong 's review for:
Ring Shout
by P. Djèlí Clark
"It takes two heartbeats for them fix on me. Then they’re galloping on all fours, snarling and marking me as prey. But like I said already, I hunt monsters. And I got a sword that sings."
I really enjoyed reading Ring Shout. For a book that's about really heavy themes and sociopolitical issues, it also manages to execute the Rule of Cool brilliantly! The setting is based on alternate history: Once upon a time, some racist white men in power (who happened to wield dark magic) brought in eldritch horrors into our world, and thus the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were born, in part through the magic of incredibly racist movie The Birth of a Nation. But every threat raises a countermeasure, and in this case it's groups of Black people nationwide, armed with guns, blades, science and even the rare case of magic.
Ring Shout follows the adventures of three black women who hunt down Ku Kluxes, eldritch horrors disguising themselves as white-hooded racists. One of them is a Harlem Hellfighter who served in WW1 and has a penchant for explosives, the other is a foul-mouthed sharpshooter who enjoys chewing tobacco and debating if the n-word is usable by Black people. The last one is Maryse, a swordswoman whose blade summons the spirits of long-dead Black people (along with the memories of Black oppression from ages past). If I had to liken it something, it reminds me of Nightblood from Warbreaker, but with a darker subtext to it. Maryse's relationship with the blade also brings to mind this quote from Mass Effect 3:
"I am the anger of a dead people, demanding blood be spilled for the blood we lost."
And make no mistake, Ring Shout is at its very core, an angry book -- it is a book that sees the injustice inherent even today, and asks one question of you: "What are you doing to fight back against the terrors on our doorstep?" And the terrors are many, indeed; this book definitely skews much more horror than fantasy. There's a lot of body horrors and gory stuff in the book, and is definitely not for the squeamish, although in all honesty, horror delivered through prose isn't as... shocking as it would be visually. So for me, it didn't horrify/terrify me much.
Ring Shout doesn't ask the aforementioned question and answer it with hate, however. Instead, P. Djèlí Clark did something I really appreciated; while this book is about slaying racist eldritch horrors, it is also a celebration of Black culture. You see the prominent use of Gullah creole and African-American Vernacular English, of chanting and dances melded to tradition, the epigraphs that speak about historical Black experiences, and there's even a 'breather' scene where the MC and their companions hang out at a Black club, no monsters or saving the day or anything. Just them, hanging out with their peers and having fun. Stuff like that really grounded the characters and setting to me, and further drove home the themes of Ring Shout.
All in all, I cannot recommend this highly enough. My only issue is that I wish this had been a full novel, as there was so much I loved about it. Thankfully, the ending indicates there might be a sequel, and I'll be preordering that when it comes out!