Historical fantasy novella, written by P. Djèlí Clark and published by Tordotcom in 2020.
This is a story set in a strange, magical version of Macon, Georgia in 1922, deep in the heart of the Jim Crow South. About a decade back, a cabal of racist sorcerers, including William Joseph Simmons, Thomas Dixon, Jr., and D.W. Griffith, created a pair of conjuring books designed to ensorcell the souls of readers and recreate the diabolic post-Civil War Klans, and then made a movie of those books, "The Birth of a Nation," to spread their hellish word to even more people and to allow the demons known as Ku Kluxes to possess their bodies.
Into all this comes our lead character, Maryse Boudreaux, a young Black woman who's able to see the true forms of the demons and who has the ability to summon a magical sword powered by the spirits of the dead. Her companions in the fight against the Ku Kluxes are Sadie Watkins, a very loud, very foul-mouthed sniper, and Cordelia "Chef" Lawrence, a former member of the Harlem Hellfighters with expertise in explosives, subterfuge ('cause there officially weren't any women serving in combat units in WWI), and diplomacy (useful in preventing fights between Maryse and Sadie).
Their leader, if that's the right term, is Nana Jean, a very elderly Black woman who normally speaks in a nigh-impenetrable Gullah creole. She holds ring shouts (musical religious ceremonies involving dancing and chanting) in her barn and makes a substance known as "Mama's Water" that's able to ward off evil forces. There are other characters involved in the fight, including a host of freedmen and women, a German Jewish socialist, a number of "shouters" who participate in the ring shouts, and Aunties Margaret, Ondine, and Jadine, fox-like spirits who speak to Maryse in her dreams.
And there's Butcher Clyde. He's not human, and he's also not a Ku Klux. But he's running the show, and he's very, very bad news. He plans to stage a giant viewing with hundreds of racist filmgoers of "The Birth of a Nation" at Stone Mountain, the birthplace of the reborn Klan -- and if it can't be prevented, it may mean the end of the world.
It took me a bit to actually start reading this because I was a little worried it'd be a lot of Heavy Important Writing You Read to Become a Better Person -- which was probably a silly thing to worry about, as I've read plenty of Clark's other stories, and they've always been very enjoyable reads. In fact, the plot moved nice and quick and really drew you along. I wasn't reading to learn (though I did learn some stuff) but reading for fun. There's action, intrigue, comedy, tragedy, a little romance, and a nice dose of horror. And it does feel like an Important Book, too, but the fact that it's the kind of book that'll be considered one of the best of the decade is in no way a weak point.
The character work here is also wonderful. Maryse, Sadie, and Chef, our three leads, play off each other very well, from Maryse's unflinching ethical nature to Sadie's loud profanity and gleeful offensiveness to Chef's quiet good nature and sensible outlook. They're far from paragons of perfection, thank goodness. Maryse's rigid morality is prone to potentially catastrophic cracks, thanks to the voices whispering to her from her sword, and Sadie is dangerously volatile. Chef is less prone to feet of clay, but her primary purpose in the story is the be the tower of strength keeping everyone going.
Nana Jean is given something of an otherworldly nature, thanks to the thick Gullah Geechee creole she speaks. The Aunties are even more otherworldly, but it's fun to see how human their personalities can be. Even less human is Dr. Antoine Bisset, the future dead man who serves the nightmarish Night Doctors of African American folklore. Butcher Clyde, meanwhile, is all too horribly human, despite his hellish origins. He's a creature of coarse appetites and humor, fully dedicated to fostering greater and more extreme hatred. He's also tremendously charismatic -- he's a despicable creature, but it's very clear how he's attracted so many followers.
And yes, a big part of what makes this book so great is watching hundreds of Klansmen, along with their supernatural enablers, getting slaughtered left and right. A bunch of dead Klansmen is something that always brings joy to the hearts of good people. "But J-P, shouldn't fairness dictate that we get fiction valorizing Klansmen?" No, go fuck yourself. Sure, you can find tons of books singing the praises of Klansmen and Nazis, and no one reads them because they're crap. But the Klan -- even the non-supernatural Klan -- was and is filled with devils, and everyone enjoys some great fiction where hatemongers get what the deserve. If that sounds great to you, then the Klansman-butchering going on in this thoroughly excellent book is going to be a fantastic bonus.
"Ring Shout" won the British Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and the Nebula Award in 2021. Its French translation won the 2022 Prix Julia Verlanger. It was also nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Hugo Award, the Ignyte Award, and the World Fantasy Award.