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!

*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.**

Two really good novellas bundled together here. They are both really creepy and very well done, the second being the better of the two. This was my first time reading this author and I look forward to more of his books in the future. I really enjoyed this.

A Lush and Seething Hell is a superb horror outing by John Jacobs. Well-developed characters and horrific plot lines!!

A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror
by John Honor Jacob's
due 10-8-2019
Harper Voyage
4.0 /5.0

#netgalley #ALushAndSeethingHell

This pair is chilling tales have never been published. They explore the darker side of human nature. Exceptionally well written, this is top-notch haunting horror.
'The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky'
A once famous poet, Avedano, and his young student Isobel Certa, both exiles from the dictatorship of Magera, South America, are living in Spain. Isobel finds a journal kept by Avedano whose entries are so disturbing she begins to spiral into a world of corruption.

'My Heart Struck Sorrow'
A librarian discovers journals and acetate recordings of a man who recorded blues music in the Deep South, and begins to go mad as he uncovers the origins and roots of a popular blues song.

Thanks to netgalley for sending this e-book ARC for review.

A Lush and Seething Hell includes two engaging novellas, both of which I had trouble putting down. I’m glad I picked this one up.

Entertaining and creepy. A very intriguing cover which was what initially piqued my interest I jumped right in to it. Not only is the cover art strangely mesmerising and a little bit creepy, but the stories contained within its pages is even more compelling. For once in a long time, the artwork reflects or hints towards the ominous atmosphere that builds up and surrounds you with each new turning of the page.

This is a collection of two novellas, neither of which are actually titled "A Lush and Seething Hell", which surprised me. Overall the two were well-written and eerie, but I don't know that I'd classify them as "scary".

Story 1 - a mix of Lovecraftian themes and the horror of being ruled by a dictatorship.

Story 2 - the better of the two imo. the focus is on folk songs of the deep south taking place in two timelines.

I don't feel that either of the stories were groundbreaking, but they were well-crafted and mostly satisfactory.

4 stars average--I really liked it. This is a book of two horror novellas. Both are really well written.

The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky: 3 stars. This is a story of cosmic horror, and also the tale of a South American dictatorship and all the horror that entails. It uses one of my favorite plot elements: a mysterious manuscript that must be translated, and that might reveal some universal secrets. If you're squeamish, be warned that there's lots of torture here. I liked the story, but thought the ending was a bit abrupt.

My Heart Struck Sorrow: 5 stars; I really loved this American folk-horror tale about the folk song Stagger Lee. The research done for this story--about the American south after WWI, the Mississippi flood, racial tensions, folk music, etc.--was impressive. At its heart, the story is about guilt and punishment. The resolution was perfect, and the characterization (Honeyboy!) was excellent.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

***Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

A creepy and deeply unsettling pair of stories. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

A Lush and Seething Hell reads like classic, classy horror. These are great stories, masterfully told.

I can honestly say that I appreciated this book on an intellectual level. It was full of rich language and imagery, and I was truly captivated at times. John Hornor Jacobs is most definitely a skilled author, and he definitely succeeded with this book. With such psychological darkness, these were some truly great stories.

However, I will say that, at times, these stories could come off as a bit pretentious. This was a turn-off for me during portions of the book when I would have rather just appreciated the story and writing.

A Lush and Seething Hell collects two not-quite-novel length tales of cosmic horror by John Hornor Jacobs. While cosmic horror is a term that gets bandied about probably far too often by anyone with an even slight inclination towards the Lovecraftian, Jacobs' collection is exciting, original, and often terrifying.

The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky -
The first tale in the collection focuses on a dictatorship in a fictional South American country and the ways it influences and changes the lives of the main characters. An ex-pat poet meets a young woman who has also left her home country, and they form a strange friendship that takes center stage when the poet returns to his homeland. The majority of the text is the woman's perusal of the poet's old journal from his pre-exile days, in particular his capture, torture, and attempts to translate a singular text with dubious (perhaps Cosmic!) origins. This story is the most overtly Lovecraftian: I was half expecting the text to be revealed to have been written by Abdul Alhazred himself, and there's even a Yog-Sothoth name drop. Despite these tropes, it stands out due to its brutal portrayal of the dictatorship's treatment of what it perceives as dissidents.

My Heart Struck Sorrow -
The longer of the two stories, this is the tale of two members of the Library of Congress on a trek to catalog Deep South folk songs. Themes such as race, guilt, and the power of song in culture are used in tandem with a propulsive and chilling narrative, culminating in a denouement that I can honestly say I did not seeing coming.

This one is destined to be towards the top of my horror list towards the end of the year, and serves as a great personal introduction to James Hornor Jacobs for me. Highly recommended.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to HarperCollins.**

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. The first story in this book I really enjoyed. The second one, not so much. Too much detail, not enough storyline.

"Lush and seething" accurately describes Jacobs's gorgeous prose in this pair of novellas that satisfy your yearning for Lovecraftian-style horror and weirdness without the racism and misogyny that ol' HP brought to his work. Fraught and feverish without being overwraught, the tales reach out and draw you in with tender fingers that turn out to be ghastly tentacles. Jacobs is also a keen observer of humans and manages to fully occupy his narrators. Isabela's introductory paragraphs ring painfully, ruefully true to any woman who has ever tried to read a book in public.

I loved both novellas and am now keeping an eye on John Hornor Jacobs for future releases.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC. This was really an enjoyable read! I thought the writing style, the characters in the stories, the premises, everything was exactly what I was looking for at the moment. I didn't think short stories and/or novellas were my thing but apparently I am loving them lately!

• Title: A Lush and Seething Hell
• Author: John Hornor Jacobs
• Series: Stand-Alone
• Pages: 384
• Genre: Horror/Thriller
• Rating Out of 5 Stars:
Story 1- 1 Story 2- 3


This is a bind up of two novellas.

1.) The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky 1 out of 5 stars
I don’t particularly have anything constructive I can say about the first. I found it unappealing and uninteresting. I might be desensitized but I didn’t get the psychological thriller aspect of it at all. The horror aspect was basically torture porn.

2.)My Heart Struck Sorrow 3 out of 5 stars

If Alan Lomax’s journey across the south collecting folk and backwater music was crossed with the movie The Skeleton Key you’d end up with something like this second Novella.
You follow two time lines. A pair in the present and then journal and historical research into the past. There was again some unnecessary gratuity and sexual instances that I felt were not needed. I didn’t think they added anything to the story. More so in the modern times as opposed to the flash backs. I found the writing in the past to be more interesting. I think I would have enjoyed this much more if I hadn’t had to read the other story first.

. Overall, it was still just OK. It was still well written even if I didn’t find it to be as intense as some might. The stories really had nothing to do with each other. I think the first story takes away from the effect you could get from the second one. If this was a larger collection of novellas it might work. As it is I really think the second would stand stronger on its own.

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis

The award-winning and critically-acclaimed master of horror returns with a pair of chilling tales—both never-before-published in print—that examine the violence and depravity of the human condition.

Bringing together his acclaimed novella The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky and an all-new short novel My Heart Struck Sorrow, John Hornor Jacobs turns his fertile imagination to the evil that breeds within the human soul.

A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.

In My Heart Struck Sorrow, a librarian discovers a recording from the Deep South—which may be the musical stylings of the Devil himself.

Breathtaking and haunting, A Lush and Seething Hell is a terrifying and exhilarating journey into the darkness, an odyssey into the deepest reaches of ourselves that compels us to confront secrets best left hidden.

Review

Thanks to Harper Voyager and the John Hornor Jacobs for an advanced reading copy of A Lush and Seething Hell in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this eARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel or author.

Note: Though the book is comprised of a novella and a short novel, I will really only be reviewing the short novel this go-round, though the extent to which I savored his writing will be plastered all over it.

I was lucky enough to have received an advanced reading copy of The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky last year and it was my favorite novella of 2018 (you can find my full review here). It was my first attempt at a work by Jacobs and ended up cementing him as one of my go-to authors for not only reading enjoyment, but writing inspiration. So when I saw that Harper Voyager was publishing a new book by Jacobs, I instantly submitted my request on Edelweiss and NetGalley. I honestly didn’t even give it a 2nd glance to see that it included TSDIITS as I was just THAT excited for it and the gorgeously creepy cover by Jeffrey Alan Love drew me in. To be honest, re-reading TSDIITS was just as enjoyable as the first go-round, and I picked up on some things I missed.

But getting to My Heart Struck Sorrow was my ultimate goal.

In short, this short novel scared the sh*t out of me. It has stayed with me for days and I keep picturing myself gripping my Kindle harder and harder as I fell deeper and deeper into Jacob’s writing and the story that unfolded. While I can’t say the beginning hooked me, it was enough of a taste to keep me wanting more. TSDIITS was sort of the same way: a slow burn; a fuse that burns down without ignition, only to explode as you begin to look away. And as the flames rise higher, you become entranced; unable to look away and hallucinating things that aren’t really there. Or are they..

Jacobs ability to dissect the human psyche through oft-times intense psychological terror and put that onto paper is immensely brilliant. The supernatural effect that the recordings have on our protagonist feel so real that they leap off of the page. What really kept me intrigued were the recordings themselves. While they started off fairly innocent, a quick turn of events sent us off course and onto the highway to hell. The Lovecraftian elements shined through in the darkest depths of the novel and lead to several scenes of pure terror; ones in which I had to click the lamp back on and steady my breathing.

All in all, I cannot recommend A Lush and Seething Hell enough. While these stories aren’t for everyone, those who love brilliant writing and slow burn horror will find themselves overjoyed which what Jacobs has given the world. I loved it and I think you will, to.

A Lush and Seething Hell hits stores on October 8th.