Review of Ring Shout—Making Monsters

White supremacy can make people into monsters. This is as true today as it was during the heyday of Jim Crow laws and burning crosses. P. Djèlí Clark literalizes this metaphor in his celebrated novella Ring Shout, which came out in 2020.

Ring Shout takes place in an alternate-history Prohibition-era American South, where the heyday of the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan is given a supernatural spin. Mixed in amongst your run-of-the-mill racist klan members are monstrous “Ku Kluxes”—men who can transform into bone-colored, hound-like beasts whose snouts resemble the Klan’s notorious hoods. Maryse Boudreaux is a young Black woman whose family was killed by such creatures. Now bent on revenge, Maryse has dedicated her life to hunting the monsters down alongside her fellow resistance fighters. But picking them off one-by-one in the street isn’t going to be enough. Maryse’s nightmare visions of an ominous butcher warn that something big is brewing—the forces of evil are planning to host a ritual during the upcoming special screening of Birth of a Nation on Stone Mountain. And with so much hate in their hearts, they may just summon up something even worse than Ku Kluxes if no one stops them.

By couching this fantasy tale amidst real historical events, Clark explores the concept of monstrosity on both a literal and allegorical level. The Birth of a Nation is an actual film, first released in 1915, that inspired the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan as well as much of the klan’s iconography, including their white, hooded costumes. Set during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, the film promotes the “Lost Cause” view that positions the Confederates as heroic and just. It is filled with deeply racist depictions of Black characters and fearmongers about the threat Black men pose to white women. The film had a profound influence on American culture and fueled the flames of white supremacy for decades. In this way, it would be quite accurate to say that this film created monsters. In Ring Shout, that becomes more than just a figure of speech. Here, the film is actually a magical spell, a ritual that summons demonic beings to possess the viewers. As the Klan uses screenings of the film to spread its message and recruit new members, the supernatural Ku Kluxes are also increasing their numbers. The description of these monsters is quite creepy: you can recognize them in human form by their uncanny movements and insatiable thirst for water; then when they transform, they turn into ravaging beasts with sharp claws and teeth. But what’s even more frightening is the very real hatred and bigotry that opened the door to these demons and fuels their violence.

In an ironic move, Clark draws on the genre of cosmic horror—a genre almost synonymous these days with the unabashedly racist H. P. Lovecraft. More than just monsters, the Ku Kluxes are interdimensional beings that are summoned by a sorcerer’s spell. The Klan members, with their white-hooded regalia and love of symbolism and ritual, slot perfectly into the role of cult members who worship other-worldly beings in the hopes that they will be granted unearthly power. The climax of the story occurs at their largest ritual yet, during which they summon an enormous god-like entity from another realm. But the bad guys aren’t the only ones with access to supernatural powers and beings from other dimensions. Maryse is mentored by three haints who appear to her in dreams and gifted her with a magical sword possessed by the spirits of those who sold their kin into slavery. In her quest to find allies strong enough to defeat the Ku Kluxes, Maryse also travels to the realm of the Night Doctors, amoral beings who feed on fear. Additionally, the resistance fighters are bolstered by their Gullah elder Nana Jean and the power she draws through music and song. In this way, Clark subverts Lovecraft’s cosmic horror legacy by blending the genre with elements from African-American culture and folklore.

P. Djèlí Clark is definitely an author you want to keep an eye on in the horror and fantasy scene these days, and Ring Shout is his most celebrated book to date—for good reason! You can see for yourself and pick up a copy at your favorite local retailer, or buy a copy online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!