The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice

Danielle Cain #3

by Margaret Killjoy

Danielle Cain is Back!

Margaret Killjoy’s Danielle Cain book series is a queer, anarcho-punk fantasy that pits anarchist traveler Danielle Cain and her crew of demon-hunting friends against the spirits of the dead, unearthly cryptids, and the brutality of police. The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice is the long-awaited third installment and continues the series.


The Immortal Choir (book #3)

It’s Samhain, and Danielle and her friends are laying low in the wilderness Idaho, fresh off the road from their last adventure and hiding out from the magic feds. On Samhain the veil between the living and dead is at its thinnest. Danielle, Brynn, Vulture, Thursday, and Doomsday have to wait out the night, so they share stories around the campfire about magic—in its many forms. Listen with them as they encounter troll cults, murder faeries, and the horrors of the riot cops.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Queer, Fiction, Novella, Short Stories, Urban Fantasy

102 pages, ebook

First published June 6, 2025

About the author

Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Reviews

[Ruxandra Grrr]

[Now]
Been waiting for so long for this, that I was afraid it would disappoint me. And honestly... When I realized that this is a frame story and that the punk-anarchist pentagram collective isn't that much in it, I was a bit disappointed - I really wanted to hang out with Danielle, Doomsday, Thursday, Vulture and Brynn (after 5 and a half years of thinking of them, mind you!), not necessarily to hear them tell stories about some of the people they've lost...

However, allll of the stories told are just wonderful and I couldn't help but be moved by them. I love Margaret Killjoy's writing (can call her one of my favorite writers now, no problem), I love her punk / anarchist characters and the themes she engages with. They are so needed in the times we live in. The stories feel truly spooky (the pacing is great and I really really cared about what happens to their protagonists), but also deeply moved me and gave me goosebumps. I cried at the end. And now I'm back to wanting more!

[Then]
Omg what?? Been waiting for this since forever!!! Or like 5 years, maybe. Cannot wait to see what the crew is up to this time.

[Ryan]

I'd bet dollars to donuts that she doesn't remember me, but I lived and worked with Margaret Killjoy for a few months, probably ten years ago. At the time I had no idea about her musical or writing abilities, and it was still a bit before her podcasting career, but I could tell she was special. Now I've read pretty much all of her books, listen to her podcasts fairly regularly, and am into her music.

The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice is a super short book, probably a novela, but it has so much packed into its 94 pages. This is a story about stories. It's a group of weirdo anarchist friends, hiding in the woods from a monster, in some dytopian future/present. The characters don't move from their campsite and nothing really happens to any of them, but they sit around and tell stories about magic. They do this because they're scared of magic creatures in the woods coming to kill them, so they tell stories that include that dead, trying to get magic on their side.

One of the main reasons I loved the stories because they're about my friends, or at least people who closely resemble my friends, doing things that we do; with a little bit of the supernatural mixed in. Even if this book wasn't about a subject I can relate to, Killjoy's writing is so original, so crisp, so fun to read that I would have loved it anyway.

Short book, short review. I eagerly await the next one.

[ezra]

3.5 stars rounded up.

In the beginning I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t quite the same as book one and two, storytelling wise, but I ended up enjoying it anyway. I did enjoy the last story, and I think it had its place here, but I do also think I would’ve liked a story more focused on something supernatural.

[Marie Labrousse]

Mon préféré de la trilogie. J'adore les fix-up et les récits enchâssés de seconde main, avec toutes les incertitudes narratives qui viennent avec.

[heptagrammaton]

The gang sits down and tells spooky stories to remember your loved ones by.

He could have told the story and focused on the love, but he tended to linger longest on the back and forth of the street fighting. I think he told the story because he needed to tell it. He needed to romanticize the suffering, because if you don't romanticize your suffering, you're stuck with all the suffering and none of the romance.

[koup]

bad buzz la team vous savez que j’adore killjoy mais la première histoire sur la résistance de l’armée américaine aux n*zis était vrm traitée de manière trop chelou et la dernière qui est juste un récit d’émeute m’a cringe …. la deuxième est sympa néanmoins

edit: j’y repense mais ct vraiment trop chelou / antisémite psq en + de tous les détails shoah-related y a tout un truc sur les trolls dans l’histoire ?? c vrm guez de fou

[Laura]

In The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice, a group of friends – on the run – hides out in the woods and tells stories about anarchists, punks, and magic both real and ‘fancy.’ They reminisce about lost friends and remember their struggles while hoping not to get devoured by any forest monsters.

This book reads quite differently than the prior instalments in this series. In a meaningful sense, not much happens here – the group of characters never move from their campsite – but I appreciated the chance to return to this world. I appreciate Killjoy’s real depictions of anarchist & punk subcultural spaces and dynamics and the blending of magic and ‘mundane.’

This could probably be read as a standalone; however, the broader context of the narrating characters’ relationships with the friends they’ve lost would be missing.

Content warnings: violence, murder, death, grief, injury detail, gore (relatively minor), police brutality, confinement

[Sem]

God, I love this series from Margaret Killjoy, and though this one breaks the format of the previous two, I'd say it's not at all to the book's detriment. A collection of three stories, full of beautiful ruminations and legitimately cool setpieces and locations, this is a long-awaited continuation that carries on the spirit of Danielle Cain's adventures and takes its time to really humanize the characters and sort of open up their world a little. It's just a very nice time and it's touching as hell, especially Clay's reflection on time and love in the last story.

[dănuț]

once again, anarchists are annoying at best, but I do love this series

[Dan Trefethen]

Danielle Cain's demon-hunting crew is camping out in the woods and trying to ignore the unworldly bellowing in the distance. To stay up all night on guard, they tell stories to each other. This novella is comprised of three stories, The Troll King, The Faeries of the Spring, and The Battle of Miami. Each story is about a friend who fought the good fight, who is no longer with us. This book is clearly about remembering good friends, absent friends. Friends who have joined the immortal choir that holds every voice. We can all identify with that.

[Ryan Mishap]

While it was nice to be back in this world, this was just okay. I get folks were remembering stories told by dead friends, but the conversational narrative was a bit toooo much like somebody talkin' 'round a fire and less like a flow one could float with.

[Rune]

NOTE: This review contains some spoilers for the structure and general nature of the story. Personally, I don't think it's a big deal for this book, but... giving you a warning in case you care.

Margaret is simply good at queer anarchist occult americana folk horror.

To me, this is a story about magic, how it's real, how sometimes it's wild and grand and unbelievable, and other times it's rather mundane and plainly-visible and not so different from things we experience most days. This is something I quite strongly resonate with.

This book presents a spooky sound coming from deep in the woods, but then the cast, quite tired of dealing with weird supernatural shit, tells three different "ghost stories" around their campfire to try and distract themselves from thinking about that spooky sound coming from deep in the woods. Each of these stories are, pretty explicitly, about magic. Each one is also told second-hand. The character telling it heard it from some other character who had since passed away. So I think these stories are also about honoring the dead.

The first story, about the troll cult, is the most fantastical of the bunch, and I loved it for that. Such bizarre ideas, setting, imagery. It was the one I enjoyed the most, and the one I was able to get most lost in the world of.

The second story is still faerly fantastical, but is a good deal more grounded. I was quite amused by the concept of a sort of rural murder faerie army driving a pickup truck, but the action and the story didn't do a whole lot for me.

The third story felt more like an episode of one of Margaret's podcasts than something I expected from an occult horror series. It basically wasn't fantastical at all. The magic in this one was love and collective action. The horror was cops. It wasn't a bad story, but it wasn't really what I came here for.

So, each story gets progressively more "normal" with the kind of magic (and horror) it presents. A cool little progression. But then, with all the stories having been told, daylight breaking in the main world of the book, we return to that spooky sound in the woods that was previously ignored. I won't say what actually happens, but I will say that it ties a perfect bow on this progression of magic and horror and honoring the dead. A heartfelt, gentle, kind of unsettling little ending. The type I've seen Margaret write several times, and I love it every time.

The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice was a bit of an unexpected departure from the singular narratives of the previous 2 books. It's still got lots of that good kinda-cheesy queer punk occult horror shit (it is still a Danielle Cain book), but it feels more focused on its creative, nuanced, thoughtful structure than on mystery and punchy action. It took me a night of reflecting on it to properly appreciate it, and I still think the first Danielle Cain book is my favorite, but this one certainly has something special.

Magic is real, and it's all around us.

[Kathryne Lentes]

One of the most interesting interviews I did back in 2023 was with Margaret Killjoy. She is the author of A Country of Ghosts and The Sapling Cage. She also plays piano, synth, and harp in the feminist black metal band Feminazgûl and hosts several podcasts. So when I found out I got to check an advance copy of the third book in the Danielle Cain series prior to it being offered on Kickstarter, I knew I had to jump at the chance.
I think that the most important thing a book can do to captivate readers is to bring a person into the character’s perspective and world fully. In this regard, Margaret Killjoy’s upcoming book The Immortal Choir is a masterclass. In just the first few pages, you can feel yourself sitting around the campfire with this team of queer anarcho-punks as they sit around and tell stories to keep ancient evils from encroaching.
The novella is told through four interlocking stories. The first is Danielle Cain and her friends being on the run from magical cops due to the events of the last book. They are camping out on Samhain and hear what may be the approach of a supernal entity. They decide to placate in the old ways by providing it food and telling tales. Each member of the group tells a story about their encounter with magic, both real and fancy, as they define the different kinds. Fancy magic is otherworldly spirits and spells, while real is the magic that happens when people share friendship and a cause.
The book was very different from some of the things that I have been reading recently, and it was a welcome change to hang out with a bunch of queer punks united in the fight against the powers that be and standing by one another no matter what it takes. I enjoyed going along for the ride as they encountered troll cults, murder faeries, and the horrors of riot cops.
I give this once a wholehearted two thumbs up and you should check it out

[Kenya Starflight]

I enjoyed the first two books of the Danielle Cain series, but I was starting to think that it would only be a duology. Finding out that a third book in the series had come out was exciting to me, and I was eager to see what had become of Danielle and her fellow anarchists after The Barrow Will Send What it May. This book feels more like an interlude than a proper continuation... but I still enjoyed this intersection between queer anarchist rage and supernatural danger.

Danielle, Vulture, Brynne, Thursday, and Doomsday are camped out in the Idaho wilderness, laying low while trying to figure out their next move. But this isn't just a night in the forest -- it's Samhain, and the veil between worlds is thin. So as something not of this world cries out in the darkness, the crew shares stories about the dead... stories involving troll-worshipping cults, murderous fae, and riot cops vs. druids.

This is less another story about Danielle and her friends and more a trio of vignettes set in this world where punks and magic exist side by side. Those hoping to see our favorite anarchists go up against another threat will probably be disappointed. But it was nice to get more of this world, and to spend some quiet time with the characters. And the three stories would stand fairly decently on their own as short stories, each with its own eerie-ness and critique of society.

I'm not sure if this series will continue, but I'm glad I got a chance to revisit it.

[VANGLUSS]

I initially went into this being a little disappointed that rather than a continuation of God's Most Punished Anarchists facing off against terrors such as supernatural forces and cops, it was a trio of short stories marginally related to the main cast. Despite this, every story was an incredible exploration of love, loss, resistance, and making damn sure you don't forget the names of the people that came before you. My favorite tale was the last one, even if the supernatural elements were barely there, but I think that was the point. Everybody loves riot queers. And like the author suggested, love is its own form of magic "fancy" magic can't compete with.

[Saloni]

4.5 ⭐️

Novellaween II: Day 18
I'm so so happy Margaret decided to publish another book in this series, I've had such a great time reading these, and I'm hoping she has plans to continue! It was a captivating story (or rather stories) where you get to learn more about characters who didn't have nearly enough page time in the previous books, and the illustrations were also a lovely surprise addition. All that is to say, I am officially obsessed with her books and will proceed to read everything she's written ✌🏼

[Lex]

I went in expecting it to be similar to the first two Danielle Cain books and was surprised at first this book set up as a frame narrative, but I ended up really loving it. I just about cried at the end after the last story.. The whole book is a meaningful homage to those who came before us and I so appreciate the messages of community and standing together in resistance and caring for your people.. I think this ended up being my favorite of the Danielle Cain books so far. Looking forward to reading more of Margaret's works.

[Ellis]

Thank you Margaret Killjoy for sending me a copy of your beautiful new novella because I'm a library worker! I'm a tremendous sucker for the idea that we may only be experiencing time in one direction but all of those times we loved, all of those times we hurt, and all of those kisses and aches are still happening always. The only thing I disliked is that this was too short.

"Everything is alive, forever.
Rebecca is alive, forever.
And I miss her."

[Jess]

You can read this book as a standalone if you want to. It contains spoilers for the first two books but you don't need to have read them first.

This one is a good primer for living through this time period and building support networks and making alliances with people who are really different from you for the purpose of mutual survival. It's about people who don't want to die and also don't want other people to die.

[HorseyChobunso]

This was easily my favorite of the series so far. I wasn't expecting to be so grabbed by these stories. The troll story will live with me for a long time. I love how this setup gives us a look into the backgrounds of the characters, who are generally not super open about their backgrounds, as well as giving insight into how the author thinks of the world and the people around them. This was really gorgeous and I can't wait to read more.

[Tomasz]

Rounded up, a little bit, because the thing is a tad too short for a proper, workable fix-up, but hey, we get more Danielle and more of the crew, and that's never a bad thing, even if the things they tell, the things they (or theirs) live through, or fail to, are, yeah, overwhelming. Or maybe precisely perhaps because they are overwhelming, and yet these plucky guys do not ever, ever, EVER, give up.

[Laura]

A delightful story about fighting the good fight against Nazis, trolls, despair, evil fairies, neoliberalism, and the police state. It's told through three intertwined short stories told in the Idaho woods as part of a spell to keep the magic feds away. Alan Moore described it as ideal reading for a post-truth world.

It's sad, triumphant, despairing, and hopeful. Also has a big scary cow in it.

Did my heart good.

[Joslin Harmon]

I still really love the series and hope there are more but I do think this may be the weakest by a tiny bit. I actually loved the 2 short stories in the beginning of the book but the end felt a little rushed and tacked on which is a shame because I think it was the point of the book. However im here for the spooks.

[Sarah]

This has less of a plot than the first two, but it might nonetheless be my favourite of the series so far. I felt like I was out there in the woods with them listening to the probably-a-cow in the distance and telling stories.

[Kate Downey]

I LOVED this, such a great trip into the Danielle Cain world - vivid, scary, and I learned a lot about anarchy/punk movements!

[Natali]

4.25⭐

[Laura]

Resurrects the spirit of the series, but is more like placeholder campfire stories that expand the mythos than narrative advancement.

[lyss Wells]

didnt realize this was the third in the series (oops) but was beautiful and heartening.

[Madsen]

Short, sweet, creepy. wonderful voices

[Mercurymouth]

This is the third in a series. I liked its punk flavor but felt like I missed the character development of the first 2 books in the series...perhaps... maybe.