Hermits Die on Thursday: Stories of Appalachia and the Dark Ages

by Gregory Ariail

In this collection of short stories, transgression is the rule, and the profane and the sacred share a bed. Follow hermits and solitary wanderers as they encounter the weird in the Appalachian Mountains and wild spaces of medieval England and Iceland. Prepare for an unsettling procession of entities and a queen turned to fungus, a hermit with a waterfall-sized beard, a goat's head growing from a cliff, a devilish Pied Piper, a god trapped inside a glacier, a gnome on the moon, bog bodies clinging obstinately to an Iron Age monument, and an ancient cloud worshipped deep underground, among many others. These tales will transport you to the frontiers of the imagination. Illustrations by James Hutton and Aleksandra Apocalisse enhance each story.

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Abigail Munson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know if I can appropriately express how brilliant this collection is. Perfectly strange, scratched the itch in my brain that is always demanding for a story to be a little bit weirder. Shout out to the lady a Mercer University Press who suggested this collection to me it far exceeded my expectations.

[Rebeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engrossing, mesmerizing, stupendously inventive -- and that's not just the beard descriptions, which are numerous and vivid. Each story grounds you into the strangest scenes and stuns you in the end. The illustrations, too, are outstanding.

[Winnow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very intriguing collection. Surprised me at every corner.

[Odessa Blaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a bizarre journey into a few fever dreams and folktales. I think my favorite thing about Ariail's writing is his use of descriptions and how entirely unexpected everything always is.