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]

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.

[John]

Greg Ariail's Hermits Die on Thursday is Appalachian folklore meets surrealism. As someone who struggles to "see" what is written, Greg creates absurd and vivid images which pervaded my mind.

I find those who are dealing with loneliness as a theme in the book and what loneliness does to the mind. Whether intentional or unintentional, loneliness messes with our minds. I found several quotes that resonated with me.

"Day and night I fight a great emptiness... my fight now is against a sense that life has been a waste, that I've had no passions, no talents, no direction. I can't keep or inspire love." Who hasn't felt like that at times?

"He had intended to accomplish nothing but distance all the years of his life." I understood that thought process on an intimate level.

"The past, he realized, was only a frame of mind."

I loved reading this weird, fantastical book.

[S.R. Dantzler]

I can think of so many shelves and coffee tables this book needs to be on--Everyone that loves that mountains, anyone that loves the tradition and craft of story-telling, and everyone that wants to support Indy authors. Writers that have a pulse, writers that have something to say. This is also one that you want to read, review and share because it deserves to be heard, read aloud to kids at a campfire with s'mores, read on rainy nights in cramped apartments so that it reminds you to take a vacation, quit your job if necessary to go experience the magic of the mountains and its people. I think this is the novel I will pick to give out as gifts when I travel to visit friends. I finished this gem in one night and I imagine I will enjoy it many nights to come.

[Rebeck]

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]

Very intriguing collection. Surprised me at every corner.

[Odessa Blaine]

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.

[Denise Auger]

Very unusual and clever.

[Joe]

What royal imaginings! Each story in this collection is a kingdom to itself! The setting, the character, and the mood play intricately as we read along. Kudos!
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