Fancy Gap: A Novel

by Zak Jones

A powerful, unforgettable three estranged generations in Appalachia grapple with loss, poverty, and their individual demons, until an explosive climax brings them together in apocalyptic deliverance.

In the hills and isolated mountain enclaves of southern Appalachia, Nana Grace has left her own family behind to become the “Shepherd” of a disaffected flock of worshippers that she keeps in thrall through her charismatic preaching and the dispensing of stolen drugs.

Her daughter, Jane, struggles with breast cancer, the painful effects of its treatment, and the expectation to perform unceasing gratitude toward the evangelical community that reluctantly supports her out of a transactional sense of duty.

Jane's eldest son, Dalton, has been discharged from the army under conditions "Other than Honorable." Accused of breaching the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, Dalton drifts hesitantly home, pulled by guilt and love for his younger brother. Messy (christened Messiah at Grace’s insistence) is awkward in a world that attacks difference. Guided by faith, tortured by abandonment, Messy eventually develops a warped moral code shaped by alienation and anger.

Fancy Gap is an unflinching look at the desperation that throws kerosene on the flames of opioid use, poverty, illness, and apocalyptic Christianity. Profound and captivating, violent and lyrical, it introduces Zak Jones as a compelling and original new voice in Canadian literature.

Genres: Fiction, Canada

Audible Audio

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Zak Jones is the author of Fancy Gap (Hamish Hamilton, 2026). He is a writer and literary scholar. A dual Canadian-American citizen, he grew up between rural North Carolina and Toronto. His short story, “So Much More to Say,” won the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s 2023 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and his story, “Love Handles,” won the 2023 Norma Epstein National Award. Jones is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto studying veterans’ narratives in American Literature, writing his second novel, and developing an archival documentary project, Riding Six White Horses.

Reviews

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bleak and depressing, that's about all I have to say about it. On paper this one hits a lot of the beats that should have made it a hit with me but I never felt like it was going anywhere more like it flaccidly meandered to its conclusion.

[Zak Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the hell?

[Juliann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southern gothic meets cult horror meets the dry dust of a gravel road. This is a *novel* and a damn fine one. The prose is alive with sound, smell, and texture, bearing echoes of Faulkner and O’Connor. The story makes you think on the micro and the macro level. Wise and intelligent.

Thanks to Hamish Hamilton for the ARC.

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is wild

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like True Detective S1 (poor backwaters of the American south) meets a Ruth Ozeki novel.

[John Waites · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fancy Gap by Zak Jones is not just a debut novel — it’s an autopsy of America. Of its God. Of its promises. Of the quiet, grinding cruelty baked into the land.

Set in an Appalachian town drowning in poverty, pills, and prayer, this book follows three generations of the Fuquay family — and every single one of them is fighting to survive something inherited.

Dalton, freshly discharged from the Army under a cloud of shame, drifts from job to job, carrying guilt like a second skin. Jane, his mother, battles cancer with wine and prescription bottles, clinging to a church that has long since betrayed her. Messy — sweet, abandoned, aching Messy — moves through foster homes and Bible camps just wanting someone to choose him. And then there’s Grace, the grandmother, a born-again preacher in the mountains, delivering fire-and-brimstone sermons while dispensing her own version of salvation.

Addiction. Religious extremism. White supremacy. The coal industry. The military machine. Generational neglect.

Jones doesn’t flinch from any of it.

This isn’t poverty porn. It isn’t caricature. It’s intimate. It’s furious. It’s painfully human.

On every page, Jones forces us to look at the parts of America we’d rather ignore — the grey monotony, the spiritual hunger, the systems that promise salvation but deliver abandonment.

And somehow, through all that darkness, he still writes with compassion.

A blistering, unflinching debut about faith, family, and the long shadow of inherited pain. I won’t stop thinking about it.

[Isabelle Bessel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and unexpected

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5**

[Tobin Elliott]

This is a DNF. Fifty pages in and it just didn't really seem to be going anywhere.

[Maxime Brunet · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 4.5 - change your ratings goodreads.

A great debut novel. Every chapter is written from the perspective of a different character, showing you how many sides there can be to one story. As the plot progressed, I found it hard to put this book down. I just wanted to know what happened to everyone! The writing is strong.

It is a dark and difficult story, but it explores the times we live in.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Lauren Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was the most beautiful novel I have read in forever.

I am naturally drawn to themes akin to southern gothic, but I understand how the appeal was lost on some people due to the bleakness of the tone. The way that Jones reveals information about the characters conjured an empathy and a closeness to them that I haven't felt in quite some time.

plot was NUTS. no idea where it was headed, beautifully built and carried out in a way which gripped me the whole way through. I haven't cried at the end of a novel since call my by your name :) very cool stuff

what a stunning debut. I cannot wait for the rest of jones' career.

[Britt-isms · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was good, and this genre is totally my cup of tea. I feel the characters and stories could have been flushed out more but a lot was left hanging. Like what happened to Clyde?

[Akeel Ghann · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

It’s starts pretty slow and doesn’t pick up much until part 2 but it’s a beautifully written book with an engaging story. I wish some of the characters and stories had more detail for quite a long book, it just felt like there was so much fluff. It is worth reading for part 3 alone though!

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Penguin Random House & Mr. Jones for the ARC. This was a slow, tough push for me to get through. Each chapter was from a different character. This is a dark and uncomfortable part of things we don't like to see or acknowledge. Set in the Appalachian mountains with isolated roads and a Revival, this carries the story through some unsettling outcomes. While a families' life is upended when the mother of Dalton, a discharged/disgraced army soldier and younger brother Messiah's mother dies, the 2 boys become wayward soles. Each with their own demons to deal with.

The story is dark, and has a self proclaimed "Shepard" who preaches to her congregation. Her faith prays on others suffering, poverty, illness and addiction to grow her flock of followers. The writing causes you to smell and feel what many of these characters feel. This book was not my cup of tea, but it was a very well written.

[Laurie Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. I think I wanted to like it more.
I did listen to it on audiobook, and I think perhaps I would have liked it more as just a print book? The narration is well one, but you know it is very "hillbilly" and I would admit I tend to have an internal bias of dislike.
Everyone in this book is sad and lonely and most of them are terrible.

There are a lot of drugs, and a grandma running her own "church" and boys that nobody cares about.
It was all just depressing and lonely and I find it drug along a little bit.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read Fancy Gap by Zak Jones. It wasn’t my genre of book. The cult like religion that the Grandmother practised and the drugs they did I found disturbing. It was a story about a family grandmother, Mother, and 2 sons and the trials and tribulations of the family.

[Autumn]

Beyond skeptical, given that I literally drove through Fancy Gap the day after my mom died. At least this guy was in Surry/Stokes county when he wasn't in Toronto. We'll see!

[Lesley O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really incredible, Zak.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

31/2. Disturbing! I wanted so much more for these kids.