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Immundus: A Western Navajo Folktale
A Western Navajo Folktale, Remastered and Expanded Edition is a brutal, operatic descent into madness, myth, and memory. Blending Western grit with Navajo legend and cosmic horror, the story unfolds on a haunted desert ranch where a disgraced TV writer confronts a force older than the land itself—one that feeds on regret, fear, and forgotten sins.
Critics of the original novelette called it “terrifying,” “unforgettable,” and “a masterful debut.” Now fully remastered and expanded into novella form, this definitive edition features new chapters, sharpened prose, immersive historical detail, and a final act ripped straight from the underworld. It is not just more terrifying—it is final.
Part of The Abbycat Legacy Collection.
© 2025 Jack Chase. Published by Abbycat Group LLC.
All rights reserved. Abbycat Group and its logo are trademarks of Abbycat Group LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission.
Critics of the original novelette called it “terrifying,” “unforgettable,” and “a masterful debut.” Now fully remastered and expanded into novella form, this definitive edition features new chapters, sharpened prose, immersive historical detail, and a final act ripped straight from the underworld. It is not just more terrifying—it is final.
Part of The Abbycat Legacy Collection.
© 2025 Jack Chase. Published by Abbycat Group LLC.
All rights reserved. Abbycat Group and its logo are trademarks of Abbycat Group LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission.
148 pages, Hardcover
Published June 20, 2025
About the author
Jack Chase
12 books3 followersJack Chase is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and founder of Abbycat Group & Publishing Brands (known outwardly as AGP), a rapidly growing multi-imprint small press based out of Southern California.
He started in early 2025 with a couple of digital shorts that landed well enough to keep him going. Then came the paperback release of “Overtime: The Ballad of Marcus Graves”—a sharp black comedy about a law student-turned-drug dealer for Hollywood’s elite, polished for years as a screenplay before becoming prose—which arrived to crickets. He pivoted immediately to “Violent Crimes: The Butcher of Westchester,” an Upstate murder mystery he calls an “anti-procedural”: a meditation on paternal rage, generational trauma, and true evil, built on a commitment to blending realism with cinematic precision without sacrificing class. It started as a five-minute short film screenplay in his first-period film class senior year of high school—a depiction of what would become the foundation of the 2025 novel’s devastating final act—which his teacher understandably shot down for being “literally just a guy shooting someone.” Seven years later, on Memorial Day 2025, it became his debut novel. In the definitive hardcover’s afterword, he describes the process as “either the worst or greatest experience” of his writing life, one that required him to inhabit a proximity to darkness he believes he still hasn’t fully shaken—but says was “worth it.”
After “Violent Crimes,” he returned to the beginning: “Immundus,” his first publication, remastered and expanded into a hardcover novella nearly unrecognizable from the original—a nonlinear desert fever dream blending Navajo and eldritch horror, anchored by Justin, an ostracized, self-destructive screenwriter circling the drain in the Yucca Valley as he becomes the fixation of an ancient evil. Then came the big swing: “Made in America: or The Tragedy of Billy Castle and Unexpected Absolution of Dean Willis,” a Greek tragedy disguised as a 630-page crime epic. Four years in the making, it began as a 150-page screenplay written at 21 and was drafted into prose over a scorching 2025 summer in the Coachella Valley. Somewhere between pages—probably to soothe the burnout—he quietly revisited and significantly revised “Overtime” into “one of the funniest things” he’s ever written, with a sequel planned for summer 2026 “whether anybody wants it or not.”
He’s since published a 10,000-word essay unpacking his intentions with “Made in America’s” characters and storylines, along with an intimate memoir piece framing the novel as his north star through years of tragedy and dysfunction—from his hometown to Santa Monica to Hollywood to his eventual settling in Palm Desert. Then he went straight into production on “The Bastard of Taylor’s End,” a 502-page Jacobean revenge epic about stolen lineage, power, and morality. The novel includes an original play-within-a-play entitled ‘The Dragon and the Prince,’ composed by Chase in period-accurate diction, that mirrors both the staged performance in the narrative and the arcs of its numerous characters. Similar to its predecessor, it began as a screenplay, written and completed at the age of 19—just a month before the world shut down. Almost exactly five years later, the story found life as a major novel and was released in hardcover on December 31, 2025.
Eleven books in, his catalog runs from crime to myth to the surreal—all of it built on fatalism, consequence, and people finding out who they really are when it costs them something. He has no plans to slow down and intends to expand AGP with the formation of ABBYCAT STUDIOS sometime in 2027.
He lives and works in Southern California with his tortoiseshell assistant, Mulan.
He started in early 2025 with a couple of digital shorts that landed well enough to keep him going. Then came the paperback release of “Overtime: The Ballad of Marcus Graves”—a sharp black comedy about a law student-turned-drug dealer for Hollywood’s elite, polished for years as a screenplay before becoming prose—which arrived to crickets. He pivoted immediately to “Violent Crimes: The Butcher of Westchester,” an Upstate murder mystery he calls an “anti-procedural”: a meditation on paternal rage, generational trauma, and true evil, built on a commitment to blending realism with cinematic precision without sacrificing class. It started as a five-minute short film screenplay in his first-period film class senior year of high school—a depiction of what would become the foundation of the 2025 novel’s devastating final act—which his teacher understandably shot down for being “literally just a guy shooting someone.” Seven years later, on Memorial Day 2025, it became his debut novel. In the definitive hardcover’s afterword, he describes the process as “either the worst or greatest experience” of his writing life, one that required him to inhabit a proximity to darkness he believes he still hasn’t fully shaken—but says was “worth it.”
After “Violent Crimes,” he returned to the beginning: “Immundus,” his first publication, remastered and expanded into a hardcover novella nearly unrecognizable from the original—a nonlinear desert fever dream blending Navajo and eldritch horror, anchored by Justin, an ostracized, self-destructive screenwriter circling the drain in the Yucca Valley as he becomes the fixation of an ancient evil. Then came the big swing: “Made in America: or The Tragedy of Billy Castle and Unexpected Absolution of Dean Willis,” a Greek tragedy disguised as a 630-page crime epic. Four years in the making, it began as a 150-page screenplay written at 21 and was drafted into prose over a scorching 2025 summer in the Coachella Valley. Somewhere between pages—probably to soothe the burnout—he quietly revisited and significantly revised “Overtime” into “one of the funniest things” he’s ever written, with a sequel planned for summer 2026 “whether anybody wants it or not.”
He’s since published a 10,000-word essay unpacking his intentions with “Made in America’s” characters and storylines, along with an intimate memoir piece framing the novel as his north star through years of tragedy and dysfunction—from his hometown to Santa Monica to Hollywood to his eventual settling in Palm Desert. Then he went straight into production on “The Bastard of Taylor’s End,” a 502-page Jacobean revenge epic about stolen lineage, power, and morality. The novel includes an original play-within-a-play entitled ‘The Dragon and the Prince,’ composed by Chase in period-accurate diction, that mirrors both the staged performance in the narrative and the arcs of its numerous characters. Similar to its predecessor, it began as a screenplay, written and completed at the age of 19—just a month before the world shut down. Almost exactly five years later, the story found life as a major novel and was released in hardcover on December 31, 2025.
Eleven books in, his catalog runs from crime to myth to the surreal—all of it built on fatalism, consequence, and people finding out who they really are when it costs them something. He has no plans to slow down and intends to expand AGP with the formation of ABBYCAT STUDIOS sometime in 2027.
He lives and works in Southern California with his tortoiseshell assistant, Mulan.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 5, 2026
Well-written and fastpaced, Immundus was an interesting folklore-inspired novel.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I personally would have like to read more about Immundus and the folklore aspect, as the majority of the novel revolved around personal problems and their escape. It could have been more, but nonetheless, it was a pleasant read.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I personally would have like to read more about Immundus and the folklore aspect, as the majority of the novel revolved around personal problems and their escape. It could have been more, but nonetheless, it was a pleasant read.
January 13, 2026
Immundus - dirty, filthy, unclean, impure...is a novelette that comes at you at a fast pace, starting off right in the direct threat that our main character Justin is facing. Justin is a failed screenwriter who retreats to an Airbnb cabin in the desolate desert to try and recuperate from his own self inflected crash out. His own demons have caught up with him or is something catching up to him...? The nonlinear storytelling is what creates the suspense and guesswork, making this a fun short horror that I appreciated.
NIT PICK: I would say that this story is not genuinely based on a full Navajo folktale, but more of the current mainstream accepted twist that you can find popping up in horror in recent years. (There's been hot debate lately, I went down a rabbit hole researching!) The Navajo have their own folklore, which is not fully known to this day. Then you have people on the outside creating their own interpretations and links to other folklore causing the wires to get crossed. In this story how it looks, how it functions, what names are used, a possible origin, is another rendition. And the author does his own thing too.
I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
NIT PICK: I would say that this story is not genuinely based on a full Navajo folktale, but more of the current mainstream accepted twist that you can find popping up in horror in recent years. (There's been hot debate lately, I went down a rabbit hole researching!) The Navajo have their own folklore, which is not fully known to this day. Then you have people on the outside creating their own interpretations and links to other folklore causing the wires to get crossed. In this story how it looks, how it functions, what names are used, a possible origin, is another rendition. And the author does his own thing too.
I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews