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The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky
They had escaped their country, but they couldn’t escape the past
Having lost both her home and family to a brutal dictatorship, Isabel has fled to Spain, where she watches young, bronzed beauties and tries to forget the horrors that lie in her homeland.
Shadowing her always, attired in rumpled linen suits and an eyepatch, is “The Eye,” a fellow ex-pat and poet with a notorious reputation. An unlikely friendship blossoms, a kinship of shared grief. Then The Eye receives a mysterious note and suddenly returns home, his fate uncertain.
Left with the keys to The Eye’s apartment, Isabel finds two of his secret manuscripts: a halting translation of an ancient, profane work, and an evocative testament of his capture during the revolution. Both texts bear disturbing images of blood and torture, and the more Isabel reads the more she feels the inexplicable compulsion to go home.
It means a journey deep into a country torn by war, still ruled by a violent regime, but the idea of finding The Eye becomes ineluctable. Isabel feels the manuscripts pushing her to go. Her country is lost, and now her only friend is lost, too. What must she give to get them back? In the end, she has only herself left to sacrifice.
THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY asks:
How does someone simply give up their home...especially when their home won’t let them?
Having lost both her home and family to a brutal dictatorship, Isabel has fled to Spain, where she watches young, bronzed beauties and tries to forget the horrors that lie in her homeland.
Shadowing her always, attired in rumpled linen suits and an eyepatch, is “The Eye,” a fellow ex-pat and poet with a notorious reputation. An unlikely friendship blossoms, a kinship of shared grief. Then The Eye receives a mysterious note and suddenly returns home, his fate uncertain.
Left with the keys to The Eye’s apartment, Isabel finds two of his secret manuscripts: a halting translation of an ancient, profane work, and an evocative testament of his capture during the revolution. Both texts bear disturbing images of blood and torture, and the more Isabel reads the more she feels the inexplicable compulsion to go home.
It means a journey deep into a country torn by war, still ruled by a violent regime, but the idea of finding The Eye becomes ineluctable. Isabel feels the manuscripts pushing her to go. Her country is lost, and now her only friend is lost, too. What must she give to get them back? In the end, she has only herself left to sacrifice.
THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY asks:
How does someone simply give up their home...especially when their home won’t let them?
Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2018
21 people are currently reading
852 people want to read
About the author
John Hornor Jacobs
24 books758 followersJohn Hornor Jacobs, is an award-winning author of genre bending adult and YA fiction and a partner and senior art director at a Little Rock, Arkansas advertising agency, Cranford Co. His first novel, Southern Gods, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Excellence in a First Novel and won the Darrel Award. The Onion AV said of the book, “A sumptuous Southern Gothic thriller steeped in the distinct American mythologies of Cthulhu and the blues . . . Southern Gods beautifully probes the eerie, horror-infested underbelly of the South.”His second novel, This Dark Earth, Brian Keene described as “…quite simply, the best zombie novel I’ve read in years” and was published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery imprint. Jacobs’s acclaimed series of novels for young adults beginning with The Twelve-Fingered Boy, continuing with The Shibboleth, and ending with The Conformity has been hailed by Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing as “amazing” and “mesmerizing.”Jacobs’s first fantasy novel, The Incorruptibles, was nominated for the Morningstar and Gemmell Awards in the UK. Pat Rothfuss has said of this book, “One part ancient Rome, two parts wild west, one part Faust. A pinch of Tolkien, of Lovecraft, of Dante. This is strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before. I wish more books were as fresh and brave as this.”His fiction has appeared in Playboy Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine and his essay have been featured on CBS Weekly and Huffington Post.Books:Southern Gods – (Night Shade Books, 2011)
This Dark Earth – (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
The Twelve-Fingered Boy – (Lerner, 2013)
The Shibboleth – (Lerner, 2013)
The Conformity – (Lerner, 2014)
The Incorruptibles – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2014)
Foreign Devils – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2015)
Infernal Machines – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2017)
The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky – (HarperCollins / Harper Voyager, October 2018)
A Lush and Seething Hell – (HarperCollins / Harper Voyager, October 2019)
Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales – (JournalStone, 2020)
This Dark Earth – (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
The Twelve-Fingered Boy – (Lerner, 2013)
The Shibboleth – (Lerner, 2013)
The Conformity – (Lerner, 2014)
The Incorruptibles – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2014)
Foreign Devils – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2015)
Infernal Machines – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2017)
The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky – (HarperCollins / Harper Voyager, October 2018)
A Lush and Seething Hell – (HarperCollins / Harper Voyager, October 2019)
Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales – (JournalStone, 2020)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
December 10, 2018
4.5/5 stars!
"Misery is a condition that we are all promised."
THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY is a beautifully written novella with rich, layered characters and an unfamiliar landscape.
Two ex-pats develop a friendship between them. Isabel, an educator and Avendano, a poet, have both escaped a political coup in their home country of (the fictional) Magera. As their friendship deepens, Isabel learns more about Avendano's reputation and his past. When he asks her to watch his apartment so that he may return to Magera, she does so willingly. While so doing, she reads a few of the manuscripts he left behind. It's in these manuscripts that the true horror lies. Will Avendano ever return home? If he does will he find Isabel there waiting for him? You'll have to read this novella to find out!
I loved this book and that's mostly because the characters of Avendano and Isabel are so deep and well drawn. I did not expect to develop such complicated feelings for characters in "A Novella of Cosmic Horror." But develop them I did-especially for Avendano. I disliked him quite a bit when the story began, but I empathized with what he went through later, (or actually, before), and my feelings for him changed dramatically.
Whenever I see or hear the term "cosmic horror" lately, I find myself thinking of tentacles. But cosmic horror runs much deeper than that, and in this book it plays a small but certainly disturbing part of the narrative. When the miasma becomes so thick you can almost cut through it, watch out. There are things in that stinking fog, things existing just beyond the limits our visibility, but all too alive just the same.
The real horrors here are executed by humans and they make tentacles and Cthulhu look downright silly. It's easy to overlook coups in other countries, easy to overlook the human rights violations and the often abominable acts. We don't seem them on our daily news, so to us they seem foreign and distant. But for the people living under military rule or the rule of dictators or religious leaders? They see these horrors every day and sadly, they are now just part of life. When anyone dares to look more closely, like Avendano for instance, who knows what horrors will befall them as a result? They may take the form of torture, they may take the form of torturing those you love, they can even make you torture yourself, and that's the worst torture of all. " The pain becomes an offering and sacrifice becomes a beacon."
A beacon to what? That is the question.
I've tried hard to impart to you the gravity as well as the beauty hidden behind that oh so lovely cover. I've tried to do it without spoiling anything, but I'm not sure I've succeeded. The writing is sublime and I got lost a few times, just ruminating on the beauty of the language. That doesn't happen often these days, but it happened several times within the pages of this beautiful, scary, depressing, lovely novella and for that reason I highly recommend this book.
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2PsjNFX
*I received a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*
"Misery is a condition that we are all promised."
THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY is a beautifully written novella with rich, layered characters and an unfamiliar landscape.
Two ex-pats develop a friendship between them. Isabel, an educator and Avendano, a poet, have both escaped a political coup in their home country of (the fictional) Magera. As their friendship deepens, Isabel learns more about Avendano's reputation and his past. When he asks her to watch his apartment so that he may return to Magera, she does so willingly. While so doing, she reads a few of the manuscripts he left behind. It's in these manuscripts that the true horror lies. Will Avendano ever return home? If he does will he find Isabel there waiting for him? You'll have to read this novella to find out!
I loved this book and that's mostly because the characters of Avendano and Isabel are so deep and well drawn. I did not expect to develop such complicated feelings for characters in "A Novella of Cosmic Horror." But develop them I did-especially for Avendano. I disliked him quite a bit when the story began, but I empathized with what he went through later, (or actually, before), and my feelings for him changed dramatically.
Whenever I see or hear the term "cosmic horror" lately, I find myself thinking of tentacles. But cosmic horror runs much deeper than that, and in this book it plays a small but certainly disturbing part of the narrative. When the miasma becomes so thick you can almost cut through it, watch out. There are things in that stinking fog, things existing just beyond the limits our visibility, but all too alive just the same.
The real horrors here are executed by humans and they make tentacles and Cthulhu look downright silly. It's easy to overlook coups in other countries, easy to overlook the human rights violations and the often abominable acts. We don't seem them on our daily news, so to us they seem foreign and distant. But for the people living under military rule or the rule of dictators or religious leaders? They see these horrors every day and sadly, they are now just part of life. When anyone dares to look more closely, like Avendano for instance, who knows what horrors will befall them as a result? They may take the form of torture, they may take the form of torturing those you love, they can even make you torture yourself, and that's the worst torture of all. " The pain becomes an offering and sacrifice becomes a beacon."
A beacon to what? That is the question.
I've tried hard to impart to you the gravity as well as the beauty hidden behind that oh so lovely cover. I've tried to do it without spoiling anything, but I'm not sure I've succeeded. The writing is sublime and I got lost a few times, just ruminating on the beauty of the language. That doesn't happen often these days, but it happened several times within the pages of this beautiful, scary, depressing, lovely novella and for that reason I highly recommend this book.
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2PsjNFX
*I received a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*
October 30, 2018
Let me start with: Cover Love! It's exquisite.
What is also exquisite is John Hornor Jacobs writing. It's truly beautiful.
While the writing is beautiful the story held within these pages is not. It's brutal. Excruciating at times.
Two ex-pats that have left their war torn country come together in an unlikely friendship. When The Eye, as he's known, leaves to return to their home country he asks that Isabel stay in his apartment. While there she comes across two hidden manuscripts in which she becomes obsessed. These manuscripts are absolutely horrific and profane but the longer she studies them the lure of home becomes almost compulsive and her fear for her new friends safety sends her back to Magera and the horrors that await.
"The terrifying realization of madness crept in as I read - breathless and stunned, galloping down dark paths, a pornography of excruciating psychic pain - if not by him, then by me, as his audience."
Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
What is also exquisite is John Hornor Jacobs writing. It's truly beautiful.
While the writing is beautiful the story held within these pages is not. It's brutal. Excruciating at times.
Two ex-pats that have left their war torn country come together in an unlikely friendship. When The Eye, as he's known, leaves to return to their home country he asks that Isabel stay in his apartment. While there she comes across two hidden manuscripts in which she becomes obsessed. These manuscripts are absolutely horrific and profane but the longer she studies them the lure of home becomes almost compulsive and her fear for her new friends safety sends her back to Magera and the horrors that await.
"The terrifying realization of madness crept in as I read - breathless and stunned, galloping down dark paths, a pornography of excruciating psychic pain - if not by him, then by me, as his audience."
Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
November 3, 2018
Although H.P. Lovecraft is the most familiar name in the genre of cosmic horror, a number of other authors writing in this vein have shown themselves to be far better wordsmiths and storytellers - Victor LaValle, Brian Hodge, Laird Barron, and Caitlin R. Kiernan immediately spring to mind. I feel comfortable adding John Hornor Jacobs to this list now, with his novella The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky proving to be one of the best titles I've read in 2018 (and 2018 has been absolutely flush with incredible horror titles, I might add).
Racism was absolutely endemic in Lovecraft's work, with the man's total fear of Otherness, which is to say blacks and immigrants, pervading his mythos. Jacobs, however, writes entirely from the perspective of The Other - his central characters, Isabella and Rafael Avendaño, are South American expats living abroad in Spain. Their home country, the fictional Magera, has fallen to a Pinochet-like military junta. If either were ever to return home, it would mean certain death. Isabella is a lesbian, and, perhaps worse for those in power, both educated and an educator. Avendaño is a poet and outspoken critic of the despot ruling Magera.
Whereas Lovecraft's horror arose from racist anxieties, in Jacobs's novella, political anxiety is the topic du jour, and certainly one that's far more relatable for this reader. Although set in 1987, The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky is unfortunately timely. The far-right threats of political violence stemming from the fictional Vidal's rule that threaten Isabella and Avendaño echo current global trends and the rise of nationalism. Brazil recently returned to a military dictatorship with the election of Jair Bolsonaro, the 'Trump of the tropics,' and with him came military raids of that country's universities earlier this week, a turn of events that makes Isabella's fears of returning to Magera sadly relatable. The threats to Avendaño's life simply for being an outspoken critic of an authoritarian regime vividly echo life under Trump part and parcel every bit as much as they recall life under Augusto Pinochet, and one can't help but wonder if a bomb is going to make its way into Avendaño's mailbox at some point in the narrative. The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky functions as a fictional examination of historical incidents that occurred in the 1960s-1980s, while also encapsulating the worries of political extremism circa 2018.
Much of the horror stems from the fear of the Mageran junta, with the comic elements playing only a minor role in the story's backdrop. The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky certainly has its share of horror, and a few squirm-inducing scenes to be sure, but it's of a quieter, slower, and highly literary nature. The characters come first in Jacobs's story, and we get small hints of their history and past lives in the homes they were forced to flee. It's not until nearly the half-way mark that we experience a fully unflinching view of the junta's atrocity as told through Avendaño's view, and the horrors that unfold therein are almost entirely human, with only brief glimpses of the supernatural.
Primarily, we experience this story, and Avendaño, through Isabella's eyes. Her position as an educated woman informs Jacobs's style, as does Avendaño's pedigree as a poet, and the writing is whip smart with the prose taking on a deeply literary aspect. Avendaño speaks with a poet's grace, his words reflecting his perspective. When he speaks on even minor topics, such as the luchador horror films he routine frequents at the cinema, he speaks of grander philosophies: "Misery is a condition that we are all promised," he tells Isabella early on. "On the screen, painted in light, that misery is very small." Isabella lives the life of a professor, but is far from cloistered within the halls of academia - she has passions and love interests, and can be tough when required. Jacobs subverts one's expectations of the nerdy damsel in distress, and even Isabella reminds us in her narrative that "I am as sensitive to situation and intuition as any person. The idea that academics—especially female academics—are cloistered aesthetics that retreat from the real world to content themselves only with books is nonsense."
The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky is a smart and deeply layered novella, and its depth routinely belies its page count. This is a lushly literary narrative, one that is first and foremost a character study of political exiles, and Jacobs's authorial skills are tack sharp. Highly recommended.
Racism was absolutely endemic in Lovecraft's work, with the man's total fear of Otherness, which is to say blacks and immigrants, pervading his mythos. Jacobs, however, writes entirely from the perspective of The Other - his central characters, Isabella and Rafael Avendaño, are South American expats living abroad in Spain. Their home country, the fictional Magera, has fallen to a Pinochet-like military junta. If either were ever to return home, it would mean certain death. Isabella is a lesbian, and, perhaps worse for those in power, both educated and an educator. Avendaño is a poet and outspoken critic of the despot ruling Magera.
Whereas Lovecraft's horror arose from racist anxieties, in Jacobs's novella, political anxiety is the topic du jour, and certainly one that's far more relatable for this reader. Although set in 1987, The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky is unfortunately timely. The far-right threats of political violence stemming from the fictional Vidal's rule that threaten Isabella and Avendaño echo current global trends and the rise of nationalism. Brazil recently returned to a military dictatorship with the election of Jair Bolsonaro, the 'Trump of the tropics,' and with him came military raids of that country's universities earlier this week, a turn of events that makes Isabella's fears of returning to Magera sadly relatable. The threats to Avendaño's life simply for being an outspoken critic of an authoritarian regime vividly echo life under Trump part and parcel every bit as much as they recall life under Augusto Pinochet, and one can't help but wonder if a bomb is going to make its way into Avendaño's mailbox at some point in the narrative. The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky functions as a fictional examination of historical incidents that occurred in the 1960s-1980s, while also encapsulating the worries of political extremism circa 2018.
Much of the horror stems from the fear of the Mageran junta, with the comic elements playing only a minor role in the story's backdrop. The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky certainly has its share of horror, and a few squirm-inducing scenes to be sure, but it's of a quieter, slower, and highly literary nature. The characters come first in Jacobs's story, and we get small hints of their history and past lives in the homes they were forced to flee. It's not until nearly the half-way mark that we experience a fully unflinching view of the junta's atrocity as told through Avendaño's view, and the horrors that unfold therein are almost entirely human, with only brief glimpses of the supernatural.
Primarily, we experience this story, and Avendaño, through Isabella's eyes. Her position as an educated woman informs Jacobs's style, as does Avendaño's pedigree as a poet, and the writing is whip smart with the prose taking on a deeply literary aspect. Avendaño speaks with a poet's grace, his words reflecting his perspective. When he speaks on even minor topics, such as the luchador horror films he routine frequents at the cinema, he speaks of grander philosophies: "Misery is a condition that we are all promised," he tells Isabella early on. "On the screen, painted in light, that misery is very small." Isabella lives the life of a professor, but is far from cloistered within the halls of academia - she has passions and love interests, and can be tough when required. Jacobs subverts one's expectations of the nerdy damsel in distress, and even Isabella reminds us in her narrative that "I am as sensitive to situation and intuition as any person. The idea that academics—especially female academics—are cloistered aesthetics that retreat from the real world to content themselves only with books is nonsense."
The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky is a smart and deeply layered novella, and its depth routinely belies its page count. This is a lushly literary narrative, one that is first and foremost a character study of political exiles, and Jacobs's authorial skills are tack sharp. Highly recommended.
November 2, 2018
First things first: Thanks to the publisher and author for a bound manuscript of TSDIITS in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this advanced reading copy of the novella does not influence my thoughts or opinions on the work.
Note: Prior to TSDIITS, I had not read any works by John Hornor Jacobs, but I had heard many glowing reviews from peers.
Post-read: all of my peers are correct in stating that his works should not be missed. I have since added everything that he has published to my Amazon wishlist and will be starting a fan-club next week. First meeting is on Halloween. Be there of Cthulhu will feast on your marrow.
Isabel has fled to Spain in order to forget the horrors left behind. A brutal dictatorship awaits her if she were to ever return. She befriends another expatriate, known simply as ‘The Eye’, who is a world-renowned poet with rather troubled past. Though their friendship is unexpected, the two give one another comfort over the mutual feelings of a home lost but not forgotten.
Soon, The Eye receives a note from an unknown sender which emotionally forces him to return home. Left with the keys to his apartment and more money than she could ever spend, Isabel finds herself combing through manuscripts hidden from the eyes of the world. One, a brutal retelling of his capture during the revolution, weaves itself through Isabel’s mind and turns her focus to returning home as well.
What she expects to find is anyone’s guess. What she does find is more than she could’ve imagined.
I don’t know if going into this novella with 0 expectations, or knowing Jacobs’ reputation, was what put it over the top for me, but who cares. In the beginning, you think you are in for one thing, only to be completely blown away around the halfway point. The horror element is very subtle, like a slow burn, but oh so powerful. And that ending…
The writing is exquisite and the storytelling is impassioned. You will not be unmoved. If you are a fan of JHJ, you probably already have this on pre-order; but if you are like me and have never given him a shot, this is, IMO, the best place to start.
This will go down as the best novella of 2018 and may contend as one of my favorite reads of the year. Beautiful and terrifying, with prose like warm honey dripping over an open flame.
Note: Prior to TSDIITS, I had not read any works by John Hornor Jacobs, but I had heard many glowing reviews from peers.
Post-read: all of my peers are correct in stating that his works should not be missed. I have since added everything that he has published to my Amazon wishlist and will be starting a fan-club next week. First meeting is on Halloween. Be there of Cthulhu will feast on your marrow.
Isabel has fled to Spain in order to forget the horrors left behind. A brutal dictatorship awaits her if she were to ever return. She befriends another expatriate, known simply as ‘The Eye’, who is a world-renowned poet with rather troubled past. Though their friendship is unexpected, the two give one another comfort over the mutual feelings of a home lost but not forgotten.
Soon, The Eye receives a note from an unknown sender which emotionally forces him to return home. Left with the keys to his apartment and more money than she could ever spend, Isabel finds herself combing through manuscripts hidden from the eyes of the world. One, a brutal retelling of his capture during the revolution, weaves itself through Isabel’s mind and turns her focus to returning home as well.
What she expects to find is anyone’s guess. What she does find is more than she could’ve imagined.
I don’t know if going into this novella with 0 expectations, or knowing Jacobs’ reputation, was what put it over the top for me, but who cares. In the beginning, you think you are in for one thing, only to be completely blown away around the halfway point. The horror element is very subtle, like a slow burn, but oh so powerful. And that ending…
The writing is exquisite and the storytelling is impassioned. You will not be unmoved. If you are a fan of JHJ, you probably already have this on pre-order; but if you are like me and have never given him a shot, this is, IMO, the best place to start.
This will go down as the best novella of 2018 and may contend as one of my favorite reads of the year. Beautiful and terrifying, with prose like warm honey dripping over an open flame.
February 27, 2019
I read Southern Gods about six or seven years ago right around when it first came out and I liked that one a lot. While reading this one I kept telling myself how impressed I was in how he has grown and matured as a writer since then, at least IMHO. I love quotable movies and how specific lines help me connect with movies and keep them in my mind even years later and this was like those films in that I found myself rereading certain passages and lines from this because of the pictures they put in my head or just because of their straight up gorgeousness and/or grotesqueness. This was a very clever book to read as well and I especially got a kick out of one of the characters pointing out another author's use of subtext in his writing only to have that same character play out that same exact instance in their own interactions later on. It's shit like that that makes one book stand out from the next with me. A very satisfying and complete story and while I could have read another three hundred pages of it, that gripe does not take away from it being a five star read.
February 26, 2020
"The sea dreams it is the sky. When the sky dreams, what does it become?"
I'll confess, I purchased this novella based on the title alone. And if you can't judge a book by its cover (which you typically can), you can definitely judge this book by its title.
This is as close to a masterpiece as you can find in today's crowded marketplace. Poetic, emotional, and above all dark, but in an imaginatively realistic narrative that feels far truer than fiction. These are characters you will carry with you long after you close the final page.
One of my favorite reads of 2019.
I'll confess, I purchased this novella based on the title alone. And if you can't judge a book by its cover (which you typically can), you can definitely judge this book by its title.
This is as close to a masterpiece as you can find in today's crowded marketplace. Poetic, emotional, and above all dark, but in an imaginatively realistic narrative that feels far truer than fiction. These are characters you will carry with you long after you close the final page.
One of my favorite reads of 2019.
Read
November 15, 2018Lovecraft meets Bolano in the waning days of the Pinochet regime. Fair warning, John is a friend or at least an associate, but all the same this was creepy and evocative, and indisputably better written than 95% of the genre. Good stuff.
August 12, 2020
Very Sophisticated..very literary....very mysterious...and very...very well written.
I think it's quite essential for a story of cosmic horror to be rich in prose. It reflects the grandiosity of it..and strengthens out the mystery. This novella doesn't shy away from creating mystery by trying to make things a bit obscure...and hence adding the flavour of "the fear of unknown" to it.
It's a delicious little book.
12 August 202
Thinking of picking it up again!
I think it's quite essential for a story of cosmic horror to be rich in prose. It reflects the grandiosity of it..and strengthens out the mystery. This novella doesn't shy away from creating mystery by trying to make things a bit obscure...and hence adding the flavour of "the fear of unknown" to it.
It's a delicious little book.
12 August 202
Thinking of picking it up again!
June 25, 2021
Very well written and deeply disturbing. Lovecraftian fiction at its best.
August 10, 2020
I have no qualms in admitting I'm not sure I got it. In fact, I'm sure that I didn't 'get it'. It's beautifully written, like, literary art level 11 eloquence. But it's also based on some of the real-life events around Pinochet's rule of Chile and the atrocities he committed upon the Chilean people. These parts are both brutal and harrowing and not my usual reading tastes.
I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time.
I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time.
January 10, 2019
Flawless. Felt like the ending could have been more explosive, but what's there is enough to warrant five stars.
September 12, 2018
It's rare that I give any book five stars, but The Sea Dreams it is the Sky is the best horror novella that I've read since I burned through Stephen King's 1922 several years ago.
Isabel meets a fellow ex-pat, who is simply known as the Eye. When the Eye receives a mysterious note, he returns to their homeland and leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she finds that the Eye is none other than the reviled poet, Rafael Avendaño.
As Isabel reads the manuscripts the poet has left behind, the reader is immersed into a creeping sense of dread that intensifies with every page. Like Isabel, we are drawn into the terror of Avendaño's life during a military coup that left him maimed in body and soul. And behind the coup, seen only by Avendaño, is an ancient horror that Jacobs reveals to us by stripping away one layer of reality after another before our eyes.
Equal turns poetic and hypnotic, Jacobs resurrects the surreal imagery of Jorge Louis Borges and couples it with visceral prose that cuts to the bone.
Christ, it gave me nightmares.
Don't miss it.
Isabel meets a fellow ex-pat, who is simply known as the Eye. When the Eye receives a mysterious note, he returns to their homeland and leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she finds that the Eye is none other than the reviled poet, Rafael Avendaño.
As Isabel reads the manuscripts the poet has left behind, the reader is immersed into a creeping sense of dread that intensifies with every page. Like Isabel, we are drawn into the terror of Avendaño's life during a military coup that left him maimed in body and soul. And behind the coup, seen only by Avendaño, is an ancient horror that Jacobs reveals to us by stripping away one layer of reality after another before our eyes.
Equal turns poetic and hypnotic, Jacobs resurrects the surreal imagery of Jorge Louis Borges and couples it with visceral prose that cuts to the bone.
Christ, it gave me nightmares.
Don't miss it.
November 7, 2018
One of the best books I've read this year. Cosmic horror at its finest!
November 5, 2018
"Violence leaves its mark, and horror makes siblings of us all."
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, and I'm so glad that I picked it up. This story immediately drew me in, and I was hooked the entire way through.
I'm impressed with the author's ability to do a great character study in such a short amount of time, along with having the horror of being exiled from a war-torn country surrounding it. I really enjoyed reading about the characters in this book, and I would continue reading about them if there ever happened to be more stories.
This book is heartbreaking, and it's very easy to get wrapped up in what the characters are feeling. The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is a solid story across the board. I wish some more of my questions had been answered, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Thank you to Harper Voyager for sending me a copy in exchange for a review!
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, and I'm so glad that I picked it up. This story immediately drew me in, and I was hooked the entire way through.
I'm impressed with the author's ability to do a great character study in such a short amount of time, along with having the horror of being exiled from a war-torn country surrounding it. I really enjoyed reading about the characters in this book, and I would continue reading about them if there ever happened to be more stories.
This book is heartbreaking, and it's very easy to get wrapped up in what the characters are feeling. The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is a solid story across the board. I wish some more of my questions had been answered, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Thank you to Harper Voyager for sending me a copy in exchange for a review!
December 14, 2018
Read my interview with the author about this book -> https://more2read.com/review/john-hornor-jacobs-on-writing-and-writing-life/
Pages into a sensory journey of poet, and identity, writings and unravellings.
A reading Interlude in sporadic inceptions amidst reverie of disquietness nightmarish and dreamlike through possibly artistry, deciphering grotesque, macabre, tortures and need for safety with poetic prose viscerally into depths of pain and joy with watcher and teacher of words, amidst rebellion and the arcane.
Author has successfully crafted a memorable read that is gothic artistry, an inward and outward struggle and quest, a short work, writing about writers in framework of cosmic horror.
Review with few excerpts @
https://more2read.com/review/the-sea-dreams-it-is-the-sky-by-john-hornor-jacobs/
Pages into a sensory journey of poet, and identity, writings and unravellings.
A reading Interlude in sporadic inceptions amidst reverie of disquietness nightmarish and dreamlike through possibly artistry, deciphering grotesque, macabre, tortures and need for safety with poetic prose viscerally into depths of pain and joy with watcher and teacher of words, amidst rebellion and the arcane.
Author has successfully crafted a memorable read that is gothic artistry, an inward and outward struggle and quest, a short work, writing about writers in framework of cosmic horror.
Review with few excerpts @
https://more2read.com/review/the-sea-dreams-it-is-the-sky-by-john-hornor-jacobs/
October 15, 2019
A truly terrifying blend of cosmic and geopolitical horror. Jacobs mashes up Lovecraft and the unsettling history of American complicity in other country's violence as he tells the story of brash poet Avendaño's experience with torture, imprisonment, and a darkly enticing manuscript. Avendaño escapes his home country of Magera, casually allowing most of the world to believe he is dead; he's content to live quietly in Spain, drinking and watching luchadores movies and trying to live with his past. But that's complicated by narrator Isabel, a fellow Mageran exile, a dirt-poor and socially isolated academic who finds herself drawn into a kind of surrogate father-daughter relationship with Avendaño. In the end, he can't let go of his memories, and when he retreats into them, Isabel can't quite let go of him. Their relationship is tentative and full of ambivalence, and Jacobs makes their connection--based on mutual suffering and loneliness as much as anything else--feel real.
And then, of course, there's the fact that they share the obsession with the found manuscript of disturbing instructions of practical witchcraft--which really just means practical power. They both act as translators for the text, sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly, and find themselves absorbing and being absorbed by it. Jacobs is good at that sense of otherworldly malevolence, a kind of "miasma," in the book's term, that almost thickens the air around his characters. But he's just as good at the even harder-to-bear bits of real, grotesque human suffering. The scenes of Avendaño's torture at the hands of the secret police--and the tortures he witnesses--are some of the most excruciating scenes I've ever read, in part because of their gritty, grimy reality. It would be easy for the book to fall out of balance, either making the Lovecraftian material feel tacked on or the real world material feel cheapened, but it all precariously holds together. The book's assessment of its horror basically boils down to that if a power, supernatural or otherwise, exists, it will be sought and abused. It's hard to argue with the bleak plausibility of that.
The end result is a complex, well-crafted novella with darkly beautiful prose, something I know will stay with me for a long time.
And then, of course, there's the fact that they share the obsession with the found manuscript of disturbing instructions of practical witchcraft--which really just means practical power. They both act as translators for the text, sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly, and find themselves absorbing and being absorbed by it. Jacobs is good at that sense of otherworldly malevolence, a kind of "miasma," in the book's term, that almost thickens the air around his characters. But he's just as good at the even harder-to-bear bits of real, grotesque human suffering. The scenes of Avendaño's torture at the hands of the secret police--and the tortures he witnesses--are some of the most excruciating scenes I've ever read, in part because of their gritty, grimy reality. It would be easy for the book to fall out of balance, either making the Lovecraftian material feel tacked on or the real world material feel cheapened, but it all precariously holds together. The book's assessment of its horror basically boils down to that if a power, supernatural or otherwise, exists, it will be sought and abused. It's hard to argue with the bleak plausibility of that.
The end result is a complex, well-crafted novella with darkly beautiful prose, something I know will stay with me for a long time.
December 14, 2018
It is always tricky for writers in this age of global reach and increased awareness to play with other cultures, risking to slip into insensitivity, colonialism, or plain old being wrong about things. So it is a testament either to the writing chops of Jacobs or the advisory chops of his, well, advisors, that this Hispanic novella of terror works really, really well.
This is not a story of twists, turns and surprises, the trajectory is a relatively straightforward “occult text” narrative mixed with ruminations about South-American dictatorships, all moving like clockwork from start to finish, but the writing has been perfected to such a degree that it remains a tasty treat to read.
The only thing that kept poking me in the eye and would not let me get fully immersed in the story is that for the life of me I could not bring myself to believe there could exist a (fictional, as far as I can tell) country called “Magera”, nestled somewhere between Argentina, Chile, Brazil and the rest. Somehow that name just never really clicked and kept kicking me out of the fictional world every time it’d pop up.
This is not a story of twists, turns and surprises, the trajectory is a relatively straightforward “occult text” narrative mixed with ruminations about South-American dictatorships, all moving like clockwork from start to finish, but the writing has been perfected to such a degree that it remains a tasty treat to read.
The only thing that kept poking me in the eye and would not let me get fully immersed in the story is that for the life of me I could not bring myself to believe there could exist a (fictional, as far as I can tell) country called “Magera”, nestled somewhere between Argentina, Chile, Brazil and the rest. Somehow that name just never really clicked and kept kicking me out of the fictional world every time it’d pop up.
October 6, 2025
This "story" is a tedious finger wag at people with right wing politics and nothing more. The author squeezed in some anticlimactic and unsatisfying cosmic mystery at the end. But the journey wasn't worth the non-existant payoff. I will say that Jacobs writes beautifully, but if you want an engaging story, look elsewhere. I read this book because the cover described it a "cosmic horror" which is a complete joke. The only thing scary about the book is how horrifically boring it is.
Read
June 10, 2025At it's peak, this was a 5 star read. At it's peak it was one of the best things I read this year. Did it maintain that peak? Not really. Good horror, meandering horror (which is good). Chewy character relationships.
November 27, 2018
I love cosmic horror. I heart conspiracies larger than ourselves. So, when I began reading The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky I fell immediately in love.
A young teacher named Isabel meets a gnarly old one-eyed poet simply named Avendano. They've both fled their homeland in South America and now make their home in Spain. The cafe and literati scenes reminded me in all the best ways of Roberto Bolano's works, such as The Savage Detectives. The way Jacobs slides us into the setting is so gentle I feel as if I've been there all the time.Then Avendano, like a cosmic lure, propels Isabel into such an otherworldy mystery that I actually found I couldn't breath in many places.
I've read everything Jacobs has ever written. His writing was marvelous with Southern Gods and just keeps getting better. The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky is so fabulous, I can't imagine him achieving anything greater. For many, this would be the crowning achievement. The novella is dark and touching and lovely with enough conspiratorial nastiness that even this old soul was satisfied. All this said, I know he'll come back with something special. Might it be a sequel? I can only hope.
I've read a ton of books this year and two stand out as incredible. Victor LaValle's The Changeling which won the American Book Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the British Fantasy Award, among others. The other is John Hornor Jacobs The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky, which hasn't won any awards so far. I'm thinking that will change. At least it should. At the very least, I encourage you to read this lovely dark cosmic novella and ask yourself, what is the price of home?
A young teacher named Isabel meets a gnarly old one-eyed poet simply named Avendano. They've both fled their homeland in South America and now make their home in Spain. The cafe and literati scenes reminded me in all the best ways of Roberto Bolano's works, such as The Savage Detectives. The way Jacobs slides us into the setting is so gentle I feel as if I've been there all the time.Then Avendano, like a cosmic lure, propels Isabel into such an otherworldy mystery that I actually found I couldn't breath in many places.
I've read everything Jacobs has ever written. His writing was marvelous with Southern Gods and just keeps getting better. The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky is so fabulous, I can't imagine him achieving anything greater. For many, this would be the crowning achievement. The novella is dark and touching and lovely with enough conspiratorial nastiness that even this old soul was satisfied. All this said, I know he'll come back with something special. Might it be a sequel? I can only hope.
I've read a ton of books this year and two stand out as incredible. Victor LaValle's The Changeling which won the American Book Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the British Fantasy Award, among others. The other is John Hornor Jacobs The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky, which hasn't won any awards so far. I'm thinking that will change. At least it should. At the very least, I encourage you to read this lovely dark cosmic novella and ask yourself, what is the price of home?
March 17, 2019
A great character study with gorgeous writing. If I'm being honest though the story was completely lost on me. Still it's worth reading for Avendanos horrific manuscripts. I'll definitely read more by this author, but this one wasn't for me.
February 25, 2021
I thought this book was interesting, kind gruesome and dark, i enjoyed the characters and i’m impressed by the amount of development and dynamism achieved within such a short book, but mostly I think it went over my head. I just didn’t really “get it”, the ending was especially unsatisfying for me.
October 30, 2018
The time of this story is presumably in the mid-eighties, though that's never explicit, except that key past events happened in the early 70s.
Isabel Certa and Rafael Avendano are two very different survivors of a violent coup and brutal junta in their home country, a fictional country in South America, near Argentina. Rafael Avendano is older, a poet, who had never been overtly political, but who had been close enough to the former, socialist, president of the country that he was damned by association in the eyes of the new rulers. Isabel Certa is younger, lost her mother and the rest of her family in the violence of the coup, and when we meet the two in Spain, she's teaching literature at a university.
When she meets an older, one-eyed man in the plaza during her lunch, at first she doesn't know who he is. He is, after all, believed to be dead.
They begin an odd sort of friendship. This leads, first, to him sharing his work with her. It's startling, gruesome, shocking. There's a translation he's working on, which is deeply unsettling. And there's his memoir of his experiences during the coup. In some ways, that's even worse.
Then he asks her to stay in his apartment and feed his cat while he goes back to Magera, looking for someone he lost during that time. She reminds him he'll probably get killed. He goes anyway--and she doesn't find out till he's gone that he's arranged for his bank to pay her an extremely generous monthly stipend. He had told her to feed his cat, Tomas, "for your protection," and Tomas does prove to be a big, black bruiser of a cat. But what is he going to protect her from
While continuing to read his translation and his memoir, Isabel also continues to teach her classes, see her girlfriend, Claudia, and have ups and downs in their relationship as Claudia is also happily involved with Laura.
And we continue to learn more, through the memoir, of what happened to Avendano during the coup.
It turns out there is something that Tomas needs to protect her from, and it's not of the mortal world.
Jacobs gives us a strong, capable woman, secure in her sexuality at a time when that was still dangerous. When she needs to confront the threats out of her own past, and out of Avendano's, she's tough, smart, resourceful. Avendano is also interesting and complicated.
This is an excellent novella.
I received a free electronic galley from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
Isabel Certa and Rafael Avendano are two very different survivors of a violent coup and brutal junta in their home country, a fictional country in South America, near Argentina. Rafael Avendano is older, a poet, who had never been overtly political, but who had been close enough to the former, socialist, president of the country that he was damned by association in the eyes of the new rulers. Isabel Certa is younger, lost her mother and the rest of her family in the violence of the coup, and when we meet the two in Spain, she's teaching literature at a university.
When she meets an older, one-eyed man in the plaza during her lunch, at first she doesn't know who he is. He is, after all, believed to be dead.
They begin an odd sort of friendship. This leads, first, to him sharing his work with her. It's startling, gruesome, shocking. There's a translation he's working on, which is deeply unsettling. And there's his memoir of his experiences during the coup. In some ways, that's even worse.
Then he asks her to stay in his apartment and feed his cat while he goes back to Magera, looking for someone he lost during that time. She reminds him he'll probably get killed. He goes anyway--and she doesn't find out till he's gone that he's arranged for his bank to pay her an extremely generous monthly stipend. He had told her to feed his cat, Tomas, "for your protection," and Tomas does prove to be a big, black bruiser of a cat. But what is he going to protect her from
While continuing to read his translation and his memoir, Isabel also continues to teach her classes, see her girlfriend, Claudia, and have ups and downs in their relationship as Claudia is also happily involved with Laura.
And we continue to learn more, through the memoir, of what happened to Avendano during the coup.
It turns out there is something that Tomas needs to protect her from, and it's not of the mortal world.
Jacobs gives us a strong, capable woman, secure in her sexuality at a time when that was still dangerous. When she needs to confront the threats out of her own past, and out of Avendano's, she's tough, smart, resourceful. Avendano is also interesting and complicated.
This is an excellent novella.
I received a free electronic galley from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
December 31, 2018
I had read Southern Gods before, and though I had really wanted to like it, I thought it was only ok. This short book, on the other hand, was great. There were a couple of my pet peeves in the book, like, for example, the book is narrated in first person by a Spanish speaker, but in English, obviously, but it's supposed to be Spanish. But every once in awhile a Spanish phrase is thrown in. For flavor? I don't know.
Anyway, this was kind of an epistolary book, which is another one of my pet peeves, but was done really well. A refugee from some (fictional) Latin American hellhole in the 1980s meets another refugee from the same country, who had been an infamous poet back home, but is now one-eyed and possibly deranged. He tells the narrator he needs to go back to their home country to search for someone, and pays her to stay in his apartment and kind of take care of things. While there she sees that he had been translating photographs of some freaky occult book, and had also written about the translations, and she decides to go after the guy. Freaky, cool book, part political thriller part Lovecraft. Very cool.
Anyway, this was kind of an epistolary book, which is another one of my pet peeves, but was done really well. A refugee from some (fictional) Latin American hellhole in the 1980s meets another refugee from the same country, who had been an infamous poet back home, but is now one-eyed and possibly deranged. He tells the narrator he needs to go back to their home country to search for someone, and pays her to stay in his apartment and kind of take care of things. While there she sees that he had been translating photographs of some freaky occult book, and had also written about the translations, and she decides to go after the guy. Freaky, cool book, part political thriller part Lovecraft. Very cool.
November 8, 2019
Horror isn’t my normal cup of tea but a book inspired by South American politics, based in a fictional country in the Latin American tradition definitely piqued my interest. The story has a strong Tell-Tale Heart vibe for me and generally is strong. I dock this story some points though because the main character is a woman, but there are several moments in the story that clearly highlight to me that the author, in fact, is not. And in fact ALL of the review excepts quoted on the back of the book are also all men. So, it really makes you wonder...how did those mistakes slip in? Just kidding. Seems clear enough. This makes me trust less the portions of the story that I have less expertise in because who’s to say the author’s background knowledge to accurately write about those?
August 8, 2019
Beautiful, brutal, dreamy.
November 10, 2022
Feed the cat, for your protection.
January 22, 2024
Really very good. I enjoyed the setting and characters most of all. All the good stuff manuscripts inherited from dead academics. I liked the modernity of Buenos Aires. The main character was great, cool lecturer starving but still managing to wangle a nice apartment. The fishing village was cool too. I enjoyed the diving in and out of multiple stories. Not too much cosmic horror but it almost didn’t need it. I might read it again.
Really fantastically well written, first book in a while that genuinely sucked me in.
Really fantastically well written, first book in a while that genuinely sucked me in.
January 27, 2019
Written with elegance and flair and a sharp eye for character work, THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY is literary cosmic horror done right. If Peter Straub sat down to pen a slim, mean novella with otherworldly overtures, I imagine it would read something like this. I dug it. Thoroughly.
November 14, 2018
I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. Cosmic horror as a genre intrigues me because I think the fear of the unknown (and what lurks beneath) is so deeply entrenched in all human beings that, if done right, such a work can evoke emotions stronger than any psychological or gore-based horror novel ever could. That is why I’m so confused about and disappointed in this book, because at its most basic it had everything to tell an absolutely terrifying story, but instead it chose to meander and not say or do anything meaningful with the groundwork it laid for itself.
All of this is pretty confusing without mentioning some specifics, so I will try to do so without really spoiling anything. The two main characters are exiles from a fictional South American country that has been torn apart by rebellion and the subsequent rise to power of a military dictatorship. At first I didn’t understand the author’s decision to invent a such country when there are so many where such a thing actually happened in real life, but over the course of the book I came to appreciate the additional layer of otherworldliness this choice has added to the story. Our protagonist, Isabel, befriends Rafael, a mysterious poet from her home country, who eventually leaves his comfortable life in Spain to go home and search for his lost family, which leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There she discovers a written account of his friend’s former life, and the strange and more than a little distrubing path that led to his exile. This is where the horror elements really start to come into play, not only through the vivid descriptions of torture he has endured at the hands of his captors, but also through the interwoven story of his attempts to translate an old manuscript. For some reason his captors are really interested in this piece of work, in fact they even suggest that him taking it on was what drew them to him in the first place. Naturally, Isabel finds the manuscript and begins to work on her own translation, which is when she is forced to realize that Rafael is not safe back home and she decides to go and find him.
Sounds pretty amazing, right? Spooky, mysterious, bone-chilling even, thanks to Rafael’s memoir (you’ll see what I mean when you read it), this is the groundwork I was referring to earlier. Everything is in place for a spectacular conclusion where we finally get our answers for all the important questions, such as: Who are these people? What do they want with the manuscript? What IS the manuscript? What cosmic powers are at play here? Well, we never find out any of that. The ending of this book is a confusing mess, at least for me. I realize that so far I will be the only one giving it less than four stars, and I could praise the writing style and the character of Rafael (not Isabel, who was pretty bland in my opinion) as reasons why I liked the book overall – and I did, in a way, because it had beautiful imagery and kept me interested until the very end. But it had the potential to be so much more, and while I’m generally not opposed to open endings (sometimes I even like the whole „decide for yourself what happened after” approach), there was not even remotely enough material here for me to come up with anything that makes sense.
(Review cross-posted to my blog)
A thousand thanks to Edelweiss for my review copy!
All of this is pretty confusing without mentioning some specifics, so I will try to do so without really spoiling anything. The two main characters are exiles from a fictional South American country that has been torn apart by rebellion and the subsequent rise to power of a military dictatorship. At first I didn’t understand the author’s decision to invent a such country when there are so many where such a thing actually happened in real life, but over the course of the book I came to appreciate the additional layer of otherworldliness this choice has added to the story. Our protagonist, Isabel, befriends Rafael, a mysterious poet from her home country, who eventually leaves his comfortable life in Spain to go home and search for his lost family, which leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There she discovers a written account of his friend’s former life, and the strange and more than a little distrubing path that led to his exile. This is where the horror elements really start to come into play, not only through the vivid descriptions of torture he has endured at the hands of his captors, but also through the interwoven story of his attempts to translate an old manuscript. For some reason his captors are really interested in this piece of work, in fact they even suggest that him taking it on was what drew them to him in the first place. Naturally, Isabel finds the manuscript and begins to work on her own translation, which is when she is forced to realize that Rafael is not safe back home and she decides to go and find him.
Sounds pretty amazing, right? Spooky, mysterious, bone-chilling even, thanks to Rafael’s memoir (you’ll see what I mean when you read it), this is the groundwork I was referring to earlier. Everything is in place for a spectacular conclusion where we finally get our answers for all the important questions, such as: Who are these people? What do they want with the manuscript? What IS the manuscript? What cosmic powers are at play here? Well, we never find out any of that. The ending of this book is a confusing mess, at least for me. I realize that so far I will be the only one giving it less than four stars, and I could praise the writing style and the character of Rafael (not Isabel, who was pretty bland in my opinion) as reasons why I liked the book overall – and I did, in a way, because it had beautiful imagery and kept me interested until the very end. But it had the potential to be so much more, and while I’m generally not opposed to open endings (sometimes I even like the whole „decide for yourself what happened after” approach), there was not even remotely enough material here for me to come up with anything that makes sense.
(Review cross-posted to my blog)
A thousand thanks to Edelweiss for my review copy!
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