Appalachian Book of the Dead

by Dale Neal

An Ethereal Tale of Hungry Ghosts


A psychopathic killer disappears into the mountains and haunts the troubled residents. After the murderous Angel Jones escapes from a prison work crew, he mysteriously vanishes deep into the North Carolina woods forcing newcomers Cal and Joy McAlister to deal with his macabre presence lingering in the secluded forest. Burdened with grief, guilt, and unfilled dreams, Cal and Joy are joined by an oddball handyman and a young detoxing neighbor as they grapple with the enigma of Angel’s menacing specter. Each of them brings their private ghosts to live and gives their worst fears flesh. This Southern Gothic tale blends ancient metaphysics with tantalizing thrills to make readers keenly aware of the wonders and woes of the world.

Genres: Fiction, Horror

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 9, 2019

About the author

Dale Neal is the winner of the 2009 Novello Literary Award for his first novel, "Cow Across America."
He has an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College, and he has published his short stories and essays in Arts & Letters, Carolina Quarterly, Crescent Review, Marlboro Review and elswhere.
One of the last surviving American journalists, he lives and works in Asheville with his wife, Cynthia, a veterinary technician student. When he's not at work on the next novel, he can be found out hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains with his pet Lab, Pearl.

Reviews

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reviewing 700+ books over the last year, at times I’m inured to any but the most bracing covers, titles and plots. I must admit the author won me with all three, starting with that stunning cover.

I did some backstory research as well and found this additional description — A Southern Buddhist Thriller — and info on the publisher, Southern Fried Karma, which offers a refund on books readers can’t readily 4- or 5 star.

Now, I knew I’d discovered a literary feast as tasty as the pile of bacon, creamy grits, and sweet tea my husband and I dug into on our honeymoon breakfast in Boone, North Carolina. I’m a mountain gal at heart anyway. So we’re simpatico on matters of place even before I open to page one.

And what a story! Described as “a metaphysical thriller, a meditation on recovery and reincarnation, marriage and betrayal, death and rebirth, an exploration of how our fears give flesh to our hungry ghosts,” APPALACHIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD captivates with poetic writing, a gripping story line, compelling characters, atmosphere for days, and just plain great Southern literary goodness. 5/5

Pub Date 09 Sep 2019.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#AppalachianBookOfTheDead #NetGalley

[Cathy Geha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appalachian Book of the Dead by Dale Neal

I am not really sure what to say about this book. I can’t say I “liked” it but it did make me think. I thought about the land and woods and the fox that lived on the land. I thought of the ghosts that inhabited the land and the stories told over fires and during daylight slipped throughout the pages of this book. I thought about good and evil, how we live our days, beliefs held about life and death and what comes after and between...I thought...so that was good. But I never really saw the point of the book and as I just wrote that I wonder if indeed this book is trying to tell us that the only point in living and dying and thinking is that there is no point at all.

I have to say that the characters, all of them, were impossible for me to relate to or want as friends. I understand (maybe) why they behaved as they did but never became invested in them or their stories. The story was told with flashbacks and perhaps visions of what had been and might be in the future and at times I wondered whose voice I was listening to. The writing was beautiful, lyrical and described scenes in a way that spoke to all of my senses.

Again...hard too know how to write a review. I think that the play on words related to “the book of the dead” was interesting in that the Buddhist Book of the Dead is read from by more than one character and there were definitely a number of dead or soon to be dead characters in the book...and additionally the dead in the ghost stories so...good job on that tying the two together.

So how to evaluate the book…

Did I like the book? Not really
Did it make me think? Definitely
Did I like any of the characters? No
Could I see the purpose of the book? Not really
Would I read more books by this author? Maybe

Hmm…

Thank you to NetGalley and Southern Fried Karma for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

[Susanne Gulde · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just didn't do it for me. I thought the story was scattered and didn't find any of the characters likable.

[Marjorie Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this novel, Dale Neal reaches out and grabs you by the throat in his opening scenes of mayhem, in the acts of an escaped con engulfed in the flames of his own mind, who sets an innocent man on fire to further enjoy what could have been a simple act of stealing a car. The mystery of what becomes of this character, this conduit of evil, becomes an underlying layer of tension, mystery, and spirit life that haunts the mountainside. I love that Neal connects his story of contemporary people -- all of them quirky, vivid and hunted by some kind of repressed tragedy -- in the context of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Instructions for the spirits of the dead and soon to be dead and perhaps-dead-perhaps-alive in this book make a kind of whirling dervish of the unseen forces at work in each life.

Contemporary Appalachian novels are full of malign spirits (Ron Rash, Wiley Cash, Clifford Garstang) who tend to want to reach up their bony fingers and take us down to the depths. In Dale Neal's novel, each character grapples with the background noise of a particular dead person in their lives. This grappling takes the form mostly of a pushing away of grief -- our modern methodology for mourning, it seems -- for we have lost our connection to the spirit world.

The local handyman, Doyle, mourns his dead wife. Cal McAlister, a recovering alcoholic, newly retired in the mountains, pretends to his wife Joy that he's writing his memoir, but realizes that he has no interest in revisiting the past. In his life as a Chicago futures analyst, he kept a diary of his drinking, but "he's always been good and numbers and lies." Raising memories would mean facing his guilt in letting his addicted son go. His wife Joy is determined to learn to center clay and make a new life here, but her cats keep disappearing and she becomes increasingly aware of the menace around her. A yoga-steeped heiress, young Ainsley Morse, has decided to make her childhood summer camp into a retreat, a healing center that will somehow exorcise the spirit of her dead lover, but her wild grief leads her into self-erasure.

They all are haunted by -- is it a coyote? no, it may be the living escapee--hiding out in the woods near them and stealing food, exuding menace. The novel itself is haunted by a brilliant structure: the strangely hovering consciousness of the felon, going through a deeply humanizing spirit process on his journey to hell--or transformation.

Each character, one by one, encounters his or her own inner demons and faces them or succumbs.

In this way, the menacing spirit of the terrors of our world, eases its way into the cracks and crevices of minds unprepared to go through the Book of the Dead and come out the other side.

Neal's imagined world of mountain retirees, newcomers, heiresses, potters, healers, and New Age Buddhists glints like a cut gem, sparking with precision his hometown of Asheville, NC, a wildly popular intersection point for New Age youth, mountain people, and Yankee retirees. But the struggles his characters endure are not limited by place. They precisely magnify the larger struggle of our time -- families fractured by addiction and excess of money, desperately craving healing, pretending to live their lives well, but innocent of spiritual teaching that is capable of holding them fast to goodness, susceptible to the cracks in our characters that pull us into the chasm.

Without resorting to preaching or religion, Dale Neal has done that rare thing: captured the existential and spiritual dilemma of our time. We are a nation of people engulfed in PTSD from addiction and crime and incarceration, with no clear pathway to healing.

This novel comes close to a tragic ending -- but hope endures on the mountain for those who seek.

Gorgeous writing. Neal is a writer who thinks and shapes his work with freshness and depth.

For those who don't feel familiar with The Tibetan Book of the Dead that this book uses as a touchstone, you may be more familiar than you think: George Saunders's book Lincoln in the Bardouses a key concept from the Tibetan book: the bardo is a kind of limbo between life and full death, the pathway to reincarnation.

See the Wikipedia reference below for more:

The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, in the bardo, the interval between death and the next rebirth. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake when death is closing in or has taken place.

[Jessica Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to fall in love with this book. The metaphysical description paired with a deep hope for magical realism and suspense made me request immediately.
The author's prose and writing ability was refreshing. I found myself eagerly reading on, hoping to find the depth I craved, solely on his beautiful words. Truly talented at putting together sentences and descriptions.
However, when the book concluded, I just felt let down. I felt like I had just read one man's attempt to bed a younger woman to escape growing old. Describing one camp drowning victim by her "pre-pubescent breasts" during CPR was cringe worthy at best.

**spoilers below**

Parts of the ending really struck me the wrong way as well. Cal is a weak man, unable to write his book, completely co-dependent on his wife. I don't think he'd go bouncing from rehab to rehab, because he isn't self-sufficient at all. And if he had been sober for years, as the book states, only to begin dipping back in to faux moonshine, would he have really spiraled so far out of control that he had to bounce from rehab to rehab? This felt extremely unreal.
Ainsley becoming pregnant with Cal's child, which Joy supposedly could sense, also felt like a cop out, like we weren't sure how to close down the story and reiterate the fact that Cal was successful in bedding Ainsley. Sure, Ainsley was hurting and in need of resettling her life, but the chemistry between them was never built up enough to justify the eventual sex. One tarot card, one drink of moonshine.

While the author is a gifted writer, this title just fell short for me. The metaphysical aspect wasn't strong enough to drive the suspense and we spent more time with Cal drawling on in his annoying way over Ainsley. For me, the overall story just felt like someone's wet dream to get back with a youthful woman instead of the book promised in the description.

[Jordyn Roesler | Sorry, Booked Solid · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get into this one.... I was confused about the tone and vibe of the writing - very slow-paced and ominous, no clear plot... and I didn’t care about or connect to ANY of the characters. Quit reading after 100 pages, it’s possible that it picked up afterwards but I was not enjoying my reading experience at all.


An ARC was provided to me by SFK press but I am under no obligation to review positively or otherwise. All thoughts are my own and given voluntarily!

[Rachel Drenning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for an Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this story. I loved how you felt an unknowing dread the entire time. Not knowing how things were going to turn. This is a supernatural thriller that just blew me away. The ending was fantastic. I will definitely be reading more by Mr. Gale and recommending this book to everyone I know.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a born and breed Appalachian I wanted to like this book but try as I might I just can't. Read it a month ago and I'm still irritated at it, the portrayal of Appalachian folk just doesn't sit right. Writing itself was ok but content wise I couldn't stand it

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Loved this book. Now don't get me wrong, I'm from western NC so I might be prejudice, but this book has it all. From the opening chapters (you've never read an opening quite like this one) your hooked. It has all the qualities of a southern folk tale (full of guilt and shame) mixed in with a bit of Buddhistic mysticism and modern crime drama all wrapped up in a mystery. Set in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains told in a warm and sometimes edgy voice it will lead along in a delightful page turning read. I love the voice and stories built up around all the different players and felt I really got to know them. I should finish this like I started, I love this book, I've read it twice already. It's on the keeper shelf. Enjoy it.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3.5 star in my book. Not awful. Not amazing. Just fine. The disparate story lines never really seemed to coalesce for me. It was fine.

[Clazzzer C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read. It was so different to other murder novels I have read, so unusual. I really couldn’t predict the outcome. The sense of foreboding from the very first chapter was astounding. Like Joey in ‘Friends’, I wanted so often to put it in the fridge, I wanted to put it down, away from me, just to avoid what was coming next, but the desire to read on was just too overwhelming. It was excellent. The psychopathic murderer, presumed dead, although no body was found, is affecting the lives of the residents - characters were so credible, some likeable, some detestable - but all totally realistic. It was a great read. I loved it.

[Susanne Meaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neal's book Appalachian Book of the Dead blew me away. I read a lot of thrillers, but this is like no other. I felt like I was living in the deep woods and coming out for air. The beautiful cover of the book is the reason it grabbed my attention.

I loved the dread of the characters. I loved how none of them were perfect or predictable.
I cannot wait to read more of Neal's work.
His words and descriptions dance on the page. Read this if you want something really unique yet chilling on every page.

[Rosser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow.

A perfect read for the Sunday before Halloween... four different story layers that mesh, then separate, then merge again into a fine chilling tale. This is an inordinately well written book, by someone familiar with the landscape and people of the southern highlands who can convey that sense of place exquisitely. I enjoyed it so much I read it straight through at one sitting.

[Claire Matturro · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Appalachian Book of the Dead” is splendid book, with a lot of power and human pathos woven through it. Be aware, though, that it starts off with violence with two escaped convicts on the loose. The book seems at the beginning to be a graphic crime thriller—especially when one of the convicts engages in a senseless act of brutality. But then the novel segues into a literary-quality human interest story about three diverse people trying to find their way to meaningful lives. There are flashes of a kind of magical realism in the book, which adds to its richness—and its uniqueness.

The writing is excellent. The author puts the reader right into the scene with descriptive details and a full evocation of the senses. He also has a rare knack for totally nailing characters in a few tight lines. Consider: “They were a bunch of drunks. Men who tore their shirts off and tipped bottles back, their eyes wild as their throats worked frantically, Adam’s apples bobbing it their windpipes as they guzzled the white liquor. They never were the sipping type.”

One of the three main characters is a would-be artist named Joy. Married to a cynical, bored retired man who grumps his way through the story, Joy dreams of “moving to the mountains, reinventing herself as a craft potter. But she wanted something more elemental, a wood firing to see what happy accidents she could create with heat, ash, and smoke.” Thus, she moves her husband and herself to the mountains and has an old-fashion kiln constructed for her pottery making as she seeks to create a new life.

Cal, Joy’s husband, is writing his memoirs—or pretending to do so anyway. He doesn’t particularly want to live in the mountains, and in his restlessness, takes to studying Marcus Aurelius’s ancient meditations, which make Cal “feel like a modern-day sentinel on the ramparts at the borders of civilization.”

Ainsley, a young beauty waiting for her trust fund to kick in, also takes refuge in the woods of an old campground in the mountains. Recently widowed despite her youth, she could easily have become just another “poor little rich girl” cliché in the hands of a less intuitive, talented author. But she takes center stage in many a scene as a complex, fully realized character.
There is a spiritual and intellectual quality that permeates this book, making it far richer than it’s creative story line. Yet the plot is compelling as Joy, Ainsley, and Cal all come together in a series of encounters that will significantly change their lives. And there is still the lurking threat of the escaped convicts to add a tingle of fear and an edge of thrill in the story.

All in all, an excellent, atmospheric book with compelling characters, multi-layered plot, and literary-quality writing.

[Lillian Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes, it is slow. not a lot happens. the characters are not super likable. but holy shit the prose. the PROSE. the prose. beauuuuuutifullu written book. like. beyond beautiful. i was blown away by the tactile details and the imagery and the heartbreaking meditations on life and loss. it was mildly spooky but not scary. kind of a downer, but idk it really kept me locked in. i’m not usually someone who enjoys or can even pay attention to slow stories, but this one got me.

MILD SPOILER BELOW:



i considered docking a star for the relationship between oldy and youngy. despite the author’s best efforts to portray it as a shameful and gross thing (he succeeded in the gross part), it felt obvious that there was some fantasy there too. talking about “animal attraction” and all that. i just need male writers to learn that young women do not want old men. period. unless we are playing your ass for your money, we do not want you. there is no primal instinct that attracts us to unlikable, elderly men. especially not this fuckin character i mean jesus christ all he did was mock her spirituality and act like a flippant asshole to everyone around him. “he made her laugh” no tf he did not. he was mean. when did she laugh???? point to the paragraph. please.

all that said, the brief romance between them only lasted like a few chapters, and there were no revelations besides “yuck we shouldn’t have done that”, so the 5th star remains. plus, the line “sewerage built by old men to flush away their useless dirty blue sons” knocked the wind out of me and actually made me sympathize with Cal for the first time in the book. too bad it was at the end, but sometimes that’s the way it is.

[Lucy Andrews-Cummin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The many stars are two-fold: 1) somewhere around the 1/3 mark I couldn't wait to get back to the story and pretty much read it compulsively to the end 2) the writing was flawless and the structure -- by which I mean the way Neal unfolds his tale with wry and friendly compassion -- toward the odd assortment of neighbors living in a remote North Carolina holler is well-done. Recognizable. The threat hanging over them is death, the deaths they have each endured in their personal lives and a more present threat. A violent escapee from prison is supposedly holed up somewhere, having eluded a massive manhunt. Menace abounds and provides a darker seam throughout and which Neal handles so well. The ending is perfect! The structure fits seamlessly with the meditations on stoicism and on death (drawn from Marcus Aurelius and The Tibetan Book of the Dead might lead you to find those books and dip into them yourself. There are layers and levels here, that is, you can take the tale as a kind of modern-day ghost story or you can go deeper and think about how each character has found a way to go on living (or dying) as the case may be. The story, the structure, and the locale flow together so appropriately! Every year I am sure a few novels of this caliber appear and are not taken up by the Big Press. Their loss. Our gain.*****

[Jeni Aileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel compelled to leave an honest review for "Appalachian Book Of the Dead" maybe it's because it is based in the backwoods of my home, or perhaps it's because I don't normally read this style of fiction. This was a brilliant tale of humanity woven together with different colors of orange string. The simplistic approach of conveying a true human experience is present in each character, human or not - dead or alive. I fully recommend you give this book a shot and take a mental ride into the wilderness of NC (it comes full circle).

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I am a Buddhist and live in the mountains where the story takes place. Those two perspectives shaped my reading experience. I especially loved all of the dharma, though I'm sorry for readers who may not understand that particular underlying theme. The story was fine, but the dharma really brought it to life (ha ha, no pun intended). This was a great effort and I look forward to reading more from Dale Neal.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

grabbed me from page 1

Since I spent 12 years living in Asheville this was rather a journey into my past. I mean to say that the author so firmly captured the mountains in the woods of the Pisgah and Nantahala forest.

There were also interesting characters and situations that intrigued me. I have already recommended this book to a couple of people. I read it in two days, busy early January days, grabbing moments to read when I could.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death and Dying in Appalachia

This book interested me as a retired hospice worker. I think previously reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead made it easier to read. A good book for people who are interested in different lifestyles and cultures.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that the escaped prisoner had 0 interaction with the main characters of the book the entire time was a disappointment. I was waiting for them to run into eachother and have some interesting events happen involving all of them.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book met my high expectations after I read the great reviews. I loved most of the characters and getting to know them. I loved the plot twists at the end and how the book ended. It spun its web and wrapped everything up with no questions or holes. Highly recommend!!

[Marilyn Lonon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected surprise in this one!!!

[Kim Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unexpected ending was a bonus. Some subplots or characters felt unfinished while other areas had too much detail, like someone rambling about unimportant details.

[Bridget Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I thought I had this one figured out...I really didn't. I still don't think I have. It was an interesting read though.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good but not my style, definitely anticlimactic and less interesting than it sounded on the back of the book.

[Mick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for Appalachain Gothic Horror. This book was set in Appalachia, but wasn't very Gothic or horrifying.

[Joshua Belcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot and character development would be great if the climax paid off.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a struggle for me. Various converging viewpoints, all from blandly unlikeable characters. A whole lot of angst, with little actually happening. It just seemed to try too hard to be too many things...while not particularly delivering on any of them. If not for a bit of a twist at the end, my rating would have been significantly lower.

[Russell Spry · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was so much to like about this book. I was drawn to it because it was a NC author. The story and characters are an interesting mix, all tossed together with a flavor of Tibetan. Part mystery, part recovery story, part survival. An absolutely enjoyable read.