Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales

by John Hornor Jacobs

A terrifying collection of horror and crime noir from the author of Southern Gods and A Lush and Seething Hell.

Featuring ten tales, two never before in print, Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales is an exciting glimpse into the dark territories of the human heart.

These are coming-of-age stories. Stories of love and loss, grief and revenge. Survival and redemption. From old gods to malevolent artificial intelligences, vampires to zombies to ghosts, Jacobs exposes our fears and worst imaginings. Includes the sequel to Southern Gods.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections, Anthologies

228 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2020

About the author

John 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)

Reviews

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars!

MURDER BALLADS AND OTHER HORRIFIC TALES is an excellent example of how wide and varied short stories can be, while still being compelling reading for genre readers.

Here, we have stories that are so far apart from each other: Viking women and southern bluesmen, from dog-fighting (that was a hard one) to creating artificial intelligence, how could anyone be bored? The humanity that binds us all as storytellers and story readers is still here.

I have started getting back to my love of science fiction tales lately and Single, Singularity is one of the best I've ever read, bar none. Seriously now, I was lounging outdoors on a ninety degree day and this tale gave me the shivers something fierce. It was that. Good.

Ithaca was about a man, miraculously surviving war, only to return home to find his wife missing.

Verrata was another sci-fi tale about a smart watch and other fabulous sounding technologies that, of course, turn out to be dangerous.

El Dorado was a nasty little story that had a noir feel to it. It also did not feature even one likable character.

I really dug the last tale, the sequel to SOUTHERN GODS. Having owned that book since I don't when, and still not having read it, (I'm ashamed), Murder Ballads struck a chord with me. I found myself traveling with another American bluesman, just as I did in A LUSH AND SEETHING HELL, and I loved every minute of it. However, I know I would have perceived a lot more depth had I read SOUTHERN GODS first. I will rectify that soon and then I'll have myself a reread of this great story.

John Hornor Jacobs is a relatively new discovery to me. I've become familiar with his name due to my fellow reviewers, whose opinions I trust. I have several books of his to read and I'm looking forward to them even more now. John Hornor Jacobs is the real deal folks. You need to climb aboard his train and do it right now.

*Thank you to the author for the eARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*

[Sadie Hartmann]

Review for Cemetery Dance soon!

[Steve Stred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I somehow completely missed the boat on reading ‘A Lush and Seething Hell,’ by John Horner Jacobs. Honestly, I remember a lot of reviewers heaping praises on it but at that point I was constantly being rejected by Netgalley and I figured there was no way I’d be approved for it.

Recently on Twitter, John said he was looking for reviewers and I emailed him directly through his site. To my shock and amazement, he replied and sent me a digital copy! I was over the moon.

I dove in immediately and all I can say is this – prepare yourselves friends. This one is stunning!

What I liked: Featuring eleven stories of varying lengths, John Horner has stated this may very well be the only collection that he’ll ever release. I hope that’s not right. While he mentions in the introduction that he struggles with the short form, many of these stories are some of the best short stories I’ve ever read, easily sitting among the greats of our times.

The collection starts off with a bang. ‘Children of Yig,’ is a fierce Viking story that follows Grislea, a woman trying to gain the trust of the male warriors she’s fighting with. They come to a farmhouse that they plan to pillage when the story takes a turn. Absolutely creepy and one of the highlights of the collection. The other standouts for me were the stunning AI story ‘Single, Singularity,’ the gruesomely brutal dog-fight story ‘Old Dogs, New Tricks’ and the watery dread of the story ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife.’ For me, the story that was my personal favorite was ‘Patchwork Things.’ I am such a fan of wilderness stories and John really delivered with this one. I wish I could go into details about what happens and why I loved it so much, but anything I really say, even a minor synopsis would fall into spoiler territory. Just amazing.

What I didn’t like: Well, this is purely my own fault, but the final story in the collection, ‘Murder Ballads,’ is a sequel to John’s novel ‘Southern Gods.’ I haven’t read that, so for me, I feel like I didn’t connect as much with the story as I would’ve if I’d already read the novel. It was still a great story, but I think fans of that book will appreciate it that much more.

Why you should buy it: John is one of the best writers’s out there and I am kicking myself for not having read ‘A Lush and Seething Hell’ even more now. He has crafted some truly amazing stories here, and within this collection, you get to see him tackle a variety of Horror sub-genres which is amazing. I am so humbled that John sent me a copy to review. He and this collection have made me a fan for life.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Hornor Jacobs' Lush and Seething Hell quite a bit when I read it but found my estimation increasing relatively in the years since. I picked this up hoping for more of the same, but bounced off after the first story, which is nothing like L&SH and, to be a bit rudely blunt about it, feels like a Swords v Cthulhu reject. I switched over to John Langan's Children of the Fang instead, and wasn't sure I would come back to this. I'm glad I did. The rest of the collection, which is relatively short aside from its title novella, channels that same ineffable flavor that has stayed with me about L&SH. It's a rich, textured historicist Americana, seen through a lens more peculiar and intimate than "social" or "dark," and which integrates its unique and inventive supernatural elements with more off-handed subtlety than most writers who attempt this blend. He makes it look easy. The title novella, which directly references the second novella in L&SH, My Heart Struck Sorrow, is easily the best, though not quite as good as that later one. Nothing in here matches Gramp Hines' Chattaqua. The dog-fighting story also stands out. It's such a simple, obvious premise, yet Jacobs executes it with such an abrupt roughness that it feels surprisingly potent.

[Aina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting mix of horror stories, ranging from noir to gothic to sci-fi. The writing is good despite the variety of genres, but I found the stories inconsistent. I loved a few of them but the rest were just fine for me. My favourites are Single, Singularity, about artificial intelligence gone wrong; and Patchwork Things, an emotionally charged creature feature with some truly wild imagery. I also enjoyed the final story Murder Ballads but as it is a sequel to Southern Gods I think reading the first story would have helped me more. Overall, a notable collection of short horror stories but I was hoping for more.

Thank you to the publisher for a review copy.

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[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several good stories in this collection. Of course, my favorite is the title story, Murder Ballads, a direct sequel to JHJ's debut novel, Southern Gods. Other noteworthy stories here include Ithaca, Luminaria, and Patchwork Things.

[Tracy Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

F*cking amazing book.
Enough said...

[ri · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF after reading El Dorado. I gave it two stars because The Children of Yig and Single, Singularity were decent. The hentai metaphor for the non-sexual visual hallucinations in Verrata was unnecessary and honestly jarring to read, one of the short stories mentioned the narrators “hardening cock” which made me grimace and roll my eyes, and then these two sentences from El Dorado made me decide to put it down:

“She lay on the floor… In her spasms, her shirt twisted and pulled away to expose most of her tattooed breast.”

“In death, her coloration hadn’t changed much, except for blue lips and gray nipple underneath the words “La morte fantastique.”

Three strikes and you’re out, sorry. Maybe I’m a prude but it just felt like too much for the nature of these stories and the woman in El Dorado was weirdly objectified and written poorly.

I also found myself wishing that it would just end so I could read something else that I would actually be more interested in.. so I stopped! Life is too short to force yourself to finish reading things that you don’t enjoy!

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that's two out of the last three books with tentacles on the cover, for what that's worth. Next one up: 0 tentacles. This is a real grab-bag of stories, with a couple of completely realistic crime stories, a couple of cyberpunk entries (one of which is both a great joke and a scarily personal vision of what unleashed AI could do), and several of Jacobs's strongest suit to me, which is cosmic horror mixed with Southern regional flavor. The zombie-dogfight story, which is sick and hilarious, could be from EC Comics, and the long closing story (I never remember what canonically makes something a novella vs a novelette vs...is there some other demi-novel form?)--anyway, it's 60 pages long, so novel[something], right?--is a sequel to Southern Gods, which I read years ago and liked enough to read his next collection, which is two, uh, novel-things, one of which is Alan Lomax plus cosmic horror, for which sign me up whenever he does one of those. This one has kind of an odds-and-ends feel, though, if that bothers you.

[Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the price of admission for the titular story (and follow-up to Southern Gods) alone, but there's more fun to be had. In the introduction, Jacobs writes something to the effect of struggling with the containment of the shorter form; in the sense that several of these stories feel like parts of a bigger whole (or are, in the case of "Murder Ballads"), that feels accurate. Nothing feels unfinished, it's just a sense of "there's more waiting in those waters."

The menu has a little bit of something for everyone, but it definitely skews to the darker side of things: Scandinavian horror-fantasy! Vampires! Speculative sci-fi*! The evil that men do! "Murder Ballads" is my personal favorite (and one of two previously unpublished pieces), but I'd love to re-visit the worlds of "Single Singularity" (just because AI is intelligent doesn't mean it's grown up) and "Verrata" (New Orleans via Blade Runner...sort of) in greater detail.

Fits nicely beside A Lush and Seething Hell (with matching artwork to boot).

*maybe it's just regular sci-fi; all that shit feels like arguing with metal nerds over terms like atmospheric black metal

[Justin Siebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of the book says that "every sentence he writes feels drawn from a pit of fire and hammered into sword."

Although that feels a bit hyperbolic, it was generally true. The prose felt gritty and ancient and immersive (Jacobs clearly knows the south well!) as each story's main character descended into tragedy or madness. I'm not a horror aficionado, but I've wanted to get into it a bit more, which is why I picked up this collection, and I found it to be an excellent introduction to Southern horror.

The title story, "Murder Ballads," is a sequel to Jacobs' first novel SOUTHERN GODS. I found the story (as the author states in the author's note) still enjoyable without having read SOUTHERN GODS first, but the whole time I read it I had the nagging feeling that there were things I was missing. If you plan to read both, start with SOUTHERN GODS.

Overall, I highly recommended this Southern-infused horror story collection.

[Litio Broie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay relatos mejores que otros, como en todo recopilatorio, pero me ha sorprendido que el autor considere más complicado escribir relatos que novelas... En otra reseña señalaba precisamente que había mucho relleno, y algunos de los relatos en Murder Ballads son bastante buenos. Las historias son muy dispares, JHJ realmente se ha tirado al vacío con los ojos cerrados y como resultado hay desde ciencia ficción a western.
Se incluye una secuela directa de Southern Gods. El autor dice que no ve necesario leer la novela para entender el relato, pero no estoy de acuerdo ya que hay referencias muy, muy específicas a detalles de la novela (de hecho, he tenido que releer un pasaje porque no lo recordaba tan claramente como el relato requería).
Recomendable, aunque insisto en dejar el relato que "cierra" Southern Gods para después de leer la novela.

[Jeff Frane · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Hornor Jacobs is not an easy candidate for categorization. The only common thread is that his stories are very odd. One of my favorite Jacobs novels is his first published book, Southern Gods which remains one of the creepiest things I've ever read. It also has by far the creepiest endings I've ever read and it was clear to me that Jacobs could never write a sequel to it. But that's exactly what "Murder Ballads" is and it's written with all the power I found in Southern Gods.

I'm not sure how someone who had not read the novel would experience the story but I think Jacobs does a fine job of filling in the background without getting bogged down in the details. But, seriously, you should read Southern Gods anyway.

[David Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one up after Southern Gods and got a mixed bag.

Both Murder Ballads were just uninteresting and with little development of anything.
Loved Luminaria, enjoyed the nowhere going atmosphere of El Dorado and had fun with some of the ideas in Single, Singularity or Old Dogs, New Tricks. Patchwork Things, Children of Yig or the Tale of the Fisherman's Wife (which is a bit too obvious pun) did not really work for me, but still it is imho good stuff that can bring a lot of pleasure to people.

all in all, enjoyable collection where you might want to skip the main course and enjoy the sides

[Haecceity Haecceitarily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I've read several other books by Jacobs and enjoyed them immensely (A Lush and Seething Hell, Southern Gods for example), but Murder Ballads just came up short. Missing for me was the compelling narrative of A Lush and Seething Hell, or the complex story of Southern Gods. This book didn't hook me. The stories are well-crafted but feel truncated (even for short stories). I will absolutely read any new stories by Jacobs but this one was not for me.

[Keith Caruthers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why I do this. I put these books off knowing good and GD well how much I adore every everything I've read of an author. John Horner Jacobs is definitely made it into the must read list. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in quite some time. Not since Brian Hodge's skidding into oblivion have I been so fascinatied by each story hammering into my skull. I can't wait to keep reading more and more.

[Tom Coombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd been looking forward to reading more of Jacobs since reading his "A Lush and Seething Hell" a few years ago. There's nothing here as stunning as the two novellas in that book, but that's like saying a perfectly cooked prime rib isn't as good as filet mignon. He has a gift for taking already horrific scenarios -- dog fights, climate change, a world ravaged by AI -- and making them somehow even more nightmarish.

[Michelle Rynkewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creepy. I never want to ready anything like it again. But it was awesome. My emotions are shook.

[Dakota Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5. Disappointing considering how much I liked A Lush and Seething Hell.

[Janus · Rating 2 out of 5]

3.5