A Mighty Word

by Joshua Rex

"A superlative short novel that mingles supernaturalism with a timely sociopolitical message." – S. T. JOSHI"Horror of the most beautiful philosophical, existential, thought-provoking. That's how I'm going to classify this book." - QUAINT & CURIOUS VOLUMESKevin Heartstone is a past-obsessed tenth grader grieving the loss of his father, an architect and restoration specialist, and struggling with his mother’s new relationship with the owner of a demolition company. While visiting his father’s grave, Kevin encounters Jane Cardinal, a fifteen year old girl who has been dead for over a century and a half. Jane, along with her contemporaries, have recently been re-animated by the by-product of an anti-depressant produced by Still City’s leading employer—Preventative Solutions—which has been illegally dumping the waste into the decaying area neighborhoods and cemeteries. Jane will be Kevin’s link to a time for which he longs, while Kevin himself will become central in his fractured hometown’s survival, and the dilemma of reconciling its past with its present by conciliating the dead with the living.

177 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2021

About the author

JOSHUA REX is an American author of speculative fiction, and an historian. He is the author of the novel A MIGHTY WORD (Rotary Press), the novella THE INAMORTA (Weird House Press), and the collections THE DESCENT AND OTHER STRANGE STORIES (Weird House Press), NEW MONSTERS (Weird House Press), WHAT'S COMING FOR YOU (Rotary Press), THE COFFIN MAKER'S BOOK OF DARK TALES (Weird House Press - a collection co-authored with Curtis M. Lawson), and HAUNTED VICTORIAN AMERICA: GHOST STORIES. His short fiction has appeared with McSweeney's, Nightscript, Pseudopod, Tales to Terrify, and others.

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Reviews

[Lee-ann Oleski · Rating 5 out of 5]

From page one, i felt drawn in to the story of A Mighty Word. Although this book was a short 170 pages, It took me some time to read, as I had become completely absorbed in Joshuas writing, his heart and passion put forth apparent with each turn of the page. From the descriptive writing to the beautiful prose, a whole city had transformed inside my head, a place for me to discover on my own or while walking alongside the main character, Kevin Heartstone.

—
Kevin is a tenth grader who doesn’t really fit in. He’s obsessed with history, architecture and restoration, the job his father was immersed in prior to his untimely death.

While visiting his fathers grave, he meets Jane, a 15 year old girl who is long since dead. Having been recently reanimated by the toxic by-products of an anti depressant drug, Jane works together with Kevin to save the town they both know and love from being destroyed by the very people who run it.
—

“𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧, 𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯.”

Grief played a huge role in this story, the weight of it heavy like a thick fog hovering overhead. It created a strong connection between the characters, and a passion driven response to right what was wrong.

The characters were well written and relatable, while also being unique and interesting. Josh really proved his talent in making you feel for these characters and in appreciating the rich history woven into the fabric of this tale.

“𝘒𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴.”

I give A Mighty Word ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 and look forward to more to come from Joshua Rex! I highly recommend you checking out his work 😊.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t let the cover fool you, this was a tale of horror. A tale as beautiful as it’s flowery cover. It’s an examination of greed and exploration of grief. Walking through this book with the main character was a treat.

[Heather Daughrity · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small, dying town. A greedy company dumping toxic waste. A young man still grieving his father. And a cemetery of reanimated corpses.

What is this book? Is it horror? The undead would certainly suggest that. They're brought back to life through the power of chemical sludge, though, so...science fiction? The truth is, there's a little soft horror and a bit of science fiction here, but this book is so much more. It's philosophy and history and a love song to old houses and simpler ways of doing things. It's bordering on a coming-of-age story. It's beautiful.

Joshua Rex blew me away with the quality of writing in his debut collection, 'What's Coming for You', and he has done it again with this new novel. He paints the picture of this sad little town perfectly. You can tell from his writing that he is a man who loves and appreciates the old, slow way of doing things and the beauty of true craftsmanship. His undead are sympathetic creatures, not horrors, despite their rotting flesh and mud-caked rags. His imperfect hero struggles between love for the past and the necessity of living in the present and I suspect that perhaps this is something Rex himself has to do in his own life (I know I do).

A Mighty Word does many things. It shows that the greatest monsters are, as usual, people doing bad things to other people. It allows us to dwell for a bit in overgrown graveyards, abandoned houses, the quiet places of the mind. It sings the glories of old houses, old books, old ideals. It looks to the future and asks the question: is there no value in now? (The answer, as one character suggests: "Perhaps the point is not to rail against what you don't like, but to find a way to live amongst it in a way that doesn't compromise your own beliefs.")

So, horror of the most beautiful kind: philosophical, existential, thought-provoking. That's how I'm going to classify this book.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Halloween is a two-faced entity, characterized both by long-standing traditions and a host of fun, more modern frights. While one can celebrate the night on which the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds is thinnest by visiting a cemetery to pay respects to a lost loved one, an equally viable option is to gather a group of costumed friends to shudder before the latest A24 horror film.

Joshua Rex’s A Mighty Word, like Halloween itself, encompasses the best of seemingly competing worlds. It is a celebration of things that have come before as well as an exploration of that which scares us most in the here-and-now. Death. Loss. Change. Oblivion. No longer recognizing the world around you, or your place within it. It is a novel that engages insightfully with the fear that the best of humanity has come and gone.

Read the rest of my review here:

https://mhyden.blog/2021/11/06/guest-...

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Joshua's work, because he always seems to put a literary spin on more modern stories, almost restoring them to their former glory like authors of old. His love of language is well reflected in his latest story, which could have been a very straight forward spin on zombies sprung to life from the leftover waste of a anti-depressant. At its basics, this may have been a B-movie back in the day, with its rotting corpses and their glowing green eyes, but by taking a step back and looking at how the past and present interplay and battle, I think Joshua has really taken the story to a much higher level. I will say some of it is not too subtle when it comes to themes, etc, and he definitely has a message for the reader, but that's not necessarily a negative thing when you are passionate about the subject. Looking forward to see what comes next!

[Sonja Hughes Akright · Rating 5 out of 5]

À beautiful and thought provoking story around the past and the present. Intelligent and horrifying. Josh’s language and writing style are among my favorites.