by Maia Weir, curator of HOWLS Book Club nominees for February 2024’s “Oh My Gods!” category
Greetings and salutations, party people. Is there anything more terrifying than the omnipotent, the unknowable, the deities that watch us sleep and decide our eternal fates? Don’t make Sky Daddy angry! You wouldn’t want Anubis to weigh your heart and chuck it into the waiting jaws of Ammut. Is the Godhead an erstwhile mortal granted terrible knowledge? That’s for them to know, and you to find out. These selections are a multicultural delving into the mythos around gods and goddesses and the horrible things they do.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Days before his release from prison, Shadow’s wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.
Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You’ll be surprised by what – and who – it finds there… (StoryGraph)
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I’m sure many of us have read the book and/or watched the popular television show, but I think it’s worth sinking our teeth into this classic Gaiman novel. I love the multicultural mythos upon which Neil draws, and the cynicism about the deities that are supposedly watching over us reflects a general sense of disillusionment. How would the god(ess) of AI manifest?
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
The Immaculate Void by Brian Hodge
“You wouldn’t think events happening years apart, at points in the solar system hundreds of millions of miles distant, would have anything to do with each other.”
When she was six, Daphne was taken into a neighbor’s toolshed, and came within seconds of never coming out alive. Most of the scars healed. Except for the one that went all the way through.
“You wouldn’t think that the serial murders of children, and the one who got away, would have any connection with the strange fate of one of Jupiter’s moons.”
Two decades later, when Daphne goes missing again, it’s nothing new. As her exes might agree, running is what she does best . . . so her brother Tanner sets out one more time to find her. Whether in the mountains, or in his own family, search-and-rescue is what he does best.
“But it does. It’s all connected. Everything’s connected.”
Down two different paths, along two different timelines, Daphne and Tanner both find themselves trapped in a savage hunt for the rarest people on earth, by those who would slaughter them on behalf of ravenous entities that lurk outside of time.
“So when things start to unravel, it all starts to unravel.”
But in ominous signs that have traveled light-years to be seen by human eyes, and that plummet from the sky, the ultimate truth is revealed:
There are some things in the cosmos that terrify even the gods. (StoryGraph)
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We can’t have a horrifying gods list without a healthy dash of cosmic horror! This novel tackles the Lovecraftian mythos with an attention to intense character relationships and a gritty sense of plausibility. In a hateful universe, where do we fit in? What relation do we as sentient beings have with the gods themselves?
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust
The time is the Beginning. The place is Heaven. The story is the Revolt of the Angels–a war of magic, corruption and intrigue that could destroy the universe.
To Reign in Hell was Stephen Brust’s second novel, and it’s a thrilling retelling of the revolt of the angels, through the lens of epic fantasy. (StoryGraph)
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Published in 1984, noted in reviews as being “blasphemous.” Sounds like fun!
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
The Black Farm by Elias Witherowe
After the loss of a child along with a slew of agonizing misfortunes, Nick and Jess decide to end their lives. Unable to cope with the misery that fills their days, they commit one last act together and die in loving relief.
But when Nick wakes up, he soon realizes that death isn’t the gentle darkness he expected. Panicked and horrified, he struggles to understand the twisted abominations and hellish world he’s now trapped in.
Driven by desperation and a sudden will to survive, he sets out to find Jess and is unable to cope with the thought of her having to suffer through the terrors this new reality holds.
But nothing could prepare him for the nightmares he found…nothing could prepare him for The Black Farm. (StoryGraph)
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Splatterpunk is always a fun tag in my experience, and unpredictability in a story is a prestigious achievement these days. Trigger-heavy, so only indulge if you feel comfortable.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
And The Winner Is…
Out of these five books, HOWLers voted to read American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Discussion starts on February 19, and you can join in by joining the Discord!
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