“You can’t murder that which is eternal, that which will lie until death itself passes. But you can slow it, cripple it, hobble it. You can hurt your nightmares; it’s a two-way street.” This story is set in the same universe as the first novella in the series, Hammers on Bone, but a few decades earlier, and the protagonist of that one, (view spoiler)[alien LARP-er (hide spoiler)] John Persons, is a secondary character here — but it’s really a standalone. This is a Lovecraftian world full of h

Shortly after the death of his father, bluesman Deacon James rolls into Arkham with an otherworldly song in his head and a sinister detective, John Persons, on his trail...I follow Cassandra Khaw on twitter and she mentioned needing reviews for this. Since I liked her first John Persons novella, Hammers on Bone, I was all over it like a ghoul on an unsuspecting citizen of Arkham.Noir mixed with cosmic horror is the best combo since chocolate and peanut butter and A Song for Quiet is a prime exam...

A lyrical, deeply weird horror novella about a bluesman with a song in his head that will end the world (and since he's black in 1950s USA, you can see the temptation). As with the best horror, humanity comes across as pretty much as awful as the Old Ones with tentacles, although those are also spectacularly grim. Khaw's writing is incredibly rich, with the saturation turned up to 100 all the time to dizzying effect, and her knack for vividly revolting images has not deserted her (insert canniba...

This story really could've been something. The blues mixed with Lovecraft. Definite potential.We meet Deacon James while he's riding a train to Arkham, famed fictional city of Lovecraft's. Between his recent past and this quote, I connected with him right off the bat. Deacon looks up as civilization robs the night of its endlessness, finger painting globs of light and farmhouses across the countryside. I was thinking that this might've been an update to Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zahn."

This was a huuuuge downgrade from the first book.First of all, why would you limit John Persons this much? He was such a great character. He was, in my opinion, was the best thing about the first book. He was the sole reason I started reading this one. And replace him with a character like Deacon? I don’t know. Deacon started great, just like the novella itself, and gradually became worse as the book progressed. Second, I think this story is the living proof that sacrificing coherence, plot, emo...

Unnerving Magazine ReviewThough the second of a series, ​​A Song for Quiet reveals a significantly different tale from its predecessor. Firstly, it’s not a hardboiled detective noir, despite involving that character. This fact was somewhat disappointing, at least initially until I got over my expectations.A hard-up bluesman is torn between a subconscious cosmic tugging and the difficult world around him. That's the sum of it until the threat of complete world annihilation comes into play. It’s l...

This was even better than the first one.What. A. Book.I've never read anything similar to this novella series. Not only because Lovecraftian Noir and Lovecraftian Southern Gothic aren't everyone's favorite genres, but also because I never found horror written this well before.A Song for Quiet is the second book in the Persons Non Grata series, but it's set long before Hammers on Bone. Its main character is a black bluesman, Deacon James, whose music just won't let him go - it's slowly taking con...

Not quite as interesting as the first, since it lacks the sort of puzzlebox element of figuring out who exactly is what.I will say that I am amused at how Mythos fiction is gradually turning into a PoC-focused genre, as multiple authors react against Lovecraft's racism with an eye towards centering PoC as the main characters. It rather helps that, interestingly, cosmic horror is actually a really good metaphor for widespread and institutionalized racism.

Wow, thanks for introducing me to this singer, author!Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Wordshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAKfy...

My gods, I loved this! Deep DEEP Jazz meets gibbering horrors and the connections between memory, selflessness, and total sacrifice WITHIN the music.The prose was jazz in its most intensely lyrical and dense and evocative!Like... total purple prose, man. But here, it was absolutely gorgeous. Syncopated tune with counterbeats to a Cthuhlu horror eating memories even as the most delicious riff, harmony, and melody bridged two souls together on the stage.Deep, emotional, utterly horrific. I imagine...

After a buddy read of Khaw’s Lovecraftian-themed Hammers on Bone, we decided to try the subsequent novella. I was hopeful that a new protagonist–a bluesman–would provide a change from the odd vernacular and breathe some new notes into the relentless picture of decay. Unfortunately, though there are bits and pieces of stellar writing, there’s also a lot of self-indulgent and purple prose that becomes just so much scat when Khaw tries to take it into the metaphysical. Add to it a protagonist that

Just so you know, Cassandra Khaw's work is my aesthetic. I mean this 100%. This book makes me hurt with how viscerally, disgustingly, triumphantly good it is. It's Lovecraft elevated to human art instead of just dry cosmic musings; the characters in this book are so real you ache for them, you feel your own bile rise as they confront nameless horror. There is a such a strong thread of call-and-answer in this story, questions characters ask being asked of the reader as well, sacrifices the charac...

A bluesman from Georgia comes to Arkham, but is beset by horrific visions and a strange man by the name of John Persons.I didn't love this quite as much as the first book, but it's still a compelling story with the customary beautiful writing from Cassandra.

Lyrical prose and interesting enough story about a bluesman on a train with something going on in his head, and creatures doing anything to retrieve it. Never read the 1st so not sure if any different but just didnt work as a novella for me.

An uncanny song that leads a bluesman on a road he would rather not walk.If you liked the first book in the series, you'll probably like this one, too; it's inventive historical horror and a fun read. The only thing that dragged it down a little was that the reader wasn't quite brought on board smoothly. The story seemed to assume that I had read this right after the first one and would remember things like, oh, what the main character from the first story was like, what year it was, where the l...

I totally forgot to review this, so here's a quick one. Awesome story, connected to the first book, it can definitely be read on its own but you really need a least a little understanding of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos or you're going to be really confused. The writing's pretty heavy, you have to concentrate and I admit to hitting the dictionary a couple of times, but the imagery is superb.

Deacon James is a blues man. Not the stereotypical figure of a blues man either. There's no deals done at crossroads, no careful deployment of artfully vague music as magic. Deacon is good at what he does, famous enough to be a little noticed, and folded in half with grief.Deacon is also in the wrong place at the right time, his grief and anger combining with something truly monstrous and propelling him into the centre of a situation so vast he can only perceive some of it. A situation that John...

So I guess "Lovecraftian Novella" is a genre all its own now, this being the third one I've read in the last twelve months. I can't say that I enjoyed this one as much as The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe or The Ballad of Black Tom . A Song for Quiet treads some of the same ground as Black Tom, but it's more overtly horror than either of the others I've read. Cassandra Khaw has a knack for drumming up tension, but she's also got a love of florid language that sometimes goes over the top. The...

I am reviewing both books in the Persons Non Grata series at the same time (this one and Hammers on Bone). I have spent the year trying to read things I don't usually, horror and novellas, and honestly, I am kind of glad I did.I recently told a friend of mine, (Hey Dan) I thought that some writers did Lovecraft better than Lovecraft did himself (weird sentence there..) Ms. Khaw happens to be one of them. As a reader who enjoys the Chulthu mythos more than the actual Lovecraft works, I love the f...

Khaw has a brilliant and awesome grasp of language usage... and i love how she uses music and its terminology throughout this tale... Cthulhu-inspired works take a tough road, as some authors have near-mastered the worlds of The Old Ones and make dipping ones tentacles there to be fraught with failure and/or overwrought writing... Khaw succeeds admirably, fantastically, viscerally... her descriptives flow, nay ooze, with menace and awfulness... a grand adventure, touching and raw and dreary and