"In the Deep South, something evil waits in the darkness . . ." Available on May 7th from ABRAMS is the horror graphic novel Devour, from Jazmine Joyner and Anthony Pugh! To give you a tease of the horrors to come, we have a preview you can read right now, along with details from Jazmine Joyner on the origins Devour:
"Devour tells the story of the Turner family, who move to Alabama to care for their ailing matriarch, Vassie, when she begins suffering from dementia. But Vassie isn’t just any old lady; she’s the last of a line of powerful root women who have been caring for the community since her ancestors were first captured and enslaved by white plantation owners. Patsy, the eldest daughter in the family, is immediately suspicious; the locals’ fear and superstition of her grandmother leads Patsy to take a closer look at the Turner family home, and what she finds is beyond her wildest nightmares.
In a magical room beneath the house, Patsy discovers the source of her family’s legendary skills: the Ghanaian spider god Anansi. Driven mad by the suffering of the enslaved Africans who worshipped him, Anansi was eventually captured and contained by Patsy’s ancestors. As Patsy learns about her family’s culture and dark past, she also realizes what’s really happening to Vassie; Anansi is eating Vassie’s memories. With their legacy and the god’s imprisonment in the balance, Patsy and her brother, Demetrius, will have to take up their grandmother’s mantle—while she can still remember who they are.
Devour is a terrifying new fable that delivers thrills and chills in equal measure."
“Devour came about from a conversation I had with my mentor John Jennings. He asked me a question when we were on a walk, "What if Anansi went mad?", I took that question and wrote a short story that slowly turned into what Devour is today. My horror influences with this graphic novel are a bit all over the place. A lot from John Carpenter films like The Thing with the visceral gore. But, during the time I was writing this I was reading a ton of horror fiction trying to figure out the right balance of storytelling and scares. Books like Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark, Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca to name a few. I learned from reading those that what really worked was writing scenes that truly disturbed me. Another influence for me was the anime Jujutsu Kaisen. It was a big influence on how I wanted the Turner House to feel alive, almost like a domain. I wanted it to be a character of its own within the story. My unconventional inspiration that I wanted to shout out was the film Howl's Moving Castle. I love the whimsy of the film and the ease of the magic. I thought in-between the horror I could inject some of that into the story too.” — Jazmine Joyner
To learn more and pre-order your copy now, visit: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/devour_9781419763069/
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