“The only devils are men.”

How fitting to have picked up a double feature pleaser so relative to these trying times: a cosmic horror novella revolving around a fascist political regime silencing educated creatives, and a doomed white savior cautionary tale buried deep, deep in the dirt, of Appalachian blues history. Jacobs exhibits obvious “research to fiction” skill, winding real life history and folklore with modern accessibility and prose. Two compelling stories, a miasma of despair and darkness within each, different enough from each other but the reliable and overarching themes make the pair understandable. Because of specific interests, I was more drawn towards the second story, but the two operate as a couple of “Charlie’s Angels”: back to back and real pretty.

4/5 In my humble opinion, we, collectively, should just start leaving women in the woods alone.