The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Alex Jennings
The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Alex Jennings
List: $38.99 | Sale: $27.30
Club: $19.49

The Ballad of Perilous Graves

Author: Alex Jennings

Narrator: Gralen Bryant Banks

Unabridged: 17 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Redhook

Published: 06/21/2022

Synopsis

"Funny, wild, witty, and profound.”―Victor LaValle

"A wild and wonderful debut, teeming with music, family and art."—New York Times

"Magical, lyrical, gritty, otherworldly…hype like Bayou Classic in the 90s."—P. Djèlí Clark New York Times Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2022! Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022! Apple Best Audiobook of 2022!

A fun and fantastical love letter to New Orleans unfolds when a battle for the city's soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song in this wildly imaginative debut.  Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women help keep the order. To those from Away, Nola might seem strange. To Perilous Graves, it’s simply home.

Perry knows Nola’s rhythm as intimately as his own heartbeat. So when the city’s Great Magician starts appearing in odd places and essential songs are forgotten, Perry knows trouble is afoot.

Nine songs of power have escaped from the piano that maintains the city’s beat, and without them, Nola will fail. Unwilling to watch his home be destroyed, Perry will sacrifice everything to save it. But a storm is brewing, and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Nola’s time might be coming to an end.

Audiobook features an Original score written and performed by Andrew McGowan

About Alex Jennings

Alex Jennings is an associate actor with the RSC and has also worked with the Royal National Theatre. He has won two Olivier Awards for Best Actor in a Musical, and his TV appearances include The State Within and Inspector Morse. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, he is a prolific reader of audiobooks, the most notable of which are The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis and Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on November 29, 2022

In the spirit here, I ask that if you are currently deceased, it is imperative that you resume living at once and begin reading – (very loosely taken from part of the digital galley). New Orleans. There is no place like it, except in “The Ballad of Perilous Graves.” Alex Jennings fires up the torches......more

Goodreads review by Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) on June 19, 2022

Yessss! This was so different than anything I have read. Super imaginative and vivid. Magical and dreamy. The representation is awesome. I really enjoyed it! I feel like I may need to read it again to get more out of it, but ya a fun one!......more

Goodreads review by P. on November 14, 2022

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings—featuring a New Orleans of sky trolleys, living graffiti, trans dimensional portals, and terrifying haints—gotta be one of the most amazing books I’ve read in a minute. Magical, lyrical, gritty, otherworldly… sh*t is hype like Bayou Classic in the 90s,......more

Goodreads review by Liz on May 22, 2022

OK this might sound a bit weird but I probably only understood about half of what was going on in this wonderful debut but it could never have been anything except a five star read because I adored it. Set in a vibrant New Orleans alternative city Nola, where music is magic, the dead and the living i......more

Goodreads review by Trish on June 20, 2024

What a peculiar story! Perilious, believe it or not, is the name of a boy. He and his sister live in an odd place full of sky trolleys, zombies and more. Nola. Pery and his sister one day find out that 9 magic songs have been stolen and if they aren't returned, a mysterious storm is going to destroy......more

Quotes

"A hallucinatory wonder of a debut with hints of dark humor and the intellectual challenge of Samuel Delaney. Brimming with language and music, this phantasmagoric novel taps the deep root of multi-cultural, multi-racial life in, and beyond, New Orleans. It’s an electrifying trip with zombie cabbies, sentient blues songs, parading graffiti tags, and the child mages Perilous “Perry” Graves, his sister Brendy and their best friend Peaches who must outwit, outstomp, and outplay to save NOLA’s, their city’s, our city’s, soul."—Walter Mosley, New York Times bestselling author

“Alex Jennings did not come here to play. He came to swing, stride, and make prose sing. This novel is funny, wild, witty, and profound. The Ballad of Perilous Graves is the debut of a cosmic storm of talent.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

"A spectacularly original re-imagining of the myths and legends of New Orleans brought vividly to life through Jennings' wondrous prose. The Ballad of Perilous Graves is not only an engrossing adventure but a potent homage to the beating heart of one of the world's most magical cities." —Ladee Hubbard, author of The Talented Ribkins

"Alex Jennings has composed a beautiful song full of magic and rhythm, darkness and delight. A profoundly gorgeous debut." —Christina Henry, author of Near the Bone and Horseman

“The Ballad of Perilous Graves takes readers on a glorious, gorgeously sinister, and phantasmagorical journey through New Orleans, in the company of an unforgettable hero and a cast of magical characters so real I ached to live in their world.  A stunning debut that is sure to become a classic."—Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation Loss and Hokuloa Road

"An enchanting, energetic, wild ride of a story set to a staccato melody. The electric prose leaps off the page in a riot of colors and sounds. An astounding debut that will leave readers hungry for more.”—Leslye Penelope, author of The Monsters We Defy

"Brimming with heart and imagination, The Ballad of Perilous Graves is a wild, dark and joyful love song to New Orleans, the power of stories, and hope in the face of destruction. A spectacular debut."—H. G. Parry, author of A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians

"I enjoyed The Ballad of Perilous Graves tremendously. Jennings writes with an energy and a profusion of imagination and vividness that carries you off to a secret New Orleans where music is magic. Brilliant!”—Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor

"Jennings’s post-Katrina haunted NOLA breathes fresh energy into modern Fantasy. His lyrical prose dances to a rhythm all its own."—Stina Leicht, author of Persephone Station

"Jennings takes the reader on an intimate tour of New Orleans and her mirror-twin, the equally seductive and even stranger city of Nola. Jennings has an unsurpassed ear for New Orleans dialogue, and his tale is scary, sweet, lyrical, and real."—Poppy Z. Brite

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