Shout Kill Revel Repeat

by Scott R. Jones

On a mission to recover an ancient artifact, an amnesiac girl unlocks the terrible secret of humanity’s past and future. The implementation of a radical new technology sends an unlucky test pilot into a dimension of enlightenment and horror. A mystic obsessed with higher-order camouflage uncovers the true face of the world. Lovers on a wilderness trek encounter the unspeakable in a place where time and space turn on themselves. A harmless question posed to a Ouija board unleashes an unusual plague. And a crack team of mutants and monstrosities storms the stronghold of a mad god in a last-ditch effort to rescue Reality itself from delirium and decay.

In Shout Kill Revel Repeat, the debut collection of short fiction from Scott R. Jones, you’ll be introduced to nihilistic shapeshifters, deranged billionaire magicians, surf champions, survivalists, sadists, and soldiers, all of whom learn that to live is to enter into a never-ending cycle of fury and fear, dark revelation and deepest regret.

Shout. Kill. Revel. Repeat.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Lovecraftian

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Bobby Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basic facts: This is the first collection of Scott R. Jones' fiction, culled from magazines and anthologies, representing the best of his short fiction. Jones himself is perhaps best known as the editor and mastermind of Martian Migraine Press, which deliberately pushes the envelope of "Lovecraftian" fiction, aiming for something beyond pastiche, pursuing the themes of cosmic horror and supreme weirdness without slavishly adhering to any set mythos. If there's one message in his work, it's this:

Dig deeper. Peel skin off the world. See what's crawling around under there.

Part philosopher, part mystic, true adherent to the dark sciences of high weirdness. Jones' stories are dedicated to not being the same seven plots reskinned. The stories in this volume aren't exploitative or gore-laden indulgences turning microscopic lenses on bloody injuries or sexual violations, and they aren't long-drawn psychological ramblings where gormless broken people rub their psychic wounds against each other until something finally happens. Think the surgeon's scalpel rather than Cain's blood-stained rock: these are stories that incise, cut deep, cut away, expose the raw and bloody weirdness that is not the world we know, but something much more darkly glorious.

As you can tell, I'm a fan. These are stories of vision, and that can be unsettling. A good story should unsettle you, knock you on your ass, get the blood pumping, send you away off-kilter and a little punch-drunk. Side-swiped by the uncanny, you may wander through the day coming back to the memory of these stories, like tonguing the open socket of a pulled tooth. There but not there.

If you can handle that, this book is waiting for you.

[Darrell Grizzle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the finest books of cosmic horror I’ve read in quite a while! Some of the stories have a science fiction setting, while others have settings that can only be described as eldritch and squamous. The stories are thoroughly Lovecraftian but highly original and modern. These are the kind of stories that creep into your brain and keep creeping long after you’ve finished reading. I can imagine this book on a shelf in the dark library of Lost Carcosa. Highly recommended for all lovers of weird tales and cosmic horror.

[Darrin Brightman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many a collection of Lovecraftian lore consists of a superficial rehash of HPL and later Mythos author’s stories. A few tentacles here, some mad gibbering there, with an undescribable eldritch horror described in loving detail.

Not so here.

This selection of Jones’s most disturbing tales conveys, in an ultimately accessible form, much of the foundation of R’leyhan perspective/spirituality. The power and lasting impact of these stories comes not from gore (notably absent or minimal, never exploitive) but from the ideas presented; ideas about reality, about life after the era of humans, about what happens AFTER R’lyeh rises and what it means for we mere humans.

Cosmic horror with true depth (and one self-consciously pulpy tale for fun). A great collection that you’ll want to keep by your bedside to inspire new, terrifying nightmares.

[Kevin L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was my first read of any work by Jones and I absolutely loved it. Out of all of these stories only maybe 3 weren’t homeruns. The rest are brilliant Mythos-inspired writing with fun nods to the genre’s history.

How good is it? After finishing the eBook I ordered a physical copy to add to my bookcase.

[Otto Hahaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hra Lovecraft kirjoitti omia juttujaan kohta sata vuotta sitten. Paljon on tapahtunut sen jälkeen ja hänen tarinansa ovat inspiroineet muita ja mutatoituneet eri suuntiin. Näinä päivinä voisi varmaan viettää aikansa lukemalla pelkästään Lovecraft-pastisseja, -variointia, -synteesejä ja -antiteesejä. Välillä tuntuu, että näin minulle on käynyt. Luin tätä kokoelmaa yhtä aikaa W. H. Pugmiren tarinoiden kanssa. Vaikka Pugmiren ja Jonesin tyylit ovat hyvin hyvin erilaisia, niin taustalla paistaa sama maailmankaikkeus ja kosminen maailmankatsomus. Välillä Jonesin kokoelman tarinoissa Lovecraft paistaa enemmän läpi, välillä se on vain rivien välissä. Osa tarinoista on aika selkeitä Lovecraftin tarinoiden uudelleenversiointeja, mutta sitä ei välttämättä edes huomaa, jos ei ole tarkka. Voi olla että ei edes tarvitsisi tietää kuka HPL on ja silti nauttia tarinoista. Välillä en myöskään edes tunnistanut viitteitä googlaamatta, en ilmeisesti sittenkään ole niin suuri mytologian tuntija kun joskus luulen.

Oma suosikkini taisivat olla tarinat, joissa Suuret Muinaiset ovat tulleet takaisin ja laittaneet kaiken mullinmallin ihmisten räpiköidessä siinä sivussa. Ihmisten ihmisyys toki on jo varissut tien poskeen. Kertomuksia siitä, mistä ei voi kertoa.

Lovecraftin tarinoiden päähenkilöt ovat yleensä kovin värittömiä henkilöitä, mutta näissä tarinoissa henkilöissä on enemmän imua ja lihaa luiden ympärillä.

Tarinoissa on jotain toistuvia aiheita, joita voisi tutkia enemmänkin. Helppo on huomata tarinoissa vilahtava teollisuuspohatta Tusk, vaikka en keksikään kehen hän voisi viitata. Käpylisäke mainitaan myös useammin kuin kerran.

[Teresa Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always good

I always find myself enjoying what the author gets caught up. This book was no different. Mt first exposure was his Ryhelian spiritualy book in a humble bundle collection. I was very happy to see this particular book get mentioned after following his Facebook for updates and to learn a bit more about the person behind the pen. This collection I think has surpassed all that I have read so far. I highly recommend this anthology of tales.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

“It’s irritating the living fhtagn outta me,” is a sentence in this book, and exactly how I felt reading it.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://youtu.be/S_T-Sda5lNU

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very fun collection. It had shades of things to come in Stonefish and Drill. But it was also more directly weird horror. Sometimes sci-fi. Often, even. Good stuff, some chuckles to be had as well. Another author to stay on my watch list for new releases.

[John Jantunen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Scott R. Jones' masterful collection, Shout Kill Revel Repeat, the reader is made to feel like the lone survivor of a shipwreck plunged into a turbulent ocean with each successive story appearing as a monstrous wave, ever-threatening to be the one that washes you under. But as should all serious writers navigating such dark waters, he provides the reader with a beacon to assure us that no matter how grim things have become, there's always some hope on the horizon. In his case, Jones uses a stunning proclivity for language as his light-shining-bright and though his style might seem overly excessive, and downright dense, to some readers, what he achieves through it is nothing short of irrefutable proof that the true power of the written word must reside in its ability to reassert our humanity over the technological artifice which has come to dominate our world. A troubling, oftentimes brutal, collection of stories which captures the tenor of our times with a conviction rarely seen in contemporary literature and while - by design - it won't be for all tastes, I am genuinely excited to see what its author comes up with next.

[Delilah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scott thinks he is a lot more clever, progressive, transgressive and scary than he is. Has some cool sci fi elements to it which is fun for a Cthulhu Mythos work but thats about its only real redeeming factor.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story collection from the author who brought us DRILL. Lots of goodies in here, but my favorite story was The Damage. There were also a lot of stories about Elon Musk lol, although he goes by Aldo Tusk now.

[Joel Hacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outrageously good collection from Scott Jones.
Most of the stories here were already published prior to collection, and I *believe* all the original stories have since seen print in other collections as well. Which is not to say you shouldn't pick this up...Its Jones' unique stew of mysticism, science fiction, lovecraftian horror, with social commentary for spice on full display.
There's clearly either some world building going on, or just Jones working out a number of ideas, themes, and story elements that will finally gel together in Stonefish. Whichever of those is true, its a fascinating process to watch, and well re-creates the feeling Lovecraft created that there was something coherent and *bigger* going on, when it fact it is and always was chaos. We even see Jones' much vaunted First Law, Everything Hungry, make appearences throughout. If I have one minor complaint, its that that there are a couple sensory turns of phrase (the calving of an ice shelf) that feel a little repetitive, but only because stories originally written to be read on their own all collected in one place.
Some of these definitely feel like they fall within the Stonefish mythos ('The Amnesiac's Lament', 'The Spike', etc.). Others are squarely in the bounds of Jones' unique take on Lovecraft's universe (the titular 'Shout/Kill/Revel/Repeat', 'Wonder and Glory Forever'), some touch on other classics of weird fiction (I loved the King in Yellow riff of 'Perfect Ten'), and others are something completely separate and different ('The Transition of Toby the Twitch'). If I had to identify a story that didn't really land for me, I'd say it was Abraxas.
If you like a deeply mystic take on weird fiction, that defies easy classification and still moves fast while being thought provoking, please pick up Jones work.

[Toad Doctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird cosmic horror at its best.
Sure, most of these stories are firmly based in the “Lovecraftian” tradition, but it's as if Lovecraft is mucking about with the Wrights at Kitty Hawk while Jones is busy setting his boots on the moon.
Instead of working within the usual Lovecraft tropes, Jones has used them as a starting point and gone well beyond them to create something all his own, something strange and at times unsettling.
This book took me a while to read; I found that I had to take a break between the stories in order to fully appreciate the implications of and ideas contained in these plots. As well, I often found myself re-reading passages; the first time to absorb the atmosphere and images, and the second time in order to analyze Jones' often amazing use of language and to attempt to figure out how he accomplished what he did with his words.
A few of these stories (especially the title story) are truly stunning in their concepts and breadth of ideas.
Highly recommended.

[reece · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best horror anthology I’ve read this year including that one Lovecraft. Speaking of which the author leaned pretty heavily on Lovecraft’s work here, I don’t mind this but it did feel a bit fan-fictioney or something. Only a tiny, tiny bit though because you feel that his takes on The Cthulhu Mythos and what have you are cool and fresh. And there’s plenty of stories without explicit Lovecraft callbacks.

Anyways this was all proper weird. I like the reoccurring Tusk character as well as the shared universe a couple of stories inhabit where the Lovecraftian Old Ones finally win and reign for millennia over human thralls. The titular story occupies the latter “series” of short stories and was particularly good.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was a bit uneven for me. While there were some gems in the bunch, too many of the stories were psychedelic drug trips that left me wondering what the hell I had just read. I expected a set of Mythos inspired tales, and while this was ostensibly what I experienced, the aforementioned psychedelic nature was just not my favorite take on the Mythos. These definitely are not pastiche, so if that was the author's goal, you win! Regardless, I recommend the book to horror readers, as it was exemplary in that role.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review coming soon, but this collection is brilliant and you should read it.

[Phillip Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. So much to take away from this.

[Charl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm only able to enjoy Lovecraftian horror in moderate doses. Jones does it well, well enough that I didn't want to finish. My rating is for the roughly half of the stories I did read.

[David Keaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting around to this one late, but I'm glad I squeezed it in while books were still real. Speaking of The End, the opening story, "Amnesiac's Lament" is amazing, probably the most distressing post-post-apocalyptic world ever imagined. But Jones also solves how someone might continue to exist in this hideous terrain, at least for a little while, which is long enough to get some crazy important (important crazy?) shit done. Loved it. And, to be honest, I don't understand how this author keeps such wildly descriptive balls in the air. The effort to describe an ever-shifting mental and physical landscape the way he does is downright scary. Has anyone checked on him lately? Many of these big brain stories cross-pollinate each other; there are a couple appearances of a Musk avatar (Jones' street cred is intact calling out Musk's goofy ass 6 years before most people got there, but you can't help and wonder how that all plays today since Musk's soured long past his shelf life of merely being smartly mocked or what a 2025 Scott Jones would do with/to him on the page), but the best of those two stories, "The Spike," reminded me of Cosmotos' contribution to The Cabinet of Curiosities, as it was more satisfying to have more tangible motives surrounding the cosmic artifact. What else? Surprisingly hilarious in parts. And the coffee story was okay? Reminded me of Night Shift-era King, but written by late-career Clive Barker, a fun breather from the more gnarly, maniacal efforts here. And "Turbulence" also reminded me a bit of King's "The Jaunt." now that you mention it. And on the topic of kings, there's a Queen in Yellow tale where the Queen in Yellow love-bombs a poetry slam (similar energy to Stephen King favorite "Nola," except funnier), and there's a wendigo tale, and Lovecraft jokes abound (Tillinghast Resonators popping up and popping off) and maybe a riff on that one story, what was it called... damn it, I always want to say The Screwtape Letters. No, I'm not looking up the answer on Jones' "Noonet," look what happens to people that mess with that place. Yes! "The Screwfly Solution," thank you, that's what the story's called. Also the men vs. women survival action of Jones' “Last Stand at Cougar Annie’s” would make a great HBO prestige series (and probably answer the "man or bear?" riddle in the most conclusive and imaginative way possible). Definitely some Stonefish-adjacent stuff in here too, maybe a mini-sequel or side quest, and I'm guessing Drill-world material? Which means there are *probably* parts of other extended universes (universi?) kicking around inside this table of contents as well and hopefully all the post-takeover-world adventures will someday be fleshed out into a novel (more like *flensed*). And while we're on the subject of that particular hellscape, the titular story "Shout/Kill/Revel/Repeat" is remarkable. Just shockingly good. Make sense that the book took its name, and it might be a follow-up to the tour de force that opens the collection, so these two stories probably should have bookended this whole affair. In fact, I'd like to re-sequence the order of these stories. For example, the final story, "Wonder and Glory Forever," feels like Jones coasting a bit with one of those camping, drug-addled, Long Weekend-kinda exercises, reminiscent of Benson 'n' Moorhead movies like The Endless, and there were a couple story POVs that butted up against each other. But this man sure loves "Vantablack," as well as the sound that icebergs make! And I'm guessing that is exactly what you'd find inside his head. Black iceberg brain. Is that a thing? I'm sticking to it.