Wildflower of the South: 'Give Up The Ghost' by P.C.M. Christ

One Year Anniversary Review & Retrospective

Before I get into precisely what makes this novel such a special “Southern Gothic nightmare of biblical proportions,” I want to strongly encourage you to purchase a copy, thereby directly supporting PCM Christ.

Buy the excellent Give Up The Ghost here.

Then subscribe to his Substack below.

Thanks for reading,

Tox

On the one year anniversary of its release (August 16th 2025), I wanted to write a review of this novel, as well as a somewhat retrospective look back at its release and subsequent place in the field of indie-lit, which is not an insignificant one.

PCM Christ is a mainstay of the dissident right scene in America. I first came across him via his essays in Man’s World Magazine and quickly came to know him as a formidable writer in the space. Then in 2024 came his seminal essay Cthulhu Turns Right, which called for a new form of subversive postmodernism on the right, firmly placing him at the forefront of the dissident right scene, where he no doubt deserves to be.

As well as writing this excellent essay in 2024, PCM also released his debut novel, which will be the subject of this piece. Surprisingly opting for the Amazon KDP medium of self-publishing, the form of the book itself is smaller than average for a novel and feels almost like a chapbook. However, the old adage about big things coming in small packages is certainly applicable here, as is revealed upon diving into this Southern Gothic nightmare of biblical proportions…

And Southern Gothic is the de facto genre of this book, owing no small debt of influence to the work of Cormac McCarthy, and by proxy William Faulkner. The voice of PCM Christ, though, and his brilliantly named narrator, Atticus Remington Scutt, is a more modern one than any before it. It’s recognisably our world, from the holy depiction of baseball to the lifting of weights as an act of profound self-improvement. It’s testament to the strength of the prose that the world of GUTG is so immediately identifiable, and it makes it all the easier to become lost in.

The story concerns the murder of a young girl, the cousin of AR, which sets in motion a divinely ordained set of events that play out under a holy sun and a cursed moon. As more and more information is gained on the nature of the murder, the narrative churns and changes in its fire-and-brimstone nature and is interspersed with what I can only think to describe as religious hallucinations by that of AR.

And this is where this book shines, not in the linear structure of the murder mystery, but in PCM’s absolute mastery of this Southern-style prose. Absolutely anything can be turned into a metaphysical reflection, steeped in the blood of the lamb, and sometimes of the goat. Everything is viewed through the prism of death, life, religion, God, and blackness, chasms of void.

Stars fall from the sky and hell rises up to meet AR at any given moment, and you are tied to the spot, paralysed as you are made to witness the Devil come back to Georgia. It is intoxicating and mesmerising reading, which aims higher than anything else in the indie-lit space, and makes its shot.

Like Cormac McCarthy writing a spin-off of season one of True Detective, or taking acid with William Faulkner's ghost, this is the new standard in this space.

I know it’s a point made countless times now, and there’s danger of it becoming a crybaby narrative… but I have to say it here: the fact this novel isn’t widely available and promoted in bookstores next to all the great names of American literature is like a hunting knife to the gut to consider.

The fact it is self-published over even a small press is stultifying, particularly those that claim to be championing new American voices and dissident-aligned literature. This is a missed opportunity by such presses, and it’s a shame none saw fit to platform this fantastic Southern Americana fever dream.

It’d be untoward to end this on a low note, though, and viewed conversely, the direct-to-consumer platform this is available on does seem, for the most part, to be the new method. And although I deem this book to have more than enough merit to have been traditionally published, I am just happy it exists in any format.

Maybe we should embrace the fact that this isn’t a book you can casually pick up at Barnes & Noble, it’s still one of the best American novels of the last decade, it’s availability doesn’t change that. You just have to get it directly from the author.

To me, it’s an essential American voice, one which I can’t wait to see more from.

Don’t sleep on this anon. Order Give Up the Ghost today and experience the new incarnation of Southern Gothic, you can buy it here.

Then subscribe to PCM Christ’s Substack to follow whatever he deems fit to come next…