Bit of a difficult book to rate, all things considered. It's certainly crafted well, there's a lot of very pretty prose with very pretty descriptions and lovely whimsical moments. There's a great cast of characters (I would die for Peaches and Brendy), there's so many good ideas. It's a real love letter to art and music, and the city of New Orleans and you can tell the author really loves both.

However, it moves in such a frustrating way. The first third reads like a chihuahua that's got the zoomies; moves incredibly quickly, but goes nowhere, the second third is more interested in asking questions than it is in providing answers, and the final third has to pick up the pieces somehow and drive it to a satisfying conclusion. Throughout the book I was confused, the perspective switching is incredibly disorienting, it keeps introducing characters left and right, it keeps piling on ideas on its already sky-high pile of fun little concepts that it never takes the time to really explore, and throughout I felt like it was assuming some kind of baseline knowledge about New Orleans that I, someone not from the US who has never been to New Orleans, simply do not have. And maybe that's the point, and I am not the target audience, and that is okay, but simultaneously it's frustrating, because it has a lot of pieces I do really like! I love music! I love art! I love electric magical colourful cities that are held together by those!

Ultimately this book ends up feeling like a nice collection of very pretty scenes and lines that you can rotate in your head like it's a microwave, but nothing that really keeps it together. Personally I also feel like there's a lot of telling and not a lot of showing in the first 2/3rds of the book, and that's also a shame.

This would have made a lovely TV show, I think, but as a book? 2 stars, I fear, and I'm not happy about it.

There is much to praise about Alex Jenning’s craft when it comes to writing loving, lived-in descriptions and funny, warm, believable dialogue. The story he crafts with The Ballad of Perilous Graves takes place in a world that, while extremely dangerous, also seems like so much fun to live and spend time in. Jenning’s love of New Orleans, jazz, and Black folks shines through, and I loved his off-the-wall visions of a magical Nola where almost anything is possible – dead folks play jazz, animals and zombies drive taxis and talk, and a flying saucer crash becomes a landmark. It’s just plain fun, and it is in this sense of magic and play that Jenning’s characters and prose shine.

However, I found the story to be very lacking in connective tissue. There are so many great ideas and engaging side characters, but many of the plot key developments and characters seem like they only exist the moment that they need to. The non-linear nature of the story definitely doesn’t help with this -- I’m not usually someone who really struggles with that kind of thing, but I found I couldn’t get into the rhythm of each co-occuring storyline as things felt as though they built and stopped as suddenly as they started, and then, without much time to breathe, the POV changed. Important facts about the world-building and even the nature of the threat the characters face feel as though they are kept back only to keep the characters in the dark, and by the time the truth is introduced it is too brief and sudden to absorb the impact. To me it often felt like readers were led to big, momentous answers to questions the narrative hadn’t really led me to ask in the first place.

Overall, I think this is a promising debut. I will be looking forward to reading more of Jenning’s work – I would be open to seeing more in the world of Perilous Graves as well.