{"id":20068,"date":"2025-11-24T07:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=20068"},"modified":"2025-10-26T14:39:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T18:39:53","slug":"review-pulse-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-pulse-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Pulse Remains by Rob Grimoire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"coverThe Pulse Remains<\/em> by Rob Grimoire<\/strong><\/a>
\nUndertaker Books (August 2025)<\/strong>
\nReviewed by\u00a0Elizabeth Broadbent<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a Southern Gothic novel, the past returns to haunt the present. Emphasizing moral bankruptcy and degeneracy, particularly of the upper classes, the genre has traditionally been dominated by white people and white stories \u2014 William Faulkner, Flannery O\u2019Conner, and Michael McDowell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That tradition often omits or elides the contributions of Black authors: Toni Morrison, Zola Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, S.A. Cosby, Tananarive Due, and Alexis Henderson. Like their white counterparts, these stories usually include traditional Southern Gothic tropes: the past intruding on the present, the moral and spiritual corruption of the elite, an emphasis on landscape and setting. <\/span><\/p>\n

But while Black Southern Gothic often examines a present haunted by the past, it can also subvert that trope. Rather than corrupting the present, the past can become a source of hope and strength. Rob Grimoire embraces that turn in <\/span>The Pulse Remains <\/span><\/i>(Undertaker Books, out now). Set in the Reconstruction South, the novel follows Samantha Turner, a Black woman who lost her husband after he left the Union Army. Forced to grow cotton to survive, her need for a loan brings her to the attention of former enslaver Charles Smith. He\u2019s snapping up farms, threatening (and worse) those who won\u2019t sell. When he sets his sight on her land, Samantha knows she has to get out \u2014 not just for herself, but also for her fourteen-year-old son, Jacob.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The occupying Union soldiers served with her husband, and they offer to help her leave. But Samantha will need more than that \u2014 to escape, she\u2019ll have to tap into her ancestral power by way of Mother Oyo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pulse Remains <\/span><\/i>is a short read (properly a novelette), and a brutal one. Grimoire shows us the horrors of the Reconstruction South without flinching. Rife with violence, this novel directly confronts the oppression, poverty, and brutality of Reconstruction in the South. Readers who know little about that particular time and place will be shocked; readers familiar with the history will marvel at Grimoire\u2019s skill in showing the fear, and desperate poverty that came after the Confederacy\u2019s fall \u2014 and the lawlessness it trailed in its wake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grimoire seamlessly integrates this history with the supernatural. Samantha doesn\u2019t just feel like an authentic woman of her time and place; Grimoire paints her as a compelling character with urgent, relatable concerns, and her forays into the supernatural are well-realized and vivid. I loved Samantha. I rooted for her, and despite her removal from the present day, I understood her. Many historical novels fail in this regard; Grimoire pulls it off with style.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grimoire also serves up some shining prose in this fast-paced supernatural tale as moments of show-stopping lyricism emphasize the novel\u2019s violence. A wonderful debut for Grimoire \u2014 <\/span>The Pulse Remains <\/span><\/i>marks him as an exciting, up-and-coming voice in horror. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pulse Remains by Rob Grimoire Undertaker Books (August 2025) Reviewed by\u00a0Elizabeth Broadbent In a Southern Gothic novel, the past returns to haunt the present. Emphasizing moral bankruptcy and degeneracy, particularly of the upper classes, the genre has traditionally been dominated by white people and white stories \u2014 William Faulkner, Flannery O\u2019Conner, and Michael McDowell.\u00a0 … Continue Reading! “Review: The Pulse Remains by Rob Grimoire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[3165,79,3479,3478],"class_list":["post-20068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-elizabeth-broadbent","tag-reviews","tag-rob-grimoire","tag-the-pulse-remains"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: The Pulse Remains by Rob Grimoire - 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