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Stronger Than Hate
Mississippi Wizards follows two women from different eras whose lives become intertwined through violence, grief, and the haunting presence of a persistent ghost named Nancy. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
I’d had a few conversations with two of my closest friends, both of whom, unfortunately, have had experiences with some form of racial hatred or another, including with the KKK. I wanted to show just how broad those hate groups are in who they target, and I wondered what would happen if one of them targeted a family member, and what would happen if that person became a ghost. What lengths would they go to, if they could, to protect another family member? The idea just sort of expanded from there.
The novel combines supernatural horror with survival thriller elements and social issues. How did you balance those different genres and themes?
I’ve always been a firm believer that human monsters are far worse than the literary ones. Sometimes, they turn out like Billy- evil, hateful, and violent- but I also wanted to be careful to show that there are those of us in society who, though we may not consider them monsters, certainly succumb to bigotry, hate, and fear. To do so, I did extensive interviews with people who had real-life stories to offer. Though none of them exactly matched this story, I hope I was able to get the essential message across: Together, we are all stronger than hate.
Nancy is both frightening and deeply connected to the characters’ histories. How did you develop her personality and decide what kind of ghost she would be?
When I thought of Nancy, I considered what it would have been like for her to be betrayed in such a final, ultimate fashion. I wondered what she would do to keep someone else in her family from experiencing the same fate, and how frustrating it would be if her plans were foiled over and over again. I felt that, for anyone else, desperation and anger would play a key role, but that desperation would take precedence for Nancy, since she wasn’t a bitter person in life.
The final scene suggests that there may be another strange story waiting to unfold. Did you always envision Mississippi Wizards as potentially opening the door to another story?
Yes and no. When I first thought of this story, I loved the idea that Cassandra could see ghosts and help them, and I thought it would be cool to have her eventually transition into a role where she could help lay spirits to rest. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be the choice of the ghost to show itself to her, not the other way around. For that, there needs to be some type of connection. Without that, I didn’t think Cassandra or Liza would get into the proverbial ghost-hunting business, as neither of their personalities would match with that. They were forced into it; they didn’t choose it. If I ever write another story with Cassandra and Liza, it won’t likely be a ghost story.
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Two timelines, two women, one relentless spirit: Liza’s secret love and Cassandra’s haunted mind converge through Nancy, a ghost determined to rewrite a history of hatred and violence. As terror rises and mortal enemies close in, the women must join across time to survive, confront murderers, and reclaim the power stolen from them.
Mississippi Wizards is a gripping, spectral thriller of vengeance, courage, and the enduring strength of love against impossible odds.
Mississippi Wizards
Kenneth Penn’s Mississippi Wizards is a supernatural horror novel built around two women whose lives are separated by time but connected by violence, grief, and a persistent ghost named Nancy. In the present-day storyline, Cassandra and her husband, Ben, head into Mississippi’s De Soto National Forest for what should be a quiet camping trip, only to become targets of a vicious group of white supremacists. Running alongside that ordeal is Liza’s story, set two years earlier, as she navigates family conflict, first love, racism, homophobia, and an escalating threat that follows her into the same wilderness. The alternating perspectives gradually reveal that these aren’t simply parallel stories. They’re pieces of one supernatural puzzle.
Cassandra is the novel’s strongest anchor. She’s funny, impatient, frightened, loving, and stubborn enough to keep moving long after most people would collapse. Her relationship with Ben gives the early chapters warmth and playful energy, which makes the brutality that follows feel personal. Penn also handles Cassandra’s belief that she has schizophrenia with care. For years, she’s understood Nancy as a hallucination produced by trauma, so discovering that the ghost is real doesn’t instantly erase the emotional and physical consequences of her diagnosis. That tension gives the haunting an unusually intimate quality.
Liza’s chapters bring a different kind of pressure. Her romance with Mary is tender and believable, while her relationship with her family, especially her cousin Avery, is full of affection, betrayal, fear, and compromised loyalties. The novel’s racism and homophobia are direct, ugly forces expressed through individual choices and family histories. Penn ties those forces to the supernatural plot without turning them into abstract symbols. Early in the book, Nancy observes, “Change always comes too late for the innocent,” a line that captures the story’s grief while also setting up its interest in whether the past can be confronted, altered, or redeemed.
The book moves like a survival thriller once Cassandra and Ben are attacked, with chases, beatings, escapes, crashes, and confrontations arriving in quick succession. Its horror is physical and graphic, but the stranger element is the gradual collapse of time around the forest. Images, songs, locations, and memories echo between Cassandra’s and Liza’s experiences until the two timelines finally meet. That structure rewards attention, and the final explanation gives earlier scenes new meaning. The book is generous with action and emotional intensity, though its extended confrontations sometimes leave little room to recover before the next crisis begins.
What stayed with me most was the novel’s belief in connection. Cassandra, Liza, and Nancy are all carrying pain that began with someone else’s cruelty, yet their eventual strength comes from trusting and helping one another. That makes Mississippi Wizards more than a story about escaping killers or solving a haunting. It’s a dark, energetic novel about trauma traveling through time, love surviving hostile circumstances, and people finding the power to change a tragedy that once seemed permanent. Its closing scene lands with a welcome sense of wonder, leaving the characters on the edge of a new relationship and one very strange story still waiting to be told.
Pages: 333 | ASIN : B0H8KBZR6R
