Psychopomp & Circumstance
by Eden Royce

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted March 21, 2026

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This is the first of Eden Royce's work I have read, which a blurb on the back cover says is her adult fiction debut. Her first story was published in an anthology in 2010, then reprinted in her collection Spook Lights in 2015. She has won several genre awards; Bram Stoker, Ignyte, Shirley Jackson, and Mythopoeic, along with being a finalist for the first three of those for other books, plus the Andre Norton Award from the SFWA. She is from Charleston, South Carolina, and much of her fiction deals with the black experience in the South, including the Gullah-Geechee culture of the Sea Islands. Most have been written for children and middle grade readers. I am not conversant with the qualifications of how the age groups are arranged, but Psychopomp & Circumstance is an adult novel if we go by Wikipedia, which says YA is for ages 12(?)-18. The protagonist of Psychopomp, Phaedra "Phee" St. Margaret, had just turned 21.

Phee lives with her parents in New Charleston. The year is 1867, post-Civil War, post-13th Amendment, but since this is an alternate world scenario I'm not sure if it is two years after the war's end, or perhaps more. One technology in evidence is about ten years early, at least earlier than the widespread use of Edison's electric lights. Another I suspected was off proved to be within that time frame; the Singer sewing machine. In the opening scene Phee is at a cotillion, the last she would be able to attend as a debutante unless she attracts a suitor, a proposal. She is indifferent to that, because no man has yet attracted her attention, definitely not the man her mother favors. She is independent minded, wanting to pursue a career, even though she hasn't decided what that should be. She works as a part-time bookkeeper at her father's distillery, but wants that to be temporary. If she could only decide what would be right for her, what would get her out from under the stern gaze of her mother, and away from oppressive New Charleston society. As she walks around the ballroom she overhears whispered conversations, knowing some are about her, her mother, and her Aunt Cleo. The latter brings up painful memories, since Phee had not seen her aunt in more than 10 years. That story leads to the meaning of the title.

The dictionary meaning of pomp is "a ceremonial or festival display." In this book, to be a pomp is to be the one responsible for organizing a funeral, more frequently termed a homegoing. Psychopomp derives from several different religious beliefs, but most mean "spirits or angels whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife." As she left the cotillion, Phee was thinking about arranging a visit with her aunt, who lived in a town she had founded, Horizon. The next morning a messenger arrives at her house, bringing the news of Cleonine Atalanta Simon's death, and with the intention of getting Cleo's sister, Madelyn Simons-St. Margaret, to be her pomp. Phee's mother scoffs at the notion, or I should say she laughs, which infuriates Phee. Her mother had not seen or spoken to her sister the same length of time as Phee. The rift between them was sparked by Madelyn's anger, and an accusation of theft against Cleo, just before their mother's homegoing. Phee regrets she had always allowed her mother's anger to keep her from visiting her aunt, although they had corresponded frequently. But now it was time to rectify that oversight. Phee takes the message and says she will be her aunt's pomp, which makes her mother even angrier.

Another indication this is an alternate history is evidence of magic. Phee had witnessed some conjurer's tricks at the cotillion, which she felt were out of place, clashing with the feel of the ball. There are also mythical creatures, although the only information I've found about the "tyefrin" messenger relates to this book. It is a bird-like creature. Hippocampi, on the other hand, are from Greek myth, typically depicted as having the upper body of a horse and lower body of a fish. Such beasts are pulling the carriage that takes Phee to Horizon, or at least part of the way. It rains almost constantly in New Charleston, and the roads are typically underwater, with an esplanade raised well above that. Once the type of road they are on changes, the driver switches to regular horses. The driver had asked her what pace she desired, fast or leisurely, and she picked the latter, but she didn't realize that meant an entire day's ride. It was approaching dusk when they reached Horizon. It looked different to her, better than New Charleston, everything neat and tidy, as well as multiple styles of houses and shop fronts. Only she doesn't see anyone, even inside lighted shops, but thinks that is because it is dinner time. They get to Cleo's house, a solid two-story brick, but she can't see into the windows since all the curtains and shades are drawn. She asks the driver if he would like to come in for tea or coffee, but he says he needs to get home to his family before it is too dark. Everything inside the house is also neat and tidy, nice furniture, carpets, or polished wood floors. Upstairs she finds a door open to what was surely Cleo's bedroom, but three other doors are locked.

At least she assumes the fourth door, the one furthest down the hall, is locked, but she is not sure how. No visible knob or keyhole, and she can't tell if it even has hinges. At that point I assumed maybe a pocket door, one that slides into the wall, but no, it is a "magical" door, but it is a few days before she realizes that. The door bell chimes, and she opens it to a woman who asks, shakily, "Cleo?" Maybe Phee resembled her aunt a liitle, but the lady might have seen the shawl she was wearing before looking up to her face. It was one Phee had found in the bedroom. Phee had just read a note from an Azalea Brown, Horizon Council Head. In person she tells Phee to call her Zaye. She has brought plenty of food and other things. The more she gets to know Zaye, Phee can't help but wonder why her aunt had not left instructions for her to be the pomp. She had not found any such instructions, and it was about four or five days before she does, at the same time she finds out what is behind that mysterious door. Zaye offers to help, including having arranged for funeral directors to come to the house and present their services. Zaye thinks that should be right then, but Phee tells her to put it off until the morning. She is glad Zaye agreed, because what the new day brings is very tiring and frustrating for her, she would not have been able to face that her first evening in town. Several of the presentations are not only frustrating, they anger Phee with their pompous arrogance, one sounding more like a carnival barker. The last man she meets is the most respectful, but he is also not that forthcoming with information, but she takes his card, and says she would contact him the next day. I will not tell you what happens the next day that solidifies her decision that Cross Prioleau would definitely be her choice to handle her aunt's body. Suffice it to say it involves another bit of magic, or sorcery, not sure which would apply.

With the help of both Zaye and Cross, Phee completes the preparations for the homegoing. One thing that took a lot of worry off her mind is she had finally found her aunt's instructions, which stated she wanted Phee to be her pomp. Her aunt's body is prepared, her home used for the 'sitting in.' I am a bit puzzled by what transpires during that time, so I will skip over that to say one visitor shows up, one who probably should not have. Phee's father. By the end of that encounter she knows she has made the right decision to stay in Horizon, perhaps carry on some of her aunt's work. She owns the house now, and it feels like a home, as the house in New Charleston rarely had. After the internment, which is just before dawn, she sees the new day approaching. At that point I realized Cleo had chosen the right name for her town, Horizon. I also started hearing Nina Simone in my head, singing, "It's a new dawn, It's a new day, It's a new life for me, and I'm feeling good."

 

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