Reviews - Pilgrim: A Medieval Horror

96 reviews for:

Pilgrim: A Medieval Horror

Mitchell Lüthi

3.99 AVERAGE

archaeomancer's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really loved the history, the setting, and the premise having a mix of Christian, Muslim and Pre Islamic ideas. I do wish we had done more with the Spooky side of early Christianity though. Give equal footing to the possibility of horror lurking in all those faiths, what that horror could originate from, etc.

As nice as it is to not have the Muslim character villainized, he was the only one with the answers the whole time. It felt like Christianity was a dead weight, offering almost nothing to the entire plot, no solutions OR no spook. I wanted to see BOTH religions and their origins deconstructed, pulled apart to get at their inner workings and where the chaos and horror lurk in the cracks. As much as it was the Muslim character with all the answers, it was because most of the evil was given Islamic or pre Islamic origin. It just felt a bit unbalanced, from what the premise promised.

And making one "foreign" character have all the answers feels a bit like putting too much on their shoulders to carry anything, plot or faith. Like they somehow have some sort of higher connection to the "occult". Whereas Christianity and it's adherents in this story, even the iffy priest, just sit around staring at the Muslim man offering solutions and answers and they offer nothing of their own, no paradigm parallels, no strange Christian rituals or exorcisms they could perform.

Slight spoiler:

Some of the character deaths at the end felt like the author couldn't think of any more ways to kill people off. I think the one that was "random" was fair, it was almost terrible in its own way, in the banality of it, compared to all the other things, and I think that was intentional. But the other two, who had been fading from the plot since about the middle of the book anyways, just felt like the author forgot they were there and had to figure out a way to off them before the dramatic ending.