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reaperreads's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this! The concept was unique and familiar at the same time--cosmic horror updated with a new myth. No tentacle monsters here, though. Just the Quiet Woman, known to her followers as Amen--the woman actually responsible for creation before God stole it from her and destroyed her, reserving only her smile that he gave to women so that it might please men the way it did himself. But her smile was her power, and over the generations a cult of women has formed that believes in Amen's creation over God's pretense.
What I found most interesting about this novella was the insider's look at the cult and the struggle of a young woman, Serena, trying to understand her place in the universe when her mother gives her little guidance to work with. One of my main critiques of folk horror is the othering of non-Abrahamic traditions and making them out to be hyper-violent. So, for this novella to take a deeper look into its (fictitious) mythology from a practitioner's perspective was fascinating.
I also appreciate the bi rep; however, I wonder how the seeming binary of Amen vs God would play out when considering a spectrum of genders rather than just man vs woman.
The only reasons I went with four instead of five stars were the following: (1) I feel like this could have been expanded into a short novel since the novella still left me with questions like the one above, and (2) the writing style in the first two chapters was a little too simile/metaphor-heavy. The figurative language got to being much more well-integrated by chapter 3, though, so this is a very small thing that didn't impact the majority of my reading experience.
Finally, I read this novella because I REALLY enjoyed White's As Summer's Mask Slips short story collection. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for future work from both authors!
For fans of: John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy, Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede, "The Evening and The Morning and The Night" by Octavia E. Butler, and Come Closer by Sara Gran
What I found most interesting about this novella was the insider's look at the cult and the struggle of a young woman, Serena, trying to understand her place in the universe when her mother gives her little guidance to work with. One of my main critiques of folk horror is the othering of non-Abrahamic traditions and making them out to be hyper-violent. So, for this novella to take a deeper look into its (fictitious) mythology from a practitioner's perspective was fascinating.
I also appreciate the bi rep; however, I wonder how the seeming binary of Amen vs God would play out when considering a spectrum of genders rather than just man vs woman.
The only reasons I went with four instead of five stars were the following: (1) I feel like this could have been expanded into a short novel since the novella still left me with questions like the one above, and (2) the writing style in the first two chapters was a little too simile/metaphor-heavy. The figurative language got to being much more well-integrated by chapter 3, though, so this is a very small thing that didn't impact the majority of my reading experience.
Finally, I read this novella because I REALLY enjoyed White's As Summer's Mask Slips short story collection. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for future work from both authors!
For fans of: John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy, Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede, "The Evening and The Morning and The Night" by Octavia E. Butler, and Come Closer by Sara Gran
cherryactually's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
4.0
no but the scariest thing about this novella is the reality that "nice guys" like jeffrey exists ðŸ˜
not huge on cosmic horror, but this was GREAT! loved the cult / religious aspects that had a, if i could even say, major feminist twist to them. i was invested the whole time, and wish the novella was longer just so we get more backstory on the cult of creation and the goddess amen who god stole from. no lie, i LOVED that part. the best thing about this book for me, however, is the reality of each metaphor. men are trash, that's for sure. and as women, and even young girls, we have to live with these grown assholes always telling us to "smile." if only we could use those smiles as a weapon (i did, at one point).
man, this was a trip and a half.
not huge on cosmic horror, but this was GREAT! loved the cult / religious aspects that had a, if i could even say, major feminist twist to them. i was invested the whole time, and wish the novella was longer just so we get more backstory on the cult of creation and the goddess amen who god stole from. no lie, i LOVED that part. the best thing about this book for me, however, is the reality of each metaphor. men are trash, that's for sure. and as women, and even young girls, we have to live with these grown assholes always telling us to "smile." if only we could use those smiles as a weapon (i did, at one point).
man, this was a trip and a half.
chmccann's review
4.0
This was a pleasantly fresh and disturbing little story. I thought it did a great job of mining cultural misogyny and the "nice guy" without being at all preachy. It's weird and a bit gross and every character elicits some level of empathy and some level of distaste. Cosmic horror delivered via a very human, character-driven story.
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