A review by gwenhwyfar
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I knew just by looking at it that this book was for me. This might be the most metal book I've ever read. It's blasphemous. It's pestilential. It's ridden with corpses. It's a hellish pilgrimage across 14th century France. It goes in with the brutality, so I would pay close attention to content warnings. 

This story is about a young girl, eventually revealed to be named Delphine, approaches a group of brigands in around Normandy to help her bury her father. One, named Thomas, ends up killing the others, has her father buried, then agrees to accompany her to Paris and then Avignon (the papacy was in Avignon in the 14th century). On their travels, they also are joined up with a priest named Matthieu. Thomas had fought in the battle of Crecy, sustaining heavy wounds. His lands were then stolen from under him and he was unfairly excommunicated. Matthieu had a homosexual affair which was uncovered by the village he served, so his flock had abandoned him. Delphine is... Jesus 2.0. You see, God is missing, and Hell has declared war on of Heaven. The gates of heaven are defended but the angels are unable to help on earth, where demons are running rampant. The demons are responsible for the plague. They detect Delphine and they attempt to hinder her pilgrimage; her only protectors being Thomas, Matthieu, and various lesser angels working in secret. There's some seriously messed up imagery throughout.


I loved this. 
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