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A review by eggcatsreads
The Plastic Priest by Nicole Cushing
3.0
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Cemetery Dance Publications for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This novella unfortunately never fully grabbed me, and by the end I was more confused than anything else. We follow our main character Kaye, an Episcopal priest as she questions her faith and her beliefs, while feeling stuck about them due to the smallness of the town she’s in. It’s stated multiple times that above all else, she wishes to keep her job. So, despite having multiple crises of faith and incorporating varied understandings of the Bible in her faith, she remains the same for her small church in order to keep the small amount of attendance she currently has.
Honestly, while this novella describes itself as “ madwoman in a mad town” I kind of thought neither were entirely true. The town itself isn’t mad, it’s simply Smalltown USA with typical conservative, Republican beliefs in it. And Kaye only begins to lose her mind when confronted with a random stranger who may or may not be a god, and who challenges her beliefs about what is real. To be honest, I kind of felt the inclusion of “Janus” as a character was out of left field, and it would have felt more natural for Kaye to more organically become delusional, as it were.
Personally, this novella wasn’t bad and if abstract horror is your jam I think you’d really like this. However, this novella was simply too abstract and not personally clear enough for me to understand what was going on, for me to properly enjoy it.
This novella unfortunately never fully grabbed me, and by the end I was more confused than anything else. We follow our main character Kaye, an Episcopal priest as she questions her faith and her beliefs, while feeling stuck about them due to the smallness of the town she’s in. It’s stated multiple times that above all else, she wishes to keep her job. So, despite having multiple crises of faith and incorporating varied understandings of the Bible in her faith, she remains the same for her small church in order to keep the small amount of attendance she currently has.
Honestly, while this novella describes itself as “ madwoman in a mad town” I kind of thought neither were entirely true. The town itself isn’t mad, it’s simply Smalltown USA with typical conservative, Republican beliefs in it. And Kaye only begins to lose her mind when confronted with a random stranger who may or may not be a god, and who challenges her beliefs about what is real. To be honest, I kind of felt the inclusion of “Janus” as a character was out of left field, and it would have felt more natural for Kaye to more organically become delusional, as it were.
Personally, this novella wasn’t bad and if abstract horror is your jam I think you’d really like this. However, this novella was simply too abstract and not personally clear enough for me to understand what was going on, for me to properly enjoy it.