“In life, most of us have the luxury of nuance. We may be angry, but we balance that anger with mercy. We may be filled with joy, but that doesn’t prohibit us from empathizing with those who aren’t. But after we die, that changes and we’re distilled down to our most rudimentary compulsions. A single desire so powerful it trumps all others.”

In an isolated land called Bethel, surrounded by a vast space of woodlands and walls that firmly separate it from the heathen lands beyond, patriarchy and puritan extremism reign supreme. The religious system that this land follows is that of dualism, where there are two opposing deities, one representing all that is light and good, while the other championing all that is dark and nefarious. In this male centered society, it comes as no surprise that the "good" deity is the Father while the "dark" one is the Mother, symbolically chosen by the author to show the reader the roots of the social structure that Bethel has been founded upon for centuries.

"From the Mother comes disease and fever, pestilence and blight. She curses the earth with rot and sickness, for sin was ushered from Her womb."

The story has an element of duality where the characters in the present day are living through the consequences of events that took place 17 years prior, when a story of a forbidden love between a man and a woman who were not allowed to be together due to the constraints of society placed upon them went horribly wrong. The girl that was the product of this tragic love story, Immanuelle, has to deal with the burden of a curse her enraged mother unleashed to avenge those who led to her and her lover's demise. This story is also a classic example of how some who claim to be religious and virtuous can be the most vile people alive.

"True evil, Immanuelle realized now, wore the skin of good men. It uttered prayers, not curses. It feigned mercy where there was only malice. It studied Scriptures only to spit out lies."

Pretty writing and en elegant choice of words, but not lacking in very odd quirks that might be tedious to read for those with a lower tolerance for such things:

One of the first strikingly positive elements of this book was the writing. This is Alexis Henderson's debut novel, but the quality of her writing is very decent.

“Let those who have raised a hand to me reap the harm they sow. Let the shadows snuff their light. Let their sins defy them.”

The choice of words were strong and impactful. She can effectively convey the atmospheric moods she wants the readers to feel through her sentences. Writing is an art, and you can probably see the more artistic aspect of writing in this book, even though it might seem a little exaggerated in some places.

"The truth struck her like a knife between the ribs."

I didn't mind that though.

However, some aspects of the writing did eventually get a bit repetitive, but that didn't bother me as much as it amused me. It's one of those quirky little flaws that make someone laugh. For example, our main character, Immanuelle, has a tendency to want to vomit quite regularly and Alexis Henderson makes sure to mention that sensation quite vividly several times during the book.

For example:

"She fixed her eyes on her plate, trying to swallow down the sickness that boiled at the back of her throat whenever the Prophet’s gaze landed upon her."

Another one:

"Immanuelle felt suddenly sick, as if she was in jeopardy of bringing up every mouthful of roast she’d forced herself to swallow."

Let's wrap it up with an even more pleasantly worded description:

"Her gut twisted, and she tasted apple at the back of her throat."

More frequent than her tendency to feel nauseous is the tendency for her and especially for her hands to shiver and trust me, that tendency is very frequent!

Some examples:

"Immanuelle’s hand began to shake."

"Immanuelle began to shake."

"She smoothed the creases from her skirt with shaking hands."

"Immanuelle’s hands shook in her lap."

...we eventually come across a sentence that let's us hope that this habit of her shaking has finally come to an end...:

"Immanuelle straightened in her chair. Her hands stopped shaking."

...but alas...

"She began to shake, and she wasn’t sure if it was the fear or the hunger or both."

I found this to be very amusing and I made sure to write down every time poor Immanuelle began shaking and you could tell I ended up writing down a substantial amount of sentences.



Underneath all the generally nice writing, the story is a rather straightforward and predictable one:

If you want to read this book and expect something very different and not cliche, you might be a bit disappointed, since even though the writing is nice and the lore seems to have its own peculiarities, the story itself is full of the very classic Young Adult tropes.

Disclaimer: I do not think Young Adult books are bad and they can be very good reads especially if you're in the mood for that type of storytelling which is generally satisfying if you're looking for something like that. The point here is that Young Adult books tend to have a certain vibe and character development to them that is pretty particular to that genre and one can more or less predict where the dynamics are going to go in most cases.

So underneath the wrappings of a darkly complex atmosphere, the story is relatively simple, straightforward and not shocking or particularly unique and the romance aspect is quite cliche. The characters aren't really that multi-dimensional and simply serve the purpose of the plot.


The male character, Ezra, who is Immanuelle's love interest doesn't have that much of a personality in my opinion. I had expected a complex character who has devious aspects to him that would make him dangerous as well as a side that is more progressive and open minded than the rest of the puritan society in town, which might be an asset for Immanuelle. I expected a push and pull that wasn't straightforward and wasn't simply nothing more than an ideal love story. Instead, his entire character was distilled into a supporting nice guy who falls in love with Immanuelle quite fast and whose entire purpose was to help her and be her love interest. He felt like a hollow vessel with no purpose other than being Immanuelle's supportive boyfriend and that was a bit of a letdown for me. Their interactions were relatively superficial [spoiler alert] and the fact that he went from being intrigued by her because she liked reading books to be willing to be burned at the pyre for her to save her life without a deep and complex dynamic going on between the two and their story being nothing more than a shallow teenage romance felt too convenient for me.

[end of spoiler]

Another issue I had were the plot conveniences and lack of clear logical consistency in some aspects of the story. Whenever obstacles were necessary to make the plot suspenseful, they were there in abundance. However, whenever they needed to be lifted in order for the story to move forward and for something to happen, they dissipated quite easily. The logical motive behind the main villain was very confusing to me as well. I will give some examples of these issues in order of increasing frustration, however, they will be spoilers, so read at your own discretion.

[spoiler alert]

1) The impenetrable sacred areas where the Prophet and his wives live which are normally crawling with guards become suddenly barren when Immanuelle asks Ezra to escort her there to visit the library.

2) The first time Immanuelle found herself venturing into the Darkwood, her grandmother Martha burned her hand as punishment. One would expect that she would keep an extremely watchful eye on her after that, however, Immanuelle slips in and out of the Darkwood quite regularly without Martha even putting effort into watching her.

3) When Immanuelle and Ezra entered the Darkwood together and came back out, the farmhand saw them both come out, however, Ezra managed to "lie" to the authorities and tell them it was he who entered the Darkwood alone and Immanuelle just happened to find him outside and save him. We never hear another mention of this as the lie is conveniently believed and no one makes an issue about the fact that the heir went venturing into a forbidden forest full of witches.

4) During the final battle with Lilith, where she literally had an entire legion of dark creatures storming the cathedral, Immanuelle very conveniently summoned the plagues and killed her witch minions instantly. The battle with Lilith was longer, however, during that long interval where Immanuelle kept stabbing her, there was no attempt made by her legion, dark creatures who were large in number and murdering people in the cathedral, to stop her. I can see many possibilities where the author could describe how these creatures tried attacking Immanuelle and failing because of her power, but we see no mention of this and it felt too easy. Note that back in the day, an entire war took place to stop this horrific army, but a 17 year old girl manages to end it and vanquish Lilith without any attempt made by this army to stop her?

5) THIS IS ONE THING I CANNOT UNDERSTAND! The Prophet wanted his son Ezra to DIE so that his lifespan would increase, since his son rising in strength meant his eventual demise. That was the whole point behind him wanting to kill Ezra. However, when Immanuelle offers herself instead, he agrees to sparing Ezra's life, after devising an entire plan to force her to marry him and kill his son!!! Why would he do that? If he does kill Immanuelle instead, Ezra would continue growing in strength and he would eventually die, which would sabotage his plans for maintaining power... Another issue I had with this part of the story was the lack of a clear motive for the Prophet wanting to marry Immanuelle. I assumed it was because he had wanted to marry her mother who had refused him, so this was his way of satisfying that urge by lusting after Immanuelle, however, we don't see that actually expressed and he easily gave that up when she offered herself as a sacrifice instead.

[end of spoilers]



Overall impression:

Even though I wrote quite a few criticisms on the story itself, I still enjoyed reading this book. The fact that I enjoyed it made these issues stand out more to me. Taken for what it is, the story kept me hooked and the writing is beautiful. I would say it's a light, straightforward read with dark and mysterious packaging. I would recommend this to people who enjoy dark fantasy and story-lines involving witches and don't mind some classic Young Adult tropes and overall simplistic plot resolutions. I know that the author is planning on writing a sequel and I will be reading it when it's out, because I would want to see more of Bethel.

"I often wonder if my spirit will live on in her. Sometimes I hope that it will, if only so I won’t be forgotten."

3 sinister stars!