Going to preface this review by saying that I love extreme horror that is heavy on sexual violence, an I love books that make me feel disturbed & disgusted, so none of that is the reason for my low rating. This is a book that could have been right up my alley with combining sexual & religious horror. 

Unfortunately a significant amount of the horror in this book is based on people with congenital deformities, disabilities, etc, merely existing. Some of the conditions described in this book are, at least as far as I could tell from brief research, made up entirely, but some are very real, or at least based in reality & heavily exaggerated. The narrative itself is extremely cruel to these characters, not just in terms of what happens to them, which I wouldn’t have an issue with since it’s a horror novel, but in terms of how they are depicted, described, and framed in comparison to other characters. Their conditions are treated as making them evil monsters. Phrases like “the mistake” are used as epithets in place of a name/pronoun/“the man”/etc. Their bodies are described in gratuitous detail the way extreme horror writers tend to when describing a monster or action intended to disturb & disgust. I kept getting the impression that these characters are supposed to be seen as more horrifying than the actual villain. The disabled characters are seldom portrayed with any sympathy, even when they’re being brutally raped or killed. There is also a pair of (extremely unrealistic) intersex characters who are treated similarly while also being fetishized. Fat characters only appear (at least that I noticed) as “monsters” and their fatness is emphasized with clear intention to disgust. 

That said, aside from that extremely glaring issue, the basic premise is very interesting, and while I do think it could have been handled with more depth, there were parts of this book I enjoyed.  

I really liked the concept of the drug used to make people into rapists, and the design of the (non-human) monster that appears at the end was fun. I wish there had been more action with that creature, perhaps having it rape one of the main characters. As it is it felt a bit rushed at the end, which made it feel a bit anticlimactic despite all the drama happening at that point.

The writing is okay, and decent by extreme horror standards, although I did notice quite a few typos & there were some strange word choices at times. I could have really liked this book if it wasn’t so determined to depict disabled people as subhuman.