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A review by dowryofbooks
Extasia by Claire Legrand
2.0
2/5 stars
In Extasia we follow a deeply brainwashed main character who was raised in a cultish village. She considers herself a goodly, godly girl even though she can see the white-eyed creatures and ghosts that her mother was persecuted for seeing. All her life she's wanted to become one of the four saints of Haven. She believes once she's anointed, the gruesome and unexplainable deaths in her village will stop. However, on her anointing day she receives a note telling her to RUN. And she's told that becoming a saint isn't at all what she thinks it will be.
The premise of this book sucked me in and let me down. You say sapphic witches and I have to read it. I will say I loved the horror elements of this book. Legrand's descriptions paired with the ominous disturbing tone are truly horrifying.
The themes in this book are really strong- this discusses religious trauma and coming to terms with your sexuality when you're told it's wrong. Legrand also not only discusses abusers, but provokes the question of how should you feel towards the people who just stand by and let the abuse happen. Lots of conversation topics in here.
The abuse in this book is disturbing and it does add another layer of horror, especially if you've known someone who uses religion to justify/excuse their mental or physical abuse.
Other than that I found myself really bored. I was having to force myself to read this book instead of wanting to pick it up. There are good twists and exciting moments sprinkled throughout, but between each exciting moment felt like a slog.
I also really feel like this book could have benefitted from two or more POV's because the other characters felt so one dimensional. The female characters especially felt reduced to having their sole personality trait be their name. Some of the names in this book for example are: Silence, Malice, Hunger, Rage, Mercy etc etc. This led to me not caring about these characters or the romance. The girls barely had two scenes together before they were kissing and the love interest was so underdeveloped.
Wherever you are,
whatever you fight,
may your eyes see much,
may your rage burn bright.
In Extasia we follow a deeply brainwashed main character who was raised in a cultish village. She considers herself a goodly, godly girl even though she can see the white-eyed creatures and ghosts that her mother was persecuted for seeing. All her life she's wanted to become one of the four saints of Haven. She believes once she's anointed, the gruesome and unexplainable deaths in her village will stop. However, on her anointing day she receives a note telling her to RUN. And she's told that becoming a saint isn't at all what she thinks it will be.
The premise of this book sucked me in and let me down. You say sapphic witches and I have to read it. I will say I loved the horror elements of this book. Legrand's descriptions paired with the ominous disturbing tone are truly horrifying.
The themes in this book are really strong- this discusses religious trauma and coming to terms with your sexuality when you're told it's wrong. Legrand also not only discusses abusers, but provokes the question of how should you feel towards the people who just stand by and let the abuse happen. Lots of conversation topics in here.
The abuse in this book is disturbing and it does add another layer of horror, especially if you've known someone who uses religion to justify/excuse their mental or physical abuse.
Other than that I found myself really bored. I was having to force myself to read this book instead of wanting to pick it up. There are good twists and exciting moments sprinkled throughout, but between each exciting moment felt like a slog.
I also really feel like this book could have benefitted from two or more POV's because the other characters felt so one dimensional. The female characters especially felt reduced to having their sole personality trait be their name. Some of the names in this book for example are: Silence, Malice, Hunger, Rage, Mercy etc etc. This led to me not caring about these characters or the romance. The girls barely had two scenes together before they were kissing and the love interest was so underdeveloped.