Pride in Horror Review: Hallowed Be Her Flesh by Emryn Bird
Genre: Horror Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
After Trella is accused of being wicked and punished accordingly, she is exiled from her village. But Trella might just be able to find a home for herself in a rumoured village full of other outcasts. As she sets out, a star falls from the sky, and Trella finds herself helping a strange creature she can only see as a celestial.
I really liked the way this was written, with Trella wrestling with her own faith, Sera adjusting to the strange world she’s landed on, and the uncertainty over what she actually is – is she an angel, or an alien entity? Both? In addition to an enjoyable, tense-in-all-the-right-places storyline, there’s some really lovely illustrations to go along with the story.
Bird is clearly a good writer, and crafts this story with care, giving us plenty of sapphic romance wrapped up in a slightly cosmic horror storyline. And there’s plenty going on beneath the surface, too, with themes of religious trauma. I found it fascinating how Trella holds onto her faith, not just in God but in Sera as an angel. The medieval era setting means Trella doesn’t have knowledge of aliens or other lifeforms to recognise Sera as such, and with Bird’s writing, it becomes easy to just follow their journey and believe Sera might just be an angel.
If you’re looking for something with elements of cosmic and body horror, themes of transformation and religious trauma, and a sapphic romance quest narrative, it’s an itch that Hallowed Be Her Flesh will undoubtably scratch.
I read Hallowed Be Her Flesh for the ‘new to you author’ prompt in our DHR Reading Challenge – check out our Challenge page to find out more and see how you can take part.
Purchase at Itch.io
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this book via our Queer Your eReader event.
