{"id":10479,"date":"2025-02-03T21:08:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T01:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=10479"},"modified":"2025-02-03T21:08:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T01:08:56","slug":"book-review-sacrilege-by-barbara-avon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-sacrilege-by-barbara-avon\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Sacrilege by Barbara Avon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sacrilege <\/em>by Barbara Avon<\/p>\n

Self published, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9798690309411<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy:\u00a0 \u00a0 Bookshop.org<\/a> |\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sacrilege<\/em> is a depressing psychological drama that takes you down, down, and further down.\u00a0 There are no monsters or boogeymen in this one, just the mental demons that inhabit the characters.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty good read for those who prefer human interest\/interaction stories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Almost the entire story focuses on the two leads: wayward priest Cris Corelli, and Jules, the lady who owns the boarding house he stumbles into.\u00a0 The author sets the tone right out of the gate: mentally, these two are trainwrecks, for various reasons.\u00a0 As the story progresses, the death of someone close to both of them pushes Cris and Jules further down into depression.\u00a0 They start drinking and drugging to numb the pain, only finding minimal comfort in each other. \u00a0However, it\u2019s the best either of them can hope for, unless they somehow are able to use each other to pull out of their respective tailspins.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The stark manner in which the dialogue between Corelli and Jules is written is an unusual choice.\u00a0 Often, books like this rely on fairly long and in-depth conversations, as a way to explain how the characters became, and where they are heading.\u00a0 The author goes against the grain here, as most talks are fairly quick and clipped, not really revealing a lot about the characters.\u00a0 Then again, maybe they don\u2019t need to, the characters’ actions may speak louder than any lengthy dialogue in this case.\u00a0 It\u2019s an interesting choice for this type of book, and works reasonably well for the narrative, giving it a unique flavor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I felt the “big reveal” at the end of the story was anticlimactic. You could tell it was supposed to be fairly important, due to Corelli\u2019s actions after he discovered it, but it just didn\u2019t seem like anything that should alter the story’s trajectory, or what the characters do for the rest of the book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The bottom line is\u2026this will appeal to a certain segment of readers.\u00a0 If you enjoy depressing psychological dramas, this might work for you.\u00a0 If your idea of horror is fast-paced, with monsters and supernatural craziness, then this probably isn\u2019t your cup of black ichor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacrilege by Barbara Avon Self published, 2020 ISBN: 9798690309411 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0 \u00a0 Bookshop.org |\u00a0Amazon.com Sacrilege is a depressing psychological drama that takes you down, down, and further down.\u00a0 There are no monsters or boogeymen in this one, just the mental demons that inhabit the characters.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty good read for those<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3841,5806,232,645,749,2700,2737,5807],"class_list":["post-10479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-addiction","tag-barbara-avon","tag-gothic-horror","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-mental-illness-in-fiction","tag-psychological-horror","tag-sacrilege"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10481,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10479\/revisions\/10481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}