Synopsis:
Kenzi Brooks watched The Scribble Man collect her brother’s soul after a hit and run when she was seven. He gave her a present that day—a lucky rabbit’s foot. Sixteen years later, she no longer believes in The Scribble Man, she believes in survival and does what she has to in the slums of Detroit. When thugs kill her mother and beat Kenzi to near death, she accidentally releases Lilith from her prison within the time-worn keychain.
And Hell hath no fury…
Lilith is out for revenge. Revenge against God, Sariel (Angel of Death and Kenzi’s Scribble Man), and all of mankind for relegating her to nothing more than a demoness for refusing to submit to her husband. She’s put together an apocalyptic plan to destroy everyone who has forsaken her. Forget the Four Horsemen, Lilith is assembling the Four Whores.
Will Kenzi rise against her to save the world and The Scribble Man or will she become The Fourth Whore?
Edition:
Paperback ARC
Disclaimer:
I received an advanced reader copy of The Fourth Whore from the publicist in exchange for review consideration. This did not in any way impact my review.
Trigger Warnings:
- rape
- torture
- loads of sex
- lots of death
- acts of terrorism
My Thoughts:
It took me kind of a long time to read this book, but not because I wasn’t enjoying it. In fact, I loved every bloody, violent, vengeful minute of it. Unfortunately, I also have pandemic-brain, so something I should have easily been able to finish in one sitting instead took me almost a month. And it didn’t deserve that – this book is really, really good.
Do you ever read something and realize halfway through it that this was EXACTLY what you needed to be reading right now? When times are terrible, feminist revenge tales are exactly what I need. Although it took me forever to read, I feel like it was more because I wanted it to last. I needed the catharsis of a bunch of pissed off women getting revenge for wrongs done to them. Was the revenge “the answer?” Of course not – but it never really is, is it?
“But you saw what they did in the garden. You knew she’d been replaced like nothing. Why would you do this to her? That’s not love, that’s just a different form of control.“
Lilith is so angry. And I don’t blame her for her literally apocalyptic anger – but I do blame her for holding on to it, and letting it fester until it resulted in her decision to destroy the entire world in order to get back at the Creator.
But bad-revenge-decisions aside, this book is filled with Big Uterine Energy. Which it turns out I was in the market for. Ok, tbf, I’m always in the market for some female-empowerment, even when it is ill-advised and/or problematic in its execution.
“You are a creature of the earth. Like the earth, a woman brings forth and sustains life. Your womb is the universe through which new life evolves. As your Goddess, I ask you to take this communion, the sacrifice of your sisters and my gift to you.”
Let me be straight with you – this one isn’t going to be for everyone as it does contain some potentially triggering content. But ultimately, it’s definitely for me. There is so much going on here. The ‘whores’ are harbingers of the end of everything – they’re warriors – they go perfectly alongside Lilith, Christianity’s most famous succubus. The dueling narratives (Kenzie and Lilith) do fight a little bit for dominance, but ultimately I found them both completely fascinating – it’s not very often that you get both a compelling female protagonist and an equally compelling antagonist. Usually somebody (protagonist, more often than not) suffers in the execution. But I didn’t feel that way here. I loved the interwoven stories. Oh, and the Scribble Man was okay too. But really, this one’s for the ladies.
Rating:
This book is not for the faint of heart. It’s gory, it’s graphic, and it deals with a lot of traditionally tough subjects, but I loved every single word of it.
The Fourth Whore By E.V. Hunt Raw Dog Screaming Press Published: March 25, 2020 ISBN: 9781947879164 Paperback, E-Book 226 Pages Publisher's Website
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