*A FEW SPOILERS AHEAD*
This is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all…even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar—and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town’s secret underbelly in search of true evil.
I’m in two minds about Ruth as a character. She is a pastor’s daughter and the church and her daddy’s beliefs are all that she knows so it makes sense that she is become indoctrinated but some of the choices she makes throughout the course of the plotline were just bizarre to me. Even though she suffers so much at the hands of her parents and is shown by Everett how bad the church is she doesn’t reject it when she moves out. Then how she gives her father another chance at the end when he has demonstrated time and time again that he doesn’t think he is wrong, I was just like what are you doing??
I was definitely invested and curious as to where this story was going. I liked the flashbacks to when Ruth was younger and we are given more context as to why she has chosen to stay in Bottom Springs and how she became friends with Everett. There are quite a few twists and unexpected turns that keep you wanting to read on and as it progressed it got more and more unhinged.
I didn’t go into this book knowing anything about it to be honest and had I known it was going to be so heavily revolving around religion I probably wouldn’t of picked it up. To see the people in this town justifying this bigoted way of living was aggravating and exhausting to read and the hypocritical twist behind the mystery of what happened to these men wasn’t satisfying to me at all. Sure justice was served in the end but at what cost, especially after the way the book ends.
⭐️2/5 stars I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy it but it wasn’t for me…
Amy Leigh Reads 