There are witches in the woods. These are the words the reverend of the Lilin Assembly of Our Lord repeats to his parishioners each week. Steve and Nicole Warby think it's just a metaphor, until Nicole takes a walk in those woods and comes back changed. Something came out of them with her, and the simple small-town life they've always known is forever altered when they discover the dark secrets buried deep and those intent on keeping them there. Fearing for his wife's sanity, and his own comfortable status in the church, Steve is unsure if he wants to help or ignore the problems. The reverend believes there are witches in the woods, and he thinks Nicole is only the most recent.
Conjuring the Witch is a dark, haunted story about what those in power are willing to do to stay in power, and the sins we convince ourselves are forgivable.
Review:
"There is a house in the woods, covered in moss and time. It is a cursed place, and it hurries. There is a house in the woods where not even crickets will chirp. It is hurrying."
Deep in the woods, there is a lingering. It is ever watching and waiting. It calls to those who listen and see. It waits for the moment it can exact its revenge, but it will forever live within the darkness. Lost to the pain and suffering it has had to endure for a lifetime. There are witches in the woods and there they will forever stay.
Religious horror can be very complex and disturbing. Not only are we experiencing the foreboding of the woods, not knowing what is exactly haunting within, but we are also experiencing the control of the church and the involvement of the men in the community. Submission of the women is their main desire and they have done evil upon evil deeds to obtain their status as the ones who must be in control.
There is guilt that is layed upon the women that has them believing they are not godly enough and that they must work harder at being submissive to their husbands. But when the women discover what is truly happening, they do what must be done to punish the men.
There is an atmospheric darkness that comes to life with the descriptive prose and setting. There is a melancholy that is unsettling as the story unfolds, it takes us deeper into the reasons behind all the strange occurrences.
There is an eeriness and some moments that are chilling, not only by what lingers in the woods, but by the priest who demands submissive wives.
Jessica Leonard is a horror author who loves ghosts and that felling you get when you think someone is watching you, She was born in a small town that may or may not exist and still lives there to this day. She lives with her husband, son, and two dogs. She has two published novels. Her work has appeared in Counterexample Poetics and Menacing Hedge, as well as in the Solarcide anthologies Nova Parade and Solarcidal Tendencies. Antioch is her first Novel. Jessica Leonard is the writer of stories about people and the things they do.
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