I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Jude and Dante’s relationship is haunting from the very first page and Worma absolutely does not shy away from making the reader uncomfortable. A fantastic premise delivered through beautiful, lyrical prose. It feels unfair to judge a novella for being short, but it sadly felt unfinished. I almost wish the final pages had been given more space to breathe, as so much was packed in there.

Thank you NetGalley and CLASH publishing for the e-arc. A queer horror with religious (well, sacrelige) elements had me hooked before digging in!

This novella focuses on the forbidden relationship between a priest and the Antichrist. Oh, how I WISH this was a full-blown novel. I feel that while this fast pacing worked well for a novella, a novel would have been great to explore more of these themes.

I had a difficult time keeping up with the story quick-shifting POVs with no rhyme or reason. I wish these POVs could have been separated by chapter, or that we were given some indication of the change in narration.

Overall, this was a fantastic story packed with a very sinful punch. I’m curious to read more from this author.

sad, painful, devastatingly and heartbreakingly spicy
jude and dante have been in love since childhood but as jude grows into a sadistic pastor in a small texan town and dante remains protestant, their love becomes a battle of moral dilemma until jude recives dreams from god that dante is the anti christ
confirmed by dantes own dreams of smoke, fire and the begining of the apocolypse
dante refuses to participate but jude believes he is destined to kill dante and sit on the throne of Solomon

The writing was beautiful, but the story itself fell a little flat for me. When I go into a religious horror book, I want it to be freaky, and haunt me throughout, and perhaps even after finishing the book. However, this book didn't quite give me that feeling.

I love the idea of having a priest fall for the antichrist, but the dynamic was a little odd at times, especially with Dante being referred to as 'the teen' throughout.

Overall, I did enjoy the story, but I wanted it to pack a little more of a punch in the horror department.

Thank you net galley for the arc. i choose this book because of the cover, and while i like the story, From Jude's controlling behavior,to the very brutal and unhinged parts .Jude is priest and Dante is a part of his congragation. i just didnt like that Dante was called (the teen) through out the story. but Jude and Dante were just beautiful characters.

This book has a fantastic premise. A priest falls in love the anti Christ? Hell yes I’m here for it

It just fell flat overall, the author could have used an extra 30-50 pages to just round out the main characters and it would have made the ending that much more impactful especially when Dante is thinking about the possibility of other anti Christs who failed to bring about the end of it all.

There just wasn’t enough time to get me really into the book.

The instant I see any book marketed as queer religious trauma body horror, I'm immediately hooked and need it immediately - as someone who is queer with a hefty amount of religious trauma. I don't know what exactly I was expecting to come out of this book, but I will definitely say the twist of what the characters are meant to do and their journey was not it (what I was expecting - if using modern slang, it was definitely "it"). I thought this was a beautifully written book, occasionally skin-crawlingly gross, with moments of absolute shock that I was in no way prepared for but incredibly pleased with nonetheless. I don't know how I felt about the ending - I enjoyed it, and I liked that the boys gained some peace in the end, but it felt so anticlimactic. I think that's something that I personally need to get used to with modern horror, where the ending is definitely not what anyone expects to read and ends up just slower than the rest of the plot.

I think I'd rate this a solid 4-4.5 stars!

I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, so enjoying this book should have me shaking in my shiny church shoes. *shifts eyes to the sky*

Here’s the thing, I loooovveeee religious horror of all kinds, it really fuels my love of horror. Hell, I even cosplay as a smutty nun, but that’s a story for another day. So when this book fell from the heavens—or better yet, crawled up from Hell—I was all in. Seriously, take my soul!

Praise be, because this book was phenomenal. There wasn't a single page where I knew what was going to happen next, so devour this I did. I finished this a while ago, and I'm still thinking about this book in its entirety. From start to that earth-shattering finish, I was enthralled. It left me speechless.

'Of Beasts' is a book you don't want to sleep on. It'll definitely make you attend church to confess your sins!

I enjoyed reading this book and it was a fun one. The ending just ended abruptly and left me a little confused. I might have to give it a re-read to fully understand the ending more. Overall I really enjoyed the premise of an anti-christ in Texas and the relationship between Dante and Jude.

I really enjoyed this book, I wish it was longer. I liked the way the author writes. I will be looking up in future for more books from M Jane Worma

This was a fairly quick novella

I wished there was more character development for Dante and Jude.

The storyline was interesting and I wished it would have been longer. This definitely had potential.

An interesting read for sure

A truly impressive debut, this one blends horror with a little romance seamlessly. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and all involved with allowing me the opportunity to read this novel.

Ultimately, this novel caters to a specific audience, and that audience unfortunately was not me. The story itself felt relatively generic, primarily focusing more on the sexual behavior of the characters. While I do not mind some spice, I do prefer plot over spice. Again, I think this work will cater to a very specific crowd.

Of Beasts is an Achillean dark romance about a pastor named Jude (aptly named) who falls in love with Dante, one of his congregants who learns he is the antichrist. The tension between their relationship is extremely heightened once both Jude and Dante begin to have dreams of their prophetic future.

My biggest complaint about this novella is that it’s so short. I can easily see this story span a full length novel in which Dante gradually becomes his assigned role. Similarly, it would have been interesting to see Jude struggle heavily with his faith until he can no longer bear it. I wanted more angst, more religious commentary and an ending that felt cataclysmic.

In short, it was fun to read, interesting topic, and the cover is absolutely perfect.

I’ll say it 4.5 I loved it. lol. My curiosity got the best of me when I requested this on netgalley. How can you read about this queer religious horror that’s about a priest that falls in love with the Antichrist and not even god can stop them? I’m too nosy not to dive into that. Dante is a protestant man and Jude is a sadistic pastor from a small town in Texas. Their secret is that they’re together. Dante is supposedly the antichrist he’s supposed to start the apocalypse but he tells God no it’s all big thing. You definitely should read this if you’re into a religious horror. I was too nosy not to read this.

I absolutely devoured this quick novella. I was hoping for more from the horror aspect of the book, and I feel like certain themes could have been explored in greater depth. However, despite wanting more pages, I thoroughly enjoyed what was there. I am looking forward to following this author’s journey!

I just finished Of Beasts by @m.jane.worma it was a good short horror MLM novella, I felt like it could’ve been a lot longer, and had more to it. I liked Dante, he was my favorite. I like to think maybe they did make it to the final place they were wanting to go but it could’ve been a little scarier. 5 stars because the writing was good and I wasn’t expecting anything that happened, very creepy! Spine chilling.

I really wish this was made into a full book rather than a novella as I feel like there’s so much story that could have been added to it to both help make sense of some of the plot but also because I was enjoying it.

Admittedly, it lost me in some parts but overall the story concept was good. I enjoyed the main character, Dante. Jude was a bit here and there but I think that was the point. Again, I wish there was more of it for me to understand the characters better.

I wish Dante was older than he was for saying he was involved in explicit scenes.

I will say, the ending confused me a bit.

Overall it’s alright.

I loved the idea of this book, I thought I would enjoy it, but in the end the book just wasn’t for me. It was my first religious horror book, and while some parts I enjoyed, I also felt like I wasn’t given enough. I understand that this is a Novella, but even in understanding that, I still don’t feel like I was given enough to fully enjoy this Novella. Or maybe, this one just wasn’t for me! Overall, i’d still say it was a decent read, and I definitely enjoyed some of the book!

This gives you SO much more than you would ordinarily expect from such a short novella. In under 80 pages you really get some highs and lows of the two protagonists.

Religious horror is really being given a moment to shine at the moment and I cannot wait for this little gem to join the cause.

The uncomfortable beginning between what is an abuse of power from a higher level religious figure in a small town delves into the depravity. It’s raw, passionate, painful. At times even sad. I won’t say too much as anything I do say will inevitably be a spoiler with a book this short, but do yourself a favour and take 2 hours out your day to read this.

More religious queer horror, always!