DNF around 10%. I really tried to get into this but it didn't work for me. The plot was all over the place and I was hopelessly confused -- which, given the general vibe of the book, that might have been the point, but it wasn't for me.

This book was wild. Reading it was like experiencing your craziest dream where it made sense in your subconscious but you woke up feeling wrung out and wondering how on earth it all fit together. This book was about a supernatural being and a cult trying to feed its unending greedy hunger for more. The imagery evoked will be in my head for quite some time. Thank you so much for the ARC provided by Page Street Horror, and NetGalley.

It was an interesting book with cult-like themes, I enjoyed Aoife transformation throughout the book from insecure to such power and how humanly destructive she was. the cult felt vivid and very immersive, it was impressive
this book was a good surprise!

CW: Domestic Abuse; Cults; Manipulation; Drug Use; Body Horror (Major); Cosmic Horror (Major); Gore (Major)

Steel's novel is ambitious and, in certain aspects, successful. The building of the cult mentality and affects of domestic abuse were both excellent portrayed in Aoife, and the imagery for the eventual body and cosmic horror quite good. I was invested in the mystery of the eldritch horror that the cult worshiped.

However, I found the pacing a major weakness. The book is the first-person narration of Aoife, and thus subject to her interpretation. On the one hand, I love a good, unreliable narrator -- but on the other, it led to the first 3/4 of the book feeling slow and repetitive. The last quarter of the novel, in comparison, was very fast and engaging, minus the ending. (I despise a time-loop, but that's a personal preference.)

This book completely caught me off guard in the best way. Imagine if Midsommar took a slow-burning fever dream vacation to a sun-drenched island... that's the vibe here, and I was all in. I'm a sucker for stories where women reclaim their strength, and Aoife’s transformation from self-doubt to unshakable power was everything I wanted.

It’s clear Hester Steel did her homework on cult psychology. The worldbuilding was rich with unsettling details, yet somehow lush and inviting. The sensory writing was stocked with ripe fruit, warm beaches, whispered warnings... It makes you feel like you’ve stepped right into the commune yourself.

I especially appreciated how Aoife consistently makes the wrong decisions in the most human ways. At first, I wanted to scream at her choices, but they mirrored the destructive curiosity so many of us wrestle with. That’s what made her so real.

If you want a book that explores beauty, rage, devotion, and the horror that can lurk under the sunniest exterior, this one will stick with you. Bonus: it’s the perfect twisted companion for anyone looking to stretch their summer into autumn.

Aoife's life is not what she wants. When she sees a postcard from a far off place and feels a pull, she leaves her life behind and jumps into the unknown. She meets a few girls her age who take her back to their village/commune, where she is drawn into a community of people, and into something bigger that she could have ever imagined.

This book is a bit of a trip- both the content and the writing style to match. But in a good way most of the time. I did find it hard to get through due to its trippy nature - I had to read it in fits and bursts. I never knew what was going to happen next, which I really appreciated and enjoyed. I wish that there had been a little more at the end.. to explain? Overall it was a very unique experience.

I rated it 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Horror for the ARC!

i started this book quite slowly, and then once i was about halfway through i got completely and totally absorbed and finished it in an afternoon. the dread and horror kept rising, from the quiet threat from the other members of the community, the looming presence of craig, to aoife’s lack of self-belief and desperate need for love and acceptance. i loved the depictions of overwhelming love, of deep unfathomable cosmic horror, of surpassing men’s expectations. even if it means becoming the beloved leader of a cult.

So this might be my favorite book?? I don't have words. I have so many words.

The feminine urge to be a better man.

The feminine urge to be a God.

This book is so well written. Aoife's journey in this is so painful to follow. We find this girl who is only like 22 or so. I had to keep remembering that as I went along. Like, oh my god, she is younger than me.

She ran away at 17 with Ugh Craig and apparently nobody cared????? So now she is living life as Ugh Craig's servant basically, working two jobs and doing all the chores and STILL getting yelled at because Ugh Craig is UGH.

So like of course after they breakup she gets into a cult. She literally has nothing. At every point you, and sometimes she, are yelling at her to stop making these decisions. It is hard to watch. But at the same time you get it because this poor girl, you know?

This book is about becoming more than what the world *cough*men*cough* want you to be, more than what they believe you can be.

This book is about becoming the person that hurt you, something unimaginably worse.

I am not usually a cosmic horror girlie. But this book kind of isn't cosmic horror??? In a way??? It is very much also a book about The Horrors of Man, you know? Like yeah there is a butterfly eldritch beast monster but I still hate Jonah and Craig more.

I can not praise this book enough. I can't wait to see, like, full-blown essays on it. Please read it!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Horror for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

3.75 rounded to a 4

Aoife is running from an abusive ex and following a call she doesn't quite understand. She discovers a commune that brings her into their fold when strange things begin to happen. Aoife is trapped between her two lives and is trying to protect everything she knows and loves. But what happens when she lets go and finally embraces the rage within her?

The vibes of this book were on fire. I love a good cosmic horror and this book definitely delivered. The culty atmosphere was intriguing and drew me in immediately. I had to know what was going on. I loved a lot of the characters; namely Kiera and Myri.

I appreciated this book being from the perspective of a victim of emotional abuse. This whole book highlights what it is like to be gaslit and abused emotionally. It also highlights the cycle of abuse that can be hard to break. How we can use our rage to break that cycle. How we can find strength in ourselves despite being told we are weak.

For the first 75% of this book, I was certain this book would be a 4 or more star read. I flew through it. The last 25% fell a bit flat. Without spoilers, the ending felt drawn out and I think the same message could have been achieved with a bit less. That being said, I still loved the message of the book and the plot and vibes were still so so great and I will absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes a cosmic horror.

Thank you @pagestreethorror and @netgalley for this ARC!

The vibe definitely gave off Midsommar, I was pulled in right from the start. I was weirded out as well as creeped out which made the story that much more fun. You want to roof for Aiofe but you don’t know if you should through the end. The horror of being emotionally abused and gaslit.

Thank you Netgalley and Hester Steel for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a treat! I didn't expect going into it just how far into the cult dynamic it would go - but damn, Aoife, go off queen.

This read like a fever dream in the absolute best way possible - very descriptive prose that really engaged me in the story and made me feel very visceral emotions alongside these characters. Do you enjoy feeling existential dread and that you're just an ant in this universe? You'll love this one then!

My only real gripe with it was the ending, it lost me a bit there, otherwise it would've been a perfect book.

Do pick this up if you enjoy cults, the exploration of co-dependency and where it can lead you, abusers getting what they deserve in a very cosmic way, and found family gone wrong.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is what I imagine having a LSD fuelled fever-dream to feel like.
The imagery is vivid and the author doesn’t shy away from the taboo. Cults have always intrigued me and this one poses the question: what if their beliefs are real? The bizarre eldritch god they worship makes me glad cults don’t actually have the power to summon this kind of thing 😳

However, the reason I couldn’t give this 4 or 5 ⭐️s is because aoife had so much potential but her character fell a bit flat. Also I would have hoped for a little more than hinted at romance between her and Kiera 💔

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!!

A girl is sad. A girl feels disconnected from her life and dreams. A girl wishes for something new, a chance to belong to something greater. A girl joins a cult..? 🍋 🍋 🍋

We meet Aoife at such a moment of change, deciding to risk it all and travel to an unknown vacation town in search of purpose. She leaves her crappy job; ghosts her long-term neglectful, controlling boyfriend; and <i>runs</i>. Her life has been a series of fuck-ups and failures, never fully meeting the expectations of those around her. All Aoife wants is have a place to call home—where she truly believes she belongs—like the idyllic commune that welcomes her into their fold.

She feels a strange connection to the place she visits; a single glimpse at a postcard image, and her whole life unravels. Visions of caves and phantom tastes of lemon on her tongue guide her to where she's always meant to have been. Nothing is as it seems: intentions, time, or reality. Aoife is many things, but a reliable narrator isn't one of them... The Farmstead beckons.

She needs to go there. She must be there. She needs everything to change there. 🍋 🍋 🍋

For those looking for a book that combines the aesthetic and culty mayhem of <i>Midsommar</i> with Eldritch horrors, look no further!! Deliciously twisted and compulsively readable, I zoomed through this novel never knowing what would come next. This is a dizzying descent into madness, as a controlling cult takes over more and more of Aoife's life. And perhaps the world.

I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by how early on the Eldritch aspect of the story came into play!! If you're a reader who prefers minimal speculative aspects in a work—be it horror or fantastical—this may not be the best fit. Yet for me, this novel perfectly toed the line between Cosmic/Eldritch Horror and literary fiction. It's a deep-dive into trauma and neglect, looking at how insidious cults can be as they collect and groom those most vulnerable and desperate for affection and belonging.

<i>Adore. Unseen, surrender.</i>

There’s something remarkably unsettling about this novel. At first glance, it wraps you in details that feels just a little too perfect. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the beauty is only surface-deep. The sense of unease creeps in slowly, like sunlight fading at the edge of a forest, and by the time you realize something is very wrong, you’re in too deep to look away.

The novel toys with perception in clever ways, how characters you trust begin to feel slippery. No one is who they seem, and the book doesn’t hand you answers, rather it lets you stew in the ambiguity. It's less about shocking reveals and more about the quiet horror of realizing what should've been obvious.

While it didn't pull me in completely until a third in, still an amazing and memorable reading.

Looking for an adult horror book with cult-like themes? Well, this one was a wild ride

The plot of this book was really interesting, it had kept my interest and brought a cult-like atmosphere, the scene of unease, and the slight unreliable narrator all together. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the characters for the most part. I enjoyed the plot of this way more. The art was a bonus though, it was a really pretty book.

Plot: 8/10
Pace: 7/10
Ending: 9/10
Characters: 5/10
Enjoyability: 6/10
Writing Style: 8/10
Would I Recommend? Maybe
Favorite Character: Aoife

Favorite Quote: ❝ I've never known this place so silent. Singing rings behind the kitchen shutters. ❞

Aoife has so much to offer - but just falls so flat to me.
The domestic violence - her purpose in life to clean, cook, make Craig's life easy. Isolated from her family and friends. The nagging voice in her head enforcing all the cruelty in her life.
Stumbling upon two young women, enchanted with each other, Aoife feels a calling. An off the grid yet wealthy community - giving their self up to the Unseen.
Lots of great, complex concepts but flat.

I would like to thank Page Street Horror and Hester Steel for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
2.8 Stars (Rounded to 3)

"Aoife is a very melancholy, abused, and neglected women when she finds herself suddenly drawn to someplace she cannot quite name. She gets visions. and a pull towards something, something greater than herself, something beautiful.

And that something beautiful turns out to be a cult by the ocean worshipping an unknown god of mysterious origins. The gifts it gives are wonderous, beautiful, full of promise, and nightmares.

This is a story about Aoife and how she changes the world."

The absolutely gorgeous cover is what first drew me to this book and then the description, delicious. A cult (my jam), a women MC with some real feminine rage(my jam), foreshadowing of some absolute shitheads one day getting their due (my jam), cosmic horror of an relatively unknown entity (my jam), for all intents and purposes this should have been a match made in heaven.

Then why wasn't it?

For one, the stream-of-consciousness style of writing was something I've never tried before. I was not a fan. Two Aoife was not someone I could personally connect with. She was a drag and often portrayed as so damaged by life she could not advocate herself out of a wet paper bag with audio assistance.

These two thing combined made me feel like I was trudging my way through the book. While I could sympathize with her I did not like being stuck in her head and forced to watch her not only bad decisions, but also lack of growth pretty much until the last 10 pages.

There was also this thing where the book felt like it was going to end about 8 different times. Only to finally actually end on the worst one (imo). I just felt like someone tried to jam all of their ideas into one book and it just felt forced by the end.

There are some really cool ideas happening though, a great(-ish) cast of characters and identities. I really love the feel of the commune and how the different people felt like they all always had their own things going on, secrets, hidden agendas etc. The progression of the cult feels realistic for what the plot has laid out, it all feels very dire and very rapturous. The devotion and feelings of the cultist were spot on and a joy to read. I love the Unseen and the idea of this entity and the things it can do and how it works and some of the drip fed lore behind it. Honestly I could have done with more of this.

In the end though, I was just really happy to get it over with.

I've read many stories about humans communing with gods in all sorts of ways... and this one soars straight to the top of that list.

Cosmic horror is all about existentialism, and existentialism is all about (not) belonging and (not having) community. Steel has written a harrowingly and achingly beautiful story about this exact theme that doesn't let you look away from its ugly parts, but which nonetheless finds beauty in the ugliness. Promises are delivered on. Genre expectations are met.

As for the writing itself, it bleeds emotion like only the best of voices can do, and there's such a presence and awareness on the page that you can't quite believe it. That you have to read the next page, the next paragraph, the next sentence.

You have to read this.

In the words of the Farmstead: Trust it.

I wanted to love this so badly!! I love fiction about cults, and I deeply enjoyed the island setting. The cast of characters is so diverse and they each had their own well crafted personality. There was body horror and ecological horror and the writing was so visceral and I could imagine everything so vividly. I loved Aoife’s character growth and her journey to see her past relationship with clarity. I’m sad because it lost me at the VERY end!
*spoilers here*
Aoife serving as the Vessel was a fun twist for me, and I adored the perspective of her vs. the Unseen. I was glad that Craig got his comeuppance, and that Kiera and Giuli both came back and that Myri was saved. Everything was going great! But at the very end when Aoife goes back to before she stepped foot in the Farmstead and deciding to redo it all but better this time just bothered me. One of my book pet peeves is not having a solid, well defined and laid out ending. I wish it wasn’t such a huge deal breaker for me because I had so much fun up until that point and if she/they had ripped the world apart, or if the cataclysm was avoided and everyone danced off into the sunset this would have been 5 stars.

Wow. What can I say? The Faceless Thing We Adore is visceral, reminiscent of A24’s Midsommar, and the novel drags you into its world. As the story proceeds, it is increasingly difficult to remember that this is a cult, that there are no heroes here, and that Aoife shouldn’t find this place to be home. The beautiful writing, the evocative descriptions, and the intense sense of found family is so deceptive. Like Aoife, the reader is drawn into the cult, drawn to believe that the Farmstead is different, that maybe all of this can end well.

The environment is described so beautifully that I catch myself dreaming of it, longing to follow Aoife’s footsteps (to a point, of course)! Who knew horror could smell like lemon shortbread and sunwarmed skin?

Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Horror for the ARC! All thoughts are my own.