Galloway’s Gospel is a gripping, unsettling exploration of belief, power, and the way one strange idea can reshape an entire town—and maybe reality itself. It’s a cult horror story told with eerie precision, dark humor, and a creeping sense of dread that builds across two timelines until it becomes downright apocalyptic.

In 2009, we meet Rachel Galloway, a disillusioned high schooler sketching pigs in her notebook and fantasizing about a better world—one where her boring teachers and brutal peers don’t exist. It’s a harmless escape until her drawings start to feel prophetic, and her classmates begin to treat them as scripture. Before long, Rachel’s imaginary utopia becomes Galloway’s Gospel, a full-blown belief system with rituals, followers, and a growing sense of urgency. What starts as satire becomes salvation—at least for those who believe.

Fast forward to 2019, when county guard Rachel Durwood receives a cryptic message—“BURNSKIDDE: CULTWATCH”—from a colleague who vanishes soon after. The trail leads her to Burnskidde, now a walled-off, time-locked community on the brink of a final reckoning. As Durwood investigates, she begins to see uncanny parallels between herself and the girl who started it all—and realizes she may be walking straight into the gospel’s last chapter.

This novel is smart, strange, and utterly absorbing. It captures the terrifying logic of cult thinking and how easy it is to slip from skepticism into fervor. The dual narrative structure is handled masterfully, with both Rachel's feeling distinct but eerily connected. The horror is slow-burn but powerful, rooted less in gore and more in psychological erosion and existential fear.

But what really makes Galloway’s Gospel shine is its emotional weight. At its heart, this is a story about lonely people trying to make sense of a senseless world—and what happens when someone gives them an answer that’s just convincing enough. It’s about the stories we tell to survive, and what happens when those stories become belief, then dogma, then destiny.

If you’re a fan of The Returned, The Lottery, or The Chosen One (with a touch of Donnie Darko), this is one to read with the lights on—and maybe a little skepticism of your own. An instant favorite.

*Galloway’s Gospel* is a wild, grotesque, and absolutely unholy ride—and I mean that in the best possible way. Sam Rebelein has created something that feels part cosmic horror, part fever dream, and part satirical sermon delivered from the edge of the abyss.

From the very beginning, I knew I wasn’t in for a traditional horror story. This book *preaches*—but its gospel is madness, body horror, and something ancient squirming just beneath the surface of reality. The voice is electric, weird, and self-aware in all the right ways, and I found myself equal parts horrified and hooked. It’s not a book that asks you to sit comfortably—it wants you squirming, laughing nervously, and questioning what you just read.

There’s a sharp intelligence behind the chaos. Underneath the slime and the screams is a biting critique of cultish devotion, toxic charisma, and the human need to believe in *something*, even if that something is a teeth-filled void in the sky. And Galloway himself? Unforgettable. I hated him, feared him, and couldn’t stop reading about him.

*Galloway’s Gospel* is loud, grotesque, and gloriously blasphemous. It’s the kind of horror that shakes you loose from the familiar and forces you to look at the world sideways. If you like your horror unhinged, philosophical, and dripping with dread (and probably other fluids too), this one’s a revelation.

1 star

This…. Is a very hard book to describe, but I’ll give it a go, this being a site where we describe books and react to them and all (I DO have a reaction…no surprise there, I guess.) The time frame is divide between 2009 and 2019 and between two Rachels, which may be significant, but I’m not sure how.

Anyway, in 2009, Burnskidde high school student Rachel Galloway is bored in class and is doodling. She sketches cute pigs and bats and then, things happen and somehow her classmates, then loads of adults, too (led by one of her slightly odd peers, who Rachel has a bit of a crush on) decides that these things might be real and, due some pre-existing supernatural means, they suddenly ARE real. And a sort-of religion quickly springs up around them and the entire town succumbs, which leads us to….

2019 - Renfield County Guard Rachel Durwood gets a message from a fellow Guard about the town of Burnskidde, which has been sealed off from the rest of the county for a decade. Now it is open and, well, it’s madness there. And a cult. Rachel goes to investigate the Guard’s disappearance.

The book was classified as horror, and it is, but much more dark fantasy, I think, and that is NOT my genre. Maybe it’s your thing, though, in which case you should take my star rating with a grain of salt, maybe you’ll really like this. I really didn’t hate the high school portions but, boy did I dislike everything in 2019 and that is the largest part of the book. There were portions I didn’t even really understand, the Renfield family’s connection to the Galloways, for example. So, for me, ugh. A slog.

Okay, so there is a LOT to unpack after reading this one but holy fog I loved it so much. I crushed through this one like I haven’t done to a book in awhile - staying up late and even sacrificing precious sleep to find out what the Rachels would get up to next.

I enjoyed the dual timeline in this book - exploring the creation of Galloway’s Gospel by one Rachel, and the investigation of said group a decade later by another Rachel. This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you have read Edenville or The Poorly Made you don’t need me to warn you.

Having read Rebelein’s other books, I love love loved the Easter eggs peppered in and being able to say “OH. Ohhhhh!” when county lore popped up that I recognized from his other books. The world building as a whole is super comprehensive and I feel that I could get dropped into Renfield County and stand a fighting chance.

Check this one out if you love horror, good, fictional cults, and ravens!!

**Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC of this insane title, ily!**

I was really hoping this book would clear up some of the more confusing aspects of Edenvale but it didn't. I am just as confused and frustrated as before.

Sam Rebelein is writing some of the most creative and exciting books around right now and Galloway’s Gospel is his best yet. There is so much going on in this book. On the surface it’s an awesome cosmic horror novel with two of the best FMCs in a long time. But it has so much to say about the culture of disinformation, the way people exploit hopes and beliefs of others, and it’s honestly just fantastic. The final images of this one are absolutely seared into my brain and I can’t wait to see what’s going to come out of Renfield County next!

Have faith in the fog and don't mind the poo pigs and gluttonbats because the Fogmonger is coming to make everything better! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay. You'll understand it all clearly after reading this epic, weird, terrifying, and often darkly funny novel.

Blend some small town horror, add some cosmic entities, sprinkle in a dash of folk horror mixed with religious extremism, and a pinch of humor and what comes out is this!

The small county of Renfield is a strange place. Weird things happen all the time but the citizens are used to it all. Just another day. But in 2009, a high school girl, Rachel Galloway, starts imagining a village where people work together for the common good by worshipping the beasts of supernatural origins, sacrificing flesh and body parts for a bounty of life giving gifts,.

She draws the village, the beasts, and the Fogmonger. But things start getting out of control when several of her classmates believe she's had a vision. They start to consider her words as gospel and soon, the town is all pulled into this religion. And it becomes reality!

But it's not the happy ever after they imagined. The price for belief is going to get bloody and brutal.

In 2019, an agent is going to find the town fully living this religion. And once she starts uncovering secrets, it's not going to end well.

This is one fantastic novel. The whole thing feels like a fairy tale fever dream wrapped in a bloody cloak of cosmic horror. It's hard to put down because the pacing is excellent and things are going on and being discovered throughout. You'll want to read until your eyes fall out to get to all the weird deep secrets going on.

No doubt that this will make top horror books of the year lists. I highly recommend it.