#Readathon -@LOHfiction and @HeyLilThrifter-‘Beneath’ by Kristi De Meester

About the book…

When reporter Cora Mayburn is assigned to cover a story about a snake-handling cult in rural Appalachia, she is dismayed, for the world of cruel fundamentalist stricture, repression, glossolalia, and abuse is something she has long since put behind her in favor of a more tolerant urban existence. But she accepts the assignment, dredging up long-buried memories as she seeks the truth.

As Cora begins to uncover the secrets concealed by a veneer of faith and tradition, something ancient and long concealed begins to awaken. What secrets do the townsfolk know? What might the handsome young pastor be hiding? What will happen when occulted horrors writhe to the surface, when pallid and forgotten things rise to reclaim the Earth?

Will Cora–and the earth–survive? The answers–and pure terror–can only be found in one place: Beneath.

‘Beneath’ by Kristi De Meester is available in ebook and paperback formats from Word Horde.

It is my first book read as part of the anniversary celebration readathon on Instagram/Blog pages/wherever for the Ladies Of Horror Fiction (happy 1st birthday!) in conjunction with bokstagrammer/booktuber Alex aka Hey Little Thrifter! Go and say hello to them,they are superb at shining a light on horror fiction!

”You understand something about darkness, don’t you, preacher? How once that door opens, it can seep out. Infect everything it touches? How quickly it spreads, and you standing with all of your knowledge in the pulpit, screaming to your sheep how it must be torn out by the roots.”

‘Beneath’ is an extraordinary debut horror novel which deals with many themes-specifically religion, female desire, subjugation of will to a higher being (either God or man) and reclamation of power.

Using visceral and very elaborate lnaguage, Kristi turns her characters-literallyinside out as they to find out what is happening in the small Appaclachian town to which Cora, a journalist, has come to investigate a snake worshipping ‘cult’. Just before she arrives, the pastor of the church, Michael, conducted a ‘welcoming’ ceremony for teenage Leah which has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Leah is the daughter of Ruth, a single mother of a single mother left alone since the death of her husband. Both Leah and her maternal granddmother have a red mark in one of their eyes which to the superstitious townsfolk indicate that they are evil, born witches who will send their menfolk into a sexual frenzy. This is obviously just an excuse to rationalise the desire of men to own and take what they want from Leah’s grandmother about whom tales are still told and which Ruth has spent her entire life trying to ignore. But when Leah quite obviously has the same mark, and Michael begins having sinful thoughts about her, Leah’s entry ceremony into the church (by holding the snakes and not being bitten) has added significance.

The snakes are meant to be the representation of evil, as they were in the Bible, a living and potentially dangerous symbol of evil so in order to be inducted into the church , she has to show her purity of heart by not being bitten or tempted by evil. This goes incredibly wrong and is the catalyst for shocking events which threaten to not only take over the town, but also to spread beyond its borders…

The book is full of religious allegories of transubstantiation and discussions of the role of women in society as individuals as well as mothers, sisters and sexual beings. The snakes are religious and phallic symbols which are skillfully employed to advance the plot and as a reader, you are on the side of Cora whose impulse to run as far away from the story she has been sent to cover as possible. Her childhood history of being sexually abused by a trusted male authority figure means she comes into the town of Hensley like an avenging whirlwind, ready to believe the worst of Pastor Michael Wayne. Cora is the only one with a non-biblical name, and her surname ( May Burn) seems perfectly chosen as she is reluctantly dispatched to report on a story because a)she does not believe and b)she is a zero nonsense protagonist.

Not sure if I am thinking too deeply (surprise surprise!) but Michael in the Bible is the name of the angel who defeats Satan, whilst Ruth and Leah are both also Bible characters. Ruth is a widowed mother who is seen as a symbol of loyalty and devotion whilst Leah is a paragon of virtue having been described as plain and passed off as beautiful as a wife for Jacob. Jacob had wanted her beautiful sister,Rachel, as a wife and fought to have them both, but it was Leah’s undending loyalty that led to Jacob wanting to be buried by her whne he died instead of Rachel. In this book, Leah is often described by herself, and other people, as being plain, unwieldy and with no striking feature apart from ‘the Devils’ mark’ in her eye.

What she finds there, and what she unwittingly becomes a part of, defies description. The closest I could get to comparisons would the ‘Salem’s lot prequel short story,Jerusalem’s Lot, and Bram Stoker’s The Lair Of the White Worm.

What I liked was the centering of the women, how their behaviour and superstitions around them were subverted and used as a catalyst for the greatest and most elemental of female forces.

Also, that cover-I didn’t get it and didn’t like it to begin with, but now I see how clever it is, I really love it!

Unsettlingly, uneasy and liberally splattered with body horror, death and destruction, this is a great book for those who enjoy their horror down and dirty.

About the author…

Kristi DeMeester is the author of ‘Beneath‘, published by Word Horde, and ‘Everything That’s Underneath’ by Apex Books.

Her short fiction has been included in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror Volumes 9 and 11, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1, 3, and 5, and Stephen Jone’s Best New Horror.

Her short fiction has also appeared in publications such as Black Static, The Dark, Pseudopod, as well as several others. In her spare time, she alternates between telling people how to pronounce her last name and how to spell her first.

Links-https://www.kristidemeester.com/

Twitter @KristiDemeester

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