Reviews

Sacrilege by T.N. Vitus

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Sacrilege follows our main character Emelie, who through a marriage of convenience, leaves the religious village she was raised in to venture into the "dangerous" forest. She faces the truths of what this religion and people have treated her, and learns to heal and grow stronger alongside her new husband, Halvar.

I noticed a few small grammatical errors, but everything about the prose was lush and it took you right into the world with Emelie. She and Halvar were perfect childhood friends to lovers, and I loved following their journey as they both worked to better understand who they were and how to move on. The topic of religious trauma was handled carefully and realistically, and I thought the end was especially fitting and hopeful.

The last few chapters weren't particularly surprising to me, given clues from the rest of the novel, but it was still well done all the same, and rounded out the story nicely. I loved Emelie and Halvar's chemistry, and one of my favorite scenes was the festival, when Emelie learned what life outside of her village could be like. This is also a fairly quick book to read, so I would recommend this book to anybody looking for dark yet lovely writing.

chandlarskye's review against another edition

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5.0

This book was wildly hard to read at times and it took me way longer than I think it should’ve. I spent many weeks not even looking at the cover for fear of opening it and reading the story. Somehow, I find myself in this story more than I thought I would. This story is a journey about a girl who escapes the only world she knows and is thrown into a world that goes against everything she was taught. In a way, I’ve been there too. It’s hard to read a book and know that the author has shared a similar childhood of self discovery and pain that comes from being sheltered by religion. This is a good debut book and the author shares so many parts of herself with the world and shows their readers that it doesn’t matter where you came from, you will persist if only you try. There is a whole world out there waiting for you to discover it and give you the thrills you have sought - and the ones you were too afraid to seek. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

ashleybrancato's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

noblekat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I so want to give this a higher rating but there are some things that just drag it down.
It was a slow read, time passed in an odd way and made me feel like it was going on forever but not really getting anywhere.
There was great world building but not enough focus on the witchery and the woods then I would have liked. The ending felt slow to reach and then over far too quickly. Also the ending was not resolved as I would have liked, I get their need to avoid the full truth but not telling any of the truth made me sad that the villagers were still in the dark.
Overall a decent book but just not as good as it could have been.

minnowslibrary's review against another edition

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5.0

Sacrilege was recommended to me by my very cool friend with impeccable taste (thank you, Anastasia!) and I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get around to reading it because I couldn’t put it down! …and even when I was forced to I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Excellent read for anyone who can relate to wanting to escape from their small town, religious expectations, career expectations, parents/family, etc. The romance and *friendship* development was everything to me, I was kicking my feet the whole time. So much love and so much trust! Waaahhhhhh!!! Not to mention the gorgeous woodsy setting, the badass, intelligent, wonderful, non-binary main character, the witchy, occult themes, the man who built a house with a library/study and is perhaps the only man ever from now on! I absolutely LOVED this book!

Trigger warnings are listed by the author in the top review here, I’d definitely check them out! Gender dysphoria and disordered eating hit home lmfaooo (but in a good way. I felt seen.) + there was some spice if that’s something you look for or avoid! lovely if you like it and easy to skip past if you don’t :)