Goddess of Filth

Rating: 2.63 leaves out of 5-Characters: 2.5/5 -Cover: 4/5-Story: 2/5-Writing: 2/5Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Paranormal, Feminism-Fantasy: 4/5-Horror: 1/5-Paranormal: 3/5-Feminism: 2.5/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: MehHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedAnother booktok book bites the dust. Honestly, the story could have been better if it were longer and things were fleshed out. It could have made up for how unlikeable the MC was. I would have loved more about the entity (I don't want to spoil) and what it did and would do. I just wanted more and I didn't get that.The horror was only at the beginning, honestly. Perfect scene. I know V took inspo from The Craft but I think it slightly missed the mark.

It took me a while to think of how to express my thoughts on this. What I've come to decide is that this novella feels like it was rushed to publication. The premise was good. I really enjoyed the writing. I really enjoyed what little I knew of the characters. The plot was pretty engaging. But it just felt so incomplete. We needed more of Fernanda's day to day stuff to get to know her. We needed Father Moreno developed more. We needed more mythology. What about the adults? What about Ruben? Some of the plot points kind of petered out or came in and out of existence. Much of the dialogue could have been given a second look. So yeah, I think a little more care could have brought this way higher up.

Goddess of Filth by V. Castro is a creative take on a possession story that flips the script on the genre. Lourdes and her friends have a séance for fun, but much to their surprise something answers when they call out. Goddess of Filth uses familiar tropes found in previous possession stories and inverts them into a story about Chicana empowerment. I loved seeing the representation of a culture and experiences not seen often enough in horror literature. It has violence, sex, the supernatural, and more! The book deals with culture, gender, and sexuality as major themes, and in some ways it was fairly critical of Christianity. As a result some readers may find this book a bit unpleasant, but perhaps sometimes feeling discomfort can be a good thing and lead consideration of challenging topics? I found many aspects of this book to be highly compelling. With that said, in some ways this novella seemed underdeveloped. The prose sometimes seemed stilted, oddly formal and simplistic, and various elements of the narrative just didn't work for me. I didn't get a strong sense of all the characters, and thus the arc of some of the characters seemed disjointed while others were utterly forgettable. Although I really enjoyed the concept of this book, I found it's execution to be disappointing. Overall I rate this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️