Blurb:
Welcome to the monstrous world of Venari. Try not to get eaten.
Elkbury is an idyllic village, hidden away in a rural area of pseudo-medieval Venari. It’s a place free of death and disease due to a mysterious ceremony called the Banishment. It’s a secret system that has worked well for decades. But, secrets rarely stay secret forever. When Hedwin’s grandmother is about to undertake her own Banishment, he and his best friend Laura Beth decide to find out what their beloved Anastasia is about to experience.
Just like disease, murder has no place in Elkbury, but it has wormed its way in. Wren Goodwort takes it upon herself to find the mysterious killer and clear her name in the process.
Soon Wren, Hedwin, Laura Beth, and the rest of the villagers are thrown together to fight for their lives as deadly, monstrous, and hungry secrets are uncovered and Elkbury’s delicate balance is destroyed.
Review:
The initial setting of this book gave me definite vibes of The Village (M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 movie): A small, isolated town that obviously harbors some ugly secrets, but no one knows who to believe or the truth about major aspects of their lives.
Outsiders rarely travel to Elkbury, and if they do, they often don’t leave. The town is surrounded by a dense forest inhabited by daemons, making the passage dangerous. But the Order seems to keep the daemons at bay, and life goes on. I enjoyed the set up, and it made for a perfect backdrop for the rest of the story.
There are a lot of characters mentioned in this book, but it’s written in such a way that the individual characters aren’t really the focus. It’s the village, the Order, and the secrets it’s hiding that really made this a compelling story. And as the story progressed, I appreciated the format more and more. This is a book where you probably don’t want to get too attached to any character…
As things begin to unravel in Elkbury, there are more than daemons and secrets to plague the residents. Ancient bargains with inhuman beings come into play, just as undead begin to appear. At that point, the story goes from The Village vibes to almost a zombie-apocalypse feel. Fun times.
There’s clearly more at work in this world than what is presented, and with each chapter, something new (and usually disturbing) comes to light. With each revelation, the tension increased and the pace sped up. By the 85% mark, it was hard to put this book down and I still wasn’t sure if anyone was going to survive—and Elkbury was still imploding.
Without spoilers, the ending was like nothing I could have predicted. The author did a good job with that twist. And that’s all I’m going to say.
I’m personally torn on how to classify this book. It definitely has some fantasy elements, but the story is so dark and gory in parts, I’m also leaning toward calling it horror. Is fantasy horror a thing? If not, it should be, because Banished would be right at home in that category.
If you like horror or dark fantasy, creepy villages, or zombie apocalypse-type settings, definitely check out this book.
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