Satan’s Affair by H.D. Carlton

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

If you're in the mood for dark (gory) romance (?), with an unhinged FMC, then take a chance on this novella. Trigger warnings all over the place here - If the first page is too much for you, DNF because it's only ramping up from there.

Sybil is a traumatized young woman who has recently escaped from an abusive cult and finds friends and safety in a travelling haunted house called, “Satan’s Affair”. Sybil has an unusual gift of being able to identify when someone is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. During the day she hides within the walls of the traveling haunted house and when she finds someone (always a man) who she deems is bad, she and her henchmen who work at the haunted house create increasingly deranged ways to to kill him. The killing turns Sybil on, and with five henchmen at her side, this novella is packed with gore, eyeballs and orgrasms.

What I really responded to in this book was the idea of incandescent female rage coupled with pleasure. I also love how Sybil doesn’t second guess herself. She believes in her abilities, she knows what she wants and then does it.

The end of this novella also has a bit of a twist ending, which then comes back into play in the Cat and Mouse Duet (which is also amazing and gory, in different ways).

This book is best read at a carnival, just as the sun is setting and you’re eating a philly cheese steak sandwich from a stall. If you see a young woman dressed as a cracked porcelain doll, don’t look too close at the red speckles across her dress.