In this queer horror novel debut, a priest falls in love with the antichrist and even God can't stop the horror it will bring.
Dante, a protestant young man, and Jude, a sadistic pastor of a small Texas church, harbor a terrible secret from the world; they're together. The two share a taboo and passionate relationship in hidden peace, until the dreams start.
God speaks to them in visions of smoke and fire, night after night, until the two of them come to a truth they cannot ignore; Dante is the Antichrist, sent by God and urged to start off the apocalypse.
Dante refuses to participate in the end of the world and the damnation of souls. But Jude is a loyal pastor, indifferent to the suffering of others, and is compelled to do what God tells him; even if it means killing the love of his life.
This queer horror love story hones in on the humanity of the Antichrist, a half-human entity as flawed, complex, and doomed as any other soul. With lyrical prose reminiscent of Clive Barker, blasphemy is redefined and love is tested. In Of Beasts, Worma explores if love is enough for someone born to be evil.
About the Author :
M. Jane Worma is a queer horror writer with a fascination for the sadistic and horrifying. After escaping from their birthplace of San Antonio, Texas, and spending a decade in the haunted desert of New Mexico before making the move to the colder northeast, they now happily reside in Brooklyn.
Review :
"A beautiful, haunting meditation on love, fate, and the right to choose (if only the method of one’s own destruction)." —Crime Reads
“Of Beasts is a revelry of perversions, a bacchanalia of grotesquerie, a sermon of restless spirits wandering in the distant regions of the human and the inhuman, of the sacred and the utterly blasphemous. This is the kind of feverishly surreal and disquieting horror fiction that I adore.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
"Of Beasts is a dark, dreamlike hymn of love and devotion, made sharper by the blood and bruises. Best swallowed in one sitting." —Andrew Joseph White, author of You Weren't Meant to be Human
