📿💋 Terror At The Gates💋📿

• Scarlett St Clair

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Terror at the Gates is a feminist retelling of Lilith, mother of demons, story within Christian mythology. In traditional lore, Lilith, exiled from the Garden of Eden for disobeying Adam, is depicted as monstrous and seductively wicked, smiting men in a vengeful quest.

I absolutely loved the world building in this. It’s set in Eden, in the sin city of Nineveh. The book deals heavily with themes of religion, power, and the patriarchy, and how each of these are intertwined. It was refreshing to see a fantasy that focuses so heavily on religion – its pitfalls and shortcomings along with its positive influence. One of the central themes is the abuse of power within the church and how easily manipulation and exploitation can occur. This was by far my favourite aspect of the book – religion is too frequently ignored as a world building element and it can be so, so interesting.

I didn’t feel like St Clair explored Lilith’s character much beyond her being a caricatured femme fatale. The story was meant to be feminist but Lilith was still beholden to Zahahriev and living under his rule. She has just switched out her father’s oppression for Zahahriev. Perhaps this will change in later volumes as she discovers her true power, as she still is rather powerless in this patriarchal world. The concept of the women being the ones to possess magic, and the men marrying them for that magic was intriguing and definitely something that I’m excited to see explored further.

The plot was slow-paced, but given this is the first book in a series, I’m confident it will speed up in later books after the thrilling conclusion of this. This was all about setting the scene, which might bother some readers, but not so much me.

Additionally, I listened to this on audiobook, narrated by Laura Horowitz and Tristan Warden, and I felt this added hugely to my enjoyment! I love audiobooks because they feel like such a more immersive reading experience.

Do you like retellings of myths? For me, I love them! I already have a couple more lined up in my TBR!

Thanks to RB Media and Bloom Books for the audio ARC!