Synopsis
Married couple Celia and Martin are brutally attacked on their drive through the Irish countryside. The attack leaves Celia with a violent schism in her mind, seemingly existing in two places at once: one the “real” world, the other a howling maelstrom of abstract monstrosity.
Of her husband, there is no trace…until weeks later, when Martin is discovered in a hospital for rare and abnormal diseases, his body spliced together with that of an unknown woman.
And they are very pregnant.
PUPPET’S BANQUET is a “diseased Gothic”; a hallucinatory treatise on medical abuse; the systemic disease of colonialism and patriarchy; and the limits of human perception.
Review
“She expected yelling, alarms being raised, orderlies pouring out of every shadow to restrain her, shove needles in her, send her back to Martin in the nightmare she had met him in. That would have at least felt like something that should have happened in an active, living and breathing world, instead all she could hear was soft panting breathing and running footsteps on carpet behind her, as Sam gave silent chase.”
– Puppet’s Banquet by Valkyrie Loughcrewe
Every once in a while, I stumble upon an absolute gem of a novella or novelette and it’s one I know I’ll remember for a very, very long time. In a world full of medical innovations and technology, it can be easy for the topics of medical abuse and mistreatment of patients to be pushed under the rug. In Puppet’s Banquet, Loughcrewe is completely unafraid of highlighting the dark and horrific aspects of medical practices that we all hope to avoid but some of us fall victim to.
Jam-packed with intense action sequences, body-chilling horror, and relationships worth rooting for, Puppet’s Banquet is the perfect kind of short story to devour during the spooky season – all while hoping it doesn’t devour you. It’s as quick(-witted) as a racing heart monitor and as sharp as a scalpel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and learning about the main characters, and hoping that against all odds they made it out of their terrifying experiences intact.
This novella is weird, wacky, horrific, and fun, and I couldn’t get enough of it. The writing was sharp, clean, and precise, and it made for easy reading throughout my entire readthrough. I especially related to the main character, Celia, and how she felt so panicked and out of control of her own body sometimes. I could empathize with her panic and her lack of trust – especially as things kept going wrong and getting worse.
All in all, this novella was eerily devastating and horrifically wonderful by a wonderfully verbose indie author, and I cannot wait to see what comes next!
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