Title: Goddess of FilthAuthor: V. Castro
First Published: March 30, 2021
Publisher: Creature Publishing
Pages: 156
Genre: Coming of Age, Feminist Fiction, Horror
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
One hot summer night, best friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance. It's all fun and games at first, but their tipsy laughter turns to terror when the flames burn straight through their prayer candles and Fernanda starts crawling toward her friends and chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors.
Over the next few weeks, shy, modest Fernanda starts acting strangely-smearing herself in black makeup, shredding her hands on rose thorns, sucking sin out of the mouths of the guilty. The local priest is convinced it's a demon, but Lourdes begins to suspect it's something else-something far more ancient and powerful.
As Father Moreno's obsession with Fernanda grows, Lourdes enlists the help of her "bruja Craft crew" and a professor, Dr. Camacho, to understand what is happening to her friend in this unholy tale of possession-gone-right.
Get the Book: AmazonReview
Goddess of Filth is a coming of age possession story with a little feminist twist. In a séance gone wrong a group of friends accidentally summon an ancient being that takes possession of one of the girls, Fernanda. From there the story is told from the point of view of Lourdes as she looks for ways to save her friend.
The book explores themes of female identity and sexuality, bodily autonomy, and that messy period between adolescence into womanhood. Goddess of Filth manages to both pay homage to the occult possession stories that inspired it while subverting the tropes that you tend to expect from this subgenre. I found myself pleasantly surprised from start to finish.
I do wish that the group of friends would have remained at the forefront of the novella, as the focus of the narrative landed squarely on Lourdes and Fernanda. The other three friends quickly less relevant to the story and it felt like a wasted opportunity. As a 90s girly that grew up watching The Craft with my closest friends and dabbling in a little witchy business, this book made me feel nostalgic. This was my first V. Castro book and it made me an instant fan.
Quote
“Be smart, but not too smart. Be beautiful, but not so pretty as to make other females mad. Be successful, but not bossy or overly ambitious. Nobody likes a mouthy brown woman. Be a declawed kitten.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About V. Castro
V. Castro is a Mexican-American author from San Antonio, Texas.
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