Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer is both a visceral survival horror and a balm to survivors of homophobic violence perpetrated by religious institutions everywhere.
Once upon a time, Ruth was engaged to a man named Charlie, on track to become a picture-perfect, god-fearing, trad wife. Until, that is, Charlie becomes increasingly more involved with New Creations, a megachurch in their small Kentucky town where something feels very… off. The relationship reaches its breaking point when Ruth comes out to Charlie as bisexual, and Charlie offers to save her from herself (with the help of the other New Creationists, of course).
Now, Ruth lives with her childhood best friend turned girlfriend, Abigail, struggling to make a living and enjoying the occasional five finger discount from her former employer—a craft store owned by the megachurch (and a clear allegory for H*bby L*bby). One such “shopping” trip ends in disaster when, under the guise of presenting her to law enforcement for shoplifting, the store’s employees begin to literally hunt her down. With a rapidly dropping glucose level and danger down every aisle, Ruth will need to get crafty if she wants to survive.
This one is gorey and bloody and pretty disgusting…and I loved it. I know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was certainly mine. It reminded me both of Chuck Tingle’s Camp Damascus and Ready or Not directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin—both pieces of media that I absolutely adore. Fans of these works should run, not walk, to their local library or indie bookstore to pick up Crafting for Sinners; and those who like their horror a little less in-your-face should probably avoid this one altogether. Still, I think I will be singing this book’s praises for a long time.
Throughout the book, the chapters are occasionally interspersed with secondary sources such as podcast episode transcripts and newspaper articles that don’t initially seem related to Ruth’s plight, but I loved it when these pieces started to come together towards the end and everything all made sense. I really appreciate that the author gave us these clues; I think they added a lot to the story and kept me turning the pages, invested in solving the mystery. I also really enjoyed the disability representation in this one, as Ruth’s diabetes made the stakes even higher than they already were.
I don’t want to reveal too much, since I think this is one that readers should go into uninformed. I’ll just say this: PLEASE read it and let me know what you think; I don’t want to feel alone in my infatuation with this book any longer!
Content warnings: Gore, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Death, Infestation (rats), Animal death (rats), Religious extremism, Homophobia, Cults, Cannibalism (mentions of)
Hi! My name is Kit and I love sapphic stories. You can find me at @shelfconscious.library on Instagram.
