Book: When Death Blooms by G. E. Masters
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 5/5
After how good When Flowers Wilt was, I was so excited to jump into When Death Blooms and boy howdy was it worth the wait! G.E. Masters knocked it the fuck out of the park with this one too, and I'm so grateful to her for the gifted audiobook copy (I have since purchased the ebook of both books so I can relive them with my eyeballs)!
This book is so much darker than When Flowers Wilt - that book ended with Vivian kidnapped, and this book begins in the aftermath of that, with Venus and her council of witches and demons plotting to save Vivian and take out Phanes, and Vivian being sexually abused by an evil god obsessed with her power. G.E. Masters represents the SA with a kind of dignity that doesn't reduce Vivian's assault to crass shock value. After her rescue/escape, Vivian isn't miraculously all better. The bulk of the book deals with Vivian reclaiming her agency and power as a person and as a witch with the most ancient and powerful magic of creation. The discussions Vivian has with Venus and with the other witches are soul-crushingly realistic - like her disgust with herself and her body and anger at her magic for abandoning her, dissociative panic attacks and her fear that Venus won't love her anymore - but ultimately she begins to heal. One of the breakthrough conversations between Vivian and Venus had me sobbing wildly in my car, when Vivian tells Venus that it's okay if she has sex with other people because she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to do it again, and Venus tells her that sex doesn't matter at all and what's most important is Vivian be safe and loved. I just really love these babes, okay? And I want them to be happy!
I really enjoyed how Vivian's personal recovery blended with the plot to overthrow Phanes, and I think that in general this was one of the coolest instances of "the devil comes back to kill god" that I've read or seen. I loved how Venus' history was front and center in so much of this, and the legacy of Lilith and witchcraft was just deeply cool. We get to see Venus' darker side, too (ironic given that she's the literal devil) and how fiercly protective she is. There was so much more than what we even get to see that I would love short stories or vignettes that give more space to really take advantage of and flesh out some of the lore (like I want to know more about the history of Hell!!!)
As emotionally heavy this book is, it still has its lighter moments of banter between the two babes and Vivian's amused reactions to some of Venus' very clearly inhuman behaviors (poor nail salon employee, having to service an ancient being trying to give her fiancée a day of normalcy within the storm).
Across both books - the plot? Fantastic. The spice? Oh it's spicy ;) Masters has taken the Fall and Satan's war against God and written it in a new and exciting way. It begins light and a little silly (sweet AND spicy) and then goes to deep dark places, but comes out again to a world saved (and the epilogue is just too cute) - and with a good variety of sapphic spice along the way. Anybody who enjoys books and other media that play with the morality of the Devil will love Venus and Vivian's story!
I nearly clap my hands in glee, but reign myself in, giving her a lazy smile instead. "We're going to read about how to kill a god."