[BOOK REVIEW] LITANI BY JESS LOUREY

23/9/2021

HORROR FICTION REVIEW LITANI BY JESS LOUREY

Lourey does a great job of capturing a sense of small-town life from an outsider’s perspective. Frankie’s relationship with her father and her struggles in adjusting to a new town while carrying around guilt and grief that she has no one to share with is touching.

Litani by Jess Lourey
A book review by Holley Cornetto

Litani, by Jess Lourey is set in a small-town Minnesota in 1984 amidst what has since become known as the Satanic Panic, and is based on true events. This book deals with child abuse (physical and sexual) and Satan worship.

Lourey does a great job of capturing a sense of small-town life from an outsider’s perspective. Frankie’s relationship with her father and her struggles in adjusting to a new town while carrying around guilt and grief that she has no one to share with is touching. When she lost her father, she didn’t just lose a parent, she lost a best friend. In the aftermath, she finds herself in a place where she’s essentially on her own.

The weakest parts of the book for me included the fact that people “in the know” talk a lot about nothing. They all say enough about her father or The Game to try and seem mysterious, but when pushed for answers, they aren’t forthcoming. It felt like a device, like the author creating a false sense of mystery. In reality, there was no mystery here. The author gives away the “bad guys” immediately. Every time Frankie meets someone that gives her a “bad feeling” you can pretty much guarantee that person is in on it. Also, as typical of this sort of narrative, she makes multiple bad decisions, going places she knows to be dangerous for very little reason.

The abuse part is present in the story, but the Satanic aspect only really amounts to a couple of mentions of Satan and a pentagram painted at a crime scene. I was hoping for more on the ritual/cult aspects to make this story take advantage of the real-life story it was based on, but nothing overtly Satanic takes place in the story. It could just as easily have been a ring of pedophiles.

Despite my criticisms, I did enjoy this book. I thought the characterization was well done. I got a feel for the distinct personalities of each character, good and bad. The description of Sly, in particular, and his behavior, creeped me out to the point that I wished I hadn’t read that chapter right before bed.

Recommended for those looking to read a dark coming-of-age story set in a small town, but for those looking for mystery or thriller, perhaps look elsewhere.

Litani
by Jess Lourey

The Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline explores the darkness at the heart of the rural Midwest in a novel inspired by a chilling true crime.

In the summer of ’84, fourteen-year-old Frankie Jubilee is shuttled off to Litani, Minnesota, to live with her estranged mother, a county prosecutor she barely knows. From the start, Frankie senses something uneasy going on in the small town. The locals whisper about The Game, and her mother warns her to stay out of the woods and away from adults.

When a bullying gang of girls invites Frankie to The Game, she accepts, determined to find out what’s really going on in Litani. She’s not the only one becoming paranoid. Hysteria burns through the community. Dark secrets emerge. And Frankie fears that, even in the bright light of day, she might be living among monsters.