Reviews with content warning for Murder - Lay Your Body Down

Excellent second novel from Amy Suiter Clarke. Religious trauma and the darkness that lurks in megachurches is clearly a subject close to her, and I enjoyed playing amateur detective along with Del.

Content Warnings

booklvrkat's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Our story starts with Delilah receiving a call that her ex has been shot in a hunting accident, losing her job, and her roommate telling her she’ll have to move because her boyfriend is moving in. Del decides that she’s going to go home for the funeral, she can take a break and maybe decide where her future lies. Everything in her hometown is not what it should be, and secrets seem to be around every corner. The story builds up to make the Messiah Church to be more of a cultish sect, and that Del was lucky to escape when she did. As more of her backstory comes out through the book, we peel back the layers of this religious community, and how phony it is.

I can’t remember where I read about this story, but I am glad I went in blindly. It’s at its core a murder mystery, with the additional topping of cultish behavior. I found myself completely engaged in Del’s upbringing and her ultimate leaving of this small town. The characters will stick with you, and I’m sure you will do a double take when things are not what you thought, even with the backup & proof that Del and her friends find.

Content Warnings

samseyz's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Not nearly as thrilling as I hoped it would be. I did enjoy the overarching theme of religious trauma and women standing up for themselves against men. I think it could’ve benefited from being much shorter too.

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sadiedavisn's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

_caroline's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

skinnerj1267's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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rachelibrarian's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

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sarahholliday's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

As someone who grew up in a fundamentalist evangelical church and has since deconstructed, I'm always fascinated by the ways authors incorporate elements of extremist theology, abuse, and corruption within the church into their stories.

I think on the whole Clarke has done a great job at capturing the difficulty with which we shed the worldviews we're raised with, the power that religious institutions can wield (particularly in small towns), and the practical realities of growing up in an environment that not only doesn't prepare you for the "real" world, but actively encourages you to stay separate from it.

The way the mystery unfolds is a bit underwhelming—I figured out a rough idea of what happened within the first quarter of the book and found it a little eye-rolly that Del took pretty much the entire 350 pages to put it all together. The characters were also, on the whole, underdeveloped. We only really started to get to see under Eve's carefully constructed facade in the last quarter of the book, and we never really got a solid idea of who Lars was as a person. The same could be said for most other characters, too, and even Del felt a bit hastily drawn at times.

That being said, the construction of the book was compelling (if hard to follow at times with all of the back-and-forth timelines) and I enjoyed the story overall.

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