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A review by wordswritinstarlight
Providence Girls by Morgan Dante
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
A bittersweet but lovely romance, equal parts sad and beautiful. Azzie and Vin are wonderful reworkings of Lovecraft’s characters, especially since his female characters are notoriously (in the most generous terms) questionable. Their stories are fleshed out and given some dimension in Providence Girls, with a kind of even-handed awfulness that vibes well with the usual Lovecraftian nightmare reality—everyone here has experienced something terrible, and it’s equal parts supernatural and aggressively mundane. I do wish the book had gone a little more into Asenath’s story; I think there’s a lot of potentially interesting material in the issue of the Innsmouth “brides” and Azzie’s father’s rampant sexism, to say nothing of the whole…Asenath situation. On the other hand, I’m also familiar enough with the source material to know that there’s a lot more concrete material to work with in The Dunwich Horror and Lavinia’s fairly wretched situation, so I don’t hold any grudges. I would love to read more of this author’s take on the Lovecraft universe, if they ever decided to write more in this setting, though!
Now, I read this book as part of my eternal quest for books about gay people loving monsters, and I would give it a solid B grade on that front. Azzie’s gradual slide intolosing her humanity and becoming a Deep One is profoundly tragic, but Vin’s sincere affection and fearlessness throughout is extremely sweet. I would have liked to see more of their story after Azzie’s transformation, rather than the handful of snapshots we get, though. Honestly I kind of wanted more of the “horror” in the “horror romance” (I would put it at about a 4 out of 10 on horror elements) and some terrifying inhuman deep sea creatures would have done me just right. Overall, though, a beautifully written romance, and a great example of my personal favorite sub genre of horror, which is “Lovecraftian Horror That Would Have Given Lovecraft A Rage-Induced Stroke”.
As a side note, my only real criticism on a technical level is that this is an epistolary novel and largely in the second person, which is fine and beautifully executed but clearly was not the original draft—there are a handful of places where pronouns slip up and stop being addressed to “you” and return to third-person “she/her/etc.” As ever, this kind of error is an easy thing to miss and not a dire problem, I’m just literally paid as an editor and I notice this sort of thing whether I’m looking for it or not.
Recommended for other people in the market for anti-Lovecraft Lovecraftian horror or for people who enjoy an introspective modern rewrite of classic stories, like A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson.
Now, I read this book as part of my eternal quest for books about gay people loving monsters, and I would give it a solid B grade on that front. Azzie’s gradual slide into
As a side note, my only real criticism on a technical level is that this is an epistolary novel and largely in the second person, which is fine and beautifully executed but clearly was not the original draft—there are a handful of places where pronouns slip up and stop being addressed to “you” and return to third-person “she/her/etc.” As ever, this kind of error is an easy thing to miss and not a dire problem, I’m just literally paid as an editor and I notice this sort of thing whether I’m looking for it or not.
Recommended for other people in the market for anti-Lovecraft Lovecraftian horror or for people who enjoy an introspective modern rewrite of classic stories, like A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Grief, Cannibalism, and Classism