Set in a world that’s not ours, but not so different from ours, the novel follows Lilith Leviathan, a woman working hard to leave behind the corrupt family she was born into and all the baggage that comes with it. Lilith struggles to find her place in Ninevah, the downtrodden, crime-ridden neighborhood she’s moved to after leaving her family home. Zahariev, the rich and powerful don of Ninevah, offers Lilith sanctuary and support, something the headstrong and proud Lilith can’t accept. After obtaining a cursed dagger, Lilith finds herself in the sort of danger she can’t run away from with more questions than answers. Turning to the only person she knows she can trust, she and Zarahiev seek to understand the dagger and survive the deadly consequences possessing it brings, including drawing the attention of the church who will stop at nothing to obtain it.

I was, I have to admit, skeptical about Scarlett St. Clair’s Terror at the Gates. It had been explained to me as a really lightweight dark romance, and I was expecting something vastly different from what I got. But what I got was phenomenal!

The novel feels like if you took Crescent City and made it Sin City-style gritty and dark. You’ve got this really gorgeous blending of fantasy and sci-fi with this film noir lens on it that comes together so beautifully that you can almost hear the neon buzzing and feel the omnipresent rain pattering against your skin. You expect every character to constantly deliver sizzling lines under the hazy yellow glare of a stuttering streetlight, grey plumes of smoke curling from their mouths as they speak. It’s absolutely delightful!

If the noir style isn’t enough for you, Terror at the Gates is brimming with yearning! I’m talking full pages, full chapters dedicated to Zarahiev and Lilith yearning, but in a way that feels authentic to the characters and to the story. You’re never left wondering, “Wait. Why do we care so much about their relationship? Isn’t this a little fast? Why isn’t this faster? Can two people really want one another this much?” St. Clair balances her characters’ desires for one another with their desire for their greater goals in a masterful way that leaves me needing the next book in the series right now!

There’s so much to be said about the theocracy that St. Clair establishes in Terror. Seemingly pulling from the pre-existing framework of the Catholic church — replete with references to books that never quite made it into the Good One — St. Clair establishes a world run by strong men who fear the strength of even stronger women. And those strong men use what they always use to justify their oppression — the Lord above.

St. Clair pushes back against religious structures and questions why those structures need to exist at all. It’s clear that those in her novel who buck the system still put their faith in something, but St. Clair is questioning what blind faith might lead one to do, and what a concious faith might lead one to uncover. St. Clair isn’t pulling punches — she’s saying the quiet part out loud and taking every opportunity to push at sore spots as she demands that readers question why they believe what they believe and convinces them that who gives them those beliefs is just as important as what those beliefs are.

I don’t think any book in recent months has wrapped me up so fully and so quickly as Terror. The action moves from the first page and the worldbuilding feels natural, smooth, and complete without feeling overwhelming.

If you want to fall head-over-heels with a brand new world, and the sort of characters that the term “toe curling” was made to describe, check out the links below to snag a copy!