Review: Fall, Sacred Apple by Emory Glass

Blurb:

The pact is bleeding.

What started as a bountiful covenant between a Republic and the goddess who sustains it now suffers a drought of faith. Should a famine of devotees follow, the Blood Mother will uproot the pact. Civilisation will collapse.

In the midst of these uncertain times, Corbha, a warrior-nun of steadfast faith, eagerly awaits her brother's birth. He will be the first child born at Madhcha Abbey in twenty-four years. If his delivery suggests divine favour, Corbha and her siblings are to punish a trio of disobedient senators. They have propagated the Republic's growing disregard for the Blood Mother and Her Eightfold Orchard. That cannot stand.

For Einaid, a doomsday cultist in hiding, the child's birth raises questions about the abbey and its inhabitants. The answers are scandalous enough to spark widespread dissent should they fall into the wrong hands—and nothing would please Einaid more than igniting the flame that makes Her Orchard burn.

Fall, Sacred Apple is a tragic dark fantasy drama washed in insidious and eldritch botanical horror.

Review:

I think this is one of the two or three books I’ve read this year that has vampires in it… specifically vampires. Furthermore, I think this is the only novel this year that I’ve seen a new vampire twist to the story. “Fall, Sacred Apple”, a novel by fellow reviewer on the site, Emory Glass, somehow pulls off novelty while staying in the vampire genre → more on that later.

Now, if I went to a vampire convention (such things exist, there’s cons for everything nowadays), and had to talk to a random person there about this novel there, I’d give them this blurb:

“Corbha and Einaid, two different souls, each bound by their own internal struggles. But when things go sideways, they’re forced to work together.”,

alongside my usual question about if they wish to learn more. 

That’s the general gist of the book, and if I could leave it there and leave the rest of the novel in mystery, I’d do so. But, I can’t, so please bear with me my ramblings about mythological apples, not of Idun, but of a different sort, and screeching death voices.

To start off, we have the two main characters of “Fall, Sacred Apple”... Corbha and Einaid. Corbha’s the vampire, the sanguiren, of this tale. Einaid’s this tales regularish human. Nothing too special about that. What is special however is the setting. A convent, specifically there for the rejects of the religious order that permeates everything in that world, kind of like the roman church of old. Corbha grows ever more callous to her order, while Einaid, on her secret mission, drifts ever so further away from hers, yet still keeping up with that from time to time. They both have some character growth, Einaid gets traumatised a few times, and Corbha gets emotionally hurt every once and a while. Shenanigans happen, Corbha has her younger half sibling with her (who will not be named nor discussed any further in this context) and Einaid is screeching by the end of this novel.

And that leads me to how Glass managed the plot of this novel, since it’s one of those that goes along the path one expects, but every once and a while, there’s a wrench thrown in that redirects the attention and focus. There’s two plots going on, as already seen in the blurb of the book, and each one takes what it promises, and runs with it. Corbhas is the more straightforward one, with everyone else knowing what’s happening… while Einaid is the twisty, spyish one that leads to more and more truths. All the while, doom approaches, hidden to them both. Shenanigans, as said before, play out, both sides are untrusting of everyone else, and blood magic is bouncing around. 

From there, the world building is also great, with terms explained and calendars drawn in the back, and the priory map lays at the beginning. Aside from that, the lore, history and religious systems all play off each other brilliantly, with each part playing a deciding factor on how it plays out for the other two. Alongside the mythological lore, history and religious systems is the accurate representation of a mediaeval abbey, albeit it a crueller one, sworn to silence.

The religious dogma of the Ren Drochan people dictate the history and the lore. The history dictates the current religious dogma of the Ren Drochan people, as well as the lore. And the lore influences both past and present in the eyes of the Ren Drochan people. I’m a history nerd, and seeing how all those things play off each other in regards to the story happening in the book, *chefs kiss*I'd like to see more of that. 

Then there’s the mythological lore itself… and with it the magic and the religious system it has spawned. As I said in the opening segment of the review, this novel has taken the vampire genre, threw it together with apples, spirits and religion and just vibed with that. The lore basically has vampires of old becoming spirits that possess fruit, and from there, through the women who ate those fruits, had kids. If that was the end of the chaos that is this religious monster that reminded me too much of the historical roman church, I’d wipe my hands of this lore and go on with the review… but it isn’t. Because that’s leaving out what happens to the women after they bear a sanguiren. Their voices cause regular mortals to go insane, and only sanguiren are somewhat unaffected by the new voices those mothers have. So magic is used to force them to be silent, and after that, they’re basically using sign language to communicate since no one would like them to speak. There’s even more to that, but that’d cut into the plot of this novel, and I’d rather not do so. The only other thing I’d like to mention is that plague masks, raven beaked and sinister looking in appearance, are used by the Sanguiren each time they interact with a human(I think, probably, there is no sketch of these masks. Don’t take everything I say as fact).

Lastly, there’s the artwork that changes on the chapter overhead the further someone is inside the novel. Perfect detail that shows that way the story is going, and a bit of foreshadowing as to what is to come.

Now, all of this was wonderfully executed, however, the beginning of the book dragged somewhat slightly, with me not knowing where it was going to go with the characters or story. It got better as the novel went on though, so it wasn’t too bad. 

If you like vampires and nuns, intrigue and a bit of death, lots of screeching from the void, and lots of attention to minor details, this novel is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, here’s a link to a randomish review that I got from the site. It might align with “Fall, Sacred Apple”, or it’ll be something completely and utterly new. Click it. Now.

Wherever you are reading my thoughts on Emory Glass’s novel,  have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night.