The Sun Is A Circle Meant For Serving

by P.W. Feutz

A burnt-out filmmaker. A mysterious cult. She's hoping to break out with a true-crime hit. She'll find true horror instead...Katrin has spent years grinding on the LA indie film scene, throwing herself into her work to make up for a sheltered upbringing by embittered ex-cultists. Now she’s crashing on her friend Nira’s couch, burnt out and fed up after one too many petty humiliations. She has no prospects, no confidence, and no future.

Then, one night, she learns about a controversial religious movement that sounds an awful lot like the one to which her parents belonged. Desperate to get back on her feet, and egged on by Nira, she starts an investigation into the Highest Seeking Faithful, hoping it leads to the hottest new true-crime documentary.

Joined by an old friend’s little brother, a budding filmmaker and cult survivor himself, Katrin accepts an invitation to the group’s compound in the Sierra Nevada. The idea is to uncover the group’s dirty secrets by letting its leaders tell on themselves. But what Katrin doesn’t know is that the group has other things to share with her, and some of those things might not even be within their control.

101 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 27, 2023

Reviews

[Milt Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has been some astonishing short work in horror by new writers in the first half of 2023, and the trend is still going strong in the second half with this well-written novella by P. W. Feutz. ‘The Sun Is A Circle Meant For Serving’ is quintessential cult horror, a tension building horror story starring a couple of cult survivors, the cynical and traumatized Katrin, and the inexperienced but ambitious Cory. Having turned into aspiring filmmakers, they decide to make a documentary on an infamous cult, the Highest Seeking Faithful. Things do not go as expected.

It's a good thing we were not given much room to guess what's going to happen when Katrin and Cory go to the cult’s compound to interview the cult leaders; the setting allowed a very suspenseful and mysterious story to unfold. The lack of detailed psychological characterization, however, threw me off a bit, since at no point did I really care for the principal characters’ fate. I kept reading out of curiosity, helped by the excellent writing. I think that the emphasis on childhood trauma and the arbitrariness of cult beliefs, gives Feutz the opportunity to take the story wherever he likes. The result is a foray into a sort of weird folk horror, a combination difficult to pull off in practice, but Feutz is quite good at it. The ambiguities go through the roof as we reach a rather bizarre ending; it might be folk horror, it might be the onset of psychosis, it might be something the cult leaders put into the water! However you interpret it, you’re going to enjoy relating what happens in the end to the mysterious title of the novella.

In any case, I enjoyed it more than I expected, mostly because of the terrific writing; it fit the story perfectly.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aspiring documentary makers investigating reports of a mysterious cult. But whose story will be told?

A fun novella that, keen to get into the action, misses an element of characterisation of the two principal characters - as a result when the characters are separated, the ambiguity of their motives, exposed through the third personal narrative is compounded, but feels like an intentional device to reinforce the premise of the impartial fly on the wall observer.

Arguably the main draw is the true life horror that cults can engender, which isn’t fully realised. But, if a short book makes you want more, then perhaps it has achieved its aim? It sets itself up for a prequel on the MC’s family experience and impact, or an interview with the ‘escapee’. I would definitely read more.

I received an ARC from the author. This is my honest review.

[Ilse Bartels · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like a fever dream. A beautiful start
and a rushed ending. At first the suspence is great you get drawn in by the little ploys and charms of the cult and what happend past. Only for the last 20 pages to be extremely rushed to the point where I don’t feel the tention anymore it just happens and I couldn’t care.

[Molly Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea seemed great, but the execution left me wanting. The story itself was convoluted and confusing. 85% build up and a rushed ending.

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are definitely a few things that I liked about this story:
-the concept of a documentary crew visiting a cult’s retreat.
-the behaviour of the cultists as it changes throughout the story; the fake face they present initially changes to their true one.
-Katrin’s character; although her parent’s own cult story could’ve been flushed out a bit more.

However, this would’ve been a higher star read for me if a few areas had been worked on:
- some of the slang and terms (for the cult and the film aspects) I wasn’t sure about.
- the backstory of the Scion Cult and why people were so affected/changed by it.
-I was also getting confused about why the characters were doing certain things (ex: peeing off the alter, Katrin having to eat the meat, what actually happened to Andrew, what the cultists meant about the finder’s fee, why are the DiMarco’s not worried about people being reported missing). Maybe it’s just me, but I kept rereading the pages and wanting clarity, not trying to puzzle out the meanings behind what was being said and going on.

[Craig Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to find out after finishing this novella that it's the authors first published work, as it didn't feel that way to me while reading it. The writing is excellent and very assured, there's a good amount of ambiguity through the story that has me already wanting to re-read it, and I loved a lot of the imagery used throughout.

I personally found that outside of the protagonist, many of the other characters motivations and back story felt a little confusing, or lacking. The story felt like quite a slow burn for the first two thirds or so, before quickly coming to a head into the final act - this isn't a criticism necessarily, more of an acquired taste, which I'm sure some will enjoy more than others.

Overall I thought this is a very competent and entertaing short read, one that I'd recommend to any fans of cult & folk horror, and one that shows the potential Feutz has. I look forward to re-reading this book again, an I'll be eagerly anticipating his follow-up story.

[Rachel Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75
Overall I enjoyed the story, I just think it needed more. More background, more character development, more explanations, more pages. If this was expanded on an made into a full sized novel I think it would be very well done. As a novella it left me with more questions than answers. Maybe that was the point? It just felt unfinished. Other than that, I did enjoy the story and was invested.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like a good cult story. So much so, I’ll even give a random self-published kindle freebie a try. And in this instance, it turned out surprisingly good. As in, the quality of writing and presentation was well above and beyond the typical random self-published kindle freebie. Kudos to the author.
The writing is what drew me in, strong, competent, engaging. There is definitely a cult at the center of this story, too. A focal point of the narrative, really. Overall, the novella is creepy and unsettling in all the right ways.
I am surprised by the low ratings and reviews on here. In my opinion, the book deserves more. Objectively speaking, though, it is moodier and more cerebral than most genre fans go for. A lamentable fact that.
But anyone looking for a compelling, dark quick read on a literary side of the genre spectrum, check this out. Recommended.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Jorby · Rating 2 out of 5]

love a good cult story, however the prose was too much and at the same time not enough. things that needed to be fleshed out weren’t, and things that didn’t need to be fleshed out were cloaked in metaphor. i feel like i understood what was going on, but just barely and very surface level.

[Abby Burell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give half stars. I feel like half the time I really enjoyed the premise but the pacing felt off at times. I would definitely read longer works by this author to see how they fully flesh out characters and ideas.

[Espen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning was intriguing and drew my attention right into the story. The ending felt rushed, tho. I also really liked the horror aspect towards the end. The authors' writing is also pretty good, and I think that this book would be even better if we got to see more of the cult

[kasey culp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great quick cult read. The ending was not what I thought it would be. Character development is a little lacking which is why 4/5 stars

[Brooklyn Attic Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just read a book about the Manson Family, I was completely surprised that the random ebook I choose to read next turned out to be about a fictional cult. Think more Midsomar, rather than stoned, sex-crazed hippies. I believe Feutz did a beautiful job writing the story, I think like most other people, I got caught up on a few technical flaws.

And the ending was just too predictable. I was into the story, then the final 20% is a montage of scenes cutting in and out. I'm not sure if that was on purpose for the effect but the tone of the story took on a more dream-like feel.