Corrupted Vessels

by Briar Ripley Page

With CORRUPTED VESSELS, Briar Ripley Page takes hold of the alienation, placelessness, desire, and need to belong [that haunts] the queer world and slowly sculpts [the characters] into something at once disturbing and achingly familiar; a story about the people we throw away and the dreams [we] cling to in order to survive.
-Gretchen Felker-Martin, Manhunt

Southern Gothic meets surrealism, CORRUPTED VESSELS is a story about terrifying angels, messy realities, and queer life on the margins. [ Volume includes a previously unpublished standalone novelette called NEW EDEN.]

Genres: Horror, Queer, Fiction, LGBT, Novella, Contemporary, Angels

151 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 2020

About the author

haphazardly constructed sex changeling

Reviews

[Nina The Wandering Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“...I hear the angels now. I see them too. They’re writhing in the trees and the telephone wires. They’re lying slick as fish in puddles, all their lidless eyes looking back at me.”

I read this in one sitting!!!!

Ash and River are a tiny cult of two young trans people who believe themselves to be fleshly vessels for elemental spirits. Ash is fire, River is water, and together they await the arrival of earth and air, two more members who will arrive “any day now” according to the angels who speak to Ash through visions. When a newcomer, Linden, happens upon Ash and River’s dilapidated house in the woods, it’s believed that Linden is the vessel for the third element, earth. Linden isn’t really sold on what's being preached about fleshly vessels and elemental spirits and angels. But falling in love with Ash is an exciting distraction from Linden’s ex-girlfriend Nora. What follows is a discombobulating and calamitous series of events that lead to a horrific consequence.

In this story, faith and relationships are tested and manipulated. Similarly to Agustina Baztericca’s The Unworthy, this novella holds a similar theme: a belief in higher powers–gods, angels, spirits, prophets–offering the promise of safety, community, and a gentler reality than the cruel human existence we’re all living in. And I especially appreciated that theme when presented from a queer perspective. I absolutely devoured and loved this novella. I’m so glad this was my introduction to author Briar Ripley Page. Their literary sketching of this mystical little universe held by two queer individuals was written so beautifully, with melancholy and grit.

(There’s also a bonus story at the end–New Eden–with similar themes of isolated communities, outsiders, and weaponized faith that was equally amazing.)

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It starts as the triad of River, Ash, and Linden. River is withdrawn, uptight, an observer. He's a teenage trans boy who maybe doesn't pass as a man yet and doesn't know if he ever will be enough or be what he wants to be. Ash is a divine androgyne, all mystical quartz and natural glamour, a born leader, maybe, but really "out there." The two of them are living alone in the middle of nowhere (I guess somewhere, but to be colloquial about it, they are in fiction and in some silent nowhere), when Linden shows up in their magnificent genderqueerness to have a lot of sex with Ash. That's Part 1 — all mood and aesthetic. Then, suddenly, Part 2 is constructed as a horror story. What if you hallucinated or heard angels talking to you and "would never need money again"? And if you still tried to go on living your mystical quartz life but something was very, very wrong? And you were battling it out between identity, desire, and conscience? This is a baroquely tragic woodland-decay melted-hippie heaven-and-dirt queer wreck squalorama where perceptions open up into transcendence. I have never read a story nor characters quite like this. On the outside, they are perhaps the sort of hippies I once imagined myself getting to know, but on the inside, they are something else. And what I feel for them — in their youth, for not knowing what to do with themselves and not being able to manage themselves and seeming to have no support except each other — it might be sympathy or pity, but in any case, it has the you-could-not-look-away effect regarding what is happening in this house of haunts.

I read this when it first came out from swallow::tale press (RIP) and reread it now that it's out from tRaum with A NEW SHORT STORY AT THE END, "New Eden." (This story FYI reminds me of reading Emily Milner's "The Living Wife" in Monsters & Mormons a few years ago.) From "New Eden":

"Dorcas was betrothed to Father Joshua this year, and their wedding is to follow her fifteenth birthday in October. Dorcas is honored to be chosen as Father Joshua's fourth wife. She says so all the time."

Father Joshua has a tattoo of Christ in "blood and agony." The community is "waiting for God to lift us up into the air with Him." The children are on the lookout for demons: "We see a white deer moving through the birches and maples ahead of us at one point, and when we get a little closer, we realize it doesn’t have any eyes, just smooth skin stretched over its eye sockets." This is the place.

[Gretchen Felker-Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic piece of fiction about the little-explored literary territory of queer cult formation. Unfailingly empathetic toward its broken protagonists even at its most difficult and repulsive, this is not something for the hand-holding-pastel-daydream-ONLY queer fiction crowd.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

[I received an ARC for free from Booksirens. This review is done freely, honestly and without payment].
[Ich habe einen kostenlosen ARC von Booksirens erhalten. Die Rezension erfolgt freiwillig, ehrlich und ohne Vergütung.]
Thank you! <3


(DEUTSCH WEITER UNTEN)


Oh wow, that was intense and very different from what I expected.
I don’t even know what I was expecting, but not THAT. (And that’s more than positive.) I don’t remember what blurb I read, but definitely not the one that was on Booksirens, Goodreads or Amazon. Maybe I dreamed it all after I decided to read the book?
I don’t know eh - crazy world.

But that was good, because I was so surprised and blown away that I ended up lying on the sofa completely satisfied. The book takes exactly the direction I would like to see in horror films. I was so taken back by all the events and their resolution, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and throwing air kisses across my living room.

Briar Ripley Page’s writing style is wonderful and very, very memorable. Everything is four-dimensional in such a way that it made me feel like I could smell the forest and decay and sweat. It just sent (pleasant) goosebumps down my spine.

Ash, River, Linden and Nora were extremely exciting characters and I liked them all in their own way. Especially with Nora I could just relate very much, this person was very likeable to me. But also Ash, River and Linden were all very engaging and I think four extremely good „protagonists“ were created here. They were memorable and evoked feelings in you.
River I wanted to hug most of the time, while Linden kind of annoyed me and they still won a lot of likeability points. Ash was ... so hard to grasp. They were so, so „extramundane“, I can’t describe it any other way.

The plot pulled me into the story from the beginning and didn’t let me go until the last second.
A really great reading experience <3


(DEUTSCH)


Oh wow, das war intensiv und ganz anders, als erwartet.
Ich weiß nicht einmal, was ich erwartet habe, aber nicht DAS. (Und das ist mehr als nur positiv gemeint.) Ich weiß nicht mehr, welche Inhaltsbeschreibung ich gelesen habe, aber auf jeden Fall keine, die auf Booksirens, Goodreads oder Amazon stand. Vielleicht hab ich das alles nur geträumt, nachdem ich mich für das Buch entschieden hab?
Keine Ahnung eh – verrückte Welt.

Aber das war gut, denn so wurde ich so überrascht und umgehauen, dass ich am Ende vollkommen zufrieden auf dem Sofa lag. Das Buch schlägt genau so eine Richtung ein, wie ich sie mir in Horrorfilmen gern wünsche. Die ganzen Geschehnisse und deren Auflösung haben mich so abgeholt, ich hab gegrinst wie ein Honigkuchenpferd und Luftküsse durch mein Wohnzimmer geschmissen.

Briar Ripley Pages Schreibstil ist wundervoll und sehr, sehr einprägsam. Alles ist auf so eine Art vierdimensional, dass ich das Gefühl hatte Wald und Verwesung und Schweiß riechen zu können. Es hat mir einfach eine (angenehme) Gänsehaut über den Rücken gejagt.

Ash, River, Linden und Nora waren extrem spannende Charaktere und ich habe alle auf ihre eigene Art irgendwie sehr gemocht. Vor allem mit Nora konnte ich einfach sehr relaten, dieser Mensch war mir sehr sympathisch. Aber auch Ash, River und Linden waren alle sehr einnehmend und ich finde, hier wurden vier extrem gute „Protagonisten“ erschaffen. Sie haben sich eingeprägt und haben Gefühle in einem ausgelöst.
River wollte ich die meiste Zeit über in den Arm nehmen, während Linden mich irgendwie genervt hat und they trotzdem ganz viele Sympathiepunkte gewonnen hat. Ash war ... so schwer greifbar. They war so, so „extramundane“, ich kann es nicht anders beschreiben.

Der Plot hat mich von Anfang an in die Geschichte gezogen und mich bis zur letzten Sekunde nicht losgelassen.
Ganz arg tolles Leseerlebnis <3

[BitterKarella BitterKarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A goddamn masterpiece. Went into this book completely blind and was just blown away. Ash is convinced that they hear the commands of Angels, River is their devoted acolyte, together they form their own little transient cult as they travel from town to town in search of others the angels have ordained. But when Linden enters their orbit as a potential new recruit, it sets the scene for an explosive, gut-wrenching finale. Page's writing brings an aching sadness to River’s white-hot jealousy and desperate need as he feels the one thing he cares about slipping away from him. Grisly and unflinching and darkly beautiful, Corrupted Vessels packs a big emotional punch and will stick with you long after the final page.

Another note: A lot of fledgling novelists seem to believe that the key to good writing is reams of pointless description about every mundane detail; Page DOESN’T fall into that trap. The descriptions are lurid and alive, but never become overwhelming. When Linden returns to a local bar after having met Ash for the first time, Page communicates with just a few simple images that peculiar sense that one gets right after coming down from a religious epiphany that the mundane world has become suddenly dull and sordid and stifling. An incredible journey.

[I. Merey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was, in many ways, a perfect book for me.

It might have been in grade school or junior high, but we had to watch this nature video once; a time-lapse of a small dead animal getting stripped down to the bone. It was gross, fascinating, beautiful in the callous, inevitable way that nature is beautiful. From the first pages of two runaways seeing visions in a derelict house (okay, one seeing visions and another, desperately needing to believe in them), this book was set to be something that would stay with me on such a visceral level. An image to remember, long after you finished reading.

I finished 'Vessels' in one sitting. Every time I thought, ok no, I really need to go to bed, I had to read one more chapter and then it was over and I was satisfied and sad that there was no more.

Everything unfolds in a believable way (that doesn't get less believable once ghosts come in.) The characters stay sympathetic and relatable, through the most brutal acts. Ash embodies 'The road to Hell is paved with...' River is soft and loyal and angry. Linden is grounded--until the precarious balance between the three is irretrievably shifted and Nora comes looking.... The language, the pacing and tension, the descriptions of the rottey house, of sensations and bodily functions, the subtle POV shifts, the play between dream and nightmare, desire and disgust, were all done wonderfully. Reading this felt like finding a story I'd been looking for for a while and did not even know it.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a positive way, this was much smaller scope than I'd expected from the description, focusing on the experience of four characters in or adjacent to a fledgling cult of young queer people.

In the week after reading it, I've kept thinking about the complexity in how the youngest character, River, relates to and tries to control seeing & being seen. We open with him in an illicit act of seeing, taking a photograph forbidden by the head of the cult (of two), and there are other points where he wants to see without being seen throughout. There's a moment after the kind of tipping point where someone who doesn't know River sees him, and that scene feels particularly sharp. Who is visible is complex too: Ash the leader seems to be the one who has got them this far, but they never go into town, River does. They appear to outsider Linden first as a voice, concealed by the woods.

There's some really strong images too, one of a chair with fungus growing from it's back and trying to encroach on the front stuck in my memory - or a silence which travels with a pair of characters, making the world feel a bit more animate. There were a few bits where I didn't love the writing, but it's a good close up, enclosed story which suits the novella length well.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up from the library, and it was a fantastic, eerie little collection with a bunch of weird folks who are determined to make the worst decisions possible, in the most interesting possible ways. <3

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

a free copy of this book was provided by tRaum books for an honest review

4.25 stars

Ash, Linden, and River are three people who are dealing with obsession on some level. Ash is obsessed with the angels they hear and for the end of days to come. River is obsessed with Ash and having them all to himself. Linden is the newcomer and obsessed with Ash but not because they believe in Ash's beliefs. Linden just finds Ash fascinating and let's be real, hot.

This book, which takes an unflinching look into possible schizophrenia and cult like manipulation, is extremely horny. Linden and Ash get it on frequently, much to River's disappointment. He even sneaks a peek at the pair during sex. It all boils over into Ash making a terrible decision and River trying his best to deal with the aftermath with Linden's help.

None of the characters are very likable but I ended up rooting for them anyway. I just wanted River to be protected at all costs. I wanted Linden to see the light and get away from Ash. And I wanted Ash to get the help they need. It's all very well written and I highly recommend this book.

The bonus short story is also very good. New Eden is a dystopian short that packs a whollop in its few pages. I would love to learn more about the characters introduced and their world. The POV is told from a 1st person perspective which is rare. All in all, a solid read with a gorgeous cover.

[Eve Harms]

Page's talent for transporting readers into tableaus of awe inspiring beauty and chaotic torrents of gut-wrenching disgust are in full force in this tender and brutally honest exploration of the human condition. Everyone with a body should read Corrupted Vessels.

[Marnie Desdemona · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to find a place to start when writing a review for a book like this. It’s bite size in length, and restrained in scope—most of the book takes place in about one location—but it sits heavy like a stone in your stomach when you finish it. It hauntingly drifts like an old nightmare in the days to follow its completion.

As others have commented, this is not at all a pretty or clean book. Its characters are all some sort of mess in their own way, and some horrific things do happen. Still, there is no undercurrent of evil even in the most vile occurrence, just an current of emptiness and brokenness. A desire for transformation and change bleeding throughout. Change on a simpler level like wanting a body more fit for one’s gender identity, and on a more grand scale of wanting the whole world to be reborn through some angelic destiny.

I think the book does well in its more neutral observations of everything that happens and what some of the characters do: it doesn’t paint out broad tones of villainy, or aspects of vileness. One of the main characters, Ash, could have been presented in a far different light under another author. A young, androgynous twenty-something with an inescapable allure and charm, one caught up in either delusions or visions of a sacred path given to them by angels. One of the other main characters, River, being just on the cusp of sixteen, and dragged along into Ash’s visions, completely infatuated and devoted to Ash. A little cult of just two burgeoning in an abandoned home in the woods, with plans for more members. With the persona built around Ash and what comes to pass in the book because of them, it could have been easy to frame and paint Ash as a monster, but in a way it’s sadder what we do get. Our Ash is an individual either truly stricken with divine path, or one suffering from severe undiagnosed mental illness…who can seem this ethereal being, but beyond the veil and layers they have crafted of themself, they can be seen as almost child-like and afraid in themselves. Pathetic almost. That this connection to the angels, to the path set before them, is all they have, and any doubt or break in that path shatters them like a mirror.

The current of the supernatural and otherworldly are also wonderfully woven as one throughout the book. It is very much implanted that this divine path of Ash’s is mere delusions and nonsense, but at the same time, other occurrences without explanation happen in the novella. Visions in dreams leading to places one has never entered before, but that exist in reality. The voices of the dead that speak of things one does not know. One is thrust into a world not knowing what to believe, of what is truly something beyond the mortal realm, or just delusional plagues of wounded minds.

Overall, there is a deep feeling for a need for connection or belief in the central characters: something beyond the self to hold onto, that one can cradle into or coat themselves in like a layer of gold to seal the cracks. Ash needs their belief in the angels to function, and River needs Ash. River having more of a belief in Ash than in their doctrine. Ash is River’s world, the one thing he has, which leads to him clinging so tightly even as the book descends eventually off a cliff. Mistreatment, vile acts, true pathetic nature beyond the masquerade, it matters not. Even another main character who gets pulled into the aging house in the woods, Linden, is looking for something at a baser level. Thinking Ash’s talk as all nonsense, but still captivated and transfixed by them, playing along with the talk of the angels if only to get close to them. To connect with the pleasures and intimacy of the body, even with the unnerving current of it all. Perhaps as a way for Linden to distract from their friend who they’re also intimate with, but who doesn’t want a relationship with them.

Despite the psychedelic prophesies of angels and the shadows of the supernatural, the novella feels painfully real to the human condition, especially to those more broken, isolated, and lost in the world...which the young, the queer, and the mentally ill usually are. To the depths people will attach to someone or something in order to survive within one’s own being, even if such things are objectively wrong or bad. Of how one can’t let go if attached too long to certain crutches, because one can forget how to operate alone. It can become like a parasitic mutualism: you devour each other, but you also keep each other alive.

While it will haunt you for a while after reading it, I do highly recommend partaking in this little nightmare.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corrupted Vessels itself is a beautiful work of queer squalorpunk that explores the degradation of spiritual transcendence into madness and decay. "New Eden" I didn't much care for. Nothing indicated there was a separate short story included in this edition, which was confusing because I thought I was reading a third part of Corrupted Vessels set after the main events and was thinking Page ruined a perfectly good novella with this nonsensical time jump.

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, wrenching study of a few deeply unwell queers. There's an undercurrent of tenderness that keeps it from feeling overly abject (which I've seen other, more Bret Easton Ellis-y authors do in the literary exploitation horror genre). At the same time, that intimacy makes the more sinister things that happen so much stronger, the gut-punches way more enduring. River's characterization and internal monologuing were especially effective.

I could probably read an entire novel's worth of Page describing decrepit old houses alone. Loved the fungus chair like another reviewer mentioned, and the grimey "tea" parties, and the sharp imagery in a certain mucus-saturated sex scene.

The novella is paced and structured very well. Reminded me at turns of Emile Zola's Terese Raquin and Robert Altman's Three Women. Loved the illustrations and stylized chapter headings.

[Dale Stromberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella evokes some of the flavour of Poppy Z. Brite in its queer southern gothic and horror elements. It is a quick read with strong prose—especially in its powers of evocative description—which maps the psychology of queer characters enmeshed in extremist mysticism against a backdrop of mental illness and the occult.

I review the book in more depth on Medium (un-paywalled link).

[ABG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to BookSirens and the publisher for the ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book is very queer, in both senses of the word. I’m not going to review it like a normal book, because it isn’t exactly a normal book, and it’s better read with minimal spoilers.

I was utterly captivated by both stories, but not captivated because they were beautiful. They weren’t completely grotesque either. I think I’d recommend this book to queer people, or anyone really, who sees the weird, the ugly, the unbelievable, and the truth, and doesn’t look away.

This book feels like a rather strange love letter to the written word and the art of storytelling. It takes common tropes and throws them into a meat grinder until what remains is utterly different to what you’d expect. It takes typical storylines and says no. It shows dystopia in the last way you’d expect. Queer people are not magical beings who can do no wrong, they are simply people who happen to be queer. And they do do wrong, but they also love, and go through the world in their own way. This book takes a lot of themes and concepts about the human condition and shakes them up in a blender with a vivid but grounded writing style, a plot that doesn’t completely make sense but ain’t supposed to, and characters who you can’t decide exactly how to feel about.

It’s ambiguous, which is usually something I hate, but this time, I couldn’t have imagined it going any other way. I almost didn’t want to know. And that’s because the narrative doesn’t entirely want you to know, either. You’re supposed to draw your own conclusions. Find something in the liminal space. A lot of this book takes place in liminal spaces, both figurative and otherwise. By leaving the ends of both stories not quite cleanly resolved, the author invites us readers into that in-between space of their characters too.

In other words: I loved it. I can definitely see myself coming back to some of these pages again and again. I was confused, disturbed, and grossed out at some points, but remained captive enough to the narrative and didn’t look away. These three things can definitely coexist. If you think these contradictions of a sort could apply to you, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

[Anna Otto · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I read a book so quickly, especially in paper form. The new cover (not the one here) is particularly striking. I couldn’t put it down. It should be called a Corrupted Fairy Tale as it had that feverish, scary/evil/magic feeling, though none of the characters are either good or bad. It defies an easy classification. It’s a love story, and a story of friendship, and a story of madness. It focuses primarily on a young trans boy, River, who is enthralled with an older charismatic person, Ash, who believes they are a part of a godlike being, and the uneasy journey of loving someone - insane? Touched by angels? A fairy or a criminal? Things spiral when a third party appears to disturb their odd and cacophonous harmony.
The language is poetic and beautiful and I was as enthralled reading it, feeling entirely within the story, almost recoiling from the moss and mildew of the house that Ash and River squat in. I found it incredibly relatable, frightening, and magical. I believed every word as though it was a nonfictional account of someone’s strange coming of age.
I will definitely read Page’s other books!

[Halley Hopson · Rating 4 out of 5]

*future Halley remember to put this in my cult recs video for booktube*

[tyto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sometimes there is just a book that perfectly captures the visceral magic of life, and you finish it and it stays with you for weeks and you try to write a review to describe what you're feeling about the book, but you can't begin to express any of it into words, but the best you can do is to press the book into someone else's hands and say, read this. Corrupted Vessels absolutely blew me away, and I also enjoyed the short story that's included in this version. Consider this me shoving the book at you, saying read this, read this.

Utterly magical, visceral, devastating.

[Neo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book crawled into my flesh and left a small, rotting hole where my cardiac muscle should be.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mini-cult story involving the four spirits of fire, air, water and earth.

Three trans characters, Ash, River and Linden await the arrival of air, the fourth element, before they can transcend and live in true fulfilment with God in the heavens forever.

The scene, a broken-down old rotten house deep in the woods, Corrupt Vessels involves, radicalisation, murder, ghosts, angels, sex and poor mental health issues. What is there not to like?

A well written quite unique short story involving some fantastic, wonderfully believable characters, which keeps the reader highly entertained and on permanent tenterhooks from start to finish.

Although the conclusion is fitting, I found myself yearning for more, and was left wondering what perhaps might come along next on the road to this genuinely creative and imaginative version of the meaning of total enlightenment.

Dark vibes, with twists - very enjoyable.

Will be reading more from this highly talented young author of alternative fiction.

Rating: 4.2 stars.

[Ange ⚕ angethology · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We do our best not to daydream about a world that isn't here, and isn't dead."

Comprising two stories (Corrupted Vessels and New Eden), the book explores cults and the beliefs they might operate on, while using the same manipulative foundation of supposed trust and being an outsider. The first specifically focuses on the desire to fit in as a queer person and how others can take advantage of marginalized people, in a world that actively harms them. Ash and River, trans runaways, live in an abandoned dilapidated house, and Ash tries to guide River according to their visions, the angels they see. Together they form two of the four elements — fire and water, with just air and earth left. Looking for two other elements to complete their group, Linden stumbles upon them and is in line to serve as the vessel of earth.

But among the nebulous beliefs and rules Ash lives on, River sometimes isn't sure of the veracity of Ash's reality. He doesn't care about Jesus nor Satan, but he still wants to develop a sense of spirituality that pleases Ash. Ash sees themselves as "a dumb, beastly mass that should be subservient to [their] spirit nature, not its jailer."

What I love about this book is that even as the morals of the characters are unveiled, the nature of the supernatural is at times still vague — is there a sliver of truth as to what Ash sees, are they just misguided and genuinely believe what they see, or is it all just a mindgame for them to attain power? Ultimately, the answer to this doesn't matter much as we learn that regardless of the presence of angels or the supernatural, they can't always be used to justify certain actions, and one truth can in fact be twisted to serve someone else's thirst for authority and control. The descriptions of how Ash sees nature, themself, and attempting to be "one with it" as much as possible, compared to how people like Linden or Nora see their state of living, remind the audience of how skewed Ash's perspective is.

The second story, "New Eden" is about a cult that's more closed off, and also more overtly insidious as some of its members are entirely unaware of the real world that lies just outside of the spaces they've always been comfined to. It's the kind of story we're more used to hearing about, but still very effective in conveying its mechanisms and the turmoil the victims unfortunately feel and endure.

Overall a well-written book with a fresh angle regarding the complexity of queer perspectives, and I'll be on the lookout for more of Brian's stories in the future. Thank you BookSirens and tRaum Books for the review copy, I'm reviewing this voluntarily.

[Maven Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short but haunting story about a tiny queer cult of two runaways who believe themselves to be elemental “vessels,” and what happens when a third person stumbles into their world and shakes everything loose.

From the very beginning I was swept into the strange, fever‑dream atmosphere of Corrupted Vessels by Briar Ripley Page. The mossy old house squatted in by two disillusioned souls, the unsettling whisper of “angels,” and the fragile glimmer of hope that perhaps more “vessels” will complete their transcendence. What struck me most was how the book gently holds its flawed, desperate characters, especially in the way Page renders the devotion of River and the enigmatic conviction of Ash: their beliefs feel both earnest and fragile, like a fragile house of cards waiting for a breeze. The arrival of Linden, worldly, skeptical, yet drawn in, adds such tension. Their growing relationship with Ash feels charged, dangerous, beautiful in its uncertainty, and raises hard questions about faith, belonging, and whether love can redeem or destroy.

I didn’t expect to care so much about such broken people. Yet Page’s prose is so visceral full of rot and desire and longing, that I found myself holding my breath, aching for connection, and recoiling at the harsh edges of their reality. The novella doesn’t wrap things up in neat bows; the ghosts, angels, and violence hover in the margins, and you leave with more questions than answers. But maybe that’s the point, to let the uncertainty linger, to let the reverberations stay.

If you enjoy stories that shuttle between tenderness and decay, that explore queer identity, manipulation, longing, and the weight of belief, you should read this. It isn’t comfortable, and it doesn’t promise redemption. But it leaves its scars, quietly, long after the page turns. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars. The slight hesitation only comes from the way some things remain unresolved, yet I find that ambiguity fitting and oddly necessary.

[Lor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am utterly obsessed with this lil book. It's written casually and gorgeously, perfectly encapsulating the love, confusion and desperation for a family you have as a teenager. BRP rules.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarre, queer, cult, horror, fantasy read?? Beautifully written. I can’t really explain anything else. Sorta speechless. Really interested in other books by this author now!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly dark and challenging story that's also so tender and empathetic towards it's characters. It's broken into two parts and while the first part is definitely engaging, the second part is so gripping, so compelling that I had a hard time putting it down (to the point that I ended up getting the pdf, despite already having a physical copy, so I could read it during my break at work). I really loved this and I'm excited to see where Page's work goes from here.

[on storygraph (macclown) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so?? I'm honestly OBSESSED with this???? Oh my god.

I'm a sucker for dark queer stories, throw in some religious / angel imagery and I'm aaaaall over it. This has all that and so, so much more.

We follow Ash and River, two trans runaways squatting in a ruin of a house hidden in the woods. Ash is the older and (apparently) wiser one, who is convinced that they hear "angels", that they are a vessel of Fire and they must find the other three vessels for Water, Earth and Air. River is the vessel of Water, much younger and somewhat infatuated with Ash.

One day the third main character in this story, Linden, stumbles across their hideaway in the forest. Ash believes that Linden is the vessel of Earth and tries to draw them into the fold, however Linden is not convinced. Despite this they grow attached to the runaways, starting an intimate relationship with Ash and supplying both them and River with food and money.

As it becomes clearer to Ash and River that Linden does not share their beliefs, things take a much darker and sinster turn.

This was BEAUTIFULLY written, even in the more sickening and gory parts, and Page has a fantastic way of making you truly feel that deep, uncomfortable feeling when presented with the truth. I also became so emotionally attached to Linden and River, and honestly felt true fear for them towards the end of Part One.

A phenomenal read that I truly wasn't expecting to hit me so hard. Can't recommend this enough!

ARC courtesy of Book Sirens.

[Arlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to so desperately love this story.

From my first impression Corrupted Vessels promised body horror and angelic cults, which were present, but on a much smaller scale than I anticipated.
The weird and eerie moments were thrown off for me by several explicit comments that felt like it disrupted the flow of the narrative more than it added much.

I did love the character of Ash and wish we could have been inside their experience and perspective a bit more.
In the end I found myself more stressed out from River's young age compared to the rest of the cast, and ultimately I think that is what kept me from fully enjoying the book.

New Eden was a fascinating short story, but as some other reviews also state I was not expecting it to be a stand alone and was waiting for the Corrupted shoe to drop until the last page.

The queer experience of Corrupted Vessels was more realistic than anticipated, I feel like I have met each of those characters in person. Page has very interesting ideas and while Corrupted Vessels did not end up being for me I am still interested in their other works!

I kindly received an ARC for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Shrike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Familiar and haunting.

Maybe it's the southeastern swampy location, maybe it's the group of queer misfits...Corrupted Vessels hit close to home. This novella explores new-age beliefs, mental illness, and found family gone wrong. As a queer person, many of the themes and characters feel familiar in a deeply unsettling way - Very much a plausible "what if...?" as opposed to an outlandish fiction. I can already tell this is a book that will haunt me for a bit.

Thank you so much for the chance to read this book for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

my friend wrote this (disclaimer)
i like the creepy tea party and dysfunctional queer groupies. you will have to suspend your belief.
if you like descriptions of weird houses ala the turn of the screw and when kids in stephen king novels (i.e danny from the shining, eddie from IT) start acting really fucked up, you will enjoy this.
i'm not good at reviews, but there ya go!! it's worth your time. go join a cult.

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this scratched my itch for the unsettling and weird