The Church of the Mountain of Flesh

by Kyle Wakefield

THE CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH is a cosmic horror novel about mad artists, bodies spiralling out of control, and a trans man's merciless desperation.




Sole De Gasinis drowns his grief in wine and buries his hatred of his body in twisted sculptures. When, one drunken night on the beach, God orders him to rebuild his village's church, he knows he wasn't chosen for his piety.




Instead, he and God make a deal. If Sole rebuilds the church, God will give him the body of a man.




As Sole works in a frenzy for salvation, lifelong friendships decay, a village united to tear down its church fractures into pariahs and zealots, and power and grief reshape the prophet into a tyrant. Grief for a boy he fell in love with ten years ago, who claimed to be a virgin birth, who died in agony in the church crypt when the God inside him wanted out--and whose monstrous remnant Sole must commune with for every piece of his prize.

Genres: Horror, Queer, Fantasy, LGBT, Transgender, Adult, Religion

471 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 6, 2024

About the author

Kyle Wakefield has the spirit of an 18th-century romanticist not in the Poet-Laureate-to-the-King way but in the coughing-blood-into-a-handkerchief way. He disappeared into the Scottish wilderness alone one winter and came back with two scars on his chest which he claims are from top surgery, but are secretly entry points for the grapefruit-sized alien octopus controlling him parasitically. (It went in on the left-hand side first, but there weren't any brains there, so it had to try again.)

Kyle is currently sensing the Bit Paradox of referring to the octopus in the third person.

Reviews

[Kyle]

Welcome! I'm the author, and I'm here to provide content warnings.

You're welcome to go in blind if you'd like, of course. But surprises are only fun if you consent to them, and if this list wasn't here for you to ignore, that wouldn't be consent.

Please be aware that THE CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH is foremost a horror story and a tragedy. It's about a trans man causing devastation to others and himself in the name of comfort in his body. He doesn't hesitate, draw moral boundaries, or wish he'd been happy the way he was. Transition is both a sane desire and a need animal and immutable enough to drive you mad.

These content warnings have been approved and added to by a large team of beta readers with a range of lived experiences. If you think I missed one, or you'd like further details on any of them, please contact me as @kyleskeleton on Instagram or @kyleoftherats on Twitter. I'm more than happy to help you decide whether this book is for you.

Graphic body horror including decay and infestation of live bodies
Graphic gore
Graphic sickness and injury detail including vomiting
Graphic bloody violence including cannibalism
Slow death
Imagery reminiscent of self-harm
Imagery reminiscent of a miscarriage
Healing a lifelong disability against the disabled person’s will
Corrupting and codependent romance
Explicit sexual content including unsafe sadomasochism
Descent of a Catholicism-based religion into cultism
Physical abuse of a child by a parent
Injury of a baby
Death of a parent
Grief
Alcohol abuse
Suicidal ideation
Gender dysphoria
Misgendering and deadnaming
Consumption of rocks, clay, dirt and other non-food items
Catastrophic natural disaster including imagery of people trapped under rubble
Mercy killing of an animal
Mentioned death of a child
Mentioned suicide attempt by a child
Mentioned traumatic childbirth
Mentioned eating disorder

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5 rounded up) Begging for more trans books like this!! Sole, our main character, is selfish, violent, a drunkard, and an absolute mess. His desire to transition is a primal urge, a necessity, and he will do everything for it. I found this, in adition to the depctions of his dysphoria, to be incredibly fresh compared to most trans books that I’ve read. The way Sole’s transness was described felt so relatable in parts (also finally a book that doesn’t skirt around bottom dysphoria, especially when it comes to the sex scenes, and that actually gives the trans dude a dick!).

Transness aside, I also loved the relationships and other characters - my favourite were probably Sole’s complicated friendships with the others but especially his best friend Ersilio (I love him soo much). The fact that Sole isn’t a good person made all of the relationships so much more interesting.

+ the art is absolutely stunning (it’s coloured pencil!!? Beautiful!!)

The one nitpick I have would be that some scenes or parts are a bit chaotic to follow and I had to reread them a few times to understand what was actually going on and why, and the ending was one of those scenes.

Overall: insane debut, loved it, can’t wait to see what Kyle Wakefield writes next!

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Church of the Mountain of Flesh is easily one of my favourite reads of the year. Buying a paperback copy so I can gnaw on it.

Beautiful, disgusting, honest, abstract, claustrophobic, exhausting, brutal, tender, visceral. A cosmic horror about a Faustian pact for a gender transition.

This is such an ambitious and bold novel and it was executed so, so, so well. The character work here is top tier. Whenever Sole and Nene shared a scene, it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room and everything else fell away. The subtle desperation infused in Ersilio and Sole's friendship. Sole's violent need for the correct body and his selfishness that is separate to his dysphoria. (And Malacresta following the natural pipeline from rock polishing to rock eating.)

I love books with unique settings, with irredeemable characters, and books that make me stare at a blank wall for hours after I finish. Pleased to say that this delivered on all accounts.

And I have to mention the illustrations! The scenes chosen to accompany the text are thematically perfect for the book. I will never not be impressed with authors who also illustrate their work, but this made for such a unique reading experience.

(& make sure to check the triggers!)

An easy 5/5 stars.

[lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been years since Sole De Gasinis' lover died- even longer since he led his town to destroy their church in an act of vengeance- but God is not finished with this sculptor yet. In exchange for the body Sole wasn't born into, he begins rebuilding that which he destroyed.

The narrative is split between following the reconstruction of the church and tripping back in time to the childhood of Sole and his friends. As we unravel the truth of past events that shaped these characters, we are able to simultaneously witness the ultimate conclusions of who they become in the wake of so much holy disaster.

Salvation from his body- not for the sake of his soul- is what drives the main character, and his utter desperation and willingness to commit atrocities in the name of that salvation paints a sublime narrative of the true horrors of dysphoria. 'The Church of the Mountain of Flesh' is a monstrous reclamation of the anger trans people are continually forced to swallow down and a supremely satisfying depiction of what form that fury might take if it was let loose on the world.

The characters in this book were undoubtedly my favorite part of it. The miracles, the signs, the voice of God in his mouth- they are all a means to Sole's own ends. Yes, Sole is an irredeemable character, but he's one that you find yourself rooting for despite the undeniably selfish desires that drive him. He's refreshingly honest in his own view of himself, and it made his subtle (and not so subtle) manipulations of the congregation feel like something worth celebrating. Ersilio is the dad of all dads, Nene should be sheltered from all harm, and I wouldn't DARE deprive you of the absolute joy that is experiencing Malacresta in all his rock-obsessed glory by waxing poetic about him here.

With Wakefield’s wandering imagery, you will find yourself fascinated with the holiness of the grotesque, and, by the end of the story, fully agreeing with Sole’s philosophy: Boring is uglier than ugly. And the changing, however foul its final form, is what is worthy of being called beautiful. COTMOF is not a starlit, morally-righteous tale about a hero who learns the careful art of selflessness, and it is all the more stunning for its rejection of that narrative end.

Fans of the horror of mars adler's 'Eyetooth', the beatific prose of rafael nicolás' 'Angels Before Man', and the queer rage and reclamation of Andrew Joseph White's 'Hell Followed With Us' will find all of that and more to love in Kyle Wakefield's debut novel, 'The Church of the Mountain of Flesh,' when it releases later this year.

[Tegan]

do NOT read this book, there is something DEEPLY wrong with the author, i wouldn't recommend this even to my WORST enemies.....5/5 stars

This is a surreal fever dream of a book that is unapologetically queer and unhinged with writing that is so deliciously descriptive that I think I threw up in my mouth at one point. TCOTMOF is an erotic cosmic horror about a trans sculptor who makes a deal with his eldritch god former lover to rebuild a church in exchange for his transition (in extreme summary), and I'm going to be eternally in awe of how ambitious this is for a debut novel, and how successfully it has been crafted. As much as I was drawn to it for fitting my definition of an 'evil little book' (body horror, sentient nightmare protagonist, a chance of tentacles), I fell in love with it for the moments of tenderness and light amongst the dark, specifically two boys stealing kisses in a dark corner and holding each other in the ocean until they fall asleep, and a best friend who will hypothetically help you hide a body without any questions asked.

I know we're in a sensitive time for the authentic representation of transgender characters, and for those characters to act in ways that are deemed 'acceptable' to be likeable by a wider audience. However, the author presents his protagonist as irredeemably evil, a hellbent prophet rather than a saviour, and this is the defiant representation that I crave to be accepted.

Content warnings from the author: alcohol abuse, suicidal ideation, gender dysphoria, misgendering and dead naming, raw and ongoing grief, injury detail, intense gory sickness, physical abuse of a child by a parent, catastrophic natural disaster, detailed violent death, accidental injury of a baby, mercy killing of an animal, discussion of healing a person's disability against their will, imagery reminiscent of a miscarriage, detailed body horror, obsessive unhealthy romance, consensual sexual sadomasochism, descent of a catholic-based religion into cultism

[HJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come at some point, who knows when, maybe once I peel myself from the wall.

[Alana Rodrigues-Birch · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD????

a wild premise illustrated by insanely vivid poetic prose and extremely fucked characters. also, the author does NOT hold back on any account. easily the most messed up book i’ve ever read, and that’s a good thing!!

sole is a complicated, compelling character, and i still cheered him on even when he was doing terrible terrible things. that’s how well he was written.

i really appreciated the exploration of cultism and religion, and the exploration of the relationship between art and the body. i’m also obsessed with how this book used body horror and visceral, gross imagery to both break down and enforce the connection between the body, the earth, and the divine.

all round a difficult, horrible, messy, disgusting, beautiful clusterfuck of a book. i have recommended it to all my trans-body-horror-enjoyer friends.

[Shrike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Church of the Mountain of Flesh is a unique piece of queer art full of vivid literary prose and cosmic chaos. Wakefield's more surrealist and lyrical moments make for a striking juxtaposition with Sole's blunt manner.

The visual art is what initially grabbed my attention and remains my favorite part of the book. I grabbed the hardcover a while back and stunning does not begin to describe how it looks in person.

While this book was an interesting read, I would not call it an easy read in style nor subject matter. Between time jumps and stilted dialogue, I often felt lost somewhere along the way. I haven't quite figured out if I found this more frustrating or interesting. I tend to struggle with a larger cast of characters so it's very possible this was a me issue.

Thanks to the Indie Ink Awards for the chance to check this book out during the judging process. While I do own a copy, I had not read it prior to judging. My review does not necessarily reflect what or how I scored the book.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore books centered around terrible people doing awful things. The prose, the worldbuilding, all incredibly unique stuff. Plus fully rendered illustrations from the author??? Call this a labor of love and hate. Great read.

[Phoenix Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book performs exactly what it’s about: the beauty in mess. It’s a staggering example that boring is uglier than ugly, the main character’s artistic thesis. And truly—this is an ugly book as much as it’s a beautiful book. Monstrous, too long, fragmented, non-chronological, and thematically nihilistic, a testament to self hatred so consuming it destroys everything around it. I say all of this as a compliment though— this book is also so incredibly beautiful, not in spite of its messiness but because of how committed it is to that mess. Shamelessly tongue kissing it, actually. Which is far from boring, the greatest sin of all.

I’m also incredibly impressed with this novel as a piece of cosmic horror. I think cosmic horror is hard to pull off, writers often over-describe things and refuse to let them grow to the unfathomable size and weirdness they need to be to truly convey the horror of the unknown, but this book really delivers on the unknowable. The prose is so unrelentingly lush and poetic many scenes are difficult to picture, descriptions skipping over vivid or visceral and landing somewhere closer to surreal, dreamlike. It made the body horror pretty rather than nauseating, and left me uncertain what was actually happening and what wasn’t, the action so rife with metaphor and figurative language it became Unknowable, like God. Superb execution of the genre, which often gets reduced to like, nothing but tentacles. (And don’t get me wrong this has its fair share of tentacles but it’s also dripping with glass and mushrooms and lead and clay, so much clay).

Though this book is horror, it’s not so much on the scary, keep you up at night end of the spectrum and occupies a more unsettling, disturbing, haunting place. Because of how deeply saturated it is in the narrator’s crippling self-loathing, it creates an oppressive, pervasively claustrophobic headspace for the reader. Very atmospheric rather than cheap thrills, which I like. And horror aside—my favorite part of this book was actually the romance. I too would lock myself in a crypt and allow my body to be slowly and agonizingly consumed by my increasingly inhuman lover! Sexy!

All in all, really interesting read with a lot to chew on. This book is imperfect—the depiction of Catholicism and dialog was not convincing for medieval Italy (characters said things like ‘plebe’ as an abbreviation for plebeian, for example, and I suspect the author might be protestant because the Christianity, even before it devolved into something else, was decidedly un-Catholic), but honestly it’s imperfections didn’t even bother me because of how violently shameless and ambitious and crazy the whole book was. Like if you’re gonna go weird go WEIRD, if you’e gonna go hard go HARD, and the author was going so weird and so hard, it made me welcome (with a tongue kiss!) every hiccup.

[silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diving into Kyle Wakefield’s debut novel is like being plunged into a freezing ocean—much like the situation the protagonist, Sole, is in when we first meet him. It is a shock, an awakening—a call to bear witness to the words, rather than just consume them.


We dance between different periods of Sole's life—from childhood tempest to catastrophic aftermath and through the lightning storm in between. This asynchrony keeps the tension tight and emotional stakes high; I both anticipated (dreaded) what I knew was coming and found myself continuously shocked over what happened next. It is equal parts deliciousness and pain.


The Church of the Mountain of Flesh is a mastery in character study. I adore every character for their refreshing fullness and unapologetic complexity. Sole is a horrible, wonderful genius; so wretchedly full of feeling that he is volcanic. In Nene he finds his perfect balance—an unheated kettle begging for Sole's fire to boil him over and make him feel. 


Ersilio feels like a projection of my own thoughts while reading—trying to hold onto rationality while watching everyone and everything around him descend into madness. At the same time, the love (and patience) he has for everyone is palpable, even if he can't quite fathom what's happening and why everyone he loves is slipping through his fingers. 


Prasede is the personification of her knives; sharp and unyielding. She cleaves off the fat to offer us the leanest cut of meat—whether we like it or not. And Malacresta? Malachite Malachite? Well, he is a perfect angel and has never done anything wrong in his life. He would love tooth gems.


The body horror in the novel is the most intense I've ever read. I was squirming, sometimes nauseous, and it is all made harder by how much I love the characters. At the same time, it is beautifully rendered and purposeful. Nothing feels done for shock value alone—each horrific transformation is vital. I don't want to say much more, since I think the less you know going in, the better. (Though, please do check the content warnings first!)


I'll be honoured if The Church of the Mountain of Flesh plagues me as a recurring nightmare, and I suspect it might. It seems like a worthy exchange for having experienced Wakefield's words. There we go—I'll finish off this review with a Faustian pact of my own!

[Beauregard Francis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generously rounding a 1.5 up. An overwritten, meandering slog. I thought the flashbacks were sporadic and didn't serve the flow of the plot at all and the whole thing needed heavy restructuring. The pretentious tangle of prose got in its own way at every moment, leaving me unclear on what the fuck was ever happening, especially during the tentacle moments. I simply didn't care from the beginning but still fought through in case there was a pay off at the end. Nope. I was so excited for this book, seeing as it is religious body horror featuring a trans man who sucks. But alas. What a disappointment. I wish I could read the book all the 5 star reviews read.

[seasalted.citrus (Topaz, Oliver) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Church Of The Mountain Of Flesh” has got to be one of the most unique reading experiences I’ve had. I can best describe it as a fever dream that is horrifying and erotic in equal parts.

Sole was an engaging character to follow, he is a rare case of a purposefully unlikeable MC that I still loved. (Which is an incredible feat, considering as he’s barely sympathetic.) I was in an interesting zone between wanting to root for him, and wanting other people to retaliate against him even if I knew the narrative wouldn’t be in their favor. His grief, morphing terror (and eventual madness), and animalistic desperation to transition were so strong that it was sometimes uncomfortable: There isn’t a moment in his POV where there doesn’t seem to be some raw, festering emotion, the main varying factor is his level of awareness or self-loathing around it. I feel that the scenes of him leading the church are a good mix of psychoanalysis material, and unreliable narration.

The cast is a bit extensive, so it was difficult for me to keep track of all the characters sometimes (also because they’re Italian, and I’m not used to reading Italian words and names), but the few of them that Sole regards as friends or important people stuck with me. I understand Malacresta being a fan favorite, although I gravitated towards Ersilio, possibly because he seems to be one of the more caring and reasonable people in the cast? He was the most different from his younger self, and I thought his dynamic with Sole was especially interesting —he wasn’t exactly someone to agree with Sole’s decisions, but he was still empathetic enough towards him that it made him susceptible to manipulation. (Also, Sole’s attachment to him was a little gay-coded…) I know it being tragic is the point, but I’m pissed about his fate.

I really loved the progression of other characters’ relationships with Sole, too, the familiarity and tight-knit nature of the village made a couple changes in dynamic really stand out to me. Especially with Prasede and Sole’s relationship, the domino effect of it was so strange and unexpected. My only gripe is that I feel as if the characters sometimes acted younger than their ages.

Unsure how to feel about Nene. Sole has a softness for him specifically that you never see directed towards any other character, despite their relationship being Chernobyl-toxic, but the progression towards it was so strangely-structured? He was also a little too mystified by the narrative, in my opinion. (For a portion of the book, it was difficult to pinpoint his character.) He also ties into an issue I have with the horror and the writing style as a whole, which is that it’s so wrapped up in being something both beautiful and incomprehensible that it is sometimes painful to read. I can’t tell if it’s just a result of me struggling with imagining something so eldritch and impossible, though, so take this with a grain of salt?? I wouldn’t say the prose is purple, but I feel there should’ve been an additional round of editing because of the amount of run-on sentences. I’m glad that there were illustrations, not just because I thought they looked awesome, but I desperately needed the visual aid sometimes😭

(Nene losing his humanity over time was so interesting, though!!! I thought it was written very well and I loved Sole’s gradual realization. oughhh the anguish. I anticipate revisiting this one day so I can better pinpoint when Nene isn’t himself anymore.)

I have a couple other issues, which aren’t many but they’re still major enough for me to dock my rating. Firstly, without spoiling the ending too much, there were several full-circle moments, and I thought the parallels were a little overdone?? The last part of the book is very unambiguous, so it didn’t muddy what happened, but I was confused at how much of it was cyclical? Is there some meaning in that? (Probably.) Secondly, the past-tense chapters were confusing to me. The book design meant that I was never confused about something being in the past or present, but the timeline wasn’t exactly set in stone at a couple points. For example, it could be hard to tell if a certain character could still be acting the way they were because they were 19 and decided to get married, or they were just immature?

Overall, though, this was really cool, and I see potential for Kyle Wakefield as an author. I don’t think I can find an unabashedly trans and trippy story like this one in the traditional publishing world.

[Kaye N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Wow wow wow wow. I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite reads of the year. Religious horror, body horror, gore and love and clay, the most off the wall characters that feel so real. It's so good. I went into this with very high hopes and I was not disappointed in the slightest!

* I beta read this

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book grabbed me out of my peaceful life one night and wrung me out like an old rag. I was equal parts dreading reading it and absolutely fiending for it. It was disgusting and heart wrenching and no book has made me feel so strongly in a long time.

Content warning: absolutely every disturbing thing you can think of. Author's warnings in reviews.

[Mars !! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god the fact this book isn’t popular agonises me. When I say it is so beautifully written and well considered I mean that. I am always infatuated when the author puts so much thought into their novels and this felt like it’s a whole other level.
The horror is beautiful, I was habitually captured by grief within the third act of the flashback arc it was agonising!!! I love the characters, I love how no one is a great person, the main character is selfish and grief stricken and torn up and it just makes it so much better, and every single scene was laced with something so beautiful and entrancing I was forced to buy this book after reading only 2 paragraphs and it was worth every cent
If the contents interest you please read it, and I will be scrambling for the author’s next novel when it is published 🙏🙏🙏

[Crow Greiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying, sublime, disgusting, gorey, glorious, visceral, and awful (in the very best senses). Matches and well exceeds what I'd hoped when I saw that title.
If this looks at all like it might be down your dark alley or your cup of arsenic, I assure you, it is.

[cathán · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC but for now let it be known I am losing it

[Hollowboned · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Fuck. Review to come. But holy fuck

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What

[Anastasija · Rating 5 out of 5]

If someone rummaged through my brain to figure out what the perfect book for me would be like, I imagine it would turn out something like this.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You want to see me, you look at the things I make for you!” [EXTENDED SOUNDS OF BRUTAL PIPE MURDER]

[Oliver Clown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started my reading journey in 2024, I used to read all the time and than I stopped at high school. There was something I was missing— I wanted to read about characters I related to. That were like me— reading book after book and there was no queer character in sight was hard. I’m autistic and my current special interest is anything surrounding the idea of god. God, angels, horror beyond anything we can wrap our heads around. I need it in my soul, I love it. This book— this book was everything I wanted and more. It touched all my interest and wrapped it up in a bow, the character being trans was a cherry on top of everything else that is so beautiful and wonderful about this book. And the fact him being trans is apart of the story but in a way that makes sense? Love it. I’m sure this book isn’t for everyone, it’s weird but in a good way. Read it if you’re thinking of reading it. You’ll love it. I did.

[Mies · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like an unlikeable character and Sole really was an arsehole. His hatred of being born a woman I found interesting and compelling. The friendship between everyone I also really liked. The relationship between Sole and Nene was just bad. There was no chemistry and felt incredibly flat. The writing was too heavy and I found myself often lost and not knowing what was happening.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malacresta is the feral autistic rock gay we all need in our lives

[Just.rotten_flesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok i finished this book some hours ago and I finally found the strenght to review it.
I understood nothing. English is not my first language, but i'm learning and I like reading in english, so i thought this was my skill issue, that I couldn't understand because in reality i'm bad at it, but luckily i saw that also other people had this problem so i know the problem is not me (probably).
Istg every time i closed the book to take a break i was traumatized or feeling like i just had a lobotomy, because my brain was empty, i couldn't remember anything of what i just read. if you ask me what happened in this book, i would probably stay quiet, because I don't remember, and this is probably just a me problem but idk.
I really liked the main character, Sole, and most of the side characters. I like the fact that Sole is an asshole; he's selfish, a pathological liar, he uses his friends in the worst ways possible, and he's also self conscious. most trans rappresentations these days just feel like a sanitized version of a human being, without flaws or bad emotions, just like a "poor innocente person who want to live and doesn't do anything wrong, who's hated for no reason" and I mean it's true, but good rappresentation it's not only showing that a minority it's made of good people, but showing that, with those good people, there also live bad people, and showing the way isolation and hate can change a person, how it can affect them, people are not good just because they're discriminated.
My favorite side characters is probably Ersilio: he's everything Sole wants to be, he's strong, he's manly, his appearance can be scarry, but he's really kind and fragile and loves his family, he respect other people and their opinions, he's a loyal friend and doesn't fear to be seem as "emotionaly weak" when he cries; but Sole want just his look, his manly appearance, he seems not interested in what makes Ersilio a real man, he sees his friend like an inspiration, an example to look up to, but doesn't actually learn nothing from him. I'm still not very sure about Malacresta's character, the only scene i really remember is the one when Sole fuck him because he's not talking while showing him the windows, and I have to say at least it became a funny meme between my friends so there's a positive point of view.
I feel like there was no chemistry between Sole and Nene, i can understand how Sole started to hate Nene, and also how he changed his mind, but i cannot understand how he became so obsessed with him, i know Sole envied him in a way because he was a biological man and wanted to be like him, but i still can't understand the obsession.
i can't criticize much about the writing, because I'm not an english speaker, but i'm Italian so i can criticize the italian side of the book. From what i understood, the book take place in an italian village during the middle ages, and I have to say, you were lucky if you had a home with ONE room, this guy live in a mansion in comparison to the time's standards; but the book also say that the village doesn't live with money but with barter, so i can kinda see how a fisher woman could have a house this big in that age, but it's still suspicious. And then, there's the italian. it's a tragedy. I feel like the author learned just five words in italian, obiusly just swear words, and then free-styled the grammatic, because "tu sei il mia dolcezza" it's unlistenable. "dolcezza" doesn't need an article (the article choosen it's also wrong because "il" it's a male article and "dolcezza" it's a feminine word, unfortunately we don't have neutral names in italian) nor a possessive adjective, it's just "dolcezza". You can't really feel any italian culture in the story, It feel like it isn't even set in a specific region, and I can understand not everyone care about it and there are many small difference that makes setting the story in a specific territory difficult, but It would be cute if there was actually italian culture, because, you know, we are in Italy? And just a little note, i noticed most of the time there isn't a translation for the italian phrases and, for me, an italian, there wasn't any problem, because I can understand my language, but i'm pretty sure having to use every time a translator to understand a sentence or a name, for how small of a detail it is, can be annoying.
i didn't hate the book, the idea was really cool, i liked the vibes and I will probably read it again one day, but the prose is uselessly complex at times and It feel like it's rushing: days, weeks or months pass in a page and sometimes i just woke up while reading and thought "damn it passed a year already?"

damn i wanted to write a short and chill review but at the end it came out ridiculously long💀

[Shrike Yuan · Rating 5 out of 5]

By some awesome stroke of luck, some true motherfucking serendipity, I was recommended a single paragraph of prose from this novel some time ago. From that very first second, when the words "legs and wings braided out of tornadoes" registered in my exhaustion-addled mind, I became fixated with this novel. I had to read. I had to read it. Well, now I have read it, and it was extraordinary. Wakefield's prose is of course exemplary- I was especially touched by the use of colour in this novel, colour everywhere, colour in miasma and colour in grotesquery and colour in anguish. Truly lovely. For sheer quality of writing, The Church of the Mountain of Flesh deserves to be read. This is a cosmic horror novel that could have easily been written a hundred years ago- I mean this, truly, in the most loving way it can be perceived. It truly has a magic that I've been craving, some delightful imagery, and finally, a depiction of God that I can put in my mouth.

Now, when I say a depiction of God that I can put in my mouth I truly mean it. I don't tend to enthuse to this degree when it comes to religiously-toned media though I do enjoy it, I think depictions of religious struggle and ecstasy are valuable reflections of the sign of the times, etc etc, but due to my unconventional experience of faith it's difficult for me to feel truly touched by religiously-toned work, though I so desperately want to, and this feeling has been somewhat isolating over the past decade or so of my life. Alright, with that in mind: boy, was I touched while reading this book. I started writing this review thinking that I could provide an unbiased accolade, but for me to properly communicate how much I enjoyed it, I do have to reveal the extent of my bias. As other reviewers will have said, Sole is a real motherfucker of a protagonist, but everything that he says and does wriggled its way into some unlit cavity of mine and gave it a good poke. The Church of the Mountain of Flesh reads like the sensation of the wound you keep reopening, over and over again, almost as ritual, for the simple joy of marveling at it- and marveling at yourself for having endured, healed, and then destroyed it, each action as simple and as righteous as the one that succeeded and preceded it, each entirely yours. Sole's anguish, rage, torment, and hubris are delightful and in a strange, giddy way only magnified by the magic of Wakefield's writing, Sole made me feel seen. You really get the sense that every sermon and monologue he gives has been boiling away in him for the entirety of his life, just waiting to erupt. You really get the sense that he deserves to give each and every one, not despite, but because of the inevitable consequences. This guy could convince Patrick Bateman to kill himself, I believe this. What else is there to say?

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up to 5 because i want to see more transmasc books like this.

not entirely sure what to say here but wow. hmm. this is a crazy debut and i'll now be watching the author's new releases like a hungry hawk. (and they did the art themselves too, ♥︎)

sole is a completely irredeemable man and the author meant it. this is awful character written right because you may disagree with him but you can see where he's coming from. the desire to have the right body is so extreme that you just have to be here to feel and understand it. the way you can see glimpses of his love and care for his friends that slowly gets swallowed up in grief. and how his madness infected all those around him leading to the eventual end.

i have to also add – my god, someone out there actually remembers what an enemies-to-lovers dynamic actually is as well as understanding what it means to have a character utterly and totally haunt the narrative. really thought those are lost art at this point.

only gripe is that some scenes are very, VERY chaotic (especially near the end) and i had to read a page a few times to really get what happened. most likely skill issue on my end.

"You're the one who taught me this wasn't us killing each other."
"How could this look like us killing each other?"

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. God makes a deal with our grieving protagonist: if he rebuilds the church he destroyed, God will give him the body of a man. I almost DNF'd this in the opening chapters: the bombast of the speculative and the all-but-inevitable emphasis on visual descriptions in cosmic/body horror is A Lot & didn't really work for me. But once this gets claws in the ground, it gains momentum and readability. I have my criticisms (overlong and sometimes talky; I'm not totally sold on the success of the dual timelines; the dogged unlikability of the entire cast is a distinctive and occasionally obnoxious approach to characterization), but they're easily outweighed by what works not just well but exceptionally.

The trans stuff is generally where things get talky, but the holiness of the self, the disruptive and destructive and creative selfishness of selfhood, is a triumph of theme & genre. Even better for me, the central romance is exactly my thing, and here the excess becomes delight rather than detriment: when I reread, it will be to reach those scenes in the tent and church basement, to the climax of a love that glories in abjection. When the speculative works like this, making large and literal the reshaping of the self or the desire to tear into the heart of a loved one, it easily justifies the self-published first novel self-indulgences.

[Will Sandkvist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gruesome and powerful testimony to the desperate length a man is willing to go to resculpt (quite literally) himself in accordance to his own truth. Even if it means destroying, manipulating and mutating everything around him; including friends and family, the ground they stand on, and even God himself.

The moment I lay my eyes on this stunning cover I just knew I had to read it, and after reading the blurb I was sold. This book is gory, horrific, desperate, constantly challenging what is reality and what is poetry. But it is also beautiful. Not only with its stunning cover and inside illustrations, but also in the author's ability to describe the hungry need to mold the outside to reflect the inside, and the sting of having that reflection challenged, held hostage, and weaponized.

We need more of this kind of horror stories, but we also need more of this queer rage. If the list of trigger warnings (which was appreciated) doesn’t scare you off I really recommend reading this book. I was hooked from the first chapter and kept up that intrigue through the full book.

If I had to criticize the book in any form I would say that the timeline was a bit confusing at times, but not enough to really be a hindrance to the overall experience of the story.