Weekly Reader: The Cult of Eden: Book One of The Unrisen by Bill Halpin; Dark and Gripping Horror of Family Vs. Death Cult

 Weekly Reader: The Cult of Eden: Book One of The Unrisen by Bill Halpin; Dark and Gripping Horror of Family Vs. Death Cult

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If you were a person of deep faith and beliefs, no matter what those beliefs were, and you and your loved ones were put in a dangerous, potentially fatal situation that would require you to act contrary to those beliefs (Against killing but have to kill someone, maybe someone close to you, to get out; in a happy loving committed relationship but agree to have sex with your captor;  committed to your beliefs but forced to renounce them live in front of an audience), would you do it? It's a very terrifying prospect that one would hope that they never have to go through: to find their beliefs naked and shaken and to either die by the cruelty and manipulations of another or to live the rest of their lives knowing that they would be forever changed by their desire for survival.

That is the situation faced by Will Battese, the protagonist of Bill Halpin's The Cult of Eden. Will is the son of a very close knit loving Catholic family from Lake Placid, New York. His widowed father is the Deacon of his church (Catholic deacons are allowed to get married), but will soon leave the church to get remarried and move his soon to be second wife, father, and younger son to New York City to be close to Will, his wife Shannon and their infant son, Gideon. Will is looking forward to his family's visit like a kid at Christmas.

Will is looking forward to his family's visit not just because of how close he is to them, but how conflicted he has been feeling these days in comparison to his own life. He moved to New York with his ambitious wife, so Shannon could ascend her upwardly mobile career in interior decorating. Will felt choked enough in a city that he never cared for and a wife with exorbitant material needs, but her unexpected pregnancy forced him to leave culinary school and take a minimum wage job as a short order cook at a low rate diner. In fact if it weren't for Gideon's birth and his family's arrival, Will and Shannon would probably have headed for divorce courts. Now only their love for their son and Will's Catholic aversion against divorce keeps them together.

The underlying stress in the Battese's marriage and Will's family's move spills into some bizarre and terrifying things that happen at the same time and surprisingly echo through this seemingly happy family reunion. After doing a good deed by giving free food to two homeless men, the homeless men attack Will. Confused and terrified, Will reports this frightening attack to his wife who blames it on the behavior of the homeless and chastises her husband for trying to help them. 

After that "heartwarming" moment between loving spouses occurs, things get weirder. A couple that works with Will disappears and Will and Shannon are stalked by a mysterious character named Victor Degas on a subway that leads to another attack. These strange seemingly random acts of violence come to a climax when an armed group headed by Degas and Will's former coworker and friend, Haynes attack the Battese Family in their home and kidnap Will, Gideon, his father, Richard, his grandfather, Griff, and his younger brother, Danny. (Shannon and Richard's fiancee, Jessi hide for shelter so are temporarily reprieved from the kidnapping but soon also find themselves in a horrifying situation.)

The Battese Family are targeted by a demonic death cult that wants to not only kill the family but destroy their spiritual faith and love for each other. It's a dark and gripping novel with plenty of scenes that cover various fears: of blood, people in costumes and eerie masks, closed in spaces, drowning, being assaulted, having your child kidnapped and just about everything else in between. The Edenic Cult, which kidnaps the family, knows how to bring the fear and they do it well. 

Some of the most frightening passages in the book occur when the Battese men are blindfolded and muffled while they can hear and see the rituals but can't do anything about them. The chanting, the monotonous intonation of the priests, the ritual stabbing and nonchalance of the members,and the fact that Will recognizes long time friends underneath the robes are blood curdling.

Besides the terrifying situation, even scarier is how it affects those who have been abducted. There is no doubt that if they are able to survive this ordeal (and there is no guarantee of that), they will be forever traumatized. The Battese Family are forced to reveal long buried family secrets. One member willingly gives up the location of another one just to make an escape. They are separated and gaslit by being told that the other parties are dead and are unsure of the truth. This cult isn't above hurting small children as well. Baby Gideon is separated from Will and Shannon and they are given contradictory reports about his whereabouts. While 11-year-old, Danny is physically assaulted like everyone else, he is one of the few survivors. It is clear that this abduction and the loss of some of his family members will forever mark his young soul.

Danny isn't the only one who will receive long term trauma. Will and Shannon both make some heartbreaking decisions to ensure their survival and that of their family. Shannon makes a decision based on her own ego and need for survival. Will, a once naive and deeply religious man, questions his faith and existence and does something unconscionable that promises to haunt him forever. Since they spend most of the book separated, they never have any confrontation over their fracturing relationship before the events happened or what they did during these events, but their actions hang over them like dark clouds before a storm. Dark clouds that don't disappear when the book ends. These clouds leave events open up for a sequel and threaten that the dark clouds will produce storms that may destroy their marriage and the Battese Family forever.

The Cult of Eden is more than just a horror book. It raises a lot of thoughts and questions about how strong one's path is and what it would take for them to break it. The strongest trauma may not come from the violence others inflect upon us, but what we do or allow to do to ourselves to get out of it.