4 stars!

Hell yeah (pun intended), I love queer horror. Where else are you going to get a book about a woman trapped in a craft store by a cannibalistic cult?

As alluded to, this book follows Ruth, a bisexual living in a small town who has to keep her relationship with her girlfriend a secret because of the prevalence of a deeply homophobic religious sect in the area. When members of the cult trap her in a craft store with clear intentions of using her for nefarious purposes, she must fight her way out with a variety of improvised craft weaponry. It's always weird to me to call a horror book a fun time, but man this book is a fun time. I find that a lot of books with a kind of silly premise like this will skimp on the actual plot and characters and rely on the novelty of the premise to be compelling, but I actually thought the characters and story in this were great. Ruth's attachment to the town feels very real–I'm sure there are a lot of queer people in dangerous situations because they're used to it or have other sentimental value. The action was fun and also surprisingly suspenseful, and the little sections in between chapters with the podcast transcripts and news articles and stuff were all really cool and helped fleshed out the kind of mystery side-plot.

If you're looking for something a little relaxed and out of the box, this is totally worth your time and I enjoyed it a lot!

Thank you to Jenny Kiefer and Quirk Books for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

This book was entertaining, but I feel as though parts dragged on and information was repeated. However, I do love unpacking religious trauma and cults, so I enjoyed the ending a lot. Plus the cover looked AMAZING.

Thank you Jenny Kiefer, Quirk Books, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I’m really into this newer wave of horror that unpacks religious trauma—especially the way it intersects with queer identity. This story leans into that hard, and it doesn’t hold back. The craft store setting? Total parallel to Hobby Lobby, including the shady artifact plotline, which added a chilling realism.

One of the standout elements for me was the use of mixed media—podcast transcripts, news snippets, and more. These little inserts gave the story a sense of momentum and made the world feel layered and real.

That said, the plot itself leaned a bit too much into the predictable at times. The resolution with Abigail felt rushed, like the story suddenly hit fast-forward. I kept wishing we’d gotten inside her head earlier; her POV could’ve added more depth and emotional weight to the climax.

Still, the themes were powerful, the commentary sharp, and it left a lasting impression. I’d gladly revisit this one—and I’ll definitely be recommending it to others

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am obsessed with this book. I was telling people about it while I was reading it because I enjoyed it so much. A queer woman is lured into a craft store, where she is then trapped inside the store and hunted by religious cultists. This book takes us through her fight to survive while also battling against her own diabetic body to stay coherent. This book didn't have a lot of surprise twists and was fairly predictable, but the writing was compelling, and I truly cared for our main character. I also like that the main character's narrative was interspersed with newspaper articles and podcast transcripts that gave the reader clues as to who was who and what backgrounds other characters might have in the book that we could not get from our main character's narration. It only happened a handful of times, so it wasn't a huge interruption from the action of the main storyline. I will be re-reading this again. Maybe for Halloween. I would recommend this for fans of slashers and evil religious cult stories.

This one was a lot of fun!

Ruth is a very real and crafty (pun intended) protagonist that fits this narrative well. I enjoyed her resourcefulness as well and the tendency to choose fight over flight with the variety of materials at her disposal.

The themes are well executed and timely. Hitting stores like Hobby Lobby and their bigoted counterparts where it matters most.

I also noted and appreciated the critique of larger mega churches and their tendency to curate and control communities.

The only things are the podcast excerpt segments and other breakaway moments feel a little interruptive of the narrative and give away far too many pieces of the larger mystery at play. I also found the wording around the New Creations church a tad too intentional, a detail oriented reader will quickly notice the omission of a word from the bulk of the text which might give away or hint at the surprises in this text so soon.

I am beyond excited to pass this one along to my branch's horror inclined patrons and my coworkers alike!

The craft store slasher cult story I didn't know I needed! As someone who grew up in fundamentalist Christianity I enjoyed this campy caricature of what a mega church could be. Also loved the nod to *actual* wrongdoings of a certain craft store aka stealing artifacts. I read this in just a day! Definitely will be recommending this to my horror book club.

A enjoyed this more than I did the first book by this author. This feels like they’ve really found their groove. It’s funny and silly and scary, I love lighthearted horror.

For anyone who has always suspected in their hearts that a certain conservative crafting store is inherently evil, this is a fun and gory thrill ride.

An entertaining novel in the vein of Rachel Harrison and Chuck Tingle. While I loved the story and the queer representation, at times the writing style felt more adjacent to a YA voice. There were a lot of descriptions of Ruth about to scream and holding it back that became a bit redundant, and some plot points could use some polishing, but that’s just me being nit picky. I loved all of the mixed media bits, reminded me a bit of Penance by Eliza Clark in those moments, which is one of my favorite books. The horrific moments were really effective- I’ve never been someone who has been afraid of rats, but that scene really messed with me. Overall, a solid story that could use a little bit of tweaking before pub day.

shout out to the cover designer (lace in the moon, a philly yarn artist!) for posting about this and allowing me to discover the insanity that is Crafting for Sinners. this book is fast paced and action packed—i read this nearly in one sitting, biting my nails the whole time. the gore at times felt a little gratuitous, almost as a substitute for a meatier plot, but ultimately i still enjoyed reading this.

I love this newer division of horror, where it explores religious (predominantly Christian) animosity towards LGBTQ+ individuals. I could see the parallels between the craft store and Hobby Lobby, right down to the whole artifact scandal. I enjoyed the epistolary additions of the podcasts, news articles, I think they fill in the gaps and continue the story. I thought that overall, it was more so on the predictable side, and I thought that the ending with Abigail was a bit too quick, it felt like it was running towards the end. I think having more of her perspective would have been interesting and would have enhanced the story, had it been added sooner. I would definitely read it again, and would absolutely recommend the book for purchase.

It took me a little while to get properly into this one, but once I was in, I really enjoyed it. It was gorier than I was expecting so I couldn't read it on my lunch breaks (ew eye violence!) but all of that stuff was visceral and horrifying in a good way. I did really enjoy the craft store as a horror setting.

Quite unsettling to read and not as fun as I'd hoped given the title and description, with what I agree is a lot of clunky dialogue. But fine as a debut book! Thanks for the arc.

Thank you for the arc!!!
Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer is a brutal horror tale set in Kill Devil, Kentucky. After being fired from the evangelical-run New Creations store for her relationship with Abigail, Ruth’s attempt at revenge turns into a nightmarish ordeal.

Kiefer’s sharp pacing, visceral gore, and ruthless atmosphere shine, though the cult’s rhetoric can feel repetitive. Despite some clunky dialogue, Ruth’s resilience and the chilling premise leave a lasting impact.

4 stars - and an extra .5 stars for the great title and cover.

Ruth is dating Abigail and they live in the little, bigoted town of Kill Devil, Kentucky, home to not much but an evangelical megachurch for a congregation of a group called the New Creationists. These spawn of the angels run their own craft/hobby store which sounds just like everyone’s least favorite (rhymes with Snobby Bobby and before you unknowingly patronize this bastion of hate again I beg you to do a little research on how much they hate women, the LGBT+ community and pretty much everyone who isn’t a cis white male. And I don’t shop there so I can’t confirm this but I have heard that, like the craft/hobby store portrayed in this book, they refuse to have products with bar codes because they feel they might be the sign of the Antichrist spoken of in the Bible. Anyone know if this is true? Because that’s just funny right there.) Lauren Myracle, I hope you are seeing this! (I mean that in only the best way, BTW.)

Here the store is called New Creations and Ruth used to work there until they found out she and Abigail were engaged in lady love and she was fired for conduct unbecoming. Now she steals from there to get back at them.

So, she heads there one day to pick up (abscond with) some emergency yarn and she gets caught. But the staff doesn’t want to call the local cops on Ruth. It’s much, much worse and now she’s trapped in the store and the New Creationists are after her.

OK, given the subject matter I expected this to be less horrifying that it was, but this was absolutely brutal for me, and I spent parts of the book literally, physically contorting my body trying to get away from it (but part of that may depend on how you feel about a certain something that I won’t exactly give away, but call me Winston Smith.). Ruth is a kick ass heroine and I’m not likely to forget this any time soon. Highly recommended for horror fans…Jenny Kiefer, thank you for this (kind of. I also may never get over it.)

Thank you to Netgalley and Edelweiss for the ARC!

This was ok for me! I think the concept was really fun, and some of the gore really stood out, but the cult stuff got pretty repetitive for me. It was a bit one note in terms of repeating the same dialogue, and I was wishing for more background and nuance.

One of the coolest book covers I've ever seen. Big fan of the premise, the gore and the pacing, though I wasn't in love with the epistolary sections or a lot of the dialogue. Was rooting for Ruth and Abigail tho. Cute little reference to This Wretched Valley too. Also, look at that dang cover!