4.5 rounded up because wowoweewow

Few things make me angrier than the words of hatred cloaked as Christianity, cherry-picked as seen fit to suit their ideas and screamed into some weird echo chamber of delusion...it's no wonder the line between cults and religion can be so thin. So it makes me so very, very happy to see a horror novel take on that task. Even moreso, with a queer main character who you will definitely be cheering for! The craft store can be no other than Hobby Lobby...I mean, where else can you find a craft store that has an aisle especially for crosses.

This is VERY much Horrorstor meets Camp Damascus, both books I highly recommend. The Wretched Valley, Kiefer's previous work is one I constantly recommend too (it's fantastic wilderness horror). The cover is incredible, I mean STUNNING. I will be recommending this to all horror lovers when it's out in October!

My only complaint? Leave the rats alone! hahaha

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.

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.