If what you were looking for is a novel that delivers on sheer pulpy mayhem this is most definitely that. I found the characterization and writing to be a bit uneven, we vacillate between language that feels incredibly appropriate for the 19th century, setting and language that might feel more comfortable in the 21st-century, and there is a Native American character who felt uncomfortably close to the mystically wise person of color trope for my taste but there is a whole lot of bloody fun and nuns slaking their bloodLust in ways that are satisfying in the same way that a grindhouse film is.

From the synopsis of this book, I knew I was going to have a good time. And I did. But the repetition dragged this down for me. Way down.

I was 💯invested until around 70% when everything kept repeating itself along with gratuitous blood and guts.

The author is on to something. (Was on to something?) Because this could have gone in SO MANY incredible ways and it just didn’t for me.

I wanted so badly to rate this higher because, on paper it’s everything I want. And I am all for a story of a woman liberating herself.

One thing I DID appreciate about this story is that it never went into sexual acts. Sexuality was hinted at but never explicitly detailed.

If you’re into warrior nuns, fell beasts, snowy landscapes, and feminine rage, you will love this. But be ready for the repetition.

QUOTE: “Cosmopolitan society, she archly explained, is not necessary to the cultivation of true intelligence.”

So chillingly written I had cold chills in the middle of a heatwave.
The comraderie of the nuns, the emotion, the utter compelling force of this novel kept me reading and I absolutely inhaled this novel.
This book is the epitome of female rage, a gorefest and feast for the senses.
Sapphic, intriguing, bloody, violent and grim. Loved it.

I think this is one of the most violent books I've ever read, and the contrast between this hyper violence and the constant religious craze the characters were in made for a weird experience.

I liked it overall, but I had to stop at several moments just to ask myself what I just read.

I think this is a solid horror story, but definitely not for everyone.
It might be for you if you like graphic gore, supernatural beasts, and crazed nuns drunk on their own liquor.

I’ve been reading a lot of religious horror lately, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this ARC, and it absolutely delivered. This was such a fun, wild read.

The setting is one of the book’s biggest strengths. A fortified monastery surrounded by snow-covered hills creates the perfect backdrop for the story. It honestly felt like something straight out of a Robert Eggers film!

Told as Henrietta’s own confession, the story doesn’t hold back when it comes to the gore and brutality of the hunt. It was exciting, and sometimes surprising, to watch these women set out on their holy mission, slowly leaving behind the humility expected of them and giving in to their darkest instincts and desires.

Every woman in the group has her own distinct voice and role, making it easy to become invested in them. Chris McGinley’s sharp social commentary and dark sense of humor add another layer to an already entertaining story.

If you’re a fan of religious horror, bloody monster hunts, and stories where faith and violence collide, this is definitely one you won’t want to miss!

4.5/5 stars

<i>Hail Holy Queens</i> grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go. Honestly, it's still hanging on a good few hours later after finishing it, which is usually the mark of a fantastic book in my experience.

This book starts with a bang and it never lets up. When I thought the stakes couldn't get any higher, they continued to be raised in the most brutal, gory fashion and I loved every minute of it. I never knew how much I needed some beast-killing nuns in my life until now, but I'm so glad I found out. There's no hesitation or skirting around the bush to be found here; everything is laid out in intricate, nasty detail--and that's a good thing. I wouldn't have felt so strongly about this novel if it shied away from the blood and guts of it all.

Henrietta (or Henry, as the sisters call her) was a great protagonist, but where <i>Hail Holy Queens</i> really shines is with the other characters. Even ones that only show up for a few brief sentences were great and felt like that had meaningful impact on the story as a whole. Setting the giant hunt in the middle of the winter during a blizzard was also a great choice. Every moment felt like a life or death scenario and there were real consequences to be felt throughout.

I really enjoyed my time with this novel, but the only thing holding it back from a true 5 star rating is the epilogue. The ending of the story itself was well done and felt like the perfect stopping place, so the epilogue felt a little unnecessary. I say it often when it comes to horror books, but it's something that remains true: sometimes (most of the time, even) keeping a little of the mystery around is better than trying to explain things. Still, I loved the book enough that I didn't let this change the way I saw the rest of it.

Hail Holy Queens is like the novelization of an A24 movie that hasn't been filmed. In fact, I'm not sure that this wasn't written to inspire some indie darlings to adapt it to the screen. As a result, it's highly cinematic and has a terrific sense of pacing. I like the characters, the scares, and the themes. But there's something about the epistolic nature of the book that just doesn't work for me. The language keeps shifting: from archaic to almost modern-sounding, and it's pretty jarring. Having said that, this is an author I'm definitely going to read more frequently in future.

Let’s set the stage: 1800s snowed in nuns vs. otherworldly, wolverine-esque creatures who can induce madness

What comes from this is an insanely wild, grotesque ride that did not let up 😮‍💨 This book is so much more than just a creature feature though. It’s filled with female rage. The rage towards the creatures for harming their own, rage towards the men in their lives, and rage towards the system that treats women like they should be meek and submissive and anything other is wrong. The nuns themselves turned just as animalistic as the creatures they hunted, and the growing camaraderie amongst them was delightful to witness.

The book itself felt like a fever dream. It is told as a written recollection from one of the nuns who was present, but I felt she was very unreliable. Considering why she was in the nunnery, I won’t spoil that 🤭, I really questioned if the story being told was the actual reality. That mixed with the madness the Gulo could induce, it was very hard to distinguish reality from illusion. It added another depth to the story, and I love an unreliable narrator.

Overall, I felt this was a fantastic horror and I enjoyed my time with these warrior nuns. Definitely recommend to those who love creature features and female rage 🙂‍↕️

Thank you NetGalley, Fringe Press, and Chris McGinley for the ARC! 🫶🏼

Wow! This book was something else! I knew from the description it was going to be crazy, but I didn’t expect the level of crazy.
From the first page I was hooked, for some reason it reminded me of Frankenstein, maybe the epistolary theme, maybe the promise of a wild, supernatural creature, i don’t know.
From the beginning, we are transported into the story of a group of nuns who are ravaged by a beast that is spreading psychosis and death among the nuns. They embark on a journey to hunt and kill the beasts, and what follows is 200 pages of batshit crazy, gore, religious fervor and female rage.
They are transformed, enraged, they become the animals they hunt, they blend religious rites with pagan ones, finding their true selves in the process, liberating themselves from the constraints of religion, society, patriarchy.. They are Christian Maenads/Bacchae following a female Dionysus/Bacchus on as much of a spiritual journey as a physical one, fighting the elements and the beasts that surround them, and I loved every moment.
Thank you NetGalley, Fringe Press, and Chris McGinley for the ARC!

Thank you to Fringe Press and NetGalley for this eARC!

I loved the idea of this story and the very strong female characters. However, I wish we had much more character development in the novel.

Hail Holy Queens is written from the perspective of Henrietta through the lens of her journal, and I'm not sure if maybe it was intentional, but the whole novel seemed to be repetition of the same events happening over and over. All action, and it didn't feel like there was much at stake, or downtime to get to know the characters more than surface level. Without giving anything away, the way the novel ended had much more character development and depth than the other 90%.

I still enjoyed reading about badass ladies, so it's a 3/5 for me.

I was looking forward to this, and at its core is a thrilling, visceral look at the battle between good and evil, with a dose of church politics. But the period tone is shrouded in a self-conscious veneer, a too-modern “Still I persisted “ and the narrator directly addresses the reader far too often. Also falls prey to nunsplainining, unnecessarily spelling out resonances to the Odyssey and Moby Dick.

if Sister Act, The Shining, The Witch, The Nun, and feminism had a baby in a horror movie set in a creepy forest, it would be this amazing piece of literature. I can’t remember the last time I was this sad to finish a book, even though I refused to pace myself.

In 1887, nuns in a Berkshire convent hunt predatory beasts called Gulo after an attack, aided by a mysterious warrior who trains them in violent vengeance.

💭💭🤔
📚2.5 stars.
📚 Thriller
📚Netgalley via Kindle

A MARRIED woman gets sent to a convent after her husband discovers she writes in a journal and writes novels. The husband throws several journals into the fire in front of her and decides she is mentally insane.
she sees multiple doctors and goes to multiple asylum and eventually The convent.
outside the snowy mountains the sisters must navigate the internal animal instincts (peeing outside and being naked ) etc... and get down to business to defeat the Gulos.
what is a Gulo im glad you asked.. its a black dog like beasts with long quills and a black tongue.
A sister show up right when they need her to help hunt the wild pack. The Gulo has eaten and hurt multiple nuns and young children. They must attack back!

2.5 stars because the ending is the only part worth it.
the middle is .. mid and uneventful.
however the concept is cool and it is something different. This is a very unhinged and graphic book which I don't mind.
0 spice but strange.
🧮
Stats: july 28th 2026 (Out now)
pages : 228
book 491 logged on my Goodreads
#netgalley #goodreads #bookgirlies #sisternun
#newthrillerbook

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hail Holy Queens is a bold, unsettling horror novel that blends religious horror with deeply human emotions. Chris McGinley creates an atmosphere filled with creeping dread, where faith, guilt, and fear intertwine in ways that kept me turning the pages.

The story shines through its richly drawn characters and the emotional weight behind their choices. The horror is both psychological and visceral, making the unsettling moments feel earned rather than relying solely on shock. McGinley's writing is immersive, building tension steadily until the final pages.

If you enjoy horror that explores belief, morality, and the darkness that can exist within both people and institutions, Hail Holy Queens is well worth picking up. It's an atmospheric, thought-provoking read that lingers long after the last chapter. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love religious horror so I knew right away this book was for me. This was such a strange horror read. I loved the idea of a group of nuns going after a monster because it was such a unique setup. The snowy wilderness, the creatures, and the mystery surrounding the Long Nun all gave the story a gothic feel that kept me interested. I also liked how the book played with the idea of faith, vengeance, and what happens when people are pushed too far. It was violent, weird, and had a dark sense of humor that kept me up two nights straight to finish. This is definitely one for anyone who likes their horror weird and creepy.

1887 Berkshire. A convent isolated by winter, unprecedented snow but continuing their normal life under the dictatorial supervision of Mother Superior.

Their lives are disrupted by the appearance of beasts of almost demonic proportions and appearance. Their lives are nuns are attacked and with the initial deaths, the group of quiet nuns turn into a fighting force, they become the hunters and unleash almost super human power on the destruction of these beasts.

The story is loud and violent and the setting was epic. Related by Henrietta who has been dumped there by her husband (convents were convenient places to get rid of unwanted relatives) and she describes each encounter really well.

Hail Holy Queens is a journal-style story written by Henrietta, who addresses the reader throughout her tale. Henrietta finds herself at a convent as part of her doctor and husband’s treatment plan for her behavioral problems, with her writing dark tales as the biggest problem. At the beginning of her stay, she keeps to herself, writing away in her cell and participating in convent life as little as possible. On the eve of her release, a snowstorm hits, and with it comes evil creatures and the Long Nun to guide the convent in a holy war.

What follows is a wild tale of battle nuns, wolf monsters, sisterly bonding, and a lot of blood and violence. Did I mention the blood? It's a crazy fun ride with some minor issues.

This first issue is definitely a me thing. This is a Catholic convent filled with nuns, so there are a lot of references to rituals, rites, and articles of clothing I had to look up just to understand the story. As a newcomer telling her story to readers who may or may not know what these things are, I think Henrietta should have explained these better.

Henrietta sounded a bit too modern at times when talking to the reader. The Long Nun did as well, but it felt different when she did. I got the feeling that she might have been an angel in disguise or something along those lines, so her speech didn’t bother me. Henrietta, on the other hand, was supposed to be a society woman, and her wording sometimes felt more modern than late 1800s.

Lastly, when the nuns went on the hunt for the devil/demon (?) monsters, the story became a bit repetitive. This isn’t a long book so I feel like it shouldn’t have felt like it was dragging. But it did. Maybe the repetition was intentional, mimicking the nuns’ daily rituals? If so, I missed that.

Still, it was an interesting tale that danced the line of classic pulp horror and modern-day horror.
I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a short, Catholic-themed pulp horror story.

What a crazy ride. The atmosphere was incredible and really kept me turning pages.

Thank you to NetGalley for the read.

a bloody, 1800s gothic horror that follows nuns as they hunt wolf beasts in a snow-swept convent. who would ask for more when there is sisterhood and gore sandwiched into 200 something pages ! would recommend :)

I have learned that I don't like how Dime Novels break the fourth wall, which in turn means I don't really like this book. However, I appreciate the commitment to sticking with the time-period accuracy of how authors would write Dime Novels. I just felt that, at times, the narrator's interjections and complete switch in topic to her life before being sent to the convent were redundant, especially since the switch occurred during moments when tension was building. It just broke that tension completely.

What I really appreciate is the good representation of female rage, and this novella is full of it. I feel like the setting of a convent and the specific time period, as the women's suffrage movement was gaining traction, was perfect. It feels far back enough in time that stories of unknown monsters lurking in the New England woods were still a real thing, but still modern enough that it doesn't feel completely out of touch. The monster's descriptions were awesome and disturbing. It really reminded me of Annihilation's monsters, but it still felt unique.

Folk horror and religious horror are two of my favourite subgenres, so I thought I’d enjoy this book, and the first 25% was okay, but then it went downhill. Unfortunately, the book is incredibly repetitive: the beasts come, delusions occur, they drink AMARO, they run around naked, hunt the beast, some surface-level feminist proclamation, and repeat. At one point they eat the beast’s meat, and it is described five or six times in a row between different characters how awful the meat tastes… Not only is the plot repetitive, but the dialogue is as well… I think tighter editing really would’ve helped this book.

I found the book lacking in character work. I have no clue who these nuns are, including our protagonist. What we got at most was surface-level explanations of their lives: ‘Born in Kentucky, wife of a high society man, wants to write’. For some nuns, we didn’t even get that. So their relationships to each other fell flat for me, and I did not care about what happened to any of them.

Lastly, I appreciate the feminist threads woven in (despite them staying at a surface level), although the ‘we became the beasts we’ve slain and emancipated ourselves’ narrative wasn’t a fulfilling ending for me. An in-depth reckoning with the system does not happen.

25% in the priest comes into the convent and starts ordering the nuns to get naked and whips them as a punishment for their transgressions. This (s*xual) viol*nce is then explained (somewhat justified) with the priest being in psychosis due to the beast’s effect. The priest then gets martyred, and everything is fine. At the end of the book, the nuns make peace with the other priests on the condition that they are not abused again… Fighting the masters with the master’s tools…

I’m sorry that I don’t have anything more positive to say.

I was hooked from the blurb: “It’s long odds for the brides of Christ.”

As advertised, it is gory horror, so reader beware, but mixed with wilderness adventure, female rage, and mythical beasts. It’s an animalistic fever dream that never veers too far into the profane. A bit repetitive in the end, but I still found the action scenes compelling.

The atmosphere was cinematic and the pacing spot-on for me. Religious horror is one of my favorite genres and I wish for many more books just like this.

I loved this read! It was a mix of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Lord of the Flies, and Kill Bill. It is all about woman fighting each other but also fighting for each other. The setting and time period creates the feeling of isolation that permeates throughout the novel. McGinley mixed both creature feature vibes with psychological and social horror.

I'm going to do this one quite short, because the things that stopped me for fully enjoy this book are repetitive through the whole book.
The protagonist loses all her personality by the third of the book. The narrative it's repetitive after a while, the same ideas and similar phrases until the end. The actions scenes are also quite boring, because they all start the same and end in a variety. However, the action lacks the aspect of intense emotional connection with the reader. Idk what happened between the first chapters and the middle. All the Gothic aspect gets lost.
Thank Netgalley for the ARC.

When I got to see the monster as early as the first handful of chapters, I knew I was in for a ride. Our (unreliable?) narrator is introduced as somewhat of an outsider, but is quickly drawn into this community of nuns as the Sisters bond over their holy hunt.

The middle part of the novella was more repetitive. It only stays fresh so many times to witness the loop of irritation/paranoia to reconciliation, to channelling bloodlust into holy fervour and finally losing inhibitions in drink, profanity and general norm breaking. The blurred lines between religious fervour and female rage emanated from the pages wonderfully, although there were moments that made me wonder whether the book would've been better served with a female author.

One achievement of the book may sound paradoxical: McGinley manages to give the nuns so much character with so little characterisation. We know so little about the sisters, but their interactions are meaningful. A nun without even a name ('the young postulant') nevertheless is central to several touching interactions.

The novella ends on a -for horror- rare note of happy ending. The monster is vanquished, and with it are all secondary problems. And that - that was satisfactory.