Name: Extasia
ISBN: 9780062696632

Claire Legrand

Extasia

Liz Griffin

Cassie Annesi

A lot of frustration reading this book, mainly because of the content. Very much reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Extasia has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Thank you Epic Reads for the gifted ARC.

Although the writing style is lyrical and poignant and visceral, the quantity of triggering material outweighed my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps the intent was to give women a revenge fantasy, and I understand the appeal… but framing it in a world that is so horrible to women just made reading it somewhat of a slog because horrific things continued happening to Amity/Rage and the other protagonists for so much of the book.

Specifically, content includes religious/patriarchal cult trauma, attempted rape, implied past rape, frequent physical abuse, gaslighting, explicit violence/gore/body horror, and death.

Kayla Smith

I feel like Legrand did a great job with what she set out to do, this book was truly horrifying. I found myself second guessing whether or not this was listed as YA because she definitely didn't pull any punches with how graphic and gruesome this book got at certain times throughout the story. There were many moments I enjoyed. I loved the witchy aspect, and the way their magic was described. I loved the themes of female empowerment and religious trauma, despite the fact that they could be heavy handed at times. This wasn't perfect for me because I felt like the pacing was off. I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to think about the ending and I wish we'd just had a little more time to figure out the twist because I think it could've been amazing with just a touch more development. I'll definitely be recommending this novel but it wasn't a new favorite, personally.