Showing posts with label Medicine Women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicine Women. Show all posts

Monday, October 13, 2014

The Unholy Review

The Unholy by Paul DeBlassie III
Published August 1, 2013 by Sunstone Press
4 Ritualistic Stars

"A tale so gripping it will have any Zealot daring enough to read questioning their very beliefs."

Synopsis -

A young curandera, a medicine woman, intent on uncovering the secrets of her past is forced into a life-and-death battle against an evil Archbishop. Set in the mystic land of Aztlan, "The Unholy" is a novel of destiny as healer and slayer. Native lore of dreams and visions, shape changing, and natural magic work to spin a neo-gothic web in which sadness and mystery lure the unsuspecting into a twilight realm of discovery and decision. 

PAUL DeBLASSIE III, PhD, is a psychologist and writer living in his native New Mexico. A member of the Depth Psychology Alliance, the Transpersonal Psychology Association, and the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, he has for over thirty years treated survivors of the dark side of religion. (Goodreads)

Review -

While this book is not exactly for everyone, more of a love or hate it, I loved it. Fans of neo-Gothic tales, as well as fans of real history mixed in with fantasy, are sure to enjoy this read. The Unholy is a novel that describes in gruesome detail just how people are willing to go in the name of religion. Where people are more cultists than merely church-goers, believing with their entirety that as long as they are acting in the name of God, what they are doing is right, including murder.

Claire Sanchez is the last of her line of medicine women. Having witnessed her mother's brutal murder at the tender age of five, she is less than willing to pick up the staff and take her place. As always with fate, she will eventually learn that she has no choice. Though it will take a trail of bodies to convince of this. Turns out the past isn't something that can always be buried.

The town know as Ecclesia Dei would give even the Manson Family a run for their money. Convinced beyond a shadow of doubt the pathway to Heaven lies upon the backside of Archbishop Anarch. The wealthy have learned to give him his tithe no matter what exorbitant amount it may be. For to not do so would lead their souls to eternal damnation, after an untimely death. The less fortunate give whatever asked of them, and do as they are told, or they may also suffer the same fate. With followers worshiping him, and the hand of who he believes is God upon his shoulder, Anarch thinks he is above reproach, even a sin is not a sin if he is the one committing it. But there is one person who stands in his way and plans on crushing her like an ant.

Ritualistic killings, cultists to the extreme, zealots at their worst and only a handful of people willing to stand up to them. Though I wish there had been more Paranormal at work; more powers shown and explored by the Medicine women, The Unholy was truly a great read. Showing how the most self-righteous are usually the biggest sinners of all. 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Guest Post: The Secrets About the Horror Genre

The Secrets about the Horror Genre 


About The Unholy 

"A young curandera, a medicine woman, intent on uncovering the secrets of her past is forced into a life-and-death battle against an evil Archbishop. Set in the mystic land of Aztlan, the Unholy is a novel of destiny as healer and slayer. native lore of dreams and visions, shape changing, and natural magic work to spin a neo-gothic web in which sadness and mystery lure the unsuspecting into a twilight realm of discovery and decision." 


Guest Post 

The greatest secret about the horror genre is that it is so multifarious and multiparadigmatic that it defies description. You get S. King with increasingly rich stories as he is ageing, a man who not only has lived and knows horror, but knows longing and love as is evident in his more mature stories written over the past few years especially Lisey’s Story. Then at the other end of the spectrum you get the rough and wild bad boy of horror, Edward Lee. The guy has some seriously demented characters that never ever can be redeemed. I mean what kind of character is the main character in Portrait of a Psychopath as a Young Woman

Horror is such a varied genre. In The Unholy you get more of a classic good guy and bad guy scenario but played out on a supernatural venue featuring the mythopoeic realm of Aztlan. This is a cultural realm with deep spiritual meaning for the mestizos of New Mexico. This is a story of church politics, culture, misogyny, and the struggle to find a sense of self within this multifarious and tormented drama. I don’t think anything short of a horror story (I won’t clean it up at this point by calling it a psychological thriller) could convey the terror of conflicting energies of culture, church, abandonment and the desperate need for courage in a world that seems like it has gone to hell in a church pew! 

I love horror and I love horror because it is so multifaceted, rich, and into extremes that pop out the realities behind the scenes of everyday life. That’s the secret of horror…it’s into extremes so as to express truth…if you got something to say, an old professor of mine used to quip, why not exaggerate to get the point across. Horror does that. The Unholy does horror and goes to extremes to pop out the reality behind what is observable.


About The Author:

Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D., is a psychologist and writer living in Albuquerque, New Mexico who has treated survivors of the dark side of religion for more than 30 years. He is a member of the Depth Psychology Alliance, the Transpersonal Psychology Association and the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Dr. DeBlassie writes psychological thrillers with an emphasis on the dark side of the human psyche.

Book Information
Name: Paul DeBlassie III
Book Title: The Unholy
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Publisher: Sunstone Press



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