The Coven by Graham Masterton
⭐️3

The only reason I gave this book 3 stars and not less is because of the actual story behind the unnecessary parts

This review does contain spoilers and I will say it may trigger people if you are sensitive toward sexual assault, abuse and death kinks

The Coven took a while for me to get into, at one point I wondered if the right book had been bounded in the cover! Once Beatrice came over to London and undertook her role at St Marys it finally began to get interesting. I was intrigued and I seemed to have gone through a stage of reading this era. There seemed to be light coming to the end of Beatrices sadness.

However

One chapter very nearly made me put this book into the incinerator and burn it I was that disgusted and knew I wouldn’t want to give it to someone else to read. I felt like this was completely unnecessary and downright disgusting, honestly made me question what was going through the authors mind when he wrote that part and how someone passed it through
So.....

Girls which were taken from St Mary’s to work at the benefactors tobacco factory mysteriously go missing under the guise they summoned the devil and escaped.....however, we find out that George is in cohorts with a local brothel who specialise in kinks including beastiality and rape. He sends the girls there who he ‘rescues’ and they meet their maker on a table set on a stage in front of 100s of paying customers. (Women and men)

Now....the maid gets taken to ‘work at the factor’ and Beatrice goes to the brothel and although the owner denies a black girl being there, she finds her drugged and bound to a bed. She’s that nights entertainment. What got me at the end is that this girl endured much worse than the 7 taken before her. Why?? Not only is this poor girl drugged, bound and viciously raped but also beheaded (during the rape) in front of the crowd. This is the part which made me physically sick, I know this was probably the authors intention but I wasn’t expecting it as nothing like that had been mentioned before in the book

Unfortunately the same fortune nearly happens to Beatrice but the police luckily turn up just in time. The ending luckily gave Beatrice her happiness back and she was beginning a new life. I definitely won’t be recommending this to anyone I know due to the fact I don’t want them to read that part and feel how I did. Maybe they wouldn’t and maybe I was too sensitive over it but there was no warning and no preconception that was going to happen. Sad really. The story was good until that.