Bethany C. Morrow returns with her most chilling novel yet. In THE BODY, a couple’s promise of ’til death do us part becomes a death rattle at the hands of their church congregation.

The daughter of the Doctors Carson, faith community pillars who dabble in marriage counseling, Mavis has always known her role as a woman: to find a husband and devote herself to him. In the world of the Carsons’ congregation, men come first, and women are their happy, subjugated servants. The latter are willing to overlook any flaws while doing everything in their power to eliminate their own. 

Divorce is unheard of in their community. After all, their congregation is known for one seemingly outdated, conservative-minded practice. When a man and woman stand at the altar to take their vows, the congregation also recites a vow: to do whatever they can to uphold the marriage. Raised to be the upstanding daughter of her revered parents, Mavis attended more of these vows than she could count by the time she was 12. She just never knew what she was vowing to do.

"You will not be able to put the book down, for both its hair-raising plot and the fear that what awaits you on the next page is scarier than anything you’ve prepared for. Trust me, what Morrow has in store is worth every jump scare, goose bump and nail bite."

On the day we meet Mavis, the unthinkable has occurred. She overheard a call from her husband’s assistant in which she referred to him as “Babe,” and Jerrod silenced her so quickly that it couldn’t have been a slip. Jerrod has been unfaithful to Mavis, and the vow she took seven years ago officially has been called into question. You might expect that she would be devastated and wondering where she went wrong. Confusingly, though, Mavis is relieved. Having navigated decades of minefields and pitfalls, she always has been taught that if there is a problem in her life, it is her fault. Now the biggest problem she ever could dream of has fallen into her lap, and the years she has spent anxiously waiting have been validated. For once, her real life is bigger than her fear of it. She just has to figure out what to do.

“An eye for an eye” is a biblical lesson that Mavis learned alongside those of honoring and obeying her husband. So she quickly finds a way to protect herself through vengeance in order to reclaim the infidelity that has shaken her so much. She does this by connecting with her ex-boyfriend, Cyrus, the man she once thought she would marry. Despite being a married man himself, Cyrus is still every bit the cad he was when they dated, and he practically serves himself up to her on a musky silver platter. The deed done, Mavis feels prepared to approach Jerrod. But on the drive home from her dalliance, she is T-boned. She is certain that death has come for her. Against all odds, Mavis survives, only to discover that the vehicle that hit her was driven by her parents’ oldest friends, another set of pillars in their church community. It’s an odd coincidence, but it can’t mean anything, right?

However, following the crash, a maniac encounters Mavis and Jerrod in the aisle of a home improvement store, followed by a break-in. But what chills Mavis to the bone is not the acts themselves, but the fact that she recognizes every single perpetrator and knows the exact curves of the spellings of their names. And why wouldn’t she? After all, every last one of them was at her wedding, signed her guestbook, and received handwritten letters of thanks from her the next day. It seems that the congregation has been called upon to protect the only thing that matters: their marriage. Now that both Jerrod and Mavis have taken acts against their vow, the congregation has come to collect, to batter and punish the woman who should have known better, betraying her husband in the most unthinkable way.

After devising a series of tests --- one that chillingly involves her own parents, who have spent decades neglecting their daughter but suddenly become laser-focused on her sin --- Mavis finally realizes what she must do to survive: complete the wedding vow…to death.

Hellish, sinister and suffocatingly eerie, THE BODY is Bethany C. Morrow at her best. Already admired for her ability to unpack deep truths about oppression and marginalization, Morrow has found her sweet spot in the horror genre, taking real-world terrors and refracting them into something uniquely her own. The overtures of the patriarchy’s hold on religion are already well-known, well-trod territory. But in her capable hands, the story of the breaking of a vow becomes something akin to a deal with the devil.

Morrow’s social commentary here is razor-sharp and crystalline, and with that precision comes a whole lot of pure, stifling discomfort. This forces readers to contend with their own thoughts about religion, marriage and community, not to mention the fascinating intersections among the three. The blend is intoxicating and unputdownable, with Morrow infusing the entire novel with an air of heart-pounding, anxiety-inducing dread. You will not be able to put the book down, for both its hair-raising plot and the fear that what awaits you on the next page is scarier than anything you’ve prepared for. Trust me, what Morrow has in store is worth every jump scare, goose bump and nail bite. 

Utterly gripping and unrepentantly haunting, THE BODY is proof that the horror genre allows us to face off against not only ghosts and monsters, but the scariest thing of all: our own species.