Star Eater

Starred review from March 1, 2021

As a member of the Sisterhood of Aytrium, Elfreda Raughn is part of a magical bloodline that preceded her, from her mother to her grandmother and generations back. But it is the same bloodline that forces Elfreda into eventual pregnancy and unavoidable death. Hoping for a way to escape her fate, Elfreda finds a mysterious group, those who believe the power of the Sisterhood has gone too far. Acting as their spy, Elfreda infiltrates a world of opulence and cunning, as drought and rationing affects the rest of Aytrium. With her closest friends by her side, Elfreda discovers that freedom could come at great cost, for the Sisterhood has made many sacrifices to keep its power, and Elfreda could find she is the next to pay. Systemic power structures built on the back of a dead god, ritualistic cannibalism, and magical disease are balanced with emotional themes of love and regret. VERDICT Hall's (The Border Keeper) solid worldbuilding and strong prose create an utterly gripping novel that blends the boundaries of horror and fantasy.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 29, 2021
Hall’s full-length fantasy debut (after novella The Border Keeper) stumbles over its many plot twists as a young woman becomes entangled in a scheme to undermine the ruling order. The Sisterhood of Aytrium demands grisly sacrifices from its initiates—so when a member of an insurrectionist splinter group within the Sisterhood offers Acolyte Elfreda Raughn an opportunity to get out of the worst of these duties in exchange for spying on their enemies, she gladly accepts. Hall’s prose is vivid and the characterization is incisive as Elfreda’s involvement with the insurrectionists grows and ultimately places a target on her back, but a pile-up of minor plot swerves make for a bumpy reading experience. Insubstantial foreshadowing makes some of these surprises feel like they come out of nowhere while others manipulate insufficiently established loopholes in the rules of the world. Hall expertly shows the day-to-day impact of the sociopolitical aspects of Aytrium, and the system through which magic is inherited plays out in a darkly fascinating way, but some worldbuilding strokes are so subtle as to be easily overlooked. This causes later revelations to fall flat as Elfreda tries to save herself and dismantle the corrupt Sisterhood. Readers who can forgive the flaws, however, will find this a powerful indictment of how power erodes ethics.

May 1, 2021
El works as part of the Order, a sisterhood and core central body that rules Aytrium and keeps it running. Her magic, or "lace," is powered by consuming the flesh of her ancestors. This power comes at a harsh price, and it's one that El is willing to escape at any cost, which is why she agrees when a resistance group asks her to spy on the sisterhood's top officials. Hall's world is intricately woven, with a complex web of side characters, suspenseful pacing, and slowly unraveling revelations. The Order and the world of Aytrium is exceedingly dark, and sexual assault and body horror are major parts of the plot. El's inner motivations are sometimes revealed very late despite the first-person narration, and the plot's revelations rush toward an abrupt end that doesn't quite fit the intricate work of its beginning. All of that said, Star Eater is an exciting horror-fantasy about power, violence, and control, and El's complicated quest to be free of the violent magic system at the sisterhood's core will keep readers compelled from the first page.

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