Dark Communion Review

I’m going to be honest here. I forgot that I downloaded this, and I don’t even know where I got it from. All I know was that one day I was looking down the list of books on my EPUB reader app on my phone, and there it was. Looking at the cover and the name, I couldn’t even remember what had possessed me to download it. I usually don’t enjoy horror novels, and this seemed like a recipe for one.

Minotaurs have enslaved the human race. They are stronger than humans, which allowed for them to easily overtake them. Now, they keep them living on large farms for their own personal gain, and control every aspect of their lives. The most despicable thing is that they cannot reproduce on their own because they are all males, so they must impregnate a human woman in order to continue their line. The women are too weak to survive birthing a minotaur, so the women do everything they can to not become pregnant with one. The minotaurs are allowed to do whatever they want to their slaves, so they often simply take women and rape them to have children. This has been the last straw for the human race as they constantly see their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters being killed while giving birth to a minotaur, or dying from the abuse of the minotaur masters.

Ayla has already seen her mother killed by giving birth to a minotaur, and now that she knows that she faces the same fate, she has nothing left to live for. One time in her sleep, a woman speaks to her and says that she is her mother, and she is a goddess. Ayla trades her soul to this goddess in order to start her journey of breaking the curse of the Minotaur. She an a mixmatched group of humans, including her closest ally and fellow slave girl Deetra, must find a way to defeat the minotaurs themselves, with the help of the Goddess. Along the way, they must battle the unfaithful, the minotaurs, and the Furless or humans who are secretly working with Minotaurs.

This book was dark, this book was not a fairytale, and if this book was made into a movie it would be considered horror. But as a story itself, I read an amazing dark adventure story. I loved all the characters, especially Ayla. She was a strong survivor of unspeakable horrors, and she never faltered in her faith towards her Mother. This book has LGBT representation as well, something that is often forgotten in the medieval-esque adventure/dystopian stories.

The story’s plot was fast paced, but not to the point where I felt as if I was missing something. Several plot twists occur but it felt quite linear, which I enjoy in a story. Even though it is the first book in a series, I felt satisfied after reading this story, not feeling as if I had to go and run to read the next book because so much had been left unfinished.

Overall, I loved this book. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an in depth fantasy story, but who isn’t squeamish about a bit of extra goriness or violence.

Overall Rating: 5/5