Petrified Women: A Horror Thriller Novella

 “When she succeeded, the memory would dissolve. She would escape Christoper’s face – his voice. She could behave like a normal, functioning human. If she failed, she’d be forced to relive the event yet again.”

– Jeremy Ray, Petrified Women

⚒️I received an e-ARC of this story in exchange for a fair review. Petrified Women (2021) released on the 11th May!⚒️

Back in November of last year, Jeremy Ray reached out about reviewing his short story, The Houseplant (2020). I was so excited; not only had I read and loved his debut story of ecological horror, The Gatherings (2020), but this marked the first advance review copy I’d ever received. When the opportunity later presented itself to sign up as a frequent ARC reader for Ray’s books, I hopped right on that too – as I’ve mentioned before, Jeremy is an immensely talented writer, and I’d happily read anything he releases – which brings us around to this, his newest horror novella, titled Petrified Women.

This book follows Harley, a woman haunted by her experiences of sexual assault with a previous partner. She suffers from severe PTSD as a result, and this manifests itself in her freezing up in dangerous or uncomfortable situations. Her current boyfriend Aiden appears to be ideal, though – he’s somewhat eccentric, what with his hobby of carving life-size female figurines from wood, and his obsession with pranking or scaring her – but otherwise, he comes across as the perfect partner. This year she plans to one-up him though, and lays down the groundwork for an epic prank of her own, the scare to top all previous scares. However, when Aiden comes home, Harley sees a very different – and much more sinister – side to her new boyfriend.

First things first; I feel it’s important for me to provide something of a content warning, and mention that this book has some challenging topics that will prove triggering for certain readers. As that brief synopsis might suggest, there are prominent themes of both emotional and sexual abuse throughout, and the associated trauma and PTSD that comes from experiences like that. Subjects like these are always going to be difficult to confront in a narrative, but Jeremy does so extremely well – he approaches these themes carefully and with understanding. As he writes in his dedication, this is a story for the survivors, for those that have had similar experiences, and the author pours his heart and soul into authentically presenting that.

I really liked the plot setup of the couple playing tricks on one another; this was original and added another layer to the story. With that said, I did feel this strand could maybe have been developed a little further, that the prank dynamic could have had more of an impact on the narrative overall. I wouldn’t really say I ever felt like it was just a prank on Aiden’s part, and think the themes of gaslighting and emotional manipulation could have really solidified if this aspect was made a bit more ambiguous. Ideally, we as the reader would have been just as unsure as to whether it was just an elaborate ruse and scare tactic.

That point aside though, this was a terrific read. The two main characters were both believable, and Harley was very easy to sympathise and relate to. The storyline itself is very engaging; Jeremy crafts a suspenseful narrative that will have you on edge from the first page to the last, and the ending offers a satisfying pay-off which ties together the core themes and ideas well.

VERDICT: Petrified Women is another fantastic offering from Jeremy Ray, written in his truly wonderful and highly compelling voice as an author. The story highlights the experiences of victims of such abuse – he examines the trauma and after-effects with brutal, unflinching honesty – but ultimately, this is a passionate testament to the strength of survivors, and a rallying cry for unity against such horrific abuse.

It’s a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from this reviewer. I also want to say a humongous thank you to Jeremy Ray for providing the ARC and giving me the chance to read and review it early.