Lori's Reviews > Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism: A Novella

I downloaded the review copy and entered into it cautiously because... PUPPETS! There are few things that scare the beejesus out of me but puppets, especially marionettes, are creepy as fuck and make my skin crawl something fierce so tucking them into a horror novel... oh lordy! But I really like Bad Hand Books so I took the plunge.

And I'm glad I did because I really, really enjoyed it!

Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism starts off slow and atmospheric. It's set in a church rectory in a small town in Sicily that's been ravaged by war. A group of orphaned children were taken in by the nuns of the church and then suffered the unexpected loss of their priest. So in comes Father Gaetano. A young man of the cloth who agrees to take on the temporary work of teaching the children the Catechism. Many of their hearts have been hardened by the brutal loss of their parents at such a young age and they actively challenge the young priest, questioning God and his allowance of such horrible events. Gaetano realized he has his work cut out for him but it's while he befriends the shy nine year old Sabastiano that he learns of an abandoned puppet theatre in the basement of the rectory. The puppets, he hopes, will help him teach his bible lessons and reconnect to the children to God in a fun and interactive way.

But the puppets... well... they have other ideas.

I'm sure you can guess where things go from here. A heavy wooden box long hidden in the basement. Stuffed full of handcrafted creepy ass dolls. Just waiting for someone to come along and release them? It's all fun and games until the sun goes down and the strings come loose.

It's a quick, engrossing read that's really well written. It's dark and chilling and sure, there's a lot of set up and exploration into the church and the nuns and Father Gaetano before the good stuff really starts to kick in but there's enough build up and tension working its way through the storyline that I was ok with the whole thing. Oh, and... I'm only just now learning that the author is the dude behind Hellboy. Which, ok, yes, I admit I must live under a rock because I had no clue. But honestly, Hellboy is a bit outside of my usual tastes and if I had known of the connection prior to, I might not have been as open to reading this, so there's that, too!

Go on, dive in, and get your freaky marionette horror on!