thank you to netgalley and nicole cushing. the title of "the plastic priest" is what caught my attention-- it is extremely unique. i appreciate horror and thriller stories with religious symbolism or elements, so of course i had to pick this novella up. i also thought it was great that the main character was a FEMALE, as many stories focusing on the church have a male clergy lead. i loved the concept of "the plastic priest" and i thought the writing itself was pretty solid, but what unfortunately made me dock down some stars is the execution of the concept. toward the ending of the book, it began to fall flat. i most certainly would pick up another one of cushing's books in the future though!

Mother Kaye, a struggling, somewhat progressive Episcopalian priest assigned to a church in the conservative small town of Owlingsville, Indiana, finds herself at odds with the close-minded and gossipy townies and the need to keep her husband’s pagan proclivities secret. In the process, she begins to lose her faith, and starts to question her sanity. And at that point, things start to get weird. Cushing, who won the Bram Stoker Award for her shocking debut novel “Mr. Suicide,” delivers a fascinating character study that satirizes American mega-church culture with scintillating prose, genuine chills, and a great deal of black humor, all while keeping her story anchored in a very real feeling Midwest.

I greatly enjoyed this book. Highly recommend for fans of religious horror. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read it!

⛪️⛪️🛐Bool Review🛐⛪️
#theplasticpriest by #nicolecushing
Nicole is a #bramstrokerawardwinner !!!!!

Another awesome #netgalley arc! The plastic priest is a short story about a woman who is a priest. Everyone including her own mother believes that only men can be priests so she lives in constant judgment every day. Trying something new. She goes to the local park to hold the church service however, the weather is so horrible with crushing rain, she becomes so disappointed in herself as no one shows up. But I don’t know where someone does show up. And that someone else, someone from another realm, to convince her she is just a plastic priest. One of many. There’s a lot of detail in this book about the history of different religions. This is not something I read all the time however I got sucked in due to the way the author writes. She’s extremely detailed and character builds like no one else. While reading this book, I almost felt like I was talking to a friend. It was just so relatable and weird ways. This is a short and a it’s perfect for a rainy day!! I write this book 4 stars and I would recommend it!

#netgalleyreadathon #netgalley #netgalleyreview #netgalleyreviewer #netgalleyreads #netgalleyarc #ilovebooks #ilovebooks📚 #bookrecsofinstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreader #bookreviewersofinstagram #booknerdigans #booklover #kindleunlimited #kindle #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookreviewer #ilovebooks #bookrecsofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookloversofinstagram #booknerds #booknerdcommunity #bookishengagement #booksilove #ilovebooksmorethanpeople #bookstagramfeature

I would definitely pick something up by this author again, but I think this book was a bit of a miss for me! This is perhaps my own fault since I went into this book with different expectations than what was actually presented, I definitely have an audience I can recommend this to but it wasn’t a hit for me personally. There was a lot of backstory yet I didn’t feel emotionally attached to the character which is primarily where my enjoyment comes from when reading.

.i just want to leave stars, not a written review.
i just want to leave stars, not a written review.
i just want to leave stars, not a written review.
i just want to leave stars, not a written review.
i just want to leave stars, not a written review.
I’m. Reader not a writer

When Mother Kaye begins to question her faith and what that means to her life everything is upended. Things are taken much further than a simple identity crisis in this bendy quick read.

This book tells the story of Mother Kaye, a middle-aged female Episcopalian priest in Indiana who is new to her congregation in the time of the covid pandemic. She is an unconventional priest to say the least. She is married to a pagan and doesn’t really believe in every aspect of her faith, but most of all, she is struggling to connect with her new congregation whose members she finds entitled and old. Her dissatisfaction however, is heavily outweighed by how easy and familiar her job is, the month of holidays in the summer, and the fact that she is a people-pleaser.
Things start to take a surreal turn when mother Kaye encounters a strange homeless man in a park who calls himself Janus (the Roman god of beginnings, transitions, time, duality and endings) and curses her to lose her sense of reality if she doesn’t quit priesthood. She then gradually believes her soul to have become poisoned.
The book is structured in an intense and original way, mixing thematic chapters discussing specific aspects of the main character while also progressing the story. The narration starts off firmly anchored in reality, with very dry explanations and even lists, until it changes to become surreal and somewhat harder to interpret.
Through the main character, who is going through a pretty intense midlife crisis centred around her job and faith, the book explores the themes of religion, belief, doubt and reality. Did she get Covid? Is she experiencing psychosis? Or is one’s self-doubt strong enough to distort one’s sense of reality? The story shows the breaking point a person experiences when all the pressures in life get too much. Between doing a job which profoundly intertwines with one’s identity, the familial pressures, the pressures of the environment and culture, a delicate and difficult balance is easily lost.
The story also explores the small town's dynamics, the rampant prejudices and closed-mindedness, along with a lot of political subtext (especially bearing in mind the Covid-era setting) that I’m not sure I completely got not being from the USA myself. Additionally, not being a religious person, I don’t think I really got the profound nature and impact of doubt in one’s faith which is explored in this story. I think you probably need an interest or an understanding of religion and faith to fully appreciate this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for my honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own opinions.

I'm not sure what I just read. Did I like it? Yes. Did I want to stop reading it? No. Is the term "professional Christians" permanently in my vocal? 100%.

It's books like this that make me love short fiction, very well written and give you something to ponder when you are done

The Plastic Priest by Nicole Cushing follows Mother Kaye, a female Episcopal priest in a rural town as she struggles with her religious beliefs and who she is as a person.

As a lover of the most weird and wackiest of horror, I truly believed I was going to love this book. Unfortunately, this novella just wasn't for me.

The idea of a priest's struggle with her beliefs and her identity, which leads to what can only be described as a sudden descent into madness was an amazing idea, but it just was not executed well. I feel if this story was fleshed out into a full novel, it would have been amazing.

It wasn't until I was around 40% into this novella that I began to enjoy it, but by the end I was left confused and disappointed. I wish there was more discussion around the 'Gods' idea within this story. Was an ancient God at play here, or was the ending a true descent into madness by both Kaye and her husband?
I felt that the story was rushed and there was no clarification on a lot of ideas in this book. Maybe the rushed and scattered sense to this story was a reflection of Kaye's mental health and mental spiral, but I just didn't pick up on it.

Maybe I'm on of the few who just did not get the concept and underlying idea behind this novella as a lot of people seemed to have loved it, but this just wasn't my cup if tea. This story has not put me off reading Cushing's other works. If anything, it has intrigued me into checking out more of their books! I really look forward to diving into the world of madness and horror that is Nicole Cushing!

When I saw the priest was Episcopalian, I knew I had to read it having spent much of my life in the pews in this type of church growing up. I felt that this novella had a lot to say about religion and the role that people play in their belief system in regards to their faith. The priest starts to question whether she believes and instead begins to feel like she is sham in her position with the church. I liked that this was something so different, however I felt that it was missing something. I think the setting made it hard to capture the mania. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Really well done short horror novel that’s greatly written. Thanks for the arc and Mother Kaye awaits you joining her congregation. 4:5

Deeply rooted with sorry and despair. Faith is like plastic. You no longer know what's real and what isn't. I felt for the main character. This was a little confusing, but the self torment was present. Overall, it was a good read.

Starting to think I might be too weird for weird horror…or maybe this just wasn’t the book for me.

I went into this book expecting something truly wacky, but for the vast majority of it I felt like I was reading a mundane account of a Midwestern town and waiting for the actual plot to get going. And when it finally did pick up, I found myself extremely underwhelmed. There is a lot of setup and backstory, yet I didn’t feel like I understood the main character in any meaningful way, so her break from reality was not really something I cared about on an emotional level, and not unsettling enough to grab me as a horror reader. Maybe I’m being too harsh; from other reviews I can see some people really enjoyed this story, but for me this did not work at all.

The nonbinary priest named Binx Stratford got a good laugh out of me, though.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Well, I’ve finished! Eeeeeeeerm, what the heck happened there then?

This is the first Nicole Cushing that I have read, and to be honest, what the hell did I just read? I am not quite sure.

The book tells the story of an Episcopatlian priest, Reverend Ford, known to locals as Mother Kaye, who is experiencing a crisis of faith. Living in the mid western town of Owlingsville (pronounced Owelingsville by the locals) a breeding ground for pick up truck fundamentalists with her pagan worshipping husband she is trying to maintain her flock. However, unbeknownst to her a life changing event will hit in the form of the pandemic. In order to try to reach more people, Mother Kaye adapts an idea that was sent from her boss to hold services in the park. Upon doing so, she meets a homeless man, Janus who irrevocably changes her reality for ever.

Like I said, I had no idea what went on here. In essence it’s an exploration of faith and identity. It’s kind of kafkaesque in Kaye’s metamorphosis from the person she is at the beginning to the person that she ends up being by the end of the book. At points it turns into an exploration of mental health as it seems that this is an exploration of Mother Kaye’s journey into depersonalisation and ultimately psychosis. However, the end threw all that in the air and totally destroyed every assumption I had.

However, whilst I can say categorically I had no clue what the hell was going on, what I did like was Nicole Cushing’s writing. She has a biting wit that shines through the story, often making me chuckle out loud. She has a go at mid western mentality, religion, faith and politics. In addition to that her descriptions of Kaye’s spiral into ?mental health issues is disturbing and frighteningly real.

Whilst, at times my grasp on the story wavered at times, I did ultimately enjoy this story.

The Plastic Priest is a well written novella about a woman, Mother Kaye, who is an Episcopalian priest in a small American town. It's a venture into Kaye's struggle with faith, identity, and sanity. She clearly has some marriage issues with her husband not really having a lot of faith in Kaye's abilities. People of the small Indiana town also have a hard time believing, or often forget, that she is a priest.

One day she decides to reach out to her community by holding a prayer service in the local park. Her husband tells her not to do it. When the prayer service is supposed to commence, Kaye is met with heavy storms, and there is no turn out for her prayer service, except for one mysterious individual that she "happens" to run into in the park.

Things go off the rails after this encounter with a stranger when he offers her a confession that tests her faith. From that point the reader takes a deep dive into the deranged minds of some of the townsfolk and a glimpse into Kaye's own questioning of her sanity. I like how this novella ended with many urban legends and local mythology being spread due to the way that the townsfolk believed that the events ragarding what happened to Kaye unfolded. This story definitely gives Nathaniel Hawthorne vibes, and I loved it.

Nicole Cushing's writing is bizarre but that's a good thing. The Plastic Priest cannot be pigeon holed into a neat clean genre. It is surreal, ultimately interesting, relatable if I may say and terrifying. Another quick read but highly recommended.

5 Stars!

The Plastic Priest by Nicole Cushing caught my attention with a creepy cover and the promise of “a quiet novella of a madwoman in a mad town.” I did not know what the story was about when I dove in, but I was hoping for a creepy and possibly a thought-provoking read.



Kaye never knew that her decision to become an Episcopalian priest would lead her on such a bizarre journey through life. She was trapped in a small town full of elderly people with nothing to do but gossip and judge others all day long. Her marriage was a trap, as her husband whose faith is as opposite from hers as possible. She feels lost, but there is no way that she can change her course. She is trapped and her faith, which once was her guiding light, has faded to a faint flicker. When she holds a prayer meeting in a rainy park one evening, it is only attended by one person. This strange person, who purports to be the one remaining god left in the world, starts her on a journey of faith that will lead her to a place that she never imagined she would ever journey.



The synopsis of the story is a bit vague and confusing, but that is because the story itself is that way. And that is ok, because it works. The Plastic Priest is the story of a woman who has built a life that she finds she does not want but from which there is no escape. There are a lot of themes that run through this short novella, most notably that of faith, and Cushing handles the story with the deft hand of a master storyteller. The novella strays close to the bizarre side of horror but manages to walk a fine line and never stray far enough to alienate some readers. Cushing does not shy away from the hard questions the story raises and strolls along the edge of the shadows to illuminate the darker spaces of the human mind. We all have doubts, and those take the spotlight in this novella.



The basic plot of The Plastic Priest is based in an ancient trope that harkens back to Faust, but Cushing puts a unique and unexpected twist on this. I thought I knew where she was going with this story until I did not. Cushing lets the reader settle in thinking they have seen something like this before and then gives it a completely unexpected and powerful turn. Kaye becomes a type of everywoman for the reader and a way in which to reflect on faith and what everyone goes through when they learn the world is not as it seems. This is not a horror story although there are many elements of horror to be found here. Instead, The Plastic Priest is a work of dark fiction that questions faith and the life decisions that are made based on that faith as well as the bottomless pit that can open when that faith fails. The novella takes the reader to the precipice of the abyss, then pushes the reader in. It is a strange and unexpected story, but a powerful one that resonates past the last word. I cannot recommend this book any more.



I would like to thank Cemetery Dance Publications and NetGalley for this review copy. The Plastic Priest is available now.

What an impressive author Nicole Cushing is with this book, with such an impressive writing style that I want to just go back and reread this novella, simply to admire the structure and forms of the language choices she makes. And the story itself, about a female Episcopalian priest who slowly loses first her faith and then her sanity, is strange, harsh, and sad.

Mother Kaye came to the small town of Owlingsville, Indiana, a font of conservative politics and mega-church fundamentalism, to take over after the death of the local priest. Kaye struggles in her role in the toxic town, where the locals keep score on their neighbors' sins. Her marriage is flimsy at best, partly because her husband's pagan beliefs must be kept secret in the town. Being inside Kaye's head as she performs her priestly duties, as she succumbs first to loss of faith and then of reason, is intense. It's a spiral ride that the author's talented writing makes compelling and real.

I'm a new fan of Nicole Cushing! Kudos to her for a great novella, and my thanks to Netgalley and Cemetery Dance for the read.

Thank you Cemetery Dance productions, Nicole Cushing & Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Wow this was such a strange, unsettling and super quick read. I had no idea where this would end up and I absolutely loved the ending. Everything tied together so well and I enjoyed this super quick journey! Can't wait to read more from Nicole