The visuals aspects of this were absolutely stunning! I loved the colour palette and drawing style. It had an old school comic book vibe about it and really drew you in

The story was certainly intriguing and has spurred me on to look into the Satanic Panic era as it wasn't something I was really aware of. I really enjoyed the flipping between present tense and flashbacks as it added depth to the story.

The characters were a mixed bag. I loved that Natalie was a strong female lead who had some depth to her and a good backstory but unfortunately West felt rather cliché and predictable in comparison.

Plot wise everything felt rather rushed and some parts were brushed over quite quickly so it seemed like we'd missed vital information.

Overall whilst I did enjoy this, if it had been maybe 50-60 pages longer it definitely would have felt more complete and fleshed out.

I have been a fan of Ed Brubaker for years. His crime graphic novels are classics. I enjoyed the subject matter of this one and the infusion of a little horror into his writing. Artwork was fantastic as well.

An interesting story! While the plot and characters were fine to read about, I loved the artwork. The colours were so vivid and the art style really added to the atmosphere of the story. I’m not usually a comic reader, but this was a lot of fun. I came for the plot but stayed for the art.

Ed Brubaker?
Phillips?
Cult devil worshipers? SIGN ME UP!

This is a dark tale of devil worshipping stories that went around A LOT in the 80's and 90s. And this is years later where a woman is reflecting back on those events as a child which lead to a current day mystery and murdering spree. Really enjoyed the characters, pacing, and even story even if the end kind of went off the walls and I didn't fully get it. Overall another knockout from the Brubaker as he always has such well done character and dialogue.

This story masterfully intertwines crime and psychological drama. Following an FBI agent and a woman with a past linked to the Satanic Panic, the story delves into a chilling hunt for a deranged killer hiding in the underworld. Brubaker's writing and atmospheric artwork create a gripping, suspenseful read. While some plot twists may feel predictable and pacing occasionally uneven, the novel is a compelling dive into dark themes and complex characters

Brubaker & Phillips + satanic panic crime thriller? That's an easy sell for me. Houses of the Unholy follows a woman on the run from her past, who as a child was swept up in the Satanic Panic and falsely accused counsellors of ritual abuse. The subject matter here is dark, but Brubaker deftly provides context on the true villains in this mass hysteria, and they are often closer to home than we are comfortable considering. This story covers guilt, shame, and grief in palpable ways, while also delivering a thrilling mystery that - like the subject matter - gets increasingly unsettling the more it unravels.

The art here is also stellar. In the flashback scenes, it's as if Sean Phillips is blowing the dust off boxes of newsprints and forgotten memories, the way he captures this dark time in the 80s is haunting, and this might be some of my favorite work of his.

I loved this read and I'll be considering its finale for some time.

Thank you to Image and Netgalley for the copy!

Will I read anything by Brubaker & Phillips? Yes. Does this make Houses of the Unholy any less worth reading, a resounding no,

Natalie was a young girl caught up in the satanic panic of the 1980s, her & 5 other children reported abuse as part of a satanic ritual. Now adults, several of those children are dead. Part thriller, part cult drama & horror story this was a thought provoking & twisting read.

Highly recommended for lovers of horror & “true crime”

Houses of the Unholy is another jam from the Brubaker/Phillips paring and though there are horror elements it is very much a crime story and structured like one. The horror creeps in at points to small and larger degrees but at its heart it's a PI story about chasing down what seems to be a cult going after people who were involved in a Satanic Panic case in the 80s about 35 years later.

Our lead and POV character is a woman named Natalie Burns who is something of a drifter after being involved in a Satanic Panic child abuse case where she was one of the accusers who were dubbed "The Satanic Six". A retrieval case she has picked up in something of a "private detective" role goes wrong right at the start and Natalie winds up in jail but finds herself being sprung by an FBI agent who tells her that three of the "Satanic Six" have recently been murdered and off they go to do some detecting and hopefully keep that murder number where it is.

The story structure is such that we go back and forth between current events with the chase and background the Satanic Six case and the other people involved in our story. They are alternating chapters, and colored differently to easily code what is going on. Interestingly when everything comes together the two color palates blend a bit. It's very clever, I think.

One thing I always admire about Sean Phillips' art in crime comics is that he does a great job with sifting through lots of talk and no action pages. The characters are very identifiable and it never feels static, he keeps your eyes moving as you go through the scenes. There is a lot of dialogue and inner POV narrative, but to Brubaker's credit it's never an overwhelming amount and it never interferes with the art.

A very solid overall effort, not my favorite by the duo but I fully buy into the structure of the comic and would recommend it to anyone. 3.5 stars but with no half stars, it gets a round-up to 4.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I like the premise! I'm fascinated by the Satanic Panic and its effects on my upbringing and our world today. In much the same vein of James Tynion's Department of Truth, this book explores our antagonist's life as an adult after a childhood definined by "repressed memories" and other manipulation at the adults around them.

The colors in the book are great! I love when books use this palette. Very similar to The Kelpie by Becky Cloonan. No complaints on the art.

The story kept me interested. I genuinely wanted to know what would happen to our protagonist Natalie. However, a few things made me groan. I suspected a sexual encounter once Natalie and agent West were staying together. But, they made it just far enough without it for me to think it wouldn't happen. Nope, it happened anyway and very abruptly. It's fine, but it's just another boring box to check.

The last few issues had the most ??? moments for me. <spoiler>why exactly did Blake think that killing the six would open Hell and bring about the end times? Why did agent West have to get "kidnapped" to lure Natalie back to her hometown? Why couldn't he just make something up and take them there without the extra step? Why did brother Brendan have to be the one to lure Natalie back AND be the one to chloroform her? We went through the whole book having flashbacks to children falsely confessing to people doing satanic rituals. Now we end the book with a real-life satanic ritual. Just a bog-standard satanic ritual, nothing much creative here. </spoiler> It just felt a little eye-rolly.

However, I loved the ending. I'm a fan of vaguery, and I think it was used well here, and in a touching way. It also avoided making me roll my eyes one more time.

I liked the book, I was just a tad bit disappointed. Some of this may be because I'm a fan of cult content and the satanic panic in particular. If I were less familiar, I may have found the book more exciting and entertaining. This book just checks all the usual (kinda boring) boxes, but does it in a mostly entertaining way.

A graphic horror novel about cults, the Satanic Panic, dealing with childhood trauma, and things going very, very wrong. Kind of a similar vibe to some other excellent releases this year. If you read this and think, "I would like it if this graphic horror novel about Satanists really amped the graphic horror to 11", I recommend Dwellings, by Jay Stephens. If you read it and think, "I want to read more about the Satanic Panic absolutely ruining people's lives", I recommend Rainbow Black, by Maggie Thrash.

This was highly entertaining. Kids that fell victim to mass hysteria during Satanic Panic are being killed off decades after the infamous trial. Morally grey Natalie just wants to be left alone but gets roped into helping find the killer. Great art, engaging story. Wish it could have been longer. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

Brubaker and Phillips just never seen to miss. I've not read one thing by them that I didn't love. Houses of the Unholy relies heavily on the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, as well as a healthy dose of ambiguity. I loved the ending, but I'm also hopeful that there will be another volume. 4.5 stars

Crime detective novel meets the satanic panic! This was a super fun and easy read. I really enjoyed the story line and the characters. I will be looking for more books from this author going forward.

"Houses of the Unholy is a riveting horror thrill-ride from bestselling creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the award-winning team behind Criminal (soon to be a TV series on Amazon Prime), Reckless, Night Fever, and Where the Body Was.

In this new tale, an FBI agent from the cult crime beat and a woman with a past linked to the Satanic Panic are drawn into a terrifying hunt for an insane killer hiding in the shadows of the underworld.

This pulse-pounding story asks: can you ever escape your past, or are all your bad decisions just more ghosts to haunt you, wherever you go?"

I was going to write something really insightful about the authors but I'm so excited about the Amazon Prime news that I can't contain my joy!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an e-arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is my first horror graphic novel and it was enjoyable. It reminded me of comic books in the way that it was stylised and I do believe the illustration style fits that of the book. I did enjoy the concept of this book and find the unwrapping of religious trauma to be interesting to read about. I do wish that the plot was more than it was. I wanted more from the book and the reasoning behind why the children lied about the demons rather than it being just because they did. Overall a decent read but I wish the storyline was more detailed.

I’ve always enjoyed Brubaker’s work with Marvel writing Capitan American and X-Men, as well as some of his DC featuring Catwoman. Combine his general talents as an author with fantastic artwork from Sean Phillips (colours by Jacob Phillips), this was a lot of fun. It leaned into the adult aged fallout of child victims of adult paranoid and influences from their peers during the Satanic Panic, showing that the trauma continues regardless of “what really happened” to both the alleged victims and the accused. Throw in a nice murder mystery plotline and I think you’ve struck gold. I will say that it did move a little slowly considering the length so I found myself setting it down more than I typically would for a graphic novel but pacing aside, I really had some fun reading this. It reminded me of the excitement that comes from the visual aspect of adult graphic novels, especially for thriller and horror-type stories. If you’re into “true crime adjacent” adult comics, I would recommend this.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are back with HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY, a story that jumps between modern day and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. The story follows Natalie Burns, a woman who along with several others, testified in the late 80s that their camp counsellors had been performing demonic rituals upon them. Now, a deranged murderer is knocking them off one-by-one and it’s up to Natalie and an FBI agent to save who is left and put an end to the killing spree.

While I am beyond happy to have been able to get my hands on a Phillips/Brubaker collaboration ahead of its planned release next week (August 14th), it pains me to say that this doesn’t feel as up-to-snuff as the duo’s prior work. That’s not to say it’s “bad”, but if we’re grading their work on a curve, then it suffers just a bit from pretty lofty expectations on my part. The art is gorgeous, as usual, so no complaints there (I loved when the story jumped back and forth in time and the flashbacks stuck with reddish and yellow hues), but it just felt a bit rushed and likely could have benefited from being twice as long to be given a bit more room to breathe. It could have given the twists that happen later in the story a fair bit more weight.

I would love to see the two delve more into horror though as they had with FATALE. I’ll take as many crime novels as they can throw my way, but the wicked and weird can use a bigger space in the pair’s portfolio.

This was an interesting read.
A dark, gritty story about a satanic panic child survivor and an FBI agent teaming up to solve a crime. An interesting duo for sure!

I really enjoyed this comic based around the satanic panic of the 80’s and it’s following into the modern day. I found myself wanting more and more as I turned each page. The artwork really brings the story to life and the dual timelines brings the past into the present at the right times to continue moving the plot. With just the right twists and turns, this thriller comic will keep you on your toes wondering what’s coming next.

This was a thriiling ride! This was a my first Ed Brubaker read for me and it did not disappoint. The title and the cover drew me in and the story was fast paced and engaging. It was bummed it was so short because "what?!" Now I must go find more of his work to indulge in! Thank you for the opportunity.