Firstly, a thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for the ARC provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

5 out of 5 stars.

Houses of the Unholy by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is a horror / mystery / thriller in graphic novel form about the eighties 'Satanic Panic' era of cults and the Devil and his followers. A one of the Satanic Six our main character finds out others of the six are dying and investigates further.

Can I just say that I haven't read a graphic novel this good in a long time, even with the back and forth I experienced I found myself really enjoying this novel and I struggled to put it down.

I would recommend this to all my followers and horror loving friends.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Houses of the Unholy coming out September 3, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was so excited to receive this book! I’m a big fan of graphic novels, especially from Image Comics! This book was the perfect amount of spooky and creepy. I loved the plot and the images went along with it perfectly. It was definitely a quick read, but I loved the twists and backstory. I think it’s a perfect spooky season book! I would definitely read more books by these authors!

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys comic books!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC. I absolutely loved this storyline. I have been fascinated with the Satanic Panic of the 80s being a 90s baby I didn’t quite live through it. The imagery was perfectly matched with the storyline. Highly recommend for all lovers of horror.

This was weird… in a good way. This is dark and visceral. The art fits the story style really well. This also has a really cool story!

Natalie Burns has spent her whole life running from her past, but an FBI agent approaches her with a compelling story that has her mortality at the center. The two of them decide to work together, bringing Natalie back to all of those memories she never wants to think about.

This mixes the satanic panic, conspiracy and secret organizations perfectly, with a gritty and compelling narrative.

This book was quite engaging, though I rated it 4stars because it seemed somewhat rushed. The plot held great promise, and I found myself wishing for more depth and detail. I hadn’t anticipated that it was a graphic novel, but I was pleasantly surprised by how swiftly it captivated me. Despite the brevity, I’d be eager to dive into a sequel, hoping for a richer exploration of the intriguing storyline.

My thanks to NetGalley, Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Image Comics for providing this ARC!

Thank you, NetGalley and Image Comics for the ARC for review. That was super fun and only a little creepy. I have read and really liked comics by Ed Brubaker before, so I was happy to get a chance to read this one. I grew up in the 80's and I remember a little about the Satanic Panic on the news so this storyline brought back a bit of fun/creepy nostalgia for me with that. Woo-hoo for cults and demon worshipers.

Like all of Brubaker and Phllips' work I inhaled this. Catnip for crime fans, but this time with a satanic twist. I loved the way it subverts thriller tropes and expectations, and as always with Brubaker's writing, centers the crime with the emotional core of its characters. The artwork was excellent and felt reminiscent of classic EC genre comics, and especially shined on those full page splashes. If I had one critique, I wish it leaned a little bit more into the horror aspect, but a small gripe compared to how much I enjoyed the book overall. Already can't wait for their next collaboration.

Thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for this eARC!

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.