Book Review: Bailuchien

A deliciously creepy yet cathartic dark fairy tale from Rebecca Crunden.

Rebecca Crunden’s short stories and novellas are always a great time. I expected no different from Bailuchien, and I am pleased to say I was right on the money. Unfortunately at the time of writing this review, Bailuchien has been taken down temporarily, which makes posting the review to Amazon and Goodreads somewhat tricky (I literally cant, lmao). So definitely share this review around as much as you can! Also, I’m sure once it’s back up for sale, it’ll be even better than when I read it.

Blurb

In the midst of a famine that’s orphaned her and her sister, young Saorlaith Baker goes to the cemetery and calls upon Bailuchien, a spirit of the forest, for protection. Bailuchien takes pity upon the young girl and agrees to protect her for a small price. But for her sister’s protection, Saorlaith must give something more. Something bloody.

Review

This short story was utterly delightful. For a horror story, it’s not scary at all, but to the contrary, it gets you rooting for the protagonists as they carry out the terms of their dark and horrifying contract with Bailuchien the forest spirit. Like in the story, Saorlaith and her sister are heroes to those with a shred of empathy and strong sense of justice, but nightmarish ghouls to those who exploit and abuse and take advantage of others. Definitely more anti-heroes that reminded me a bit of Spawn.

Bailuchien is extremely short at about 19 pages but it had great pacing and prose as I’ve come to expect from Rebecca. It’s dark, for sure, but it put a grin on my face whenever a villain got their comeuppance.

An easy recommendation.