Review of “Sister Bevenlee and Mother of Pox” by Charles LaBrasseur

​Score: 91/100 (9.1 out of 10)

Sister Bevenlee and Mother of Pox is a fantasy, coming-of-age story by Charles LaBrasseur, who is already an Outstanding Creator Awards winner for A Path of Possession.

Indeed, these two books share a lot of similarities, particularly in that they explore a lot of the disturbing, oppressive powers of organized religion, superstitions, and cult-like organizations in society. Both books also follow strong female protagonists.

A Path of Possession followed Lake Ellen, a so-called “Lady of Leaves.” This book features the titular Sister Bevenlee and Princess Ukee, the “Mother of Pox.” It is interesting to note these similarities. At the same time, it's also a bit jading as you don't want to reuse and duplicate the same ideas in every one of your books. It becomes tiresome and redundant after a while. Readers start to feel like they've been there and done that. In fact, we did have a sense of deja vu throughout this book. We like to call this the “Force Awakens Effect.” We did consider, however, that these books might actually be connected and that the characters and story may be part of the same literary universe.

Anyway, this book follows Bevenlee, a girl who is able to see an aura around Ukee, the now-pregnant princess of the kingdom. Despite being a high-born girl (a princess), Ukee is treated despicably by her cruel and abusive father, the king, who often chastises her and physically abuses her and her handmaidens, leaving Ukee with a bruised cheek and a swollen lip. Ukee's handmaidens are stripped, beaten, and banished. The king's wrath seems partly manipulated by the Royal Court, partly inspired by superstition, and partly motivated by his own personal insecurities and uncertainties about the father of Ukee's child. Meanwhile, Bevenlee's ability to see the princess's aura is seen as a great and unusual spiritual gift. Because of this, Bevenlee is assigned to The Tower alongside Princess Ukee, who becomes a close friend—practically a spiritual sister.

The Tower is a central location in the book, so it may require some explaining. In layman terms, The Tower sorta acts like a monastery housing a coven of “Mothers” and “Sisters.” The Sisters, like Bevenlee, become the caretakers and retainers of the Mothers. Going even further, the Mothers aren't just a bunch of Mother Superiors or super nuns, they're literally expected to become the mothers of “gods.” You read that right. In fact, Ukee is expected to become a mother of a god, hence her title (“Mother of Pox”).

As you might expect, Pox isn't necessarily a good thing. Pox, like in our world, is a contagious, destructive, and deadly disease that can potentially wipe out whole populations. However, does that make the person who brought it into the world wicked or evil? Or is it just unfortunate? Chalk it up to bad luck.

Interestingly, Ukee's situation as the Mother of Pox actually mirrors a similar story told throughout the book. There was once a Mother called the “Mother of Stomp” who, as the name suggests, gave birth to a powerful, violent, and destructive god named Stomp. The Mother of Grub had to battle and kill the Mother of Stomp and help to banish Stomp himself into the aether. Stomp actually reminded us a lot of Giragoc, the giant sky god/cloud monster from The 5 Moons of Tiiana by P.T. Harry.

Anyway, there were two things we admired about this book:

1. The world-building
2. The powerful sisterly relationship between Sister Bevenlee and Princess Ukee

Let's talk about the world-building first. You really get a sense that this world is lived in. It's called the “Land of Shattered Kingdoms.” Because of being so “shattered,” it's also rather diverse. Everyone greets each other differently. All the sisters wear different colored belts, which kinda reflect the personality of the wearer or where they are from, sorts like the colors of lightsabers.

In The Tower, the different bells divide different parts of the day to help the people inside to tell the time and move on to their next activity (sorta like a school bell). We not only get a lot of lore and mythos about Stomp and his mom, but we also hear stories of a terrible “Horde” that periodically raids the land.

The second thing we really liked is the bond and relationship between the two lead characters. Bevenlee and Ukee are always there for each other through thick and thin. They always have each other's backs. When one of the Mothers (Mother of Fetcher) becomes abusive, Ukee makes the bold move to stand up to her and protect Bevenlee, saying, “Don’t you ever touch my friend, or any Sister, like that again.” Ukee must also rely on Bevenlee throughout her tough pregnancy and afterward. So, it's reciprocal and mutual.

Now, this book has some issues. Firstly, the cover art looks really odd and is a bit off-putting. The two figures who are supposed to be our lead characters are just staring out into blank space with a thousand-mile stare. Secondly, there are times when the story seems to be moving very slowly, indicating problems with pacing. Like we said before, it also seems to reuse the same ideas and formula from A Path to Possession including the creepy, controlling superstitious society and young women with strange titles who hold magical abilities that can change the world. Also, like A Path to Possession, phrases and descriptions like “hands on hips” are overused, almost to a hilarious degree.

Lastly, the idea of women giving birth to gods in a coven factory is both cool and weird. It begs the question: if so many “gods” are being born, then are they really gods at all? To quote Syndrome from The Incredibles: "And when everyone's super, no one will be."

Check it out on Amazon!