My Two Cents (Book Review): THE ROTTING ROOM by Viggy Parr Hampton

There's nothing more terrifying than being raised Catholic. This much is obvious right from the start in The Rotting Room by Viggy Parr Hampton, a cautionary tale about the young, beautiful, but troubled Sister Rafaela, who arrives in the book's opening at her newly appointed home, the abbey of the Sisters of Divine Innocence. Leaving behind another order that closed abruptly in the wake of scandal, Rafaela is in the midst of crises of both personality and faith, matters that are only complicated by the fact that one of the first things she's introduced to at the Sisters of Divine Innocence is a secret room that contains the rotting corpse of a long-dead fellow nun.

This, Rafaela learns, is the chamber of "Divine Decomposition," or the titular rotting room if you prefer, and it's an ages-old tradition among her new order: when one of the sisters die, they're interred inside this chamber on a stone chair with a hole in the seat. As her body rots, the fluids from her putrefaction drip down through this hole and into a bucket beneath. The nuns collect this "holy essence," and although at first, Rafaela isn't told what they do with it, she soon begins to suspect they sell it to pilgrims as a money-making venture.

Rafaela's suspicions and doubts about her new convent only deepen with the unexpected arrival of a weary traveler, a red-haired nun from England who introduces herself as Sister Berta, and who is given sanctuary for the night at the Abbey. Berta is sick from the start, and not very friendly, either, and poor Rafaela draws the short stick and has to take care of her. Berta isn't long for this world, as it turns out, but before she dies, she imparts some terrible words of wisdom to the impressionable Rafaela--words that convince her Berta isn't a fellow Bride of Christ at all, but something much more sinister and foul. When Berta's dead body is placed in the chamber of divine decomposition but doesn't decompose, the other sisters take this as a sign of Berta's sainthood. Rafaela takes it as proof of her worst fears. The stronger both of these beliefs become, the more strained the relationship between Rafaela and her new sisterhood grows.

Hampton's writing is exquisite and immersive. The Rotting Room hits the ground running from the very first page, and the build up of tension and terror is palpable as the reader helplessly shares in Rafaela's every shocking discovery, each grim and gruesome truth she uncovers. In The Rotting Room, Hampton explores what it means to be truly evil, as well as truly innocent, and the very fine line that all too often separates these dual aspects of human nature. It's gruesome, chilling, and an absolute masterclass in horror storytelling. Highly recommended!