Review of Agnes by Shonda Sorrells

Agnes Stone is certain she knows what righteousness looks like. She judges her neighbors, challenges her pastor, and sees disagreement as evidence that others have strayed. Then disturbing dreams, strange encounters, and gaps in her memory begin to shake her confidence in what she sees.

Shonda Sorrells builds the horror around that uncertainty. Because the story stays close to Agnes’s point of view, it is difficult to tell whether she faces a supernatural threat or can no longer trust her own mind. Her isolation makes each encounter more unsettling, while her harsh treatment of others gives the story a pointed question: what happens when a person mistakes judgment for faith?

The strongest moments are the ones that let ordinary settings—a church service, a doctor’s visit, a conversation with a friend—turn quietly threatening. The graphic violence later in the book is much more direct, so readers should be prepared for a sharp increase in intensity. Some scenes repeat Agnes’s thoughts, and a closer copyedit would smooth out distracting errors, but the central mystery kept me reading.

Agnes is a dark, unsettling novella about fear, certainty, and the possibility that the greatest danger lies in what its main character cannot see clearly.


Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8963619063



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