Father Is Pleased by L. Andrew Cooper

After a bloody rite of passage, Felix becomes a True Son, one of Father’s chosen inner circle, someone with a special vantage on the secluded society of the Settlement of Passing in the Nothing Lands, where all brothers and sisters revere Father. Father is life, and Father is death, and Father governs rituals that guide his followers on their journeys to meet the void, as death is the greatest good and the only worthy desire. Felix witnesses and participates in many rituals: the violence and death linked to childbirth, the gut-ripping orgies that serve as theatre, the initiation of another young man in the art of sacrificing an outsider in a manner that will please Father, and more. Nothing pleases Felix like pleasing Father, and when Father takes notice, he points Felix toward a special destiny in the coming days when threats to their ways of honoring death will come from within.

“Father Is Pleased is a harrowing plunge into the very marrow of madness, delving into the society of a cult led by the titular Father. This story is intelligent and brutal, with prose and storytelling prowess that are as sharp as they are disturbing. We are forced as a reader to confront the terrifying ways in which ideology can replace identity and erode moral discretion. Even aside from the incredibly uncomfortable and horrifying scenes of violence, this novel left a deep and lasting impression: disturbing, intellectually provocative, and emotionally intense in a way that’s hard to shake.” — Megan Stockton, author of Lovely, Dark & Deep and Bluejay

“Cooper brings us a twisted novella with a mix of spice, violence, and depravity. A breath of fresh air for anyone in a reading slump. Father is definitely pleased!” —Jason Nickey, author of Rural Decay and Wreckage