The Rotting Room is a historical horror novel, written by Viggy Parr Hampton. A book that smartly plays with the figure of an unreliable narrator to deliver an incredible experience of religious horror set in an abbey in the 17th century Spain, following a broken woman seeking for redemption in a new place, and that points how blind obedience can lead to danger and madness, perfect for people looking for religious horror.

Sister Rafaela hopes to find a second chance among the Sisters of Divine Innocence after a previous traumatic experience in another congregation. The sisters take part in an unusual burial ritual, collecting and selling the exudates as holy essence to the village; but when a mysterious stranger arrives and shortly after dies, things start becoming weirder and more sinister, starting from the body of the stranger avoiding decomposition. Rafaela soon perceives it as a threat engrained in the evil of this convent, but can she trust her senses? Is she merely becoming paranoid or going insane due to the previous trauma?

Rafaela is a magnificent main character, acting as our unreliable narrator, mixing together reality and second guessings; her previous traumatic experience makes us a bit more reluctant to believe in what might just be the product of her imagination, and so the rest of characters act around this circumstance, adding to the isolation feeling that she's suffering. Her firm religious beliefs will be the anchor that will keep her trying to fight the perceived evil; and in a second layer, we have father Bruno, an Albanian priest that officiates at the Abbey. He had his own trauma as child, and that marks how he acts when the Sister Rafaela trusts him with her suspicions. While it is less fleshed than Rafaela, as we spend a lot of time with the Sister, Parr Hampton manages to give us a great second main character with the father.

The setting is the perfect choice for this kind of religious horror, inspired by a true historical fact; it gives you The Nun vibes, and the atmosphere grows to be more sinister and oppressive by the moments. Parr Hampton takes the opportunity to introduce many Christian iconography and rituals, reinforcing that religious sensation at the center of the abbey. It is true that the pacing can suffer at the middle of our story, but it is a relatively short book, so it is not too notable.

The Rotting Room is a great religious horror novel, an experience that smartly plays with the atmosphere and the figure of an unreliable narrator, perfect for those looking for The Nun vibes. It's my first book by Viggy Parr Hampton, but won't be the last.