I recently got to read The Rending Cauldron by Rebecca P. Minor. It is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and it deals with some of our brave topics incredibly well, so I’d like to share a few thoughts about it today.
General Information:
Title: The Rending Cauldron
Author: Rebecca P. Minor
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Intended Audience: Mature Adult
Length: About 800 pages
Purchase sources: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish
Brave Topics: Sexual Assault & Rape, Human Trafficking, Pro-life Topics
Review:
Even though this book was nearly 800 pages, it didn’t feel one bit like it. Minor kept me reading from the first page, and within about five days, I had finished it. This book is thick with both words and grace-filled truth. No matter how dark the circumstances–and they were pretty dark sometimes–there was always that one small light of hope burning faithfully.
I loved how this story brings us alongside a woman (well, an elf) who is in an impossible situation, but she refuses to give up and surrender to inevitable death. Vestra, this story’s main character, is forced to carry her rapist’s child. In her desperation to find a way to survive her captivity, she does consider harming the child. The story is very honest about what that thought process could look like. But it doesn’t show us those thoughts without shining the light of God’s truth on them too.
Vestra is a woman/she-elf who takes her faith seriously, and throughout her entire ordeal, even though she experiences seasons of doubt and moments of hopelessness, she does not ultimately give in to the temptation to set aside her faith. Each time she thought there was no way forward, God provided just enough light to take one more step.
The Rending Cauldron honors the experiences of those who survive sexual assault and human trafficking without being overly graphic. I appreciated the balance of showing the aftermath of sexual assault by providing readers with enough information to know what happened while also respecting the characters by letting them share (or not share). Not once does this book cross into gratuitous territory. It never glorifies or romanticizes these horrific experiences. Minor gives us honesty tempered with grace, and truth balanced with mercy.
This book is not for readers who are looking for something light and cheery. But if you’re ready to pick up a book that will challenge you to walk through darkness with nothing but the light of God’s presence, and your hand in His, The Rending Cauldron is a book you will not only appreciate but remember for a long time to come.
More about Rebecca P. Minor: Geek flag flyer, nerd herder, and eternal dreamer–these are some of the things she’s been called, and she won’t deny any of them. She’s writing fantasy novels in the sword-and-sorcery vein. She’s also the founder of the Realm Makers Conference, where a couple hundred of her most awesome friends gather annually. When she’s not wrapped up in words or vision-casting, she occasionally draw, specializing in cute. (She is taking commissions for character art, graphic novels, children’s book illustration and interior art for fantasy and gaming.)
