Author: Chris McGuinness
“He badly wished he could rekindle his belief in a higher power. Some benevolent master hovering over them, waiting to descend onto their bowed heads in tongues of courageous holy flame, like the disciples who huddled in fear after the crucifixion. All Vernon could feel, though, was cold, damp air creeping in from the open doors, making him shiver.”
Novella Review
A dark secret festering inside St. Mary’s Parish sets the stage for Chris McGuinness’s Be Not Afraid. The story centers on an altar server named Daniel Crane, who witnesses a deeply disturbing vision during Easter Mass involving an elderly parishioner, setting off a chain of unsettling occurrences. When the resident priest suddenly passes away and the troubled replacement, Vernon Walsh, arrives to take over, an inquiry into a missing parish worker pulls both of them into an encounter with a malevolent force far beyond human understanding. McGuinness takes that classic comforting biblical greeting and turns it on its head, subverting the serene atmosphere of a peaceful congregation into an inescapable pocket of dread.
What makes the storytelling so effective is the use of multiple shifting perspectives, with each participant sharing something slightly different while constantly hinting at horrors that remain unseen or only glimpsed out of the corners of our eyes. McGuinness skillfully dances around our fear of the unknown, channeling that classic Lovecraftian cosmic dread where terror builds in the quiet spaces. Pairing the serene, lethargic nature of the church congregation with sudden erupting violence makes the proceedings deeply unnerving. I found myself physically squirming in my reading chair. When the violence hits, it arrives as a gory mess of extreme carnage that lands with massive impact against the sacred backdrop. The perspective shifts, sprinkled with interviews from victims and medical examiners, give portions of the tale an almost documentary feel that works remarkably well. I kept muttering “nope, get the hell out of there!” to myself over and over, and safe to say, I will never look at a sweet old lady the same way again.
Even within a concise novella format, the pacing is near perfection. The narrative functions like a steady seesaw between touching human moments, albeit dark and unsettling ones, and gore filled mayhem, all balanced by cosmic dread. Even during the heartfelt personal interactions, I felt deeply nervous, like I wanted to close the book and never return. That is how I know McGuinness knocked it out of the park. Beneath the frights, the story is surprisingly deep and multifaceted, exploring grief and religious institutionalism in unexpected ways that felt remarkably genuine. The character dialogue is grounded, with reactions and decisions that ring true to authentic human nature when faced with something beyond our comprehension. Both Daniel and Vernon were well written characters that I immediately clicked with. Be Not Afraid feels like one of those rare tales written to appeal to my sensibilities directly. If you are religious, this is certainly not for the faint of heart, but for anyone comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, this demonic read is genuinely scary, deeply unnerving, and unapologetically gory. A tight, relentless horror novella that wastes zero time getting under your skin, it sits right up there with the best horror tales I have ever read, earning a permanent place in our archival stacks.
Curator’s Notes
The St. Mary’s Anomaly: A traditional parish house of worship inverted into a hunting ground by an ancient force, sparked by a disturbing Easter vision.
Documentary Multi Perspective Framing: Shifting viewpoints interspersed with victim depositions and medical examiner reports that ground demonic horror in procedural realism.
The Subversion of the Pious: Everyday congregants and elderly parishioners recontextualized into instruments of uncanny shock and dread.