What do you think?
And In Her Smile, The World
What if the world you thought you knew was a lie older than God?
As children, Jeffrey and Serena each caught a glimpse beyond the veil of the everyday: A hidden cult guarded by women with the power to change reality. A myth kept quiet by a watcher with the strength to unmake the universe. A darkness smiling behind rows of teeth without end.
Although Jeffrey and Serena have only just met, their lives have centered around the mystery of the Quiet Woman. Haunted by their knowledge and driven by a desire to change the minds and souls of those who enforce the rules, they're willing to sacrifice anything, including themselves.
Soon the rituals will be complete and the Quiet Woman will come.
And in Her eyes will be the stars, and in Her smile, the world.
As children, Jeffrey and Serena each caught a glimpse beyond the veil of the everyday: A hidden cult guarded by women with the power to change reality. A myth kept quiet by a watcher with the strength to unmake the universe. A darkness smiling behind rows of teeth without end.
Although Jeffrey and Serena have only just met, their lives have centered around the mystery of the Quiet Woman. Haunted by their knowledge and driven by a desire to change the minds and souls of those who enforce the rules, they're willing to sacrifice anything, including themselves.
Soon the rituals will be complete and the Quiet Woman will come.
And in Her eyes will be the stars, and in Her smile, the world.
- GenresHorror
88 pages, Paperback
Published February 11, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 30, 2025
I enjoyed this short book. It was cerebral and managed to find the juxtaposition between modernity and creepiness. It features two broken characters, Jeffrey and Serena, looking for something in their own way. It had some tragedy and with a cults and cosmic horror it was an interesting novella. I struggled to track what was going on on occasion, but that's no biggie. And it's even more likely that this intelligently written story simply went over my head on those occasions.
July 24, 2023
I really enjoyed this! The concept was unique and familiar at the same time--cosmic horror updated with a new myth. No tentacle monsters here, though. Just the Quiet Woman, known to her followers as Amen--the woman actually responsible for creation before God stole it from her and destroyed her, reserving only her smile that he gave to women so that it might please men the way it did himself. But her smile was her power, and over the generations a cult of women has formed that believes in Amen's creation over God's pretense.
What I found most interesting about this novella was the insider's look at the cult and the struggle of a young woman, Serena, trying to understand her place in the universe when her mother gives her little guidance to work with. One of my main critiques of folk horror is the othering of non-Abrahamic traditions and making them out to be hyper-violent. So, for this novella to take a deeper look into its (fictitious) mythology from a practitioner's perspective was fascinating.
I also appreciate the bi rep; however, I wonder how the seeming binary of Amen vs God would play out when considering a spectrum of genders rather than just man vs woman.
The only reasons I went with four instead of five stars were the following: (1) I feel like this could have been expanded into a short novel since the novella still left me with questions like the one above, and (2) the writing style in the first two chapters was a little too simile/metaphor-heavy. The figurative language got to being much more well-integrated by chapter 3, though, so this is a very small thing that didn't impact the majority of my reading experience.
Finally, I read this novella because I REALLY enjoyed White's As Summer's Mask Slips short story collection. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for future work from both authors!
For fans of: John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy, Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede, "The Evening and The Morning and The Night" by Octavia E. Butler, and Come Closer by Sara Gran
What I found most interesting about this novella was the insider's look at the cult and the struggle of a young woman, Serena, trying to understand her place in the universe when her mother gives her little guidance to work with. One of my main critiques of folk horror is the othering of non-Abrahamic traditions and making them out to be hyper-violent. So, for this novella to take a deeper look into its (fictitious) mythology from a practitioner's perspective was fascinating.
I also appreciate the bi rep; however, I wonder how the seeming binary of Amen vs God would play out when considering a spectrum of genders rather than just man vs woman.
The only reasons I went with four instead of five stars were the following: (1) I feel like this could have been expanded into a short novel since the novella still left me with questions like the one above, and (2) the writing style in the first two chapters was a little too simile/metaphor-heavy. The figurative language got to being much more well-integrated by chapter 3, though, so this is a very small thing that didn't impact the majority of my reading experience.
Finally, I read this novella because I REALLY enjoyed White's As Summer's Mask Slips short story collection. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for future work from both authors!
For fans of: John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy, Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede, "The Evening and The Morning and The Night" by Octavia E. Butler, and Come Closer by Sara Gran
July 6, 2023
A really creepy one. The everyday stories involving the Smile were my favourite, so eerie and disturbing.
January 15, 2022
I was given the opportunity to read this bad boy, and let me tell you, it was well worth taking the time to set aside for it. I'm not just saying that. I'm not one to spoil readers to be so fret not, but I do feel the need to share my experience.
And In Her Smile, The World, is a fresh faced take on familiar and unsettling concepts actually realized. Religion, personal agency, jealousy, feeling like things are too beautiful for you to be a part of, social power structures, and more flit and bound through this text, twisting into a special picture. First of all, reading this feels like you're watching it instead. The imagery puts you into such specific places of time and isolates them, like you've been sat down in a movie theater by yourself. It chronicles the magic and presence of childhood, and the struggle for meaning and focus as you enter adulthood and realize the scope of the world. That isn't to say this book was written to snuggle with you under the sheets and reassure you, there's a multitude of times while reading where I felt like I was looking at something I wasn't supposed to see.
Horrifying things aren't just there to make you recoil after seeing something gross (although I'll admit Dead Alive is one of my favorite films), and that is well understood here. Fear is lined with curiosity, and this read successfully penetrates into that multitude of feelings we've all experienced when we touch the unfamiliar. This read does include straight out horror, but it's not just the unknown that terrifies and violates in these pages.
I loved the way this read expounded on trodden upon religious realities, horrible secrets and truths, and the disgust of what humans are capable of. While I watched this book in my own mind's eye, I can't just turn it into a movie for you, so I'm begging you to read and experience it for yourself.
Absolutely familiar and original. Top marks.
And In Her Smile, The World, is a fresh faced take on familiar and unsettling concepts actually realized. Religion, personal agency, jealousy, feeling like things are too beautiful for you to be a part of, social power structures, and more flit and bound through this text, twisting into a special picture. First of all, reading this feels like you're watching it instead. The imagery puts you into such specific places of time and isolates them, like you've been sat down in a movie theater by yourself. It chronicles the magic and presence of childhood, and the struggle for meaning and focus as you enter adulthood and realize the scope of the world. That isn't to say this book was written to snuggle with you under the sheets and reassure you, there's a multitude of times while reading where I felt like I was looking at something I wasn't supposed to see.
Horrifying things aren't just there to make you recoil after seeing something gross (although I'll admit Dead Alive is one of my favorite films), and that is well understood here. Fear is lined with curiosity, and this read successfully penetrates into that multitude of feelings we've all experienced when we touch the unfamiliar. This read does include straight out horror, but it's not just the unknown that terrifies and violates in these pages.
I loved the way this read expounded on trodden upon religious realities, horrible secrets and truths, and the disgust of what humans are capable of. While I watched this book in my own mind's eye, I can't just turn it into a movie for you, so I'm begging you to read and experience it for yourself.
Absolutely familiar and original. Top marks.
August 3, 2023
This quick novella tracks the PoVs of two characters whose lives revolve around a cosmic matriarchal religion. They both grow up with mothers tied to this hidden cult that worships The Quiet Lady and in return this godlike being grants powers to remake the world by literally re-forming troubled men by way of a mesmerizing consuming smile.
I know that men asking women to smile is still a pervasive problem, and having open conversations about it is a healthy way to progress as a culture, but there was a certain level of beating a dead horse with it in the first half of the book.
I wish more time was spent on trying to figure out the mystery and workings of this supernatural cult. The investigation into the cult and its history was briefly really fun, but then someone just flipped through a random person's notebook really quick and the other character just suddenly knew a lot about it.
The creepy bits were creepy, but I would have enjoyed more discovery and fewer one dimensional examples of how asking women to smile is crappy. Later in the book there's a super effective scene that probably could have been perfect on its own to demonstrate horrible patriarchal power dynamics that was far more effective to me than the lead in.
It was fine, it has some great bits, it didn't overstay its welcome.
I know that men asking women to smile is still a pervasive problem, and having open conversations about it is a healthy way to progress as a culture, but there was a certain level of beating a dead horse with it in the first half of the book.
I wish more time was spent on trying to figure out the mystery and workings of this supernatural cult. The investigation into the cult and its history was briefly really fun, but then someone just flipped through a random person's notebook really quick and the other character just suddenly knew a lot about it.
The creepy bits were creepy, but I would have enjoyed more discovery and fewer one dimensional examples of how asking women to smile is crappy. Later in the book there's a super effective scene that probably could have been perfect on its own to demonstrate horrible patriarchal power dynamics that was far more effective to me than the lead in.
It was fine, it has some great bits, it didn't overstay its welcome.
February 11, 2022
Certain stories have a way of meticulously creating a world around you, fiber by fiber, until you’re completely surrounded…and by then you’ll be too late. “And in Her Smile, the World” feels like it crawls from the depths of one’s dark imagination, only it’s a depth you’re not familiar with. This original work from Rebecca J. Allred and Gordon B. White is an unmistakable gem of dread. From beginning to end, I was kept on my toes. This is the kind of read that makes need to hug yourself afterwards. It’s an absolute must-read.
February 4, 2022
(TY Gordon for the ARC!)
Crazy good, addictive read. Got through it super fast because I was just so entranced by the idea of weaponized smiling. The world-building is fairly deep, while still leaving a bit up to your imagination. Perfectly describes the uncomfortable, guilty feeling of being told to smile as an AFAB person. The description of a preteen's encounter with a creepy older dude hit close to home.
Crazy good, addictive read. Got through it super fast because I was just so entranced by the idea of weaponized smiling. The world-building is fairly deep, while still leaving a bit up to your imagination. Perfectly describes the uncomfortable, guilty feeling of being told to smile as an AFAB person. The description of a preteen's encounter with a creepy older dude hit close to home.
January 21, 2022
I'm always up for reading anything by Gordon B. White and was also excited to read a longer work by Rebecca J. Allred, whose short stories I've always enjoyed. This novella is similar to their individual works, but there is definitely something new and different in the collaboration as well. And in Her Smile, The World is weird and contains some unsettling, disturbing images and themes (sometimes recalling the story "Cat Person," to me at least). It is also often funny. I'd encourage anyone into weird horror to check it out!
April 6, 2022
Lately I have a weakness for tiny books that pack as much unsettling detail into their brief little worlds as possible. I’ve been aware for some time that Gordon B. White has a great capacity to unsettle—his novella Rookfield made an appearance here last October and has since lingered in my memory with deliciously horrid vividness—and was eager to see what would happen when he teamed up with another writer of dark and unsettling fiction (I hadn’t previously read any work by Rebecca J. Allred, though I will be certainly be on the lookout after having read this book.)
And In Her Smile, the World is a tricky book to review without revealing too much. I find I don’t want to give away even a hint of its twisty—and profoundly twisted—plot; I think this is the kind of book best enjoyed if you don’t have much of a clue what you’re getting into before you begin.
Here are some things I feel I can say without spoiling the mystery or any other part of this spectacularly freaky experience:
This novella’s fluctuation between the realms of the familiar and the surreal is handled beautifully, creating a sense of ever-shifting footing as the tension increases inexorably toward the conclusion.
Despite how horrifying this book—and the realities it critiques and subverts—can get, in places it is also truly hilarious. This is not a book for anyone in search of easy or comforting amusement, but it did make me laugh out loud in certain satisfying moments. I wouldn’t call it horror comedy, but the laughs are there for those in possession of a certain kind of a sense of humour.
Gore and gross-out body horror aren’t really my cup of tea, but this book’s gruesome details are so nicely calibrated to suit their circumstances that I found myself enjoying them anyway. Very often when reading grisly content I feel an urge to cover my eyes, but at no point did I want to look away from this story.
I don’t always enjoy books written from multiple perspectives—particularly when written by multiple authors—but this one really makes it work. The interplay between voices and experiences heightens the story’s sense of inevitability and neatly ties the threads of the two main characters’ disparate experiences together in ways that show how unavoidably they have been shaped and directed by the same terrible forces. However White and Allred approached writing together, they clearly shared enough of a vision for the book to come out feeling beautifully cohesive.
This is a short, quick read, but it wields its brevity handily to pack a concentrated punch. I’d recommend And In Her Smile, the World to anyone looking for something disturbing that will take up a deceptively small amount of active reading time and then continue to hang around in their head long after the pages have stopped turning.
And In Her Smile, the World is a tricky book to review without revealing too much. I find I don’t want to give away even a hint of its twisty—and profoundly twisted—plot; I think this is the kind of book best enjoyed if you don’t have much of a clue what you’re getting into before you begin.
Here are some things I feel I can say without spoiling the mystery or any other part of this spectacularly freaky experience:
This novella’s fluctuation between the realms of the familiar and the surreal is handled beautifully, creating a sense of ever-shifting footing as the tension increases inexorably toward the conclusion.
Despite how horrifying this book—and the realities it critiques and subverts—can get, in places it is also truly hilarious. This is not a book for anyone in search of easy or comforting amusement, but it did make me laugh out loud in certain satisfying moments. I wouldn’t call it horror comedy, but the laughs are there for those in possession of a certain kind of a sense of humour.
Gore and gross-out body horror aren’t really my cup of tea, but this book’s gruesome details are so nicely calibrated to suit their circumstances that I found myself enjoying them anyway. Very often when reading grisly content I feel an urge to cover my eyes, but at no point did I want to look away from this story.
I don’t always enjoy books written from multiple perspectives—particularly when written by multiple authors—but this one really makes it work. The interplay between voices and experiences heightens the story’s sense of inevitability and neatly ties the threads of the two main characters’ disparate experiences together in ways that show how unavoidably they have been shaped and directed by the same terrible forces. However White and Allred approached writing together, they clearly shared enough of a vision for the book to come out feeling beautifully cohesive.
This is a short, quick read, but it wields its brevity handily to pack a concentrated punch. I’d recommend And In Her Smile, the World to anyone looking for something disturbing that will take up a deceptively small amount of active reading time and then continue to hang around in their head long after the pages have stopped turning.
March 24, 2022
This one has promise, but honestly it seemed like a bunch of 4th wave feminist tripe. The interesting goddess/cult angle kept me reading until the “all men are bad” message popped up over and over….despite the fact that Jeffreys mother abused him growing up.
This book could have been amazing if it went where I thought it would: that men and women simply don’t understand each other, but neither are always right or wrong. That is the ultimate mystery-how we can be so different yet so complimentary. There is no turtle to counteract the Pennywise in this one….only pennywise is, as the turtle is not simply dead but seemingly gone. God as a man had the power to destroy Amen but then seemingly blinks out. Makes no sense to me.
This book could have been amazing if it went where I thought it would: that men and women simply don’t understand each other, but neither are always right or wrong. That is the ultimate mystery-how we can be so different yet so complimentary. There is no turtle to counteract the Pennywise in this one….only pennywise is, as the turtle is not simply dead but seemingly gone. God as a man had the power to destroy Amen but then seemingly blinks out. Makes no sense to me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2023
no but the scariest thing about this novella is the reality that "nice guys" like jeffrey exists 😭
not huge on cosmic horror, but this was GREAT! loved the cult / religious aspects that had a, if i could even say, major feminist twist to them. i was invested the whole time, and wish the novella was longer just so we get more backstory on the cult of creation and the goddess amen who god stole from. no lie, i LOVED that part. the best thing about this book for me, however, is the reality of each metaphor. men are trash, that's for sure. and as women, and even young girls, we have to live with these grown assholes always telling us to "smile." if only we could use those smiles as a weapon (i did, at one point).
man, this was a trip and a half.
not huge on cosmic horror, but this was GREAT! loved the cult / religious aspects that had a, if i could even say, major feminist twist to them. i was invested the whole time, and wish the novella was longer just so we get more backstory on the cult of creation and the goddess amen who god stole from. no lie, i LOVED that part. the best thing about this book for me, however, is the reality of each metaphor. men are trash, that's for sure. and as women, and even young girls, we have to live with these grown assholes always telling us to "smile." if only we could use those smiles as a weapon (i did, at one point).
man, this was a trip and a half.
May 26, 2022
This was a pleasantly fresh and disturbing little story. I thought it did a great job of mining cultural misogyny and the "nice guy" without being at all preachy. It's weird and a bit gross and every character elicits some level of empathy and some level of distaste. Cosmic horror delivered via a very human, character-driven story.
February 27, 2022
Great novella written by a friend. Creepy and fantastical yet true. I feel like this could be the prologue to a whole world or a Netflix series, and I would watch. It. All.
August 22, 2024
A truly bizarre narrative that grabs you by the heart and the gut and doesn't let go, even after you've finished reading.
February 5, 2025
The premise was cool- but the execution fell short for me.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews