A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow by Keith Anthony Baird

 A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow by Keith Anthony Baird  

When the death cult calls ... what are you running from?

Message of thanks

It started with a tweet from the author: Keith Anthony Baird. This was a HUGE deal for me. I’ve just started my blog, as I find it therapeutic; talking about what I have read and how it made me feel etc. So, when Keith messaged me and asked if I would like to read his short story: A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow, I was like YES SIR! So outright Keith, a big gracious thank you! 

The BookEnz Review 

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I have always been curious about cults growing up. Not that I ever wanted to be a part of one or anything like that, but it was more the fascination into the human mind. The art of persuasion and the Psychology of conformity. 

The first cult I can remember was Heaven’s Gate, led by Marshal Applewhite. Think it was around 1996, Applewhite theorized that a comet passing called Hale-Bopp was an apparent vessel for their souls to board. The group’s members committed suicide, and this was due to one man’s convictions.

This stuck with me for some time growing up. The ideology of a leader and a group of devotees adapting to one mindset in the hope of one eventuality: solace.

This brings me to A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow. 

It's 1999, on the verge of the "new millennium" where we are introduced to Tobias (alias to the commune). He has searched a "hateful two decades" for salvation from his former life and finds The Viridian Chapter sect, a commune ran by its leader: Hans Lehmann.

Tobias soon learns during his early weeks at the commune that Hans is certifiable and narcissistic. One instance that captivated me, was his arrival to the Chapter. Tobias witnesses the horrific execution of two other Chapter members. That’s just day 1! Their crime? Possession of "outside reading material" as in, outside of Hans’s society. In a civilized society, this would be a crime against humanity.   

Will this be the utopia Tobias has been searching for? His life so far: “Womb to twenty-one had been a tinderbox of rejection”. Can he overcome certain visceral urges which otherwise will put him and others in danger? Will Tobias become a disciple or an evident lapdog to his leader? And will the Viridian Chapter unveil itself to be a more dystopian society? These were some of the questions I asked myself, but what I wanted to know the most was: Will Hans and Tobias’s personalities clash?

A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow is dark, powerful and chilling. I must admit, it contains some of the most graphic and disturbing sequences of events that I have read in a long time and it doesn’t disappoint. A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow will leave you mesmerised and that’s before you even get to the end: It's masterful.

 

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Kindle Version available here: A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow