Summary

In Mari Godwick’s novel Lilith Rising, Victoria arrives at an old house in Somerton. Throughout the summer she spends here, Victoria will come to see how “houses hold on to the bad with the good, just as people do” (1, Hawkins’ italics).

In Dr. Elisabeth Radnor’s 2001 piece “The Lady and the Monster: Women in Horror,” she examines the life and work of Mari Godwick. Radnor avers that Godwick’s Lilith Rising was inspired by her 1974 stay at “The Villa Rosato Horror” in Orvieto, Italy (2). Some even thought Godwick was Victoria.

In Chapter 1, Emily waits for her best friend Chess at an Asheville café. Although they have been friends since childhood, Emily sometimes hates Chess. When she arrives, her energy exhausts Emily. Their relationship has been different since Chess became a famous self-help author. By comparison, Emily’s life has been “a complete...