Isn’t this a fun way to hear about new books of all kinds? Today, let me introduce you to a friend from church- Kenadee! I am really intrigued by her book review and I’m sure you will be as well!

Kenadee is in her early twenties. She teaches at LifeWise Academy and works at Perfume Acres Country Market. She enjoys baking sourdough bread, writing, reading, and spending time with her boyfriend in her spare time. She is also taking online classes through Liberty University to get her associate’s degree in creative writing. She loves using her skills to glorify God and enjoy his wonderful world.

My Dear Hemlock

I recently participated in an online book club where we read Tilley Dillehay’s newly released book, My Dear Hemlock. This fiction book is the female version of C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. Dillehay writes letters from the perspective of a female demon, Madame Hoaxrot, to her demon in training, Hemlock. While men and women can read the Screwtape Letters and have a similar application, My Dear Hemlock focuses on women. I attended a Zoom meeting with the author herself and around 100 other Christian ladies around the world!

The book dives into many sins that women can often fall into. As it is written from the perspective of a demon, it took me some time to reorient my thinking that the “Father” Madame Hoaxrot refers to is the devil, and the “Enemy” is God. Madame Hoaxrot starts her first letter to Hemlock with excitement, that Hemlock is joining the Ministry for the Absorption of Women. She explains the joys of tempting women and how it is a satisfying challenge.
The chapters explore how a demon could tempt a woman. Much like The Screwtape Letters, it follows a woman (instead of a man) throughout her life. The benefit of this book is that women’s common sins are brought to the forefront. One chapter is titled “On The Pocked Mirrors,” in which Madame Hoaxrot encourages Hemlock to nudge her patient to waste time on her phone. It follows the woman from the beginning of her life as a Christian, through her newlywed stage, marriage, an illness, and eventually her death.

One of my favorite chapters was “On Gardening and Babies.” In this chapter, Hoaxrot tells Hemlock to discourage the woman from gardening. She says watching and nurturing a garden “reeks of the enemy.” This connection is then made to the baby growing in the woman, highlighting that she plays a small part in it, but it is the “Enemy’s” doing. I enjoyed this chapter because every woman has this nurturing spirit that the devil often wants to quench.

In the book club, we delved into what a Hemlock is—a poisonous plant—and Tilley Dillehay’s creativity in naming one of the demons. Dillehay is an obvious student of C.S. Lewis’s work and does a phenomenal job adding her own spin to his story, The Screwtape Letters. I would recommend My Dear Hemlock to any Christian woman.

Wow! What a great read this sounds like! Thank you, Kenadee! I’ll definitely have to look into this book.