JEZEBELS OF THE EARTH

When two Wiccan goddesses bring their unfettered sexuality and eco-feminist fervor to Atlantis Springs, Mont., the town’s ruling Christian patriarchy are unamused—until our witchy heroines expose what’s really going on under the local covers.

Anaya Godkin believes the world would be a healthier place if humans got over their bodily shame and men stopped contaminating and dominating the earth. Fired from her teaching position at a California university after instigating a nude protest against a biotech center, Anaya, along with her daughter, Naomi, head for eastern Montana, where they have inherited, of all things, a former house of ill repute. The two soon lock horns with the Priesthood, a cabal of biblically inspired yet brutal men, and attempt to liberate the town’s cowering children and sexually repressed wives from their shameful secrets and their twisted religious masters. Anaya the witch is not without heart, however, and soon embarks on a side mission to save one guilt-ridden minister from his conflicted nature and his moral hypocrisy. Torrid sex scenes alternate with philosophical reflections on the virtues of paganism and the repressive theologies that replaced it—to provocative, steamy effect. The author’s tarot deck may be overly stacked with cardboard villains and whores with hearts of gold, but her tale rips along as female avengers go about vanquishing stereotypical oppressors, among them Republicans, anti-abortionists and climate-change deniers. Meadowlark writes with ease and élan, paces her tale cleverly and doesn’t flinch from comparing today’s news about global warming to the Book of Revelation. In fact, she brings the Bible fully into the moral discussion, testing it critically against her dogged faith in Gaian wholeness and the healing powers of sacred sex. “What the world needs now,” she says, “are dangerous women, women who are moral enough to risk immorality.” This naughty novel takes those risks, with bite, craft and, of course, lots of sex.

A provocative romp that pits men against women and goddesses against God to remind us that lust is with us, maybe to the end of times.