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No End Will be Found
“...no end will be found until everyone has been burned.” (Friedrich Spee, Cautio Criminalis)
A short, harrowing prose novel by author Gretchen Felker-Martin, set during the Würzburg witch trials, one of the largest mass executions ever seen in Europe. It's a feminist horror story which is both humane and unflinchingly brutal. This book contains intense imagery and is intended for mature audiences.
Saddle stitched, 5.5" x 7.5", 64 b/w pages with a hand-colored cover, published by Thuban Press in September 2017.
A short, harrowing prose novel by author Gretchen Felker-Martin, set during the Würzburg witch trials, one of the largest mass executions ever seen in Europe. It's a feminist horror story which is both humane and unflinchingly brutal. This book contains intense imagery and is intended for mature audiences.
Saddle stitched, 5.5" x 7.5", 64 b/w pages with a hand-colored cover, published by Thuban Press in September 2017.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
About the author
Gretchen Felker-Martin
16 books1,087 followersGRETCHEN FELKER-MARTIN is a Massachusetts-based horror author and film critic. Her debut novel, Manhunt, was named the #1 Best Book of 2022 by Vulture, and one of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 by Esquire, Library Journal, and Paste. You can follow her work on Twitter and read her fiction and film criticism on Patreon and in TIME, The Outline, Nylon, Polygon, and more.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 19, 2020
I read this harrowing depiction of a young woman's torture and execution in a time of witch-trial hysteria in one white-knuckled sitting. Unlike Felker-Martin's other novels and novellas, there's no fantasy element here (apart from a few italicized sections describing 17th century witch-lore: witches sacrificing Christian babies, frolicking naked around the Devil in the form of a giant black goat, etc.). This is simply a psychologically realistic story of human brutality, made even more terrifying by the fact that, while Ann is fictional, nothing that happens to her *didn't* happen to many, many, many real women across early modern Europe.
Actually, the fact that NO END WILL BE FOUND stays away from fantasy was perversely refreshing even as it made the story harder to take: witch trial fiction in which witchcraft is revealed to exist in reality never quite sits right with me. (Even in works I enjoy and consider brilliant, like THE VVITCH.) Depending on how an author chooses to spin it, this revelation either lessens the horror by insisting the persecution of "witches" was rooted in a real supernatural threat to public health and safety, instead of in religious mania, cultural misogyny, anti-Semitism, etc., or it lessens the horror, erases the *actual* bigotries that influenced witch trials, *and* gives the proceedings an obnoxious, ahistorical romantic gloss by depicting "witches" as a misunderstood secret society of enlightened mystics with real paranormal powers.
Actually, the fact that NO END WILL BE FOUND stays away from fantasy was perversely refreshing even as it made the story harder to take: witch trial fiction in which witchcraft is revealed to exist in reality never quite sits right with me. (Even in works I enjoy and consider brilliant, like THE VVITCH.) Depending on how an author chooses to spin it, this revelation either lessens the horror by insisting the persecution of "witches" was rooted in a real supernatural threat to public health and safety, instead of in religious mania, cultural misogyny, anti-Semitism, etc., or it lessens the horror, erases the *actual* bigotries that influenced witch trials, *and* gives the proceedings an obnoxious, ahistorical romantic gloss by depicting "witches" as a misunderstood secret society of enlightened mystics with real paranormal powers.
August 6, 2022
utterly grotesque, and completely fantastic.
the german witch trials were some of the most brutal in europe, with torture being officially sanctioned - at bamburg, years prior to the trial this novella is based on, 900 people were murdered for the crime of being women or for being politically inconvenient for the people in power. as someone who's done a qualification in history, specifically the history of european witchcraft trials, this novella is a perfect encapsulation of everything we know about those trials - it is so gruesome it is shocking, but in that way it manages to be raw, and real. witch trials have been sanitised in popular culture, with the term 'witch trial' losing meaning through becoming colloquialised, but this captures a snapshot of a true witch trial, and as such, it works wonderfully, both as a piece of historical fiction, and a piece of splatter horror that uses its context to generate fear and disgust. stunning. one of my favourite felker-martin works.
the german witch trials were some of the most brutal in europe, with torture being officially sanctioned - at bamburg, years prior to the trial this novella is based on, 900 people were murdered for the crime of being women or for being politically inconvenient for the people in power. as someone who's done a qualification in history, specifically the history of european witchcraft trials, this novella is a perfect encapsulation of everything we know about those trials - it is so gruesome it is shocking, but in that way it manages to be raw, and real. witch trials have been sanitised in popular culture, with the term 'witch trial' losing meaning through becoming colloquialised, but this captures a snapshot of a true witch trial, and as such, it works wonderfully, both as a piece of historical fiction, and a piece of splatter horror that uses its context to generate fear and disgust. stunning. one of my favourite felker-martin works.
July 13, 2022
Coming in at less than a hundred pages, I went into No End Will be Found expecting a quick read, a quick tour through seventeenth-century Germany, a who’s who of witch-finders and wise women, a story where medieval is synonymous with barbaric and irrational. But Felker-Martin’s ability distill a historical moment into her writing, creating a style which is thick, oppressive, and brutally immersive, means this feels less like Felker-Martin using the witch trials to tell us a story, and much more like her giving voice to the novel’s protagonist, Ann. Instead of opting to use the witch trials to prove a point to a modern reader - that power is abused, that women’s organisation is distrusted, that any unequal society requires an enemy to be rooted out and hated - Felker-Martin forces us to be Ann’s witness, to understand the profundity of the violence a persecuting society necessitates. No End Will be Found forces us to recognise heretical persecution as terrible not because it was exceptional but because it was the logical conclusion of a culture which requires abuse to sustain itself.
Felker-Martin’s writing is rich, textured and evocative, but her imagination never strays too far from the body. Her characters experience the world through their physicality, with aches and longings and red-hot pain and a misery which comes from these conditions never existing too far from one another. It gives her prose a kind of urgency, a sense that our finger tips are brushing against her words, that we might reach out and feel this world of hers. But Felker-Martin reminds us that bodies are unruly things, that it might be the first frontier of our interactions with the world, but it certainly is not final, static, or objective. Violence, in its many forms, lives a double life: it is both the ultimate manifestation of persecution, the attempt to strip down the offending body until there is nothing left to offend, and an admission of weakness, a need to destroy the physical because there is something which exists, far deeper, which cannot be touched. The tension between our immediate vulnerability and our capacity to resist remains taut throughout the novel, a conflict explored by Felker-Martin particularly through sexual violence.
Felker-Martin’s writing is rich, textured and evocative, but her imagination never strays too far from the body. Her characters experience the world through their physicality, with aches and longings and red-hot pain and a misery which comes from these conditions never existing too far from one another. It gives her prose a kind of urgency, a sense that our finger tips are brushing against her words, that we might reach out and feel this world of hers. But Felker-Martin reminds us that bodies are unruly things, that it might be the first frontier of our interactions with the world, but it certainly is not final, static, or objective. Violence, in its many forms, lives a double life: it is both the ultimate manifestation of persecution, the attempt to strip down the offending body until there is nothing left to offend, and an admission of weakness, a need to destroy the physical because there is something which exists, far deeper, which cannot be touched. The tension between our immediate vulnerability and our capacity to resist remains taut throughout the novel, a conflict explored by Felker-Martin particularly through sexual violence.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2020
so so so Goth - morbid, gruesome, terrifying. A depiction of love in the margins, when the center of a community is so grounded in violence and fear. Love it.
February 19, 2021
I've never read anything like this story. Horror to its core, walking the line between art and pornography until it leaves you suspended over an empty void. This story is solely and obsessively concerned with depicting the reality of the situation women condemned as witches found themselves in. I appreciated the story's unflinching gaze; it takes an experienced and confident writer to accomplish this. The prose is exquisite, with sentences as beautiful as they are harrowing. I'm very excited to explore the rest of Felker-Martin's fiction.
January 14, 2022
would be lying if i said i DIDNt find it titillating
November 17, 2021
Possibly the best writing on torture I've ever read. GFM manages to convey the physicality and emotion of the horrors the characters go through without ever falling into nastiness for its own sake. Of the three books of hers I've read, this is my favourite by a long way. Tight, focused, perfectly paced.
August 29, 2022
In this moment, I regret ever becoming an early modernist and knowing exactly what was about to happen.
September 13, 2022
Gorgeous, Gruesome
June 6, 2019
I think Gretchen is the only person that could get me to read about literal torture. I look forward to her next work.
June 18, 2020
This story is about a young woman who is accused of being a witch and is subsequently tortured, tried, and executed as a witch in 1600s Germany.
What I really enjoyed was how this story highlights the senselessness of the witch trials--all it takes is someone to cast doubt upon someone else, and they come under suspicion. Suspicion is enough to condemn them. That initial report does not have to be motivated by, you know, the truth or anything resembling it. While this comes up in other works, I think here--where it focuses on one person's short journey and boy does it not hold back--it is much more uncomfortable of a truth (in a good way for the reader). But at the same time, in this work, the interludes regarding satanic rituals cast doubt upon what you think you know about the young woman and whether she is in fact a witch, or at the very least whether she's got some bad motives (but don't we all?). The same is true of her confession, and the way it's worded, or at least that's how I read it.
The prose was good; the use of specific verbs with certain sounds and connotations lends the book a macabre and harrowing atmosphere. I thought the torture scene in particular was fantastic; it captures pretty well my understanding of what happens to a lot of people while in situations like that, including the distancing from the self. Overall, the story was horrifying because it happened to so many women (and others, but a lot of women). I also really enjoyed the framing of this story, which to me spoke to woman's position in this patriarchal society--they are accused, tortured, and tried by a system set up by and set up (at this time at least) to serve primarily men (the church and the state). The trials that the main character undergoes (all sorts of violations to her body, over which she lacks control) just highlights how little power and agency women had. And when they tried to take agency for themselves, like the main character here, they were punished. A great read.
What I really enjoyed was how this story highlights the senselessness of the witch trials--all it takes is someone to cast doubt upon someone else, and they come under suspicion. Suspicion is enough to condemn them. That initial report does not have to be motivated by, you know, the truth or anything resembling it. While this comes up in other works, I think here--where it focuses on one person's short journey and boy does it not hold back--it is much more uncomfortable of a truth (in a good way for the reader). But at the same time, in this work, the interludes regarding satanic rituals cast doubt upon what you think you know about the young woman and whether she is in fact a witch, or at the very least whether she's got some bad motives (but don't we all?). The same is true of her confession, and the way it's worded, or at least that's how I read it.
The prose was good; the use of specific verbs with certain sounds and connotations lends the book a macabre and harrowing atmosphere. I thought the torture scene in particular was fantastic; it captures pretty well my understanding of what happens to a lot of people while in situations like that, including the distancing from the self. Overall, the story was horrifying because it happened to so many women (and others, but a lot of women). I also really enjoyed the framing of this story, which to me spoke to woman's position in this patriarchal society--they are accused, tortured, and tried by a system set up by and set up (at this time at least) to serve primarily men (the church and the state). The trials that the main character undergoes (all sorts of violations to her body, over which she lacks control) just highlights how little power and agency women had. And when they tried to take agency for themselves, like the main character here, they were punished. A great read.
November 18, 2018
Even though this is promoted as a novel lengthwise it is more of a short story. This is the first piece of fiction i’ve read of G.A.Felker-Martin, whose critical writing i’ve encountered before.
The plot follows the events during a witch-hunt in a small German town, year 1626. Ann who is nursing the sick child of a wealthy family is accused of witchcraft after the infant dies of disentery. The text centers around Ann’s incarceration, interrogation, torture, physical and emotional abuse and execution, juxtaposed with some dreamlike scenes of a witches’ sabbath.
The language is clean and to the point, not much detail about surroundings or psycho-narration, the narrator feels far away, giving a cold, brutal tone which i find fitting to the themes. The sabbath scenes are quite surreal, contrasting the realist parts of the texts and creating a certain ambiguity.
The torture scenes are quite shocking but perhaps worse horror is how this ‘God-fearing’ people treat this whole witch-hunt deal - personally i found the guards’ behavior far more revolting.
To sum up, an interesting first work of fiction, with strong themes and easy flowing language - not many literary surprises though. Left a good impression nevertheless so i believe i’ll be checking more of this author’s material.
The plot follows the events during a witch-hunt in a small German town, year 1626. Ann who is nursing the sick child of a wealthy family is accused of witchcraft after the infant dies of disentery. The text centers around Ann’s incarceration, interrogation, torture, physical and emotional abuse and execution, juxtaposed with some dreamlike scenes of a witches’ sabbath.
The language is clean and to the point, not much detail about surroundings or psycho-narration, the narrator feels far away, giving a cold, brutal tone which i find fitting to the themes. The sabbath scenes are quite surreal, contrasting the realist parts of the texts and creating a certain ambiguity.
The torture scenes are quite shocking but perhaps worse horror is how this ‘God-fearing’ people treat this whole witch-hunt deal - personally i found the guards’ behavior far more revolting.
To sum up, an interesting first work of fiction, with strong themes and easy flowing language - not many literary surprises though. Left a good impression nevertheless so i believe i’ll be checking more of this author’s material.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Shelved as 'nah'
August 10, 2021EDIT: so not only did goodreads delete my review (but god forbid they delete the dozens of reviews falsly claiming Sophie Gonzales is lesbophobic bc - god forbid - a bisexual person ends up in an m/f relationship at the end of her book and telling people not to ~support lesbophobes~ when all Sophie did was write a book about bisexuals, as a bisexual herself. No, apparently its okay that those stay up!!!), they also deleted this off my "Nah" shelf so let's go again shall we?
This book is on my nah shelf in part because it's a depressive slog and she thinks she's way deeper and smarter than she actually is and in part because I KNOW that this author's biphobic views will be present in all her writing. She harassed bisexual writers Sophie Gonzales and Aaron H. Aceves out of NOWHERE for daring to have bisexuals in their work, and claimed she was Gayer Than Thou bc "the lesbians have sex in mine." Gay people having sex in your book is not the end all be all of representation and saying that it is is a disservice to the books out there and also to your own writing.
But also - being straight passing is not a thing, no one even when I was dating a guy ever thought I was a straight for a single moment, and bisexuals existing is not an erasure of other gay folks.
This book is on my nah shelf in part because it's a depressive slog and she thinks she's way deeper and smarter than she actually is and in part because I KNOW that this author's biphobic views will be present in all her writing. She harassed bisexual writers Sophie Gonzales and Aaron H. Aceves out of NOWHERE for daring to have bisexuals in their work, and claimed she was Gayer Than Thou bc "the lesbians have sex in mine." Gay people having sex in your book is not the end all be all of representation and saying that it is is a disservice to the books out there and also to your own writing.
But also - being straight passing is not a thing, no one even when I was dating a guy ever thought I was a straight for a single moment, and bisexuals existing is not an erasure of other gay folks.
December 17, 2022
Relentlessly miserable and grisly story of a young woman captured, tortured and executed for witchcraft. Felker-Martin spares no detail in the gruelling ordeal her protagonist endures, and the only catharsis is death. Cheerful stuff.
January 1, 2023
Biphobic, acephobic, enbyphobic bigot author with a big ego and a bigger tweet mouth who pushes purple prose dreck and harasses other authors and berates fans. You'll be better off reading anything by any other author, especially queer authors who support other queer writers and readers. Hard Pass.
October 8, 2021
One of the gnarliest things I’ve ever read, wow!
November 10, 2021
Whew. She mentions the anus a lot in this one.
February 22, 2023
Terrible book by a even worse person who wishes to cut other authors throats
July 9, 2024
GORGEOUS
July 14, 2020
Basically, the main character suffers a lot and then dies. Very beautifully written, but I wished there had been more of a plot, like if she'd suffered a lot and then killed her tormentors.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews