This book had a lot going for it: lovely writing, evergreen themes of religious trauma and the search for acceptance and belonging, and ace-representation. Winters handles difficult topics like severe child abuse with sensitivity. Hallowed be Thy Name kept me engaged enough throughout the story that despite some issues I'll point out below, I wanted to find out what would happen. I also really enjoy these kinds of stories where you wonder if something supernatural is really going on, or if the narrator is crazy. Augustus is an awkward and endearing unreliable narrator whom I wanted to hug and love. The way he would try to self-sabotage relationships because of his insecurities was incredibly relatable.

Winters writes beautifully. I highlighted several passages that made me go, "Oh, wow." Beginning the story with the reader knowing that Augustus murdered his mother sets up a different mystery—what exactly happened? This was quite clever and I enjoyed trying to figure it out.

That said, the book would benefit from editing at the developmental and line levels. Midway through the book, <spoiler> the romance took over the narrative to where it no longer felt like a horror book until it needed to again for plot reasons. While I understand the reasoning behind that, it was jarring. </spoiler> The beginning of the book also felt really long, so it seemed like half the book was set-up. The pacing was a bit strange.

On the line level, there were several incidents when characters exchange dialogue in a way that sound Victorian, but they're living in the modern times with Internet. 

Nathaniel was such a nice character that he never seemed like a real person to me, which then caused the relationship to fall flat. As a result, I'm afraid the full impact of the ending failed to land, even though on a cognitive level, I knew how I was supposed to feel.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's very readable and kept my attention throughout.

Thank you to the author for my free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.