How does the author use language in the novel, The Year of the Witching?

The language of the novel is essential to settings its mood. Immanuelle lives in a dark world. The people of Bethel are small-minded, isolated, and fanatic. The church and the Prophet are fundamentalists that enjoy provoking fear in their flock. In the first scene of the first chapter, Immanuelle watches the Prophet prepare an animal sacrifice: “In a fluid motion, the Prophet turned from her, robes rustling as he faced the altar, where a lamb lay gutted. He put a hand to its head, then slipped his fingers deep into the wound. As he turned to face Immanuelle again, blood trickled down his wrist and disappeared into the shadows of his sleeve, a few of the droplets falling to the stained floorboards at his feet” (5). Here, the language drips with darkness and gore. Words like “gutted,” “blood,” “shadows,” and “stained” create a sense of foreboding in the reader almost instantaneously.