Candida R. Moss' most recent monograph is an astonishingly impressive, extraordinarily necessary, and genuinely enjoyable contribution to scholarship on early Christianity. With hermeneutical savvy and considerable aplomb, she shepherds the reader through decades of (often) dull and divisive scholarship to diagnose where the field strayed and to tread a new, more promising path forward. As she astutely acknowledges in her introduction: "In the study of ancient Christianity, no figure polarizes the scholarly world as effectively as the martyr. Study of the martyrs is as often a disdainful preoccupation as it is a preoccupying delight. The martyr commands attention, fascinates the skeptic, and confounds the rationalist" (1). As our modern sensibilities do not see being fed to a lion an exciting Friday night, it's easy to psychologize the mental instability of the martyrs and dismiss them as needlessly suicidal. Or, confessional investment claims the martyrs as the precious progenitors of Christianity and leads to unquestioned acceptance of these accounts as journalistic pericope. In many ways, the goal of Moss' text is to demonstrate the failure of such approaches to fully appreciate the complexities and sophistication of these ancient accounts.Through her tremendous scholarship she pays witness to the dynamic/devastating discourses of martyrdom and their intricate incorporation (and interpretation) of diverse contextual traditions about death, suffering, and hegemony. As she describes: "This book treats martyrdom as a set of discursive practices that shaped early Christian identities, mediated ecclesiastical and dogmatic claims, and provided meaning to the experience described by early Christians as persecution, and in doing so produced a new economy of action. This account, therefore, is less about what makes or does not make a martyr in some ontological sense than about how martyrs are created and for what purposes" (17). The subsequent chapters of the book yield refreshing re-readings of several martyrdom accounts with an eye for their latent complexities and an exposure of misguided academic assumptions. It is especially worth noting that Moss' prose is pregnant with fantastic wit and eloquence, making this text a treat to read. As a graduate student, I can testify to the tragic paucity of such a gift in many manuscripts--I assure you, some texts can be a minor form of mental martyrdom. Now in terms of audience, I would recommend readers to have some background in the field, if only to appreciate what an accomplishment this text is. (My only complaint is more of a personal peeve with the publisher as I would point out how unhelpful endnotes are) But my unreserved recommendation is to buy this text, make your students buy this text, give it as gifts and keep an eye open for Candida Moss' next bestseller.