Synopsis
What is Carcosa?
For Alan Chambers, a jobless loner, it’s the answer to his problems. Or so he thinks…
Rejected by family and friends, and soon-to-be homeless, Alan makes his last desperate bid to discover the truth of this miserable reality by journeying to an occult brothel where it’s said the worthy might obtain passage to this fabled land of Carcosa.
Proving one’s worth is more dangerous than Alan could have imagined.
Prepare for an erotic and horrifying journey into the universe of the Yellow King…
Review
When I started this novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect, which is always an exciting aspect. I soon found this was unlike any novel I had read before.
The book starts with an unwinding of Alan Chambers life. Alan is the main character. We learn he is a man with a terribly unhappy and unsatisfied life plagued with an insatiable hunger for an experience or “feeling” not possible on Earth and he’s willing to do anything for it. Cali is another main character. She represents Alan’s ticket to this experience as well as a number of deep themes in which this novel takes no time to dive into. She is seductive, persuasive, and a wonderful character to read.
Alan’s social deviancies put him and the reader in a horrifying state-of-mind stemming from the insecurities we all feel as humans to find “happiness” and the process to that “eventuality”. This review will be a little different due to the fact that if I give much more “insight” to the “what’s”, “who’s”, and “where’s”, this will have to be labeled as a SPOILER REVIEW, but I will not be doing those. So, I will instead give you more of how I felt. I think the BEST words to describe that feeling is a sense of disorientation or feeling vertiginous.
The character depth is good and sets the tone, but what really sets this novel apart is the fiery prose. You enter a whole new world, Carcosa, after trials and ritual that you learn about as you read. I felt jealous that I wasn’t Alan, the MC, because of how incredible and also terrible Carcosa is described. Carcosa is described as dark, tinged with yellow, is nauseating at times, but nonetheless an EPIC world. What you can expect is a dark and visceral journey splashed with moments that are exotic and intimate with the dichotomy of pain and ecstasy ever-present. If the mood strikes you to read a genre-bending novel with a “No Holds Barred” attitude, pick this one up! Its a shorter book, meaning a quick read BUT its not one for the faint of heart. I repeat, NOT for the faint of heart…BUT I look forward to the next installment!
E.L. Montague says
Thank you for the review. This one was not on my radar.