Reality or Delusion? You Decide.

An ancient evil born in the fire at the dawn of time with an insatiable hunger for violence and dread. Cursed with a weak physical form in our plane of reality HEINOUS seeks out hosts to do his bidding and feed his need for brutality and atrocity. Gavin Wagner is a decent kid from a happy home-not exactly the kind of person you think of as an instrument of evil. Gavin spends his time hanging out with his friend, smoking ganja, and wandering around the woods. After making a sinister discovery in the woods Gavin becomes the newest host for HEINOUS, a monster unlike any other. Gavin is forced to witness the despicable visions of former hosts as the demon instructs him to destroy those he loves most. Gavin struggles for control as Heinous unleashes him on a wild spree of terror with only one possible outcome.

Heinous by Jonathan Moon is not shocking, frightening or gory, and that left me a little confused about what the author had planned for this story. There is an incredible build up of the madness and suffering that Gavin felt and thought before he committed his atrocities - under duress, as he claims, but when it comes to the actions of Gavin, Moon sort of glosses over the monstrous carnage...with the exception of his dreams. So, I can't be sure if that was the author's way of showing the reader how Gavin was deluding himself.

I did find Heinous interesting because the author uses a lot of psychological symbolism that will have you questioning the sanity of the main character, Gavin Wagner, from the very beginning. The one attribute of Heinous that is somewhat scary is the thought that some people reading this book might be able to relate to Gavin's predicament with the source of his sickness: blaming a force beyond his control, and not being able to tell anyone about it.

I especially enjoyed the way Moon divides up the book by alternating between Gavin's dream sequences and Gavin's descriptions of major events in his life (I've only seen this style in one other book). Moon moves beyond foreshadowing, and paints a macabre picture of the struggle between the subconscious and the conscious that could eat away at anyone's sanity. Moon runs with that particular theme, and creates a desperate climax towards the close of Gavin's story.

As always,
AstraDaemon