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Exploring dark alleys. Discovering new nightmares. Revisiting the masters.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Hyena, Take Your Role

A man fights to survive on an island inhabited by a monstrous female with an insatiable appetite for lust. Reader discretion is advised.

DOGFACED EVE by Antonio Simon Jr. has a mind-blowing hook for the first sentence:

"The moment he perfected the angles he was falling headlong through the sigil he'd drawn."

I never guessed the island would exist in another dimension, but that and the she-creature gave the story an instant cosmic horror theme. There are other Lovecraftian elements as well: misanthropy, isolation, and, most of all, helplessness. The author uses those elements to create a nightmare which leaves the character broken, literally and physically, and drags readers into one man's personal hell.

I've never been a fan of using rape as plot device, whether the victim is male or female, but Simon does not use the violence as a means to an end. Rather, the author uses it as the beginning of the end, for both the man and the hybrid.

As always,
AstraDaemon

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