Also by this author: Collected Easter Horror Shorts, You Only Get One ShotAs the year draws to a close, a mysterious stranger makes a proposition to club owner Warren Charlton. It’s a deal involving a brand new drug.
The good news: the drug is free. The bad news: it comes at a heavy price... promising much but delivering far more. Euphoria and ecstasy. Death and depravity.
One big night. One new pill. It all awaits those who try Pandemonium.
***Contains bonus short story 'Reasons to Kill'***
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon
Pandemonium took me by complete surprise. I absolutely loved every minute of it and couldn’t put it down until I finished it. There was just so much meat to it, I couldn’t wait to see what it was building up to.
Normally, I stick to obviously paranormal based books. it’s just what I like. Occasionally I’ll read something different or out of my comfort zone, just to break things up a little bit, and that is exactly what I was doing with this book. It is not marketed as a paranormal book. I think it’s classified as a Thriller. Well, trying to classify this book into just one genre is definitely a waste of time. There is a bit of paranormal, but it’s not your typical vampire, werewolf, or witch type book. It’s something else completely.
For much of the book, we follow several people as they prepare for the night of their lives. Starting a bit before the event, we learn about their personalities and what their backgrounds are. We are given a peek inside their everyday lives. What their home lives are like, what drugs they like, what music they prefer, that sort of thing. There was a lot of stuff that I could relate to in this book because when I was younger, in the mid and late 90’s I went to a lot of raves. You can stop laughing at me now. There were things said and referred to in this book that would have totally been said and overheard by me when I was 18 and 19 years old. It made me somewhat nostalgic, but not enough that I want to relive those days lol.
There is a big rave coming up in a castle in the middle of nowhere that has been built for the sole purpose of hosting 4 raves a year. The builder has encountered tragedy in his life and building the castle seems to have been the release of his pain. He put everything he could into it, and in all honesty, it sounded really badass.
When Warren receives a call from a mysterious stranger, he feels compelled to meet with him to see what he has to offer. This mysterious creepy old man has had a new drug developed. It is supposed to be better than ecstasy. Without the nasty come down. In exchange for a rather large sum of money, Warren will allow the dealers to distribute this new drug-free of charge to the ravers. Some things really are too good to be true.
It seems that Warren has the night planned out perfectly. Everything is going as planned until just after the clock strikes midnight and rings in the new year. What happens next is something you will have to read for yourself because I really don’t have the words for what happens that I can use to properly describe the mayhem and extent of holy crapness that goes on. There are some extremely violent scenes and activities. There is a rape scene that is quite disturbing but is fairly short.
This book gave me a serious book hangover. I still haven’t been able to start another book, and this is not a good thing for a reviewer lol. When I finished this book, the only word that came to mind was, “Whoa”.
I’m not sure exactly who I would recommend this book to. I think it could be something of a specialized audience. The main themes are techno music, drugs, raves, and violence. I definitely would not recommend it to anyone under 18 or who has issues with reading about violence.
Despite the violence and total insanity of this book, I really did love it. It kept me excited and interested and just really couldn’t wait to find out what happens. There was a pretty disgusting scene about a penis and one of those fish that swims up your pee hole that sticks out its barbs when you try to pull it out, but the author does a much better job of describing it than I do!
Purchase Link
Amazon
About J.C. Michael
