Everson’s tale of witchcraft and suburbia is an interesting tale that kept me absorbed in this world but unlike his previous novel, House by the Cemetery, did not hold a lot of surprises for me. The book is good little page turner but left me a bit cold after reading.
The characters are very well crafted but found it very difficult liking the hero of the piece as I found him to be largely lack of character. He is egotistical, self wallowing and worst of all, a moaner who never takes responsibility for any of his actions. Austin is what Austin does basically. On the other hand, we have Regina who is very much alive and she is what she is with no distractions or excuses. She is the meat in the story and that keeps things interesting. Her character and although she does despicable things, I personally was drawn more to her character and if it wasn’t for the child scenario that played out, I probably would be championing her more.
The plot is very well put together and although there is a lot of debauchery and lack of morals being played out at Club Equinox, this is very fitting for the story. The plot is somewhat predictable and through foreshadowing, you can pretty much guess where the story is going to go. Saying this, it did keep me interested to the final page. The final scene was ok and though I understand the reasoning, I feel that a better ending could have been initiated that wasn’t so expected. The final word on Club Equinox left me with a lot of questions and maybe hopefully we may be able to visit this world again to see what the final outcome was.
Overall, this is an interesting and quite a well written book with twist and turns and a very readable factor. This is the second novel that I have read by Everson and I liked it but did not love it but did find it very enjoyable. I have downloaded a few of his other books. Although, it did not hit the height that House by the Cemetery did for me, I would recommend this to people who like their sex and dark fiction dark. A worthwhile book overall.