Golem by P.D. Alleva
"'You should. Great books are like a blueprint...a survival manual disguised as fiction. As folklore. Because the truth hides in plain sight and those that see have to hide and those that can't see...well, they're just a part of the plan.'"
Year Read: 2023
Rating: 2/5
About: When John Ashton makes detective, his first case is to follow up on a lead to a missing child. The D.A.'s daughter vanished years ago, but a patient at a psychiatric hospital, Alena Francon, claims to have new information on her. She weaves a tale of demonic conspiracy throughout the New York City elite, statues come to life, and sinister rings of pedophilia and human sacrifice, all centered around a mysterious figure she calls Golem. It's so outlandish it can't possibly be real, but when one of her old socialite friends, Annette Flemming, confirms Golem's existence, John is forced to reconsider everything he believes to be true about the world. I received a free e-copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Trigger warnings: Everything. Character/child death (on-page, graphic), human sacrifice, rape/pedophilia, cannibalism, child abuse, torture, medical horror/lobotomy, graphic gore/body horror, severe illness/injury, violence, guns, gaslighting/manipulation, threats, vomiting, slurs, racism, xenophobia, sexism, questionable treatment of bisexuality, potential cultural appropriation. Graphic NSFW content.
Thoughts: Well, that was depressing. I want to preface this review by saying I had reservations about accepting this book because I typically don’t find Satanism/cults to be that interesting in horror. I like to support small press authors, but I should have gone with my instinct, because I also hate giving low ratings to small press authors, and here we are. I really believe this was a case of it just being the wrong fit for me, and I think the otherwise overwhelmingly positive reviews support that. If this sounds like something you would like, don't let my review put you off.
This book is oddly structured. The description gives the impression that the detective, John Ashton, is going to be the main character in unraveling this supernatural mystery. However, what happens is that John's case is little more than a framing story for Alena's tale, and in my opinion, it's the weakest part of the book. John is barely on the page, and he does little but sit there and tell us that Alena's story can't possibly be real. It's Alena's history that takes up the bulk of the novel, and I'm not sure why it's framed as a flashback when it's roughly the middle fifty percent of the book. Instead of getting invested in it, I kept waiting for it to circle back to John, but that only happens near the end. I think there could have been a better way to structure and pace this, maybe by breaking Alena's history up into smaller pieces uncovered in John's investigation, or by developing his investigation more (it's actually over very quickly, time-wise). I'm not sure, just that it comes off a bit unwieldy as-is.
It's also quite long in general, and if you're familiar with my reviews, you know I feel that books should have a very good reason to be over five hundred pages. It's over-written at times, and I got bogged down in some of the repetitive descriptions. Too many adjectives, too much chanting, too many bodily fluids. The actual story, I think, is pretty interesting when we get to it, and there's a unique twist on hell/outer space that I don't see often. (To be fair, I don't read a lot of science fiction either, but the only authors I can think of that even touch on this concept are Christopher Pike, my beloved, and V. Castro). It definitely ventures into some grotesque topics--pedophilia, human sacrifice, child abuse--that are central to the story, which is something to be aware of if you’re easily triggered.
