Ah, this is going to be a tough one. I wanted to like this book. I really did. Why? Well, a few reasons. First, the book was recommended to me by the same person that offered up the praise that blurbs the front cover of the novel. Second, I shared several pleasant hours with the author and the person the Colum character from the Acknowledgements and Prologue, eating wings and sharing stories.

Make no mistake, the author, John Everson, is, as far as several hours of camaraderie and wings will get me, a pretty cool guy.

So, I really wanted to like this book. Hell, I wanted to love it.

I didn't.

There's some great stuff packed within its pages. The entire NightWhere concept is a good one, and it actually became more intriguing as the novel went on. If you enjoy Clive Barker at his most strangely sexual, you'd likely enjoy elements of NightWhere.

Unfortunately, for me, the fascination ends there. It's funny how I feel I need to make the next statement, but I guess I do. I'm not a prude, and the BDSM elements, the sex and the violence are not things that bother me overmuch. I've always been of the opinion that the plot demands the extremity of the sex and violence, so, come on, when I picked up a book about an extreme BDSM sex club, I knew what I was in for in that regard.

No, it came down to the characters. Let me give you some examples:

Sin-D, the "bartendress" at NightWhere. Yes, she's positioned almost immediately as a slut, but her absolutely ridiculous frat-boy fantasy dialogue was off-putting as hell. An example:

"How about just a Jack and Coke for now?"
"You want Jack's Cock? Has this place turned you that fast?" She exaggerated a roll of her eyes. "How disappointing."
"Liquor?" he pleaded.
"Ah, so easily swayed. Now he wants to lick her."

Trust me, her dialogue never rises above this. Ever.

Amelia, when we first meet her, seems to want what NightWhere can provide, but she displays fear of returning. She doesn't know how much longer she can survive it. So then why is she so pissed later on when someone else takes her place?

Gordon and Kendrick are both incredibly stupid men. Kendrick trades frat-boy innuendos with Sin-D. Gordon...well... okay, I guess it's time for this:

Gordon doesn't like the mother of his kids much, so he kills her. There's not a lot of build up, no real motivation. It's basically a case of the author needing a male to want to stay at NightWhere. That's it.

Selena is an absolutely ridiculous character. She's the calm beacon of normalcy in the sea of NightWhere. She is kind to Mark and treats him well. We'll come back to her a little later...

Mark and Rae are the main protagonists of this tale. Rae's got a little S&M streak and likes to get her freak on once in a while. Mark is not like that. He's portrayed as the guy who's happy to have missionary sex with his wife for the rest of their lives. But he's so understanding of her that he lets her go get her freak on. He's nice like that.

Rae, as portrayed in this novel, is a completely unlikeable character. She has desires to feel real pain. It gets her off. Okay, fair enough. She knows her husband Mark isn't that way, but she drags his ass along anyway. Turns out Mark also gets off watching other guys hump his wife. So that "missionary position for life" thing is already showing its cracks.

When she gets a little too into NightWhere, Mark isn't happy. When she ends up staying there and disappearing for a month, Selena shows up. Mark whines and bitches about just wanting to get his wife back, all the while lusting after Selena. Really? Your wife is missing, but you just can't stop the libido?

Then shit gets real. Mark wants her back. Even after watching a video where she screws a guy and kills him. He makes excuses (even though she's left him to go get whipped and left him for the place). Uh. Okay.

Even better? He goes through the world's most hellish obstacle course just to prove his love of his skanky-ass wife who obviously doesn't give a shit about him. At the end of this, he has to hack up a woman in several disgusting ways. Then he has to have sex with her. Which, by the way, he seems to have no problem doing. Really? And then, he barely escapes with his life. And it still doesn't stop him from going home with Selena, the hot chick, and screwing her. Then immediately telling her he loves his crazy wife and wants to get her back.



So what it comes down to is, apparently, in the world of this novel, no matter how much blood is flowing, no matter how many depraved acts you do, or are forced to do, no matter how much you adamantly want your wife back and are furiously worried about her, no matter what the obstacle is, you see a nice pair of breasts, you'll be good to go.

Oh, and apparently no one has a good day in the "real world" because each time they come home, the day sucked. Until they could, you know, have sex.

And also, it seems like every bar ignored any music that came out past the 80s. All of it. It's all Depeche Mode and The Cure. So...yeah, it really is a torture club.

Okay, I know I'm getting snarky and bitchy here. So, let me try and temper that for a moment and just say this: If Clive Barker was able to get his hands on this, I have no doubt it would have been a classic in his bibliography. If even one of the characters had a redeeming characteristic--not something likeable, just something that I might see in a real adult--the book would have been much better.

As it stands, I don't understand all the praise heaped on it, nor do I understand the Stoker nomination.

But hey, what do I know? Maybe I'm the stupid one here. ( )

Well written exploration of loyalty, love, sadism/masochism, blood erotica and dark forces at work in a nightmare fairy tale setting.

The ending: It ended. Suddenly. It actually took more than a second to sink in it was the endnotes that I was looking at, and there was no more text to follow. An open ending. We can only hope and trust and keep our fingers crossed. ( )

Happily married Mark and Rae are part of the swingers lifestyle and overjoyed to finally get an invite to the elite BDSM club NightWhere. But as Rae gets drawn into the the seductively torturous world of The Red room, Mark becomes worried that their relationship can not survive Rae's desires and NightWhere's gifts. Local author John Everson's latest work is full of descriptive imagery evoking eroticism mixed with degradation and pain. The nightmare horror comes in equal parts from the depths of the human psyche and the demons hidden behind the curtain of normal reality. ( )

If your into bondage, S&M and kinky sex clubs then there is a place for you called NightWhere. Except you can’t go looking for it, NightWhere looks for you. NightWhere by John Everson is the story of a secret swinger’s club where all your dreams and nightmares about pain and degradation come true.

Rae wasn’t satisfied with her marriage to Mark, she wanted more and whips, chains and bizarre sex is what she was looking for. Mark reluctantly starts to go to underground sex clubs with Rae to keep her happy. Then one day they receive an invitation to a gothic sex club called NightWhere.

After a couple of visits to the club, Rae becomes obsessed with NightWhere and disappears. The location of the club changes nightly and Mark is in a race against time to save his wife. Rae is going through changes and finds she loves the lifestyle that NightWhere offers. She may not want to be saved but Mark loves Rae and will go through hell to get her back.

Nightwhere is by far the most disturbing book that I’ve ever read. I’ve read some hardcore bloody horror novels from the likes of Richard Laymon and Ed Lee but these authors didn’t make me cringe like John Everson did. There were two times while reading NightWhere that I had to stop because I couldn’t handle the subject matter. There are some torture scenes in this book that were so over the top that they bordered on ridiculous and left me wondering if there are people out there who are similar to the characters in the story.

You have to have a strong stomach to get through Nightwhere, what kept me reading was I wanted to see what was going to happen to Mark. Mark has to go through unimaginable amounts of humiliation and pain to save Rae. He takes his marriage vows seriously and is willing to do anything for Rae and that is why I love the character so much. I also liked how Mark keeps getting chances to walk away from trying to save her but he won’t stop because he is committed to her.

Another interesting point in NightWhere is how much all the characters are willing to suffer to get what they want. Everyone in this book gets tortured but they come back for more because they are looking for something and their instinct is to survive until they find it. Mark does several things he thought he would never do, to get his wife back. Also a character named Selena risks her life and throws away the life she has to save Mark. In addition to that, you see a lot of the patrons of NightWhere literally go through hell just to advance into the different levels of suffering and excitement that NightWhere has to offer. Everyone has different reasons to carry on and nothing will keep them from their goal.

This book tries hard to shock you but there is also a love story and it makes a point of how far one would and should go for the one they love. It also makes a point about staying loyal to someone even if that person isn’t loyal to you. Another thing that makes this book good is the description of NightWhere. John Everson put a lot of thought into this world of torture and really brought it to life. NightWhere is not for the faint of heart but if you love to be shocked you will love this book. ( )