Saturday, September 03, 2016

The Whorehouse That Jack Built by Kevin Sweeney

(eBook; 2015: novella)

From the back cover:

"It was a whorehouse but not one open to just anyone. To get there you had to be dying or insane. The services offered were all offered for the same price, which was everything you had. There were paths there that only those who crossed the border into the Undiscovered Country could find, if they knew the landmarks to follow, the signs to watch for.

"Clem followed and watched and two days ago his mule had died of exhaustion and it was just him and Lady keepin' on who knew how and finally they came to a dead town with no name at twilight and whorehouse with a sign above the door that Clem could not read:

"A SOILED DOVE IN A CAGE
PUTS ALL HEAVEN IN A RAGE

"A whorehouse run by demons. A whorehouse that offered the greatest pleasures a man could ever want. . . in exchange for everything he had.


"Am I gonna do this? Am I really gonna do. . .

"The cancer in his belly twisted spikes through his impacted bowels and in front of him lay Lady,  a sacrifice.

"And Clem pushed that door open and stepped through that threshold."



Review:

Whorehouse's story in a nutshell: an "albino sexorcist", trying to close portals to the Abyss, has sex with inbred demons while chanting holy litanies and otherwise trying to kill his hated lust-mates. Much of this takes place in the book's titular location, run by Marshall McGregor (an ugly dwarf) who also goes by the name of Jack -- a shortened version of his more infamous moniker.

Whorehouse is not a book for the easily offended or the easily queasy. It is an ultra-vivid, viscous and over-the-top whirlwind tale of twisted religion, divinities, sadistic sex and hyperviolence. . . it is an entertaining bizarro fantasy suffused with hentai-esque overtones, distinctive and worth owning.

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