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Post by andydecker on Jan 2, 2009 12:07:53 GMT
Jack D. Shackleford - The Eve of Midsummer (Gorgi, 1977, 189 p.) This is Shacklefords first novel from 1977. Spoilers follow. Felicia, model turned prostitute, said no to the wrong man. Now she has a large disfiguring scar on her face and is on the run. Help could provide her old ex-roommate Joanna, who has married and now lives with her husband in the country. But upon her arrival Joanna is in the sanatorium. Felicia meets tall, dark and handsome hubby Adrian, who is a writer, and his strange sister Jessica. Felicia is aghast when she finally sees Joanna. Gone is the strong and vibrant young woman, now she she is a frail and whimpering thing who needs a constant supply of drugs and babbles nonsense. There are strange neighbors, like buxom village-slut Barbara, who is married to strong handyman Jesse, who likes to slap her around. And Jesse's brother Gil, who is a Romany and has an affair with his sister-in-law. Adrian asks Felicia to play the role of the Star Goddess on the Eve of Midsummer, in a play for the village, and finally she relents. Little does she knows that Adrian and Jessica have an incestuous relationship and are doing sex-magic. Adrian has a homunculus in the cellar, which drove Joanna to insanity, and is preparing a ritual which shall make him a big magician. So Felicia gets groomed as an ritual avatar, sleeps with Jessica and Adrian and is blissfully ignorant. Gil however, who screws every girl in the vicinity, suspects foul play and enlists the help of a crippled young wise woman of his tribe to fight Adrian. At the end there is the customary orgy, a ritual gone wrong, a rape and some horrible deaths. Eve of Midsummer is like already said supposedly Jack Shacklefords first black magic novel, and it is easy to believe. Not only reads this as a blueprint for his later works, this is not very well constructed in parts, especially at the end. (Or it got mangled by the editor, who knows?) Most glaring WTF is the unexplained death of Gil between two chapters; now he is on the way, then he is dead. Which the reader even gets only told indirectly and misses, if he blinks. The climax is basically the same as later in "House of the Magus", where it is much better realized, the whole gypsy angle doesn´t mesh well with the rest of the book. And the whole business with the homunculus in the cellar doesn´t makes much sense either. And whatever happened to Felicia after the ritual we can only guess. There is a lot of sex, a lot of authentic sounding magic, and the english countryside seems to be a dangerous place. And it has a nice cover. But "Tanith" and "House of the Magus" do this plot much better justice. |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 3, 2009 2:58:46 GMT
Still with a customary orgy, a ritual gone wrong, a rape and some horrible deaths you can't go far wrong
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Post by helrunar on Sept 21, 2021 1:47:32 GMT
It sounds pretty disappointing. Thanks for the nice review, Andreas. 12 years ago!
cheers, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Sept 21, 2021 10:23:33 GMT
It sounds pretty disappointing. Thanks for the nice review, Andreas. 12 years ago! cheers, Steve Why, thank you! 12 years, I don't believe it.
I guess today I would rate it better. It is a good example of Folk-Horror, I guess, which back then wasn't such a thing. In the meantime I came to the conclussion that Shackleford is underrated. Maybe because he never deveolped much in his interests and delivered just variations.
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Post by helrunar on Sept 21, 2021 12:40:36 GMT
Interesting, Andreas. I've never seen any of Mr. Shackleford's books. I am not sure they were ever published or distributed over here. The cover of Eve of Midsummer was posted on a vintage paperback group I'm on, on social media, and I wondered if the novel was as ridiculous or gloriously overblown as the artwork.
H.
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