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Siren Promised
Siren Promised by Alan M. Clark and Jeremy Robert Johnson will be a signed and numbered hardcover limited edition of only 250 copies. This edition is heavily illustrated by the acclaimed artist Alan M. Clark. Publisher: Bloodletting Press Publisher's Description: Angie Smith is headed home to Monahan… away from her dark past, away from her boyfriend, Cypher, who has drawn her deep into a violent web of parties, pills, and pain. She is ready to start a new life with her long-abandoned daughter, Kaya, but she wants to attend one more party, a rave deep in the forest, where she will abandon herself one last time before commiting her life to her daughter. Siren Promised A thousand miles away, Curtis Loew is looking for a new family. He�s tried to have a family before, but things always seemed to go wrong. People can be so cold. The people Curtis loves, sometimes they don�t love him back. Sometimes they stop talking to him. Sometimes they even die, leaving Curtis alone again. Curtis is new to Monahan, but the neighbors are kind. He�s spending more and more time with the Smiths, Kaya, and her mentally unstable grandmother, Colleen. Already, they�re beginning to seem like Family. And Curtis, he�s got so much love to give. Siren Promised Angie never thought that going to the party in the forest would unravel the world around her. She knew Cypher was dangerous, but she never knew he could be so cruel. She never knew that the forest could be so dark. Now Angie has voices in her head that beg her to stop breathing. Now Angie sees shapes that aren�t quite human. Now Angie has a vision in her mind…her daughter, Kaya, floating in the air, with hand-shaped bruises spreading across her throat. To save her daughter, Angie must find a way home to Monahan. But on the lonely roads, in the dark of night, home has never seemed so far away. Siren Promised Co-written by acclaimed author Jeremy Robert Johnson and World Fantasy Award winner Alan M. Clark, Siren Promised is a novel of deep psychological horror. Featuring over thirty black and white interior illustrations, a fold-out of five of the illustrations in full color, and color cover artwork by Alan M. Clark, Siren Promised sets a new benchmark in visual and written storytelling.
- GenresHorrorBizarro Fiction
100 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
259 people want to read
About the author
Alan M. Clark
139 books322 followersAuthor and illustrator, Alan M. Clark grew up in Tennessee in a house full of bones and old medical books. His awards include the World Fantasy Award and four Chesley Awards. He is the author of twenty-one books, including fourteen novels, a lavishly illustrated novella, a lavishly illustrated novellette, four collections of fiction, and a nonfiction full-color book of his artwork. Mr. Clark's company, IFD Publishing, has released 45 titles of various editions, including traditional books, both paperback and hardcover, audio books, and ebooks by such authors as F. Paul Wilson, Elizabeth Engstrom, and Jeremy Robert Johnson. Alan M. Clark and his wife, Melody, live in Oregon. www.alanmclark.com Visit his blog: https://ifdpublishing.com/blog
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
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July 20, 2017This hardcover is coy 127 of 250 copies printed and is signed by Alan M. Clark and Jeremy Robert Johnson.
February 17, 2015
This one is very good and very, very dark. The lines get blurred between reality and a couple hits of seriously bad acid, as Angie goes on a quest to be reunited with a daughter she had abandoned years earlier. Unfortunately for her, in order to get to her future she will have to travel thru her past – a past with years of addiction and abuse that will haunt her every step of the way.
Crisp writing with bleak and beautiful artwork throughout, that really enhances the story and creates some truly disturbing imagery. 4 Stars. Highly Recommended!
Crisp writing with bleak and beautiful artwork throughout, that really enhances the story and creates some truly disturbing imagery. 4 Stars. Highly Recommended!
November 5, 2016
What happens when you're pared down to the last, last, last fiber of your being? How do you think, talk, be wary, have values, not get suckered, or even conceive of the next thing when you're psyche/viscera pangs are so strung out and hangdog you couldn't see much more than what the reptilian "fight-or-flight" mind centers can relay to you? What's more, how do you dramatize this state of being, with characters you can care about, without veering into incoherence, monotony, or turn-the-reader-off foulness?
This book is truly frightening: it starts out with the characters down single straw of existence, and follows them as they swim upstream to preserve it. To get from point A to point B for these people is fraught, period, and you find yourself shuddering with a kind of revulsion and curious fear at what these people have to yet to endure -- not unlike the sickening feeling a reader gets when one comes to that part in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle when you realize you're going to have to endure the next few pages of the spy's being skinned alive as a form of interrogative torture with no small amount of relish by the knife-lover, or the near-end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" where you find yourself all-but-wanting-to scream at the page "don't just sit there! do something!" (before realizing it's just writing -- and made up, at that).
Who's this book for? Well, if you haven't been able to take John Shirley's fiction, don't bother. Go home. This shit's top-of-the-line, and a new iteration for a new era (an age-or-two past William Burroughs' noting "a junkie will stare at his shoe for 8 hours without interruption ... his best friend could keel over dead in front of him and he would calmly wait for a bit then then start methodologically rifling through his pockets" or however-he-put-it). One may be oddly unable to admit you can relate to this tale, and feeling all the guardrails you're used to blown away off and gone while you traverse these spaces, both inward and outward [how does a reformed junkie feel when she shows up at a Rave? how do the regrets and awkward inward pinings register and otherwise inform the action?] you'll be stuck in space that doesn't make most other horror seem scary, it makes it seem like they're only trying (successfully, or not).
How does it feel to be a rag doll, just wanting to have a heart, while you're whole body is twitching the other way?
The Storm Within.
The World Without.
And people who ... well, if they're not in almost-off-the-grid-entirely projects where Other Rules very definitely apply and courtesy and reliance on neighbors is almost a joke or exotic-sounding concern, you get this as relative comfort and succor: "As they were marched across the street at gunpoint, the suburbs of Monahan were quiet. To each his own was the law of the suburban sprawl. Angie felt surrounded and alone at the same time."
You realize you're an grown adult when you think, "Nobody did anything ... and, really, why did I think anybody necessarily would?"
These two will take you there.
Believe this.
This book is truly frightening: it starts out with the characters down single straw of existence, and follows them as they swim upstream to preserve it. To get from point A to point B for these people is fraught, period, and you find yourself shuddering with a kind of revulsion and curious fear at what these people have to yet to endure -- not unlike the sickening feeling a reader gets when one comes to that part in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle when you realize you're going to have to endure the next few pages of the spy's being skinned alive as a form of interrogative torture with no small amount of relish by the knife-lover, or the near-end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" where you find yourself all-but-wanting-to scream at the page "don't just sit there! do something!" (before realizing it's just writing -- and made up, at that).
Who's this book for? Well, if you haven't been able to take John Shirley's fiction, don't bother. Go home. This shit's top-of-the-line, and a new iteration for a new era (an age-or-two past William Burroughs' noting "a junkie will stare at his shoe for 8 hours without interruption ... his best friend could keel over dead in front of him and he would calmly wait for a bit then then start methodologically rifling through his pockets" or however-he-put-it). One may be oddly unable to admit you can relate to this tale, and feeling all the guardrails you're used to blown away off and gone while you traverse these spaces, both inward and outward [how does a reformed junkie feel when she shows up at a Rave? how do the regrets and awkward inward pinings register and otherwise inform the action?] you'll be stuck in space that doesn't make most other horror seem scary, it makes it seem like they're only trying (successfully, or not).
How does it feel to be a rag doll, just wanting to have a heart, while you're whole body is twitching the other way?
The Storm Within.
The World Without.
And people who ... well, if they're not in almost-off-the-grid-entirely projects where Other Rules very definitely apply and courtesy and reliance on neighbors is almost a joke or exotic-sounding concern, you get this as relative comfort and succor: "As they were marched across the street at gunpoint, the suburbs of Monahan were quiet. To each his own was the law of the suburban sprawl. Angie felt surrounded and alone at the same time."
You realize you're an grown adult when you think, "Nobody did anything ... and, really, why did I think anybody necessarily would?"
These two will take you there.
Believe this.
October 3, 2011
In my life I have read and watched many dark and terrible stories... stories of abuse... stories of addiction... stories of personal horror.
This book is all of those, and still managed to leave me with a sense of hope and redemption.
The authors make it clear from the get-go that they have suffered the worst depths of addiction, and that they aren't going to pull any punches with the material in the story, which focuses on two main characters: a drug addict, and a very lonely stalker.
I really don't want to speak of much that happens in the story, as I think it would misrepresent what the story really has to offer. Don't get me wrong, there are many terrible terrible things that happen, but the story to me is really much more about recovery, redemption, and rebirth.
As a former alcoholic and drug addict myself, it was very obvious to me that the authors were writing from personal experience, and not just keen observation. And it was further obvious that they had learned much from overcoming these experiences.
The story, by itself was very powerful, and left me happy with the resolution, but feeling a little battered.
This was quickly remedied by two short notes from the authors, describing both the manner in which the story was put together, and Jeremy Robert Johnson's personal reasons for writing it so darkly.
For me, this made the book a complete package, and really made it clear that it was a sort of redemption experience for the authors as well as the main characters. It helped give me positive closure to a dark story.
Highly recommended to those of you who know you can handle it.
And thanks to Jeremy Robert Johnson and Alan M. Clark for giving me another reminder why this period of my history remains in me not as who I am, but of how I became able to move towards the person I have always had the potential to be.
This book is all of those, and still managed to leave me with a sense of hope and redemption.
The authors make it clear from the get-go that they have suffered the worst depths of addiction, and that they aren't going to pull any punches with the material in the story, which focuses on two main characters: a drug addict, and a very lonely stalker.
I really don't want to speak of much that happens in the story, as I think it would misrepresent what the story really has to offer. Don't get me wrong, there are many terrible terrible things that happen, but the story to me is really much more about recovery, redemption, and rebirth.
As a former alcoholic and drug addict myself, it was very obvious to me that the authors were writing from personal experience, and not just keen observation. And it was further obvious that they had learned much from overcoming these experiences.
The story, by itself was very powerful, and left me happy with the resolution, but feeling a little battered.
This was quickly remedied by two short notes from the authors, describing both the manner in which the story was put together, and Jeremy Robert Johnson's personal reasons for writing it so darkly.
For me, this made the book a complete package, and really made it clear that it was a sort of redemption experience for the authors as well as the main characters. It helped give me positive closure to a dark story.
Highly recommended to those of you who know you can handle it.
And thanks to Jeremy Robert Johnson and Alan M. Clark for giving me another reminder why this period of my history remains in me not as who I am, but of how I became able to move towards the person I have always had the potential to be.
October 8, 2007
Thsi is officially one of my favorite books of all time. It lives somewhere in my top five list. It's an amazing book about dealing with addiction. Which is made that much more difficult by the fact that reality becomes increasingly faulty the more sober and the closer to home the heroine gets.
Seriously, it's an amazing book with some of the most amazing art done by Alan M. Clark.
Seriously, it's an amazing book with some of the most amazing art done by Alan M. Clark.
February 7, 2010
An amazing a beautiful book, a horror story about drugs and addiction with beautiful dark art. So proud to have this on my shelf.
October 1, 2008
I have just one word for you – DAMN!
Beautiful in its honesty, the plot is raw and creative. Without sermon or judgment, the story reveals a naked, ugly picture of drug abuse and exile. Although there is a very intricate supernatural element to it, it is purely secondary. What you will remember, what will haunt you, is the desperation of Angie, Curtis, and Kaya, and to what lengths they will go to fill their emptiness. Although I should warn you, the intensity may be too much for those looking for a few hours of simple entertainment.
Watching a character fall from grace and then get back up has always made for compelling drama, and if that is what you’re expecting here – put the book down. Although the players capture the pain and suffering of life and all of its complexities, they receive no simple answer. There are no rainbows here. What they do portray is the gritty truth, without bows or gift-wrapping. As they fight against their desperation and for their redemption, you can’t help but care, even if you don’t want to.
The atmosphere is abrasive and dense. The moment you open the book, the air around you begins to immediately attack your senses. When you move through the forest with Angie, you can almost smell the decay and filth. When Curtis investigates the Smith’s house, you sense the weight surrounding it. It’s all around you, and that stench, that smell, never leaves you. It's very power involving you in the story and placing you in their environment. And just when you think you can't handle any more, the pace pushes you through and past it. Although it's not a swift read, the speed is calculated and safe. With every aspect of the book being open to illusion, you will actually come to depend on the pace. It was perfect!
Unlike most collaborations, Clark and Johnson’s styles blended well together; too well, in fact. To this very moment, I still can’t determine when one took over and the other sat back. Interlacing between reality and the drug-infused, nightmares of Angie, the authors make you live through it, rather than just read about it. The power of Clark and Johnson working together is in their ability to blur the lines in the tale and touch you where it counts. By the time I was done reading I was wondering about the purpose in my own life; they left me with an emptiness I didn’t even know existed.
Now normally I don’t comment on the illustrations in books for the sheer fact that I know next-to-nothing about art, but the illustrations in this book require mention. Conveying what is going through the character’s minds, the images bring to life what can only be imagined. They are beautiful! In fact, there is one picture in there that I am seriously considering framing and hanging on my wall.
-As posted on Horror-Web
Beautiful in its honesty, the plot is raw and creative. Without sermon or judgment, the story reveals a naked, ugly picture of drug abuse and exile. Although there is a very intricate supernatural element to it, it is purely secondary. What you will remember, what will haunt you, is the desperation of Angie, Curtis, and Kaya, and to what lengths they will go to fill their emptiness. Although I should warn you, the intensity may be too much for those looking for a few hours of simple entertainment.
Watching a character fall from grace and then get back up has always made for compelling drama, and if that is what you’re expecting here – put the book down. Although the players capture the pain and suffering of life and all of its complexities, they receive no simple answer. There are no rainbows here. What they do portray is the gritty truth, without bows or gift-wrapping. As they fight against their desperation and for their redemption, you can’t help but care, even if you don’t want to.
The atmosphere is abrasive and dense. The moment you open the book, the air around you begins to immediately attack your senses. When you move through the forest with Angie, you can almost smell the decay and filth. When Curtis investigates the Smith’s house, you sense the weight surrounding it. It’s all around you, and that stench, that smell, never leaves you. It's very power involving you in the story and placing you in their environment. And just when you think you can't handle any more, the pace pushes you through and past it. Although it's not a swift read, the speed is calculated and safe. With every aspect of the book being open to illusion, you will actually come to depend on the pace. It was perfect!
Unlike most collaborations, Clark and Johnson’s styles blended well together; too well, in fact. To this very moment, I still can’t determine when one took over and the other sat back. Interlacing between reality and the drug-infused, nightmares of Angie, the authors make you live through it, rather than just read about it. The power of Clark and Johnson working together is in their ability to blur the lines in the tale and touch you where it counts. By the time I was done reading I was wondering about the purpose in my own life; they left me with an emptiness I didn’t even know existed.
Now normally I don’t comment on the illustrations in books for the sheer fact that I know next-to-nothing about art, but the illustrations in this book require mention. Conveying what is going through the character’s minds, the images bring to life what can only be imagined. They are beautiful! In fact, there is one picture in there that I am seriously considering framing and hanging on my wall.
-As posted on Horror-Web
January 22, 2012
Angie is a drug addict. Thanks to her sadistic, drug dealing boyfriend she's spent most of the last decade hooked on various narcotics and hallucinogens. She ran away from the bastard long enough to clean up her act so that she can get home to her daughter, Kaya. Angie dreams about her constantly. Unfortunately, the dreams always end in Kaya's death.
Angie's friend wants her to celebrate by attending a rave. Although afraid that this one last party may tempt her to slip back into drugs, she reluctantly agrees.
Big Mistake.
Angie gets separated from her friend and, while searching for her, runs into her ex. He's not happy with Angie. With no one to help her, he slips Angie some bad acid. After the drug kicks in, leaving her helpless, he attacks her. She manages to injure him in the groin and make her escape. She runs blindly into the forest trying to put as much distance between her and her ex as possible where she stumbles into a dark grotto. The forest comes alive in a rather sinister fashion but Angie can't figure out if it's the acid or reality.
All that in chapter 1.
Meanwhile, Curtis Loew has moved in across the street from Angie's mother, Colleen, and Kaya. He grew up in a foster home, desperate to be part of a family. That burning need has gotten out of hand more that once, sending him packing under cover of darkness. But this time, he feels like he's finally found a family that he can be a part of. He searches genealogical websites to track down enough information about them to become "Uncle" Curtis.
The book isn't for the squeamish. The characters suffer, though it isn't gratuitous. The authors don't take any delight in their characters' pain, having experienced some of it themselves. The characters are people who have very screwed up lives on account of very poor choices. Redemption is a long, hard road where every step along the way must be earned. Sugar coating it would be an insult to the reader.
The authors manage to perfectly mesh their styles, seemingly with little effort. Even if the book wasn't filled with Mr. Clark's haunting illustrations (which will make you long for the full color version), you wouldn't have any difficulty envisioning the world around the characters. You'll sweat as the mist from the dank forest coats Angie's skin. Your nose will scrunch up in disgust as Curtis offers you an olfactory tour of Colleen's house. And you'll swear your ears heard someone stepping on broken glass, trying to creep up behind Angie in The Courtyard.
Find out what "Siren Promised" and then be thankful that you haven't heard its call.
Angie's friend wants her to celebrate by attending a rave. Although afraid that this one last party may tempt her to slip back into drugs, she reluctantly agrees.
Big Mistake.
Angie gets separated from her friend and, while searching for her, runs into her ex. He's not happy with Angie. With no one to help her, he slips Angie some bad acid. After the drug kicks in, leaving her helpless, he attacks her. She manages to injure him in the groin and make her escape. She runs blindly into the forest trying to put as much distance between her and her ex as possible where she stumbles into a dark grotto. The forest comes alive in a rather sinister fashion but Angie can't figure out if it's the acid or reality.
All that in chapter 1.
Meanwhile, Curtis Loew has moved in across the street from Angie's mother, Colleen, and Kaya. He grew up in a foster home, desperate to be part of a family. That burning need has gotten out of hand more that once, sending him packing under cover of darkness. But this time, he feels like he's finally found a family that he can be a part of. He searches genealogical websites to track down enough information about them to become "Uncle" Curtis.
The book isn't for the squeamish. The characters suffer, though it isn't gratuitous. The authors don't take any delight in their characters' pain, having experienced some of it themselves. The characters are people who have very screwed up lives on account of very poor choices. Redemption is a long, hard road where every step along the way must be earned. Sugar coating it would be an insult to the reader.
The authors manage to perfectly mesh their styles, seemingly with little effort. Even if the book wasn't filled with Mr. Clark's haunting illustrations (which will make you long for the full color version), you wouldn't have any difficulty envisioning the world around the characters. You'll sweat as the mist from the dank forest coats Angie's skin. Your nose will scrunch up in disgust as Curtis offers you an olfactory tour of Colleen's house. And you'll swear your ears heard someone stepping on broken glass, trying to creep up behind Angie in The Courtyard.
Find out what "Siren Promised" and then be thankful that you haven't heard its call.
November 27, 2011
a gritty, hallucinatory trip through the world of drug-use/abuse, family, and murder. Siren Promised is a strange, beautiful novel that uses incredible language and amazing images to burn its way into your head and stay there for days after reading it. Maybe it'll never leave you, for all I know. But that's okay, because you don't really want it to leave you. You want it to grow inside you and teach you something.
I have never read a book that so completely blurs the lines between reality and hallucination, sanity and madness, love and hate, good and evil as does this one. This world is completely unfamiliar, yet scarily recognizable. You can tell the authors have really "been there" when it comes to the drugs described. The terror of acid, the helplessness of the day after. It is all here, and written in the lingo of the mind being ravaged by the chemicals. Anyone who is the least bit familiar with drug use or hang overs will find something in here to shake their familiarity loose, and give them an instant kick of "euphoric recall". That is, the sensation of being on a drug a long time after doing it, simply by remembering in great detail the effects of said drug.
It is as terrifying/exhilarating as a acid trip, and as gritty and uncontrollable as a brief flirtation with meth.
The horror of this book cannot be overstated. The villains are fully formed, their evil is real, thought out and intense. the evil crawls across the page like a garbage creature, its eyes broken eggshells and its head a tattered paper bag full of rotting food. It is like a long, drawn out scream whooshing up from the k-hole.
Of all the sick, bizarre, wonderful and powerful books I have read this year, this one--Siren Promised--this will be the one that haunts me.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I have never read a book that so completely blurs the lines between reality and hallucination, sanity and madness, love and hate, good and evil as does this one. This world is completely unfamiliar, yet scarily recognizable. You can tell the authors have really "been there" when it comes to the drugs described. The terror of acid, the helplessness of the day after. It is all here, and written in the lingo of the mind being ravaged by the chemicals. Anyone who is the least bit familiar with drug use or hang overs will find something in here to shake their familiarity loose, and give them an instant kick of "euphoric recall". That is, the sensation of being on a drug a long time after doing it, simply by remembering in great detail the effects of said drug.
It is as terrifying/exhilarating as a acid trip, and as gritty and uncontrollable as a brief flirtation with meth.
The horror of this book cannot be overstated. The villains are fully formed, their evil is real, thought out and intense. the evil crawls across the page like a garbage creature, its eyes broken eggshells and its head a tattered paper bag full of rotting food. It is like a long, drawn out scream whooshing up from the k-hole.
Of all the sick, bizarre, wonderful and powerful books I have read this year, this one--Siren Promised--this will be the one that haunts me.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
December 23, 2008
This book is a startling account of one's struggle against the substances and influences that are striving to conquer that person and those in her life. No punches were held in showing the terrible power and potential of substances and drugs to destroy, making this a startling Danteic trip through one's seemingly infinite Hell.
One of the things that sets this story apart from the many drug-terror stories is the supernatural aspect. A brilliantly crafted metaphor runs the duration of the novel; the tangible forces of destruction that the protagonist is constantly vying against and resisting are given a spectral twin just as horrendous in a completely alien, inveterate will that would see Angie, the protagonist, dead and gone along with her bloodline. The reader can't help but begin to feel asphyxiated and panicked for Angie as she spirals down into the dregs of a life she is so vehemently trying to escape.
This is a story of death and resurrection, of will and resignation. Awfully painful yet greatly inspiring.
One of the things that sets this story apart from the many drug-terror stories is the supernatural aspect. A brilliantly crafted metaphor runs the duration of the novel; the tangible forces of destruction that the protagonist is constantly vying against and resisting are given a spectral twin just as horrendous in a completely alien, inveterate will that would see Angie, the protagonist, dead and gone along with her bloodline. The reader can't help but begin to feel asphyxiated and panicked for Angie as she spirals down into the dregs of a life she is so vehemently trying to escape.
This is a story of death and resurrection, of will and resignation. Awfully painful yet greatly inspiring.
March 21, 2011
Fantastic.
Utterly and completely fantastic!
I tore through this book while at work - the visceral emotion, dark carnage and unsettling events that culminate in a fantastic voyage from acid induced highs to the inky depths of death were captivating!!
One thing that gave a new level of understanding was that the authors are both addicts. (One is addicted to drugs, the other alcohol.) This makes the gritty reality that the characters bring to those of us who cannot begin to fathom the depths of de-tox and the endless struggle of sobriety is not only powerful, but gives an all-encompassing sense of despair and hope rolled into one miasma of human life.
The bitter reality of the book, the biting guilt and nagging pain is mind-blowing, and Siren Promised has become one of my favorite books of all time.
Thank you, Alan M. Clark and Jeremy Robert Johnson, for enriching my brainmeats with your twisted works and dismal misery. I love you for it. Write more.
Utterly and completely fantastic!
I tore through this book while at work - the visceral emotion, dark carnage and unsettling events that culminate in a fantastic voyage from acid induced highs to the inky depths of death were captivating!!
One thing that gave a new level of understanding was that the authors are both addicts. (One is addicted to drugs, the other alcohol.) This makes the gritty reality that the characters bring to those of us who cannot begin to fathom the depths of de-tox and the endless struggle of sobriety is not only powerful, but gives an all-encompassing sense of despair and hope rolled into one miasma of human life.
The bitter reality of the book, the biting guilt and nagging pain is mind-blowing, and Siren Promised has become one of my favorite books of all time.
Thank you, Alan M. Clark and Jeremy Robert Johnson, for enriching my brainmeats with your twisted works and dismal misery. I love you for it. Write more.
April 30, 2007
For such a short story, the plot and characters were well drawn out. It makes you think twice about a lot of different views points. Family, drugs, strangers, love, hate, forgiveness....
Want to read
March 10, 2015This is copy 127 of 250 signed numbered copies. Book is signed by Alan M. Clake, Jeremy Robert Johnson and Larry Roberts.
December 13, 2022
We're on the "subtle" side of Bizarro. If there is such a thing. The main shade of horror here is Psychological, but there is more to the full picture.
The main character carries the story as you get more & more invested in her. You feel her drive, and her fears.
It works.
The main character carries the story as you get more & more invested in her. You feel her drive, and her fears.
It works.
April 4, 2016
This one is dark. Really dark. Many books claim to explore the ugly side of humanity but few that I have read hold a candle to Siren Promised.
Even though I am not a drug addict, this book makes me know exactly what it is like. The complexity in wanting to quit but being unable to. What it does to the people around you. It's fitting too, because the book opens with the statement "Jeremy Robert Johnson is a drug addict. Alan m. Clark is an alcoholic." IIts clear this joint effort was used as a way to help both authors work through their own demons.
What helps is that the novel is extremely well written. The characters are filled with depth. You come to understand and sympathize with people who, viewed under a different light, could easily be considered horrible monsters. Everything feels so real despite how surreal it can be (in the sections where the protagonist is under the influence) which makes later events all the more devastating.
Don't read this if you are looking for more of JRJs trademark sense of dark humor. This one is straight faced to the end, treating its characters with respect even when they don't treat themselves with it. Each author gives it their all (Alan Clark writes the shorter chapters from the man's perspective) and with their collective experiences with addiction, JRJs incredibly strong voice and Alan Clark's breathtaking artwork, these two men have crafted a short but powerful novel that shows how low humanity can go- and how they can come back. It's not very happy but it's required reading for anyone looking for something with more depth than most stuff out there.
Even though I am not a drug addict, this book makes me know exactly what it is like. The complexity in wanting to quit but being unable to. What it does to the people around you. It's fitting too, because the book opens with the statement "Jeremy Robert Johnson is a drug addict. Alan m. Clark is an alcoholic." IIts clear this joint effort was used as a way to help both authors work through their own demons.
What helps is that the novel is extremely well written. The characters are filled with depth. You come to understand and sympathize with people who, viewed under a different light, could easily be considered horrible monsters. Everything feels so real despite how surreal it can be (in the sections where the protagonist is under the influence) which makes later events all the more devastating.
Don't read this if you are looking for more of JRJs trademark sense of dark humor. This one is straight faced to the end, treating its characters with respect even when they don't treat themselves with it. Each author gives it their all (Alan Clark writes the shorter chapters from the man's perspective) and with their collective experiences with addiction, JRJs incredibly strong voice and Alan Clark's breathtaking artwork, these two men have crafted a short but powerful novel that shows how low humanity can go- and how they can come back. It's not very happy but it's required reading for anyone looking for something with more depth than most stuff out there.
July 12, 2008
It sucked. RJJ's book of short stories was great, but this? Ugh.
April 21, 2013
Absolutely amazing. Bleak and cold, but with bits of light and hope buried here and there.
September 15, 2013
3.5 stars really, but can't give a half star here! I think fans of Poppy Z Brite's Drawing Blood would get into this. I feel it is interesting but a but short/rushed.
January 13, 2014
An excellent trip into a troubled existence. Reality flows into hallucination and back again. Great artwork.
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