Nightlife

by Brian Hodge

From the primeval rain forest comes an uncontrolled substance never intended for consumption by the civilized mind… To the warrior-shamans of the Venezuelan forest people, the drug is a sacred part pain, part pleasure, all power. Skullflush is pure psychic whiplash … an exhilarating gateway to an advanced consciousness beyond time and species. Deep in the Amazon, the primitive tribe has kept its secret safe from civilization. Until a rising drug lord ends up with a stolen six-kilo stash, and begins to peddle his prize in the nightclubs of Florida. Tampa’s thrill-seekers are eager to sample the pale green powder. But generations of urbanized decadence have left them jaded, shallow, and weak … too weak to handle the drug’s mystic high. The ancient rain forest chemistry warps bone, muscle, and sinew in their city-soft bodies, setting free the ferocious power of man’s basic nature. On the rebound from a life in ruins, Justin Gray is the sole witness who can connect the fearsome power of skullflush with the carnage left in its wake. A marked man, with a new love and an unlikely ally from the heart of the rain forest, he's forced to learn the ways of the urban jungle, where everyone is both hunter and hunted.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy

455 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Brian Hodge, called “a writer of spectacularly unflinching gifts” by Peter Straub, is the award-winning author of ten novels of horror and crime/noir. He’s also written well over 100 short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and four full-length collections. His first collection, The Convulsion Factory, was ranked by critic Stanley Wiater as among the 113 best books of modern horror.

He lives in Colorado, where he also dabbles in music and photography; loves everything about organic gardening except the thieving squirrels; and trains in Krav Maga, grappling, and kickboxing, which are of no use at all against the squirrels.

Reviews

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Miami Vice" meets "Crocodile Dundee" only with more were-piranhas.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book with my Shelfari group. Coming off the high of Whom the Gods Would Destroy, I was excited to tackle another Hodge book.

This story is difficult to describe, so I'm going to leave that to the book's description and stick with my feelings on the story here.

I enjoyed the creativity and imagination of the concept. I also enjoyed how the tale turned into something completely different than what I expected. Hodge's prose is always excellent, but I think it's more polished now than it was in 1991, when this book first came out. The characters were memorable, realistic, and complicated. Lastly, I loved the character of Kerebawa and couldn't help but make comparisons between his people and Native Americans.

I did have a little trouble with the pacing and there were a few points where it was lagging a bit. Fortunately, these sections didn't go on for too long before another exciting twist would pick things up again.

To sum up, this original fascinating story started off with a slow burn, then it took off in a completely unforeseen direction, before it rocketed to a close. I liked it a lot. Recommended!

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book's cover blurb did not really do Nightlife justice, it still proved to be an absorbing read. Hodge is something of a wordsmith, and unlike most horror novels of this era (published in 1991) the character building is superb. Definitely a strange tale, and one of moral failure and redemption to boot.

We start off in the rain forests of Venezuela with a tribe of Yanomamo about to raid another tribe (I will skip all the complicated names). The Yanomamo employ a peculiar dried bark compound in their daily rituals, one that supposedly connects them to life in broader terms such as their place in the cosmos. One tribe (the one about to be raided) has developed this bark powder in a novel way that, when used in quantity, can actually transform the user into part animal (whatever their spirit animal is). The raiders see this as an affront, in particular as the renegade tribe is selling the new power to the drug cartels. To make a long story short, six kilos of 'Skullflush' make it out of the rain forest and are eventually transported and sold to a dealer in Tampa, FL.

Our main protagonist (Justin Gray) is something of a drunk and is flying to Tampa to hook up with an old college buddy (Erik) to help start a new life. Justin was a small time dealer in the midwest, with a good job and wife, but ran into some trouble-- some of the smack he sold was laced with poison and killed a kid. He eventually works out a deal with the DEA to flip his supplier. Now, after a divorce and jobless, he is hoping his buddy and Tampa will turn things around.

Justin and Erik head to a nightclub that evening to meet some friends and it is a typical late 80s scene, with lots of coke floating around the disco lights. Justin is invited by the local pusher (a sort of friend of the group) for some 'Tampa hospitality' and heads to the bathroom with a recent acquaintance. The pusher, Tony, has just scored the Skullflush, a milky green power, and offers it around. He has no idea what it is and as he does not partake himself, wants to see! For Justin, one line is quite enough thank you, but his buddy/acquaintance snorts several and bursts from the bathroom partially changed in to a jungle cat and attacks the dancers.

The plotting is fairly complex and feels a little like Miami Vice, but in a good way. One of the tribal raiders follows the trail of the Skullflush to see it destroyed and has lots fun working his way through the Colombian Cartels, eventually ending up in Tampa. After finding out what the drug does, Tony wants to get rid of any witnesses, and that leads us back to our protagonist Justin...

Like most good literature, all the main characters are flawed, some horribly, but tend to have some redeeming qualities as well. Before the smelly stuff hits the spinning blades, Justin thinks he has found a new love (April) and she as well. Tony the pusher is developed in some detail, becoming almost like the lead in Scarface. Add in some killer piranhas to the mix and things get interesting! Unlike the cover blurb suggests, Skullflush never makes it past a few people and Nightlife largely takes the form of a crime thriller with some supernatural aspects added for extra flavor. 4 stars!

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

An extremely well-written novel that infuses modern day man, ancient tribal beliefs, and the supernatural. I felt that the direction this story took was unexpected, and loved that aspect of it! My only complaint was that about mid-way through, it was beginning to feel like just "another thriller story". This wasn't enough for me to contemplate NOT finishing it, but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned around from something that seemed "commonplace" to something altogether different. The last 50% rushed by me in a blur--I carried it with me everywhere, until finally realizing that I wasn't going to do anything else until I'd reached that final page.

I will be actively seeking out more from this author!

Highly recommended!

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-La resaca de lo ochentero puede ser suave pero no deja de ser resaca.-

Género. Narrativa fantástica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Unos narcotraficantes colombianos consiguen hacerse con varios kilos de una sustancia que usa la tribu de los yanomamö, en las junglas del sur de Venezuela, con fines rituales. La llegada de la droga a Florida revelará sus mortales capacidades para sacar el animal interior de las personas y el responsable de su comercialización en territorio estadounidense descubrirá que puede ayudarle a medrar en el negocio, aunque tendrá que hacer que desaparezcan todos los que le puedan relacionar con el material, conocido como limpiacráneos. Pero un guerrero yanomamö viajará hasta la civilización para recuperar la droga, rastreándola a lo largo de la cadena de distribución.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Jon Recluse · Rating 4 out of 5]

What begins as a crime thriller morphs into something from Kolchak: the Nightstalker, when a new drug with serious side effects hits the streets in this early work by Brian Hodge. Engaging characters, some of the best writing in the horror genre, and the strong possibility that this novel is the inspiration for RELIC make this a must read.

Highly recommended!

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book; the 90s nightclub scene and a drug that turns people into half-human half-animal?! Sounds bloody brilliant. And the book does start off that way which I really enjoyed. However, the story turns into more of a cat and mouse thriller while the shapeshifting took a back seat. I did enjoy the writing and there were moments that were excellent but the story did get a bit slow from time to time. Overall I was expecting a lot more 'nightlife' from this book than what I got!

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Folks nowadays seem to know Hodge for his newer cosmic horror books, but apparently he was putting out mainstream horror back at the tail end of the 80s horror boom. After trying this one, I can see why his early career doesn't get mentioned as much. It's not bad, but there's way better King imitators from that era to go with. But if you're a fan of Weird Lit, do yourself a favor and read some of his newer collections and novellas!

[(shan) Littlebookcove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like horror books that are set with a “Hot tropical” feel! This and Stephen King's Duma Key. Kool, hot, humid clear blue waves and lots and lots of horror! Loved this story Miami vice style! I felt like I was right there with them really well written. The plot was out of this world.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new drug has arrived in Florida from the deep jungles of South America, and Justin Gray, a convicted drug dealer and recovering user from St. Louis trying to make a new life for himself, is introduced to it by a local dealer. He witnesses its use in a nightclub, along with its animalistic, murderous aftereffects, and then finds himself engaged in a war with the dealer. Justin finds himself allied with a South American native and the woman with whom he is developing a relationship, along with the jungle magic that is the source of the drug's effects....

I'm not much of a back-cover blurb writer, but that's a decent summation of the story. Does it sound cutting-edge? New and original? Or anything else that Abyss was supposed to be in the 1990s? No? OK, good. That's how I feel, too. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the premise, but for Abyss to follow up The Cipher, which was all those things, with this book just feels like a step backward.

Nightlife is another re-read for me, and I should note that I was a huge fan of Hodge's after reading this book. Twenty years later, it's still a solid read, but it's not as good as I remember it. For one thing, Hodge uses a lot of sentence fragments in his narrative. He drops the subject of his sentences. Picking it up with the next sentence. Assuming the reader will carry the thread. To his credit, he usually makes it work, but it comes across as distracting to me. I can see a writer doing this kind of thing when the action kicks in and he's trying to carry that frenetic pace through to the narrative, but Hodge does this a lot, even when he's just describing a character walking into a room. It didn't sit well with me.

The readability improves as the story progresses and the characters become clearer. The story is still pretty dated, though, with cordless phones being the newest technology. Hodge takes great pains to show his characters extending and compressing the antennas on these phones, as if it's the most important part of a scene. I can't blame Hodge for not including cell phones, but the rest of the story stands somewhat timelessly, so it's jarring to run across something as antiquated as a land line.

Plus, this is a very male book. The central characters in the fight are Justin, the drug dealer, and the South American, all of whom are testosterone-laden men. They're different in their own ways (Justin is sensitive, the drug dealer is Scarface, and the South American is a noble warrior), but they're the focus of the battle. Angel, Justin's love interest, plays a role, but she's less central. It doesn't help that a major conflict for Justin to overcome is Angel's role in a porn film she made before they even met, or that Angel feels guilt toward Justin over it and worries that he'll leave her over it. Hodge gives her reasons for all this, but it just feels out of place from 2018, where society is (mostly) progressive enough for this to be his problem, not hers.

Still, the story is solid, the characters are engaging, and the plot is compelling. It's just surprising to find that a book published in 1991 has to be viewed as a product of its time the same way a book published in the 1950s should be. It has been over twenty years, but there's still a part of me that feels like the 19-year-old reading this for the first time, and it doesn't feel like so much has changed in that time. Maybe that's just me complaining about getting old, though.

[Emily K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's all kinds of Florida Man this and Tampa, death metal and strip clubs that that you could say about this novel, but right now I'm stupid to come up with a clever remark to sell this book to you. Maybe (hopefully) the "vibes" wave has crested and crashed somewhere on some sunny Floridian shore, but irregardless, for lack of vocabulary, this novel's got the late 80s/early 90's vibes, the sleeze, video stores, night clubs, cocaine and advertising, punky bondagewear, spirit animals, the anthropological meets pharmacological plus some boudoir photography and cartels for good measure. I mean cripes, the protagonist is named Justin Gray, a Gen X dreamboat flying a massive red flag. Justin's just left St. Louis because he got busted for dealing coke. His wife divorced him. He wants to start fresh in Tampa where his male platonic life partner Erik has transitioned from photojournalism to softcore porn. Erik introduces Justin to April, a friend and model of Erik's, at a club where Justin, king of bad decisions, decides to hoover up some kinda new green schnieef that Tony Mendoza is trying to peddle. One of the boys hoovering green schnieef in the john at the club goes all animorphs and eats some people on the dance floor and chaos ensues. Meanwhile Kerebawa, a Yanomamo man, is on a mission to retrieve that green schnieef that Tony has recently acquired. (Here's where I could compare and contrast Kerebawa with Boro from BNCF but eh, one does 90's exoticism (for what its worth) well and the other is BNCF.) The result is more sleazy crime thriller than horror novel, but there's some great gore and some psychedelic drug novel moments, and frankly the ending had me wondering how they were going to pull it off to the very last page. And believe me, I was worried it was gonna be all and then Stephen King explodes. Sure, I may have some problems with a thing or two here related to attitudes towards sex work (product of their time), or spirit animals and 90's exoticism, or the inconsistencies in April's characterization, but they didn't detract from my good time with this book.

[Debra]

Stephen King endorsed the entire Dell Abyss Horror line. Here is his blurb:

"Thank you for introducing me to the remarkable line of novels currently being issued under Dell's Abyss imprint. I have given a great many blurbs over the last twelve years or so, but this one marks two firsts: first unsolicited blurb (I called you) and the first time I have blurbed a whole line of books. In terms of quality, production, and plain old story-telling reliability (that's the bottom line, isn't it), Dell's new line is amazingly satisfying...a rare and wonderful bargain for readers. I hope to be looking into the Abyss for a long time to come."

[Larry Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title was the second in line published from the highly-regarded Dell/Abyss series that ran around 40 paperback original novels from 1991 to 1995. It came on the spurs of the now-legendary The Cipher by Kathe Koja, admittedly an impossible act to follow. Nightlife, author Hodge's 3rd novel, has a similar theme of transformation, but the main direction seems to be at a genre crossroads. The vehicle driven is Horror, but it keeps fishtailing into Crime alleyways. As a result, character stereotypes become reluctant passengers, helplessly watching exclamation and question marks attach to the prose's window dressing, looking as confused as The Riddler's puke-green costume(1).

It's still a hell-of-a-fun ride, though.

From the downSouth lands of vision quests and piranhas comes a digestible substance that literally puts hair on the dog. Six kilos have disgorged from the Amazon rainforest and into the noses of Tampa's hipsters and addicts. As our to-be heroine April Kingston is droning on about the lack of ritual in contemporary times and that we should "get reacquainted with our primitive sides"(p.31), her to-be boyfriend is hoovering this new stuff appropriately called Skullflush in the bathroom of a lizard lounge called Apocalips, "an exercise in sensual overkill"(p.28). Justin Gray is new in town, loose-ended, and trying to run ahead of his chinny-chin-chin escape from drug dealing in St. Louis, where he inadvertently sold some killer strychine-laced heroin and had to squeal "like a pig from Deliverance"(p.26) to get cut free. He's now a reluctant user—he's our Hero for Crissake!—and certainly fares better than his fellow snorter, who hits the dance floor with claws and teeth of a jaguar and slaughters 4 people, turning the club literally into a meat market. In the process we meet Tony Mendoza, the dealer, and a villain who has watched De Palma's Scarface of 1983 way too many times.

April keeps lamely philosophizing on the bennies of substance abuse, championing a position that it's good to anesthetize from the shallow pursuits sanctioned by society because happiness is not yuppie toys, status, and employer back-pattings. Justin thinks she sounds "romantic"(p.70). Meanwhile, Tony's slinkin' in his Lincoln "like a shark . . . waiting for the proper trigger to snap hunger and need beyond containment"(p.72). He's a mid-level pusher who mysteriously gets this green powder from the jungle and is anxious to find its market share. He also sees this as an opportunity to move up the gangster ladder inspired by the ruthless tenaciousness he sees in his 300-gallon fish tank packed with piranha, "the pit bulls of the underwater world"(p.45).

Collated into this storyline, another character emerges. Kerebawa. The greatest warrior of the Venezuelan Yanomamo tribe, known as the Fierce People, who "believed that ferocity and avenging all trespasses was the key to living"(p.5). The novel opens with these Stone Age indians trying to stop another tribe from trading to the Colombians a religious ritual powder they call kekura-teri. Kerebawa is saddled with the dying wish of his friend and priest to retrieve this powerful, hallucinogenic transfiguration before it decimates the American drug culture. Kerebawa is the antithesis of Tony Montana and represents the organic and natural way to walk the killing fields with 6-foot poison-tipped arrows instead of an AK-47. He's Chewbacca without the wooly doo; he's fookin' King Kong.

The leggy part of the plot is getting Skullflush back to the jungle where it belongs. Along the trail, there's a love story and a betrayal, vaudeville antics(2) of a savage in civilization with preachy taglines like, "this world had forgotten much"(p.133), and lotsa violence and some dirty sex, plus tons of "missions", like, you know, creepy-crawl Tony's house, pizza delivery assassin gunbattle, severed hand messages, more brain-blow trips on hekura-teri turning you into your power animal, the obligatory piranha chew used as torture, very minor police interference with these eviscerating murders, shenanigans, stalkings, car tails, more shootouts, then there's alligator (Tony) surprise attack in swimming pool, butchery a la St. Valentine's Day massacre, puttin' lotsa bullets into a guy who doesn't die—

—and, a Big Boss Battle at Busch Gardens complete with white Bengal tigers and an exploding bottle of isopropyl alcohol.

I don't understand why this novel is titled Nightlife. It should be called Skull Flush, after the drug. It is, afterall, the most powerful force of this story. Subtextually, drugs are assumed as a Rite of Passage, safe and healthy and enlightening if taken properly, as exampled by Kerebawa's tribal and adapted life. However, here in democratic America, drugs not under the control of pharmaceutical corporations like Merck or Pfizer are illegal and demonized with tightly-corseted tales of addiction and death. Even herbs and naturopathic medications are suspect. Nightlife is tolerant—even quite plaudit—about getting whacked out of your skull; it's the delivery systems and quality control that's dubitable. The novel seems to be saying, "yeah, we'll probably make some mistakes. Hopefully they won't kill us. But at least believe in a floor made from resilience—not favoritism and ignorance—and let us make up our own minds about this."



1) I'm seeing Frank Gorshin's version from the 1960's Batman TV series.

2) Kerebawa's visit to Mickey D's is full-bore cheesy fulmination. ". . . carried his Big Mac, large fries, and medium orange to an empty table, uncomfortably wedged himself in one of the little seats . . . and found the most slimy, repugnant pile of food he'd ever seen. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought the meat a fresh kill. Probably during the act of procreation, given the amount of white ejaculate it dripped. Appearances were deceiving, though. He liked it . . ."(p.132)

[Konstantine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dell Abyss Book 2/43

listen, look at the jacket cover and tell me this book doesn’t have promise, because its premise alone kicks ass. weird experimental horror about a body mutating substance from the Amazon smuggled as drugs into Florida rules, like an A+ idea for sure especially as the second Dell Abyss title.

now, the book starts of great as well, Brian Hodge is a solid writer and I’m here for his frantic style that goes along with our main character, and honestly his characters are strong as well, though admittedly through a very strong male lense, which, I expected reading an early 90’s horror novel. Id say the book isn’t perfect but pretty great till about 1/3 the way in, where it lost me a little.

dont get me wrong, i still finished it and enjoyed it, but the plot went from experimental body horror in neon nightclubs which is very my bullshit, to like, hard boiled cheesy buddy cop sort of deal like Miami Vice, which is uh, not fitting for this story at all, especially with such a bizarre premise set up.

Plus let’s address the elephant in the room, in that some of the language here used to address the indigenous South American character Kerebawa feels very dated, as does much of his characterization. I don’t think Hodge meant it maliciously, I genuinely did not get that given he tries so hard to make said character cool and heroic, though it definitely feels its age at times.

anyways, regardless, i still enjoyed it quite a bit, will give it an extra star for Were-Piranhas and the first scenes alone

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beast Unleashes

A drug that turns you into a creature of the night. Lots of shockers in this story. The chase, the suspense, the drama is all there. I’ll have to check out more of this author’s work.

[Jim Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I've found a new favorite author. I love horror written with almost literary prose, and Brian Hodge certainly has a flair for splendid sentences. On top of that, a novel based around a shamanic drug named 'skullflush' and the effects it has on people, what's not to love?

[Collin Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that somehow manages to balance violent crime with Uber schlocky creature horror and still manages to have slow parts. Not a bad little book all things considered

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just realized I read this one back in my 90's life of horror paperbacks galore. No remembrance of it, but considering it's Brian Hodge, it has a good chance of being rather on the better side.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure how this straight-to-VHS movie in novel form got onto my Want to Read list. The blurb on the front cover calls it "fascinating, frightening, and fierce." It's not.

[Adam Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Night Life by Brian Hodge was my first Hodge read and, although I did not enjoy it all that much, I am definitely going to read more of his work. The book had a very

interesting prologue but quickly lost my interest when it began talking about the drug around which the story revolves because it, for some reason, transforms its users

into half-human half-beast-like creatures. The novel had the feel of the few novels I have read dealing with drugs or hard rock groups in that it is very dreamy. Entire

sections of this book drifted through my mind without leaving any impression whatsoever. This may mean that the book is simply too long, or maybe it just didn't work

for me personally. I enjoyed the conclusion of the story quite a lot and thought it almost made up for a plot that I found to be rather stupid. Hodge's prose is

excellent though and I am surprised that this novel has not been read and rated by more people online. His characterization was as good as it could have been for this

kind of story and my disappointment with it is purely my own. I recommend this to any horror fan at all because it seems to consist of a lot of things that horror fans

love. I guess I am just saying that, in this case, give this a try for yourself and do not let my experience discourage you. Hodge is clearly a gifted writer and this

book deserves to be given a chance.

[DJMikeG · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining read. Everything I've read by Hodge has been fantastic thus far.

[Orange · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun "blast to the past", the past being the 80's in Miami and Tampa Florida. The story was still fresh enough to be interesting.