The Inevitability of Evil

by Halo Scot, Ross Young, Chris Hooley

From three deranged, daredevil authors comes a tragedy braided with threads of time. Join us as we journey through past, present, and future to discover the sanity in madness and the cruelty in kindness.

In the past, Detective Ward investigates a case regarding a missing infant. The mother is trapped in an endless cycle of pain while the father dives into a monstrous darkness. Danger and desperation plague them both.

In the present, a babe becomes a boy becomes a beast. Cain is a weapon forged by delusions and mistakes. He has been here before, but nobody knows or understands why.

In the future, pacifist aliens known as the Cephs fight their imminent genocide. Despite their advanced technology and magnanimous philosophy, they’re doomed to fail and suffer time and again.

Part sci-fi, part horror, and part existential thriller, THE INEVITABILITY OF EVIL is a chilling experience for nightmare lovers, a novella that’s TRUE DETECTIVE meets RAMBO meets ALIENS. Come along if you dare, but you’ve been here before, too, and once you enter this book, we can’t rescue you.

146 pages, ebook

First published August 13, 2024

About the author

Halo Scot is a dark fiction author of book monsters, many of which bite. Reviews and press are available on HaloScot.com. Halo has been featured in Publishers Weekly and BookLife. Also, as a founding member of QueerIndie.com, Scot has appeared at Brooklyn Book Festival, TBRCon, and Pop Pride Week, an event hosted by ReedPop, BookCon, and New York Comic Con.

Halo pretends to be cool, dark, and mysterious, when in reality, Scot is a clumsy and awkward creature who eats shadows and harbors a severe distrust of ladybugs. Prone to chaos, this nightmare-dwelling beast aims to achieve galactic domination through a void-screaming expertise, dormant telekinesis, and aggressive cackling. To summon this obscure and skittish writer, one must align the following items in a circle as an offering: three shots of whiskey, two bowls of jelly beans, something shiny or lit on fire, and a printed photo of Nicolas Cage as a duck.

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WEBSITE: haloscot.com
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Reviews

[Tanweer Dar · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I was a little overwhelmed by the multiple voices and alternating perspective narrative - but the threads of this sci-fi horror came together quite superbly in a hauntingly powerful tale which is as thought-provoking as it is unnerving.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

I happened across this book while searching for Eldritch/cosmic horror on the Kindle store, and it was free. The tentacles on the front reminded me of this collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories I have called "Tales of Horror," so I decided to read it. I wouldn't categorize the book as cosmic or eldritch horror in just about any capacity, but my review isn't negative because I expected something different.

The story unfolds from three different perspectives. Two of them, I can see the clear relation to the overarching events, but the third? I have absolutely no idea what it has to do with just about anything happening whatsoever.

In general, I struggled to figure out exactly what was going on with the story. Even with the perspectives whose relation I understand, the progression, the events, the transition changes... it's all disjunct. I don't feel like I'm given enough information to piece together what exactly is happening. Maybe it just went over my head - that's certainly possible - but even so, I couldn't help but feel as though I was waiting for something to happen, for things to become clearer, throughout the entire story, and that moment just never showed up.

I'll talk a bit more about each individual perspective, but I'll mark the important stuff for spoilers.

The first perspective is that of a detective. The detective is investigating a missing child. Right out the gate, the mother of the child tells the detective (who she seems to have a special relationship with) that the baby was abducted by your bog standard alien tractor beam. That's right. An alien spaceship showed up and levitated the boy away. The husband is hyperaggressive towards the detective, doesn't believe his wife at all, is implied to beat her, and overall is a pill as the detective tries to solve the mystery.

The husband wants to show the detective a "circle" outside. It's an empty well. He pushes the detective down the well and then grabs a hammer and prepares to "talk" to his wife about "letting another man access her forbidden fruit."

The wife sees a glow in the basement and hears voices. She goes down there and is attacked by skeletons because, spoiler, her husband is a murderous cannibal, and the skeletons are suddenly moving because....? I have no idea. This isn't explained. I don't understand where this comes from.

The detective gets out of the well because he prayed, or something. But only after "sliding down the wall like warm jizz running down outstretched thighs." No, I am not joking. The story really uses that simile, and I will never be able to un-read it. Anyways, the husband goes down to the basement to find his wife being attacked by the skeletons, before they turn on him. The detective goes down to the basement, and him and the husband stop the skeletons before the detective kills the husband. Then the story says that the baby was his?

That's it for this perspective.

It doesn't make much sense, and I don't see how it connects to anything else that happens in the story whatsoever.

Next perspective.

This one follows one of the forgotten people in society - a person whose life is endlessly tragic, and nothing ever goes right for them until the end.

Basically, the character, whose last name matches that of the detective, spends his whole life being groped by invisible tentacles. He's completely hairless because of their experiments. They frequently take him up to their ship and probe him and try to comfort him and get their slime all over him and such. It absolutely comes across as a fetish.

Now, you may be thinking, "isn't that, obviously, the detective's son that they saved at the beginning of the book?" I... don't know. I was under the impression that it wasn't. His perspective talks about him being neglected his whole life and never having anyone who cared about him, ever. He was ostracized in school. Then he was homeless as an adult. I find it hard to believe that the parents who saved him from an alien abduction would then proceed to neglect him entirely. I could be wrong, but the connection is never made clear enough to say with any certainty, one way or another.

Moving on.

He's edgy and angsty. You won't make it three whole sentences during these sections where he doesn't mention something about "killing the darkness," or, "knowing the darkness bleeds," or some such. It's gratuitous, tiresome, obnoxious.

To summarize, he wants revenge on the tentacles that grope him and put their slime in his mouth and inject him with stuff, because they've made his life hell. So, naturally, he develops psychic powers like he's in Akira and plots to kill them. Not before he kills a homeless drug addict, of course. Then he destroys a house with his powers, by accident, killing everyone inside, and then he's taken up to the spaceship and blows it up with his mind, talking about "finally killing the sky" all the while.

Overall, it feels like this perspective is edgy for the sake of being edgy, with the added bonus of fan service for those who like tentacles. The whole time, I was rolling my eyes and sighing in discontentment.

Final section.

This section follows Cyan, one of the tentacles who was performing experiments and violating the person from the previous perspective. She is one of an alien race of tentacle people who were sent to stop the destruction of their people. The Nexus, the hivemind coalescence of all the dead tentacle people, warns them about a human who will destroy their kind. An expedition to earth to find this human and stop them from their future actions by showing them kindness is undertaken, and Cyan is the specialist.

In essence, they perform experiments on the human, see the results of their actions, talk about how strange humans are compared to themselves. Then they sit there and wonder why the subject always seems so angry, and why he's developing psychic powers, and why he's isolated from the humans, and why their kindness isn't working, and yada yada yada. Then, they suddenly realize, "what if it's OUR fault?"

Then they start seeing signals from other tentacle people, despite the fact that they were the only ones on the expedition. They realize the Nexus had been sending different expeditions out across different dimensions. How did they not get these signals before, when they'd been on the expedition for years? How did they never notice that they weren't the only ones around, in all that time? Never answered. Because then the subject shows up and destroys the ship with his psychic powers that they gave him.

The story ends as it began - with the Nexus warning the tentacle people about the human that needed to be stopped, and another expedition began.

I feel the ending would have had more impact if any other portion of the story had any impact in the first place, but instead, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. It felt hokey.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this book. There wasn't much that grabbed my attention, it wasn't a pleasant read, I didn't understand what was happening a good chunk of the time, and the story lacked impact. I didn't care for the characters, I didn't feel anything for any of them. I couldn't get invested, and by the end, I was simply trying to finish it so I could be done with it.

At least it's short.

[N.T. Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scot, Young, and Hooley have hit a homerun with The Inevitability of Evil. It’s a quick and wild ride through the lunatic fringe of three scenarios. Separate yet cohesive in their own right, the story is fluid, and it works in the way a soap opera will make you beg to return to one scene while keeping you engrossed in another.

This is a sad tale woven through the fabric of inner turmoil and its source. Nature versus nurture. Genetics versus environment. Kindness…or brutality? Where does one end and the other begin?

Throughout, the prose is poetic, the madness jumps off the page, and the horror pushes the envelope. Your emotions will go through many phases as you follow along with the ache of Marie’s loss in conjunction with the cruelty of her husband, the horror of Cain’s formative years that becomes the foundation for unspeakable pain, and the Cephs, who in all their righteous glory to do the kind thing, become their own worst enemy.

The Inevitability of Evil is an amalgamation of many different forces while also being the same. But at the end of the day, it’s about human nature and what happens to complex creatures in an often cruel and unforgiving world.

Five stars across the board. Highly recommend. You won’t put it down until you’re finished!

[Rose J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE INEVITABILITY OF EVIL plays on twisted dualities and how perception is warped by our unique experience.

This story has three perspectives woven into a single, heart-pounding, mind-bending dark tale that will break your heart, incite rage, and make you realize that we never truly know what’s going on in someone else’s head, nor what is best for them and their personal experience.

I am obsessed!!! Each perspective had its own heartbreak, it’s own deep-dive into madness, and took a look at how people hide so much: family issues, inner struggles, secret loves, and outright madness—of several flavors.

This story begs us to look at nature vs. nurture, and what creates a villain…a psychopath…a kill-them-with-kindness collective.

I absolutely loved it! Well done to these three fabulous authors!!!

[A.C. Merkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed how these three storylines intricately weave together. The narrative elegantly blends eerie hauntings with the chilling presence of a dark murderer, and to top it all off, there are interdimensional beings that add an intriguing twist! Honestly, I found myself pondering the complexities of this book long after finishing it. It left me with that delightful feeling of confusion, as my thoughts spiraled around its themes and characters for weeks.

[Kelly Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Inevitability of Evil” is a macabre and unsettling novella, a collaboration between three talented writers. They have crafted three diverse yet interconnected tales highlighting the darkest of impulses, the nurturing of hate, and the creation of monsters. This is a real treat for fans of dark Sci/Fi and horror!

[Anabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a reeaaally good cosmic horror! It's a mix between Lovecraft and a sitcom! It's a story told about our boy Cain, his parents and the ceph, all from different points of views. It was such a good fast read! Can't really go into any detail without spoiling. But don't forget, no matter what, kindness is always the answer.

[Jen]

Rating and review forthcoming.

[Kim Spiekman · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little confused while reading this but that's not due to the authors' writing, I'm just not that smart, but I still finished it and found the concept imaginative and well written

[Ashling · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had an incredible style (or styles) of writing/prose. It's just too bad that the plot didn't have room to breathe or make any sense at all. Very confusing.

[Kasandra]

DNF @ 13%