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TANITH: A Nightmarish Novel of Demonic Possession
Seltsame, nicht-menschliche Wesen scheinen die junge Virginia zu verfolgen. Immer wieder sieht sie zwischen den Bäumen von Gift's Hill gespenstische Gestalten. Nur bei ihrer Freundin Tanith findet Virginia Verständnis für ihre Ängste, die nicht in unsere Zeit passen.
Aber hinter der idyllischen Fassade von Virginias friedlichem englischen Dorf lauern die Schatten einer anderen, längst vergessenen Tanith ist eine Hexe und hat Virginia als Opfer für das dämonische Volk im Hügel auserkoren...
Der Roman Tanith von Jack D. Shackleford (erstmals im Jahr 1977 veröffentlicht) gilt - wie auch Schwarzer Sommer aus der Feder desselben Autors - als Klassiker des Okkult-Horrors und erscheint als durchgesehene Neuausgabe in der Reihe APEX HORROR.
Aber hinter der idyllischen Fassade von Virginias friedlichem englischen Dorf lauern die Schatten einer anderen, längst vergessenen Tanith ist eine Hexe und hat Virginia als Opfer für das dämonische Volk im Hügel auserkoren...
Der Roman Tanith von Jack D. Shackleford (erstmals im Jahr 1977 veröffentlicht) gilt - wie auch Schwarzer Sommer aus der Feder desselben Autors - als Klassiker des Okkult-Horrors und erscheint als durchgesehene Neuausgabe in der Reihe APEX HORROR.
188 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 30, 2019
A few years ago I attended a concert by the heavy metal band Night Demon and bought a t-shirt. When I discovered that the artwork on that shirt was also the cover art (by fantasy art legend Christos Ahciellos, no less,) of this obscure occult horror novel, I became obsessed with obtaining and reading it. After all, I may be metal AF but I'm not going to wear a shirt with art from a book I haven't read!
First of all, let's just take a moment to appreciate Tanith's cover art. They don't make 'em like this any more. If the sight of a naked woman orgasming on the back of a flying, bat-winged ram while a red-robed Reaper grinds on her from behind doesn't make you the least bit curious about the book's contents, then are you really even alive? As for the blurb on the back cover, its text is no less tawdry than the front cover's visuals. It warns of "slaves of Satan" who are "unequivocally male" who are determined to survive with the help of "the lissome, sensual Tanith!"
Isn't "lissome" a great word? It means "thin, supple, and graceful." But it just sounds like a word that a horny guy novelist would use while trying to describe a horny woman. Well have no fear because Jack D. Shackleford is that novelist and Tanith Rowan is that fictional woman! Let's look inside...
The novel opens with a very graphic sex magic scene that removes any doubt that this novel is going to be the acme of exploitative, gratuitous 70's British sex horror. In the next chapter, Tanith Rowan - the witch who was just climaxing all over the place in the first scene - makes a pact with the wood-woses to find them a suitable human woman to help them repopulate their dying race.
Wait, did you just ask what's a wood-wose? I'm glad you asked! The wood-wose is a cryptid with sightings in Great Britain going back centuries. They are big, hairy, hide in the forests...
Yes. That's right. The lissome, sensual Tanith is a wing woman for British Bigfoot. She is out to get British Bigfoot laid. How is she going to do this? By finding another, more naive witch and easing her into it with hot lesbian action. Like you do.
Nude women heave and undulate on the back of airborne rams, the many names of Satan are invoked, 90-something widows plot and scheme, and hot girl-on-girl is but a mere prelude to a Satanic Brit-squatch orgy. There is no novel quite like Tanith and it simply must be read.
I am not exaggerating when I say that Tanith is good. If you read it for what it is, which is a lurid, tawdry slab of male-gaze reading that is a relic of a different time, then you are going to enjoy every second of this wild, wood-wose-infested ride. Shackleford, whose bio claims is/was a practicing witch clearly knows his subject matter. He knows it well enough to write about it in a completely over-the-top, ridiculous manner and still do it well. This is an incredibly rare talent and it's a shame that this writer who was so imaginative (to put it mildly) is not more widely known.
At 188 pages Tanith is a rapid read. With such an unwieldy, sexually explicit plot it should just be short and pornographic. But in Shackleford's lusty hands it becomes something both lissome and sensual.
First of all, let's just take a moment to appreciate Tanith's cover art. They don't make 'em like this any more. If the sight of a naked woman orgasming on the back of a flying, bat-winged ram while a red-robed Reaper grinds on her from behind doesn't make you the least bit curious about the book's contents, then are you really even alive? As for the blurb on the back cover, its text is no less tawdry than the front cover's visuals. It warns of "slaves of Satan" who are "unequivocally male" who are determined to survive with the help of "the lissome, sensual Tanith!"
Isn't "lissome" a great word? It means "thin, supple, and graceful." But it just sounds like a word that a horny guy novelist would use while trying to describe a horny woman. Well have no fear because Jack D. Shackleford is that novelist and Tanith Rowan is that fictional woman! Let's look inside...
The novel opens with a very graphic sex magic scene that removes any doubt that this novel is going to be the acme of exploitative, gratuitous 70's British sex horror. In the next chapter, Tanith Rowan - the witch who was just climaxing all over the place in the first scene - makes a pact with the wood-woses to find them a suitable human woman to help them repopulate their dying race.
Wait, did you just ask what's a wood-wose? I'm glad you asked! The wood-wose is a cryptid with sightings in Great Britain going back centuries. They are big, hairy, hide in the forests...
Yes. That's right. The lissome, sensual Tanith is a wing woman for British Bigfoot. She is out to get British Bigfoot laid. How is she going to do this? By finding another, more naive witch and easing her into it with hot lesbian action. Like you do.
Nude women heave and undulate on the back of airborne rams, the many names of Satan are invoked, 90-something widows plot and scheme, and hot girl-on-girl is but a mere prelude to a Satanic Brit-squatch orgy. There is no novel quite like Tanith and it simply must be read.
I am not exaggerating when I say that Tanith is good. If you read it for what it is, which is a lurid, tawdry slab of male-gaze reading that is a relic of a different time, then you are going to enjoy every second of this wild, wood-wose-infested ride. Shackleford, whose bio claims is/was a practicing witch clearly knows his subject matter. He knows it well enough to write about it in a completely over-the-top, ridiculous manner and still do it well. This is an incredibly rare talent and it's a shame that this writer who was so imaginative (to put it mildly) is not more widely known.
At 188 pages Tanith is a rapid read. With such an unwieldy, sexually explicit plot it should just be short and pornographic. But in Shackleford's lusty hands it becomes something both lissome and sensual.
May 1, 2015
http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2...
This is a classic tale of British occultism. What makes it "British", well there is the dark underlying current of something old and evil pervading every page. There is also plenty soft core smut that it feels like a Hammer Horror film. Plus there is that cover. It is from the great Chris Achilleos, so it really invokes the feel of the old White Dwarf/Heavy Metal covers. The scene is lurid and right out of the book. The cover talks about "demonic possession", but really this is about one witch battling another for the control of yet a third witch. No demons to speak of really. There is a lot of well researched details on various rituals; but Shackleford has a name for himself in this sort of supernatural fiction. Enough that I want to check out more of his work.
Without getting into details or spoilers I think it might be an interesting story to come back to today, see where some of the characters in 2015 vs 1975. The characters of Tanith and Virginia are really interesting and I'd would have loved to know more about them to be honest.
This is a classic tale of British occultism. What makes it "British", well there is the dark underlying current of something old and evil pervading every page. There is also plenty soft core smut that it feels like a Hammer Horror film. Plus there is that cover. It is from the great Chris Achilleos, so it really invokes the feel of the old White Dwarf/Heavy Metal covers. The scene is lurid and right out of the book. The cover talks about "demonic possession", but really this is about one witch battling another for the control of yet a third witch. No demons to speak of really. There is a lot of well researched details on various rituals; but Shackleford has a name for himself in this sort of supernatural fiction. Enough that I want to check out more of his work.
Without getting into details or spoilers I think it might be an interesting story to come back to today, see where some of the characters in 2015 vs 1975. The characters of Tanith and Virginia are really interesting and I'd would have loved to know more about them to be honest.
June 20, 2023
Great cover, shame about the book.
November 26, 2012
White Witch Ginny Lane and her husband move to an isolated cottage in the Idyllic English countryside, things start to go badly wrong when he storms out after an argument. She reports it to the police and soon things start to snowball from there. She feels isolated and falls into depression and drinking in her despair. There seems to be a ray of hope on the horizon in the form of Tanith, wealthy, lithe, blonde, beautiful Tanith befriends Ginny, she is a consoling shoulder to cry on in Ginny's hour of need. Tanith has a tragic secret of her own.
But there are more sinister things afoot, strange creatures lurk in the nearby forest, strange creatures of Roma legend, creatures thought long extinct, is Tanith the one able to summon them. What of the iron willed village Matriarch Mrs Wayne-Johnston, what secret is she hiding? What of her 'troubleshooter', lovable rogue Tom Underhill? A serial Casanova, but with an undying loyalty to his employer.
All in all a great little supernatural thriller. Well sketched characters, I did feel the ending was a bit of a let down though. Still a very good book. If you like Dennis Wheatley's black magic stories, you'll likely enjoy this one.
But there are more sinister things afoot, strange creatures lurk in the nearby forest, strange creatures of Roma legend, creatures thought long extinct, is Tanith the one able to summon them. What of the iron willed village Matriarch Mrs Wayne-Johnston, what secret is she hiding? What of her 'troubleshooter', lovable rogue Tom Underhill? A serial Casanova, but with an undying loyalty to his employer.
All in all a great little supernatural thriller. Well sketched characters, I did feel the ending was a bit of a let down though. Still a very good book. If you like Dennis Wheatley's black magic stories, you'll likely enjoy this one.
October 24, 2025
Poorly written trash. Ugly dwarves with massive knobbly cocks
October 4, 2013
Of its time and genre, but fun.
March 17, 2015
I'm sure I picked this up for the cover. Classic 80's when they had artists paint covers not Photoshop technicians who haven't a clue about art.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews