Blog Tour – The Devil’s Equinox by John Everson – Review

Welcome to Dark Reads stop on the Random Things Blog Tour for The Devils Equinox by John Everson. Thank you to Ann, and Flame Tree Press for inviting me to take part and providing me with an advanced reading copy for the Tour!

About The Book

Austin secretly wishes his wife would drop dead. He even tells a stranger in a
bar, who turns out to be his new neighbor, Regina. One night he comes home to find his wife dead.

Soon he’s entranced with Regina, who introduces him to a world of bloodletting and magic. Can he save his daughter,and himself, before the planets align for the Devil’s Equinox?

• Paperback: 256 Pages
• Publisher: Flame Tree Press – 27th June 2019
• ISBN: 978-1-78758-221-7

Get a copy from Flame Tree Press directly or via Amazon

Dark Reads Review

Well this was a dark little tale, it follows our protagonist Austin, he and his wife are going through a bit of a rocky patch. When he meets a mysterious new girl in town, Regina. He makes an off the cuff comment wishing his wife dead, the moral of the story; be careful what you wish for!

It turns out Regina is their new neighbor and quickly becomes friends with the couple.

Austin returns home one day to find his wife dead, leaving him a single dad to his infant daughter.

After the death of his wife Austin and Regina quickly become romantically involved and she introduces him to the dark world of Club Equinox, an underground club that caters to every dark and twisted fetish, fantasy, BDSM and ritualistic sex, there are a LOT of fancies tickled at Club Equinox. Austin soon learns Regina has an ulterior motive…

The Devil’s Equinox had a good old 70’s cult horror vibe, it was reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby and The Wicker Man. It was fast paced and I whizzed through it pretty quickly.

This was definitely a plot based story, we didn’t really get to know the main characters well and there was minimal back story.

I’m sorry to say it but I disliked Austin from the beginning. He seemed very nonchalant about the death of his wife and made one stupid decision after another and to be honest I felt like he deserved all of the misfortune that followed.

Regina was a more intriguing, well rounded character, I feel that her dark secrets drove the story on nicely.

Just to put it out there, there is a lot of explicit sex and sexual violence in this book, I didn’t feel that it was excessive in fact it was a necessity for this story. May be something to consider if you are easily offended, as it happens I’m not so no problems there!

Overall I enjoyed this book, the writing and imagery were fantastic. As I said I read it in no time, I was so intrigued to see what would happen next!

This was my first John Everson read and I am very interested to read more of his work.

If you like a classic Cult/Coven type read and you don’t blush easily this is definitely one for the to be read list!

About The Author

John Everson is a staunch advocate for the culinary joys of the jalapeno and an unabashed fan of 1970’s European horror cinema. He is also the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and it’s two sequels, Sacrifice and Redemption, as well as six other novels, including the erotic horror tour de force and Bram Stoker Award finalist NightWhere and the seductive backwoods tale of The Family Tree.

Other novels include The Pumpkin Man, Siren, The 13th and the spider-driven Violet Eyes.

Over the past 25 years, his short fiction has appeared in more than 75 magazines and anthologies and received a number of critical accolades, including frequent Honorable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror anthology series. His story“Letting Go” was a Bram Stoker Award finalist in 2007 and “The Pumpkin Man” was included in the anthology All American Horror: The Best of the First Decade of the 21st Century.

In addition to his own twisted worlds, he has also written stories in shared universes, including The Vampire Diaries and Jonathan Maberry’s V-Wars series, as well as for Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Green Hornet.

AWARDS:
Covenant – HWA Bram Stoker Award for First Novel,2005
Letting Go – Bram Stoker Award Finalist, Short Fiction,2007
NightWhere – Bram Stoker Award Finalist, Novel,2013

You can check out John’s Website and follow him on Twitter