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In this contemporary novel, author Bloodworth kicks his imagination into high gear as his plot pits a smart and savvy high-schooler against evil incarnate. Hallucinogenic happenings hold court from chapter to chapter as a young man attempts to come to grips with voices he can't shake and nightmares from which he awakes not only sweating but bleeding as well. The frenzied speed of the narrative risks giving readers paper cuts as they flip the pages to keep up.
A birthday party for the teenage protagonist, Chance, starts things off as readers find him drinking heavily, fornicating fervently, and getting into a fight with what just might be a cannibalistic baby-eating serial killer. Soon his school days begin to become as hairy as his tortured nights when a visit to the principal's office turns into a life-threatening tussle with a shape-shifting demon. There follows a series of both banal and bizarre events that include being called out by the school bully, bedding two sisters simultaneously, and surviving an Aurora-like movie massacre shootout. While all of the aforementioned is going on in Chance's daily life, his nights continue to be filled with dream-jumping and blood-bathed battles with supernatural demons.
Bloodworth is a full-throated and exceedingly inventive writer unafraid of graphically violent depictions. His fight scenes crack bones, spew bodily fluids, and tear flesh ferociously. He approaches plotting ambidextrously, letting one hand tell a linear story while the other illustrates Daliesque forays into myth, magic, and more. If one is a fan of dark fantasy attached to modernistic realism, one may well find this tome appealing. The author plans to continue Chance's story in his upcoming novel, Deviant.