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It has been said that there is nothing more frightening than being alone with one’s thoughts. That can frequently be applied to curling up with a book of horror, the supernatural, or the occult. It can definitely be applied to Russian author, Sergey Mavrodi’s latest offering. Here, in one volume, are enough thought-provoking, fear-inducing, and in some cases stomach-churning tales to keep even the most courageous reader looking over his or her shoulder.
This is not to say it should be put on the same shelf as a classic such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, or a more modern apocalyptic vision like Stephen King’s The Stand. This is not really a novel as most readers think of the traditional form. Rather, it is an ongoing series of independent vignettes—some of which are related, most of which are not. The author uses a technique of interlocking conversations between the devil and his son, plus various passages from The Bible, to link multiple excursions into often forbidden territory. However, they too frequently seem only speed bumps that slow reading between one tale and the next.
The stories themselves are as salacious, scary, fiendish, wicked, brutal, evil, and cruel, as one might expect from Satan or his offspring. Though to be fair, some are also engaging, compelling, and absorbing in their own right. The book begins with a hapless fisherman checking his nets at night. He finds more than he bargained for. A ghostly apparition appears and takes over the body of the fisherman’s Great Dane. The dog winds up killing his master and heading out to spread evil in the world.
Subsequent stores involve men or women trying to come to grips with various temptations the devil, or his son, put before them. A woman wants desperately to have a baby. She can’t conceive. A deal is struck with the master of the underworld. She copulates with her husband and the aforementioned dog. The husband dies, and the dog runs away. The woman becomes pregnant—but at what cost? Additional tales, or chapters, involve men who want women but can’t attain them until they make deals they wish they hadn’t; individuals who want a better lot in life but wind up regretting what they have to do to attain it; time travelers, the sick trying to get well, the unlucky attempting to improve their chances of becoming winners, the selfish and conceited getting hoisted on their own petard, self-important writers, sinister talk show hosts, and more. One by one they are tempted, stray, and pay for their actions.
Venturing into Mavrodi’s tome, there are frequent verbal depictions of sexual activity that are extremely graphic. These include heterosexual and homosexual couplings, orgies, necrophilia, bestiality, and more. Even more frequent are various protagonists’ seemingly unending introspections on good and evil, guilt and innocence, and life and death. So numerous are these bouts with conscience that they make Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov look like a psychological slacker. There are also many instances of overwrought phraseology and repetition. It is possible that the translation from Russian to English is responsible for much of this.