By Wayne C. Rogers
Samhain Publishing, 2012,
Trade Paperback, 266pps., $15.00
ISBN: 978-1-60928-922-5
First, it’s evident that Nightwhere by John Everson isn’t for everyone. The book is extremely intense, violent, sexual, and horrifying. In fact, the squeamish are not allowed into the Red Room. This is only for the readers who can handle in-your-face terror that throttles you in the middle of the night. Think Hellraiser Meets Basic Instinct, and you have an idea about the dark contents of this novel.
That being said, I thoroughly loved Nightwhere.
The first few pages had me hooked with line and sinker, and I mean that in a totally painless way. This novel grabbed my attention and clearly held it for the duration. I admit to being worn out by the time I finished reading this devastating piece of fiction. It was like running the Las Vegas marathon on red alert.
The story centers around a young married couple, Mark and Rae, who need a high degree of sexual stimuli to feel satiated and content. They have these experiences in various swingers’ clubs and during sessions filled with light bondage, S&M, and humiliation.
Contrary to most relationships, it’s the wife, Rae, who has the need in this one for other lovers and the wide excitement of playing different sexual games. She’s also in search for a place when anything goes, and I mean ANYTHING. She wants to be taken to a realm that’s filled with different levels of pain and intense psychological humiliation.
In other words, she craves the dark side.
The problem, of course, is finding such a place.
Mark follows after her in order to keep her happy and safe. Actually, he pretty much does whatever she wants. He doesn’t need the various degrees of experiences that she desires to be in love or to feel complete as a human being. This isn’t to say he doesn’t derive pleasure from watching his wife seduce and being intimate with other men. He does. Mark simply doesn’t need to go any farther in his pursue of abandonment.
The man’s happy right where he is.
Everything is unexpectedly revered to higher degrees of intensity when the couple receive an invitation to attend the premier club for S&M in town—Nightwhere. This rather unusual club is a legend throughout the sexual underground; yet, nobody knows how to find it because the club keeps changing locations at the drop of a hat.
That should be the first warning right there. Clubs can’t simply pick up and move around at will.
Anyway, the mysterious things that go on in Nightwhere are only whispered about in the dark areas of night clubs and their vile restrooms. It’s believed that not only are the club’s many members whipped and tortured to within an inch of their lives, but that many of the patrons also disappear, never to be seen again.
That’s the second warning.
Rae, however, is eager to attend this legendary club of darkness, pain and abject humiliation. Mark agrees with some hesitation to visiting the club because he wants to keep an eye out for his wife. What he fails to grasp is that the gates to Hell have now been opened and there’s no turning back, especially for Rae.
While Mark sits at the bar in the Blue Room of Nighwhere, nursing drinks and chatting nervously to other people in the same boat, Rae begins to get a delicious taste of the things the club has to offer. But, a taste is just what it is. She instinctively knows that the heavier sessions go on behind closed doors, and she wants to knock those doors down so she can walk through them and sample depravity to the utmost.
It’s the second visit that does the trick for Rae. She gets a brutal whipping from another woman that causes her eyes to light up with a clear understanding. This is exactly the type of thing she’s been looking for all of her life.
On the third visit, Rae is invited into to taste awe-inspiring Red Room. Not Mark, just her. He has to stay in the Blue Room and settle for some mindless entertainment while his wife is part of a shocking display of unbelievable pain and vast amounts of blood that causes her to yearn for more. She doesn’t seem to care what’s done to her body or mind as long as that unbearable itch is scratched.
Once they return home that night and Mark has the opportunity to see the multiple whip marks and scars on her backside, he stupidly forbids her to attend Nightwhere again. The thing is there’s no stopping Rae. She’s not about to give up what she has longed for during the adult years of her life and fills the empty hole inside of her.
The next invitation is for Rae only. The Watchers who run Nightwhere (think of the pale creatures in Hellraiser with the pins sticking in their faces) know of Mark’s resistance to what they have to offer and decide to leave him out of the equation.
This is the third warning that something is off kilter.
Does Rae care? No. As long as her dark cravings are met, and she’s game for any and everything.
It isn’t long before Mark realizes that his wife no longer needs him and is ready to give up their life together so she can stay at Nightwhere. The important thing is that he isn’t ready to give up on their marriage. Mark’s determined to save his wife, no matter what the cost. The problem is that the only thing of value he has to offer is his own life because Rae has now been invited into the infamous Black Room. He will need to be prepared to suffer in the most hideous matter just to see Rae once again.
John Everson has definitely written what I already consider to be a true classic in the erotic/horror genre. The author has invited the reader on a journey into the depths of Hell, knowing that once the last page is turned, the reader will never be the same again. This is a journey where the ugliness of humanity is revealed and most won’t like or have the stomach to deal with it.
What the author writes about does exist to some degree in the larger cities around the world: New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, London and Berlin. If an individual is willing to sacrifice everything, there’s a club that is tailored to one’s specific desires can be found quite easily. Seek and ye shall find. You see for every top, there’s a bottom. For every sadist, there’s a masochist who yearns to feel the sweet caress of the whip and the deep pain that washes over them with each strike. These places do exist and in greater numbers than ever before.
Bondage, humiliation, severe pain, harsh S&M, are all out there, waiting for those who want to experience them at their many levels of advancement. And, once your hand reaches out to the burning flame of the candle, there’s no turning back because the person now craves a stronger and more mind-shattering experience. The author has captured this dark side of humanity in its total essence of blackness and in some cases, true evil.
I should also point out that John Everson is a master of the written word. He’s also excellent at character development and in weaving of intricate plots that the reader is left guessing at the end of each chapter. He creates a tale that’s much like stepping into an opened bear trap. Once the trap snaps shut on your leg, the only way out is to either cut the appendage off, or die in a most horrible, exquisite manner.
Read Nightwhere at your own risk, and don’t say you haven’t been warned. What’s inside this novel may change the world as you know it, and not necessarily for the better.
