Content Warning:
Under a Raging Moon by Mike Sherer contains repeated attempted sexual assaults (in the book, although I talk about its inclusion in the book here)
Synopsis:
A mother and her possessed son battle for their lives against a horde of demons intent on not only their destruction but the death of the unborn child she carries.
Stressed-out single mother Vivian has to fetch twelve-year old son Kody from an overnight after he gets into a fight with the friend he was spending the night with. On the way home she nearly runs over a man out for a night jog. Who ends up being run over in front of her house. When a police officer very quickly responds he shows little sympathy for the injured man, instead drawing his gun. But the jogger kills the officer first. Vivian calls for help, then flees her house with her son. Thus begins a long gory night as Vivian is hunted down by demons intent on her destruction. As the reasons for this come into focus, an extremely weird relationship develops between Vivian and her possessed son who is on the brink of death. Forget Norman Bates. This mother-son relationship is more twisted than the Gordian Knot.
Format:
Paperback
Under a Raging Moon was provided to me by the author in exchange for review consideration.
My Thoughts:
On its surface Under a Raging Moon seemed like it would be right up my alley. I mean, I love a fraught mother/son relationship (which this story doesn’t actually have, despite that synopsis mentioning the impossible-to-disentangle Gordian Knot – the “tangled” relationship is actually with the entity possessing her son – her relationship with Kody seems completely normal), a good demon possession (this book has a whole mess of that, so no complaints there), and fast-paced action (again, plenty of that).
If you like stories that are fast-paced, violent, and gory you might like this book. I like those things a lot in a story, and yet, I didn’t like this book. That is because in addition to all of the above, there are also multiple instances of attempted rape which feel shoehorned in with the most aggravating possible excuse (more on that later), and a character whose reaction to said instances is so wildly unbelievable that it legit boggles the mind. Every time one of those instances took place (and they are Legion – pun 100% intended) I was like, “oh, fuck this book,” and I’d put it down and come back to it later when I was less annyoed. If you don’t mind that kind of thing though, this still might be a good reading choice for you.
As for the style of writing, I wasn’t a huge fan of that, either. It’s a strange feeling to be reading something that is simultaneously fast-paced and verbose. Just to give you an idea, I’m going to give you a random sentence from the first chapter:
“Even in the searchlight candlepower of the supermoon, Vivian, distracted by her anger, nearly ran him over.”
I feel like this book could have used some powerful editing and just general proofreading. Not only are there a looooootttt of unnecessary words, but the dialogue at some points felt very awkward to me. Me. Me, Angie, upon whom I suspect Socially Awkward Penguin may have been based.
Now, to lastly address the excusing of the many rape attempts. This is going to be a really short, probably super-annoying ride, so bear with me – I’ll get through it as quickly as possible.
So, remember how I said that Vivian’s reaction to all these random people suddenly trying to rape her was mind boggling? Well, here’s that conversation with my own commentary added in because this is my review and I can do whatever the hell I want. Please note that this takes place in the immediate aftermath of a possessed grandmother trying to violently attack and sexually assault her in a convenience store:
“Why don’t the demons just kill me? Why do they keep trying to rape me?” ahem. Why is she so calm about this? I mean, I know people trying to rape her is the norm suddenly, but REALLY?!
“That’s their weakness.”
“What is?”
“Their lust. To experience the physical world. They can’t resist.”
They clearly can though, because they only try to rape Vivian. Never anyone else in the vicinity. I feel like it would have been better to just be like, “Cuz they’re fucking asshole, jerky demon rapists, Vivian. A-duh.”
Rating:
I finished it, but…I am definitely not the target audience for Under a Raging Moon. Honestly, I didn’t find myself enjoying it at really any point. I mean, the gore factor was fun, and I didn’t throw it across the room at any point, but…yeah. I didn’t enjoy the extra-weak excuse for consistent rape attempts in the story. That was for sure the deal-breaker for me. I could have looked past the clunky dialogue and over-descriptive language, but not that. While I don’t particularly enjoy writing reviews of books that didn’t work for me, I do see the importance in it – I mean, if something is rated poorly somewhere (as it is here, or on Goodreads where I rounded up to 2 stars) I think that context really matters. It does other readers more good to know why I rated something poorly rather than just that I did, you know?
Under a Raging Moon By: Mike Sherer World Castle Publishing, LLC ISBN: 1950890554 Published: August 11, 2019 Paperback, E-book 152 Pages
