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God Complex
Redemption in a gun, Divinity in a bullet … Darren Thayne stopped expecting greatness for himself long ago. Out of prison, trying to make amends for a crime he doesn’t fully remember, Darren is faced with his own mortality following the death of his estranged brother, Stephen, the circumstances of which leave more questions than answers. Darren falls into a feverish existence where he is tormented by his Other, a horrid apparition that desires the one thing Darren has given up on: his life. To further complicate things, Darren is tasked with discovering the whereabouts of a missing child and, as a means to finding his place in the world and helping a distraught mother reclaim her only daughter, Darren agrees to do what he can to find the girl. His search takes him down a dark path, into the sick underworld of child slavery, and into the company of Colson, a madman with delusions of divinity, who Darren suspects had some involvement in his brother’s death. Colson takes Darren on a bleak journey through a desert of nightmares, making him confront the demon that resides within and bringing him closer to a reality that feels more like a dream. Through self-discovery, the mystery of the child’s disappearance becomes clearer, and those involved must see to it that Darren succeeds only in fulfilling the promise laid out by Luthor, a self-proclaimed prophet whose faithful congregation has hidden the child, believing that Darren has been chosen by God to lead them to the resurrected Christ, and only in his deepest despair will he succeed. Caught between his desire to save a life and find meaning in his own, Darren learns that, sometimes, the only person you can trust is the one holding the gun.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2011
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4 people want to read
About the author
Trevor Hallam
23 books3 followersTrevor Hallam is a Canadian writer. His latest novel is THEY WEAR OUR SKIN.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 3, 2015
When asked to read GOD COMPLEX, I thought that I had nothing to lose. The summary seemed interesting; about a cult-like group and the race to find a missing girl. Add some character development and a few descriptive scenes and we would be sure to have a decent book on our hands. How wrong I was in this assumption. I only made it to the end to pen this review, in hopes that no one else would suffer the eye and brain trauma I had to by reading all the way to the end.
For a book that lays itself out so succinctly, I could not help but wonder if the editor took all the loose plot descriptors and strung them into one paragraph, much as a horrible movie has all its 'decent' scenes put into the television commercial. It is only when you get into it that you see just how bad it is. You search for something redeeming, if you only make it a few additional pages. The book flops from the start and remains horrifically poor (perhaps that is the only aspect that makes it a horror!).
There is no clear beginning or launching point. The book seems to slide into a lagoon of descriptors and nonsensicalness that leaves the reader to wonder if there is any hope (and this is before Chapter 1). There appears to be no momentum from there as the book keeps dragging its knuckles and forces the reader to look for some highlights onto which they can remain interested. Hallam has a good use of English, but perhaps should spend more time writing something that keeps the plot flowing than using his "find synonym" button and adding words that really do nothing to impress the reader. He has a good foundation from which to work, but ruins it by trying to appear over-educated, as well as refusing to take the story anywhere worth going. We are forced to glimpse into his perverted need to describe child prostitutes and the grotesque acts they perform to stay alive (an altogether useless segment of the book), and even a psychedelic conversation with Jesus, as he strolls around Heaven in his jeans.
I could not find myself even pretending to care about what was going on. The story jumped and these ‘Other’ versions of some characters kept the narrator wondering who was involved. No progress, no action, nothing other than pages of some misdirected babble that went nowhere, and fast. I made it two-thirds of the way in and wondered to myself “what’s happened up to now?” but could not answer, I was so confused.
Add to that, the fact that Hallam chooses, continually, to write in a choppy fashion. I found more contractions in his book than one might find on a labour and delivery floor of the hospital. When I say contractions, I refer not to the old faithful “can’t, won’t, don’t, couldn’t” but a plethora of bastardised English ends up spewing on the page. This verbal train wreck is not isolated to dialogue, but also pure narration as well. Mr. Hallam, please stop trying to make it as though this entire piece is some Deep South dream you’ve had and chose to write down in a spiral notebook next to your bed.
The story was as clear and went as smoothly as sullied bathwater than flows down the drain. I am left with quasi-literary sediment stuck in my mind and must now cleanse myself of its inferiority. While detritus of this nature might be acceptable (read: publishers would push this onto unsuspecting readers) if Hallam had made a name for himself, a first novel should woo people into wanting to come back for more. To call this lacklustre is to give it too much credit.
The title itself is misplaced. Perhaps, renaming it The Dis’poi’men’ (to echo Hallam’s obsession with ruining every word with a family of apostrophes) would better reflect how readers should react when they see this book at the bottom of the bargain bin.
For shame, Mr. Hallam. Cross ‘author’ off the list of ideal jobs and move on to the next.
For a book that lays itself out so succinctly, I could not help but wonder if the editor took all the loose plot descriptors and strung them into one paragraph, much as a horrible movie has all its 'decent' scenes put into the television commercial. It is only when you get into it that you see just how bad it is. You search for something redeeming, if you only make it a few additional pages. The book flops from the start and remains horrifically poor (perhaps that is the only aspect that makes it a horror!).
There is no clear beginning or launching point. The book seems to slide into a lagoon of descriptors and nonsensicalness that leaves the reader to wonder if there is any hope (and this is before Chapter 1). There appears to be no momentum from there as the book keeps dragging its knuckles and forces the reader to look for some highlights onto which they can remain interested. Hallam has a good use of English, but perhaps should spend more time writing something that keeps the plot flowing than using his "find synonym" button and adding words that really do nothing to impress the reader. He has a good foundation from which to work, but ruins it by trying to appear over-educated, as well as refusing to take the story anywhere worth going. We are forced to glimpse into his perverted need to describe child prostitutes and the grotesque acts they perform to stay alive (an altogether useless segment of the book), and even a psychedelic conversation with Jesus, as he strolls around Heaven in his jeans.
I could not find myself even pretending to care about what was going on. The story jumped and these ‘Other’ versions of some characters kept the narrator wondering who was involved. No progress, no action, nothing other than pages of some misdirected babble that went nowhere, and fast. I made it two-thirds of the way in and wondered to myself “what’s happened up to now?” but could not answer, I was so confused.
Add to that, the fact that Hallam chooses, continually, to write in a choppy fashion. I found more contractions in his book than one might find on a labour and delivery floor of the hospital. When I say contractions, I refer not to the old faithful “can’t, won’t, don’t, couldn’t” but a plethora of bastardised English ends up spewing on the page. This verbal train wreck is not isolated to dialogue, but also pure narration as well. Mr. Hallam, please stop trying to make it as though this entire piece is some Deep South dream you’ve had and chose to write down in a spiral notebook next to your bed.
The story was as clear and went as smoothly as sullied bathwater than flows down the drain. I am left with quasi-literary sediment stuck in my mind and must now cleanse myself of its inferiority. While detritus of this nature might be acceptable (read: publishers would push this onto unsuspecting readers) if Hallam had made a name for himself, a first novel should woo people into wanting to come back for more. To call this lacklustre is to give it too much credit.
The title itself is misplaced. Perhaps, renaming it The Dis’poi’men’ (to echo Hallam’s obsession with ruining every word with a family of apostrophes) would better reflect how readers should react when they see this book at the bottom of the bargain bin.
For shame, Mr. Hallam. Cross ‘author’ off the list of ideal jobs and move on to the next.
March 8, 2011
In the last few years there’s been an explosion of new horror novels and stories coming out. And like any explosion it seeks to expand its boundaries. So it is with the Horror genre, no longer content with H.P. Lovercraft’s creatures that pull themselves out of the ground, or vampires whether sexy or not, horror has expanded itself to examine issues formerly relegated to other literary genres. Religion is being examined at all quarters of our lives and in literature, and that is true in horror. Horror can be a good genre to look at our beliefs systems in our lives and the excesses it can cause, when faith crosses the line to blind allegiance, and then over that line into a perverted form.
“God Complex” finds a married couple, Rachael and Darren in despair. Darren’s younger brother killed himself, but his body was found in a roadside ditch obviously moved there, but by whom and why? Darren starts seeing a doppelganger of himself and dreaming of his brothers suicide, the weird thing is Darren’s real life is in shades of black and white while his dreaming life is in color. Unknown to Darren his wife, Rachael is in thrall to a religious demagogue Luthor who is acting behind the scenes to give a direction to Darren’s life, a direction that may not be in Darren’s best interests. Also hounding Darren is Colson, a former acolyte of Luthors who believes he’s the returned Jesus whose job he believes is to spread chaos to herald his return.
“God Complex” is a rough journey, we’re taken into cult religions, Colson is good at spreading chaos, he commits some very graphic murders some on a whim, dead bodies almost literally pile up around Colson and Darren. Ghosts and near ghouls abound in Darren’s world which overlaps from the dream to waking state. We’re taken to a borderland of pedophilia. At times some of it may seem excessive but I think that’s author Trevor Hallam's point, he’s taking ideas and beliefs to the their farthest point to see if they break or survive the annealing process of his prose.
I don’t know if Hallam would agree with me that “God Complex” is a horror novel maybe the genre defines it, or it could defy the limits of genre. Writers have been feeling free to combine genres and mix and match them, and “God Complex” feels like it may fall into that category or in-between genres.
Is the journey worth it? Despite a few weak points that are really minor discrepancies in the overall execution of “God Complex” I found myself wanting to continue reading to see how it all resolved itself, can Darren rid himself of the ghosts of his past? Is Rachael the deceived or the deceiver? Are the religious zealots taking religion too literally or are they on to something? Are just some of the questions Trevor Hallam brings up in “God Complex” and the plot asks the reader to answer.
“God Complex” finds a married couple, Rachael and Darren in despair. Darren’s younger brother killed himself, but his body was found in a roadside ditch obviously moved there, but by whom and why? Darren starts seeing a doppelganger of himself and dreaming of his brothers suicide, the weird thing is Darren’s real life is in shades of black and white while his dreaming life is in color. Unknown to Darren his wife, Rachael is in thrall to a religious demagogue Luthor who is acting behind the scenes to give a direction to Darren’s life, a direction that may not be in Darren’s best interests. Also hounding Darren is Colson, a former acolyte of Luthors who believes he’s the returned Jesus whose job he believes is to spread chaos to herald his return.
“God Complex” is a rough journey, we’re taken into cult religions, Colson is good at spreading chaos, he commits some very graphic murders some on a whim, dead bodies almost literally pile up around Colson and Darren. Ghosts and near ghouls abound in Darren’s world which overlaps from the dream to waking state. We’re taken to a borderland of pedophilia. At times some of it may seem excessive but I think that’s author Trevor Hallam's point, he’s taking ideas and beliefs to the their farthest point to see if they break or survive the annealing process of his prose.
I don’t know if Hallam would agree with me that “God Complex” is a horror novel maybe the genre defines it, or it could defy the limits of genre. Writers have been feeling free to combine genres and mix and match them, and “God Complex” feels like it may fall into that category or in-between genres.
Is the journey worth it? Despite a few weak points that are really minor discrepancies in the overall execution of “God Complex” I found myself wanting to continue reading to see how it all resolved itself, can Darren rid himself of the ghosts of his past? Is Rachael the deceived or the deceiver? Are the religious zealots taking religion too literally or are they on to something? Are just some of the questions Trevor Hallam brings up in “God Complex” and the plot asks the reader to answer.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews