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The Black Veldt
Jose Carvel is a scumbag. But he wants to be a better person.The degenerate writer and former ward of state is trying to recreate himself in the slums of the Lower East Side, yet his past won’t stop haunting him. Those violent memories of his dark nights on the road. The tormented faces of those he left behind. The relentless nightmares of that ancient, demon- stalked veldt with its covenant of blood and its master of shadow, dirt, and stars. He must confront his own dark truth while exploring the depths of sexual depravity and obsession in Fear City during its Summer of Sam.Carvel must fight to save the woman he loves… While rescuing his own soul from the Black Veldt’s vile kingdom.
- GenresHorror
128 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 7, 2021
I'm leaving five stars for this one not because I particularly enjoyed the futility that surrounded the ending, but because I feel author Michael Reyes earned it for the eloquence for which he used to write it. It goes to some pretty dark places and references some pretty silly myths from gnosticism, but the story oozes with menace. Hyena skull imagery factors heavily, along with the eponymous Black Veldt of the title, the Old Moon where Yaldabaoth is worshipped by both saint and sinner alike. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Stylistically, it's superior to Reyes' other work Clock's Watch in tone and everything else, but I can't help saying I didn't like this one as hard as I did Clock's Watch.
April 17, 2021
Pretty cool dark read. Has a hint of hp lovecraft tinge to it.
The author paints a great profile of New York in the 70’s and its’ gritty, grimey underbelly.
The end leaves you hanging... what’s next I need to know!
The author paints a great profile of New York in the 70’s and its’ gritty, grimey underbelly.
The end leaves you hanging... what’s next I need to know!
April 5, 2021
The Inferno meets a new level of Hell..
In this fast paced horror you're tossed into a level of Hell Dante never got a chance to meet. Reyes takes you through a drug induced world and into a new cultish tale of the netherworld. Buy this today for a refreshing newer voice of horror.
In this fast paced horror you're tossed into a level of Hell Dante never got a chance to meet. Reyes takes you through a drug induced world and into a new cultish tale of the netherworld. Buy this today for a refreshing newer voice of horror.
March 11, 2021
Jose Carvel is a dirtbag reprobate, but he wants to be a better person. Really, the guy can’t help what he has become. Abandoned at a very young age and abused in every respect, and without a name of his own, Jose struck out on his own as a young teen. He took the name Jose from a trucker, “who didn’t molest me,” and the last name Carvel from a man in Kansas, “who didn’t make much use of the name.” He has little to no memory of his early life and what he does come from nightmares and flashbacks. Jose has spent his life running from the unknown and the compulsion to commit violence.
In his broke down East Side neighborhood, he befriends street kids and feeds stray cats by day, scores cocaine for himself and heroin to sell to his manager and co-workers at the bookstore. At night, he tries to get some words down on paper as an aspiring writer. Drugs, strip clubs, and booze abound in Jose’s life in New York during the Summer of Sam.
Out on the town in New York City, he sees bewildering sights, runs into people who recognize him and call him by other names than his chosen one. On one of his nights of debauchery, Jose sees a familiar girl at the train station where he likes to hang out and watch people. He’s pretty sure he’s seen her before, and when he did, she was committing suicide and in possession of a bag full of photos of missing people from around the country.
When he and Javonka finally connect, he is shown a world of demons and learns that they have dominion over him. He also learns that Javonka is his soul mate, and he will do anything to be with her, even fighting Hell and darkness itself.
I loved this novella; it had the perfect mix of depravity and dirtiness that was the perfect setting and perfect for the time it is set in. Jose isn’t meant to be liked, he does a lot to prove this point, but you still feel for the lot in life he has drawn. I wouldn’t change anything about the length or content of the story, to take anything away would make the story less effective.
Disclaimer: Thanks to the author for providing me a copy of The Black Veldt for review. I also read this book through my own Kindle Unlimited subscription, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
In his broke down East Side neighborhood, he befriends street kids and feeds stray cats by day, scores cocaine for himself and heroin to sell to his manager and co-workers at the bookstore. At night, he tries to get some words down on paper as an aspiring writer. Drugs, strip clubs, and booze abound in Jose’s life in New York during the Summer of Sam.
Out on the town in New York City, he sees bewildering sights, runs into people who recognize him and call him by other names than his chosen one. On one of his nights of debauchery, Jose sees a familiar girl at the train station where he likes to hang out and watch people. He’s pretty sure he’s seen her before, and when he did, she was committing suicide and in possession of a bag full of photos of missing people from around the country.
When he and Javonka finally connect, he is shown a world of demons and learns that they have dominion over him. He also learns that Javonka is his soul mate, and he will do anything to be with her, even fighting Hell and darkness itself.
I loved this novella; it had the perfect mix of depravity and dirtiness that was the perfect setting and perfect for the time it is set in. Jose isn’t meant to be liked, he does a lot to prove this point, but you still feel for the lot in life he has drawn. I wouldn’t change anything about the length or content of the story, to take anything away would make the story less effective.
Disclaimer: Thanks to the author for providing me a copy of The Black Veldt for review. I also read this book through my own Kindle Unlimited subscription, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
September 9, 2020
Like Lovecraft Meets a Bad Kurt Vonnegut Trip (4/5)
As a horror and thriller enthusiast with a love of the supernatural and abominable, this appeared at first glance to be something I'd enjoy.
What Worked for Me: The novel does a good job setting up its premise - a horror story following Jose Carvel through his later mid 90s life in NYC. As we experience his dreams in a pseudo-third-person dreamscape pace, we start to understand there's more lurking just outside our view from his perspective. As the shadows around the neighborhood and himself extend, his meeting with first Desiree and Jakova culminate in a dark spiral where reality and nightmare meet. For me, this is abominable horror at its best where we are always guessing just what is real and what isn't. The universe keeps showing us something more pulling strings, but it's all kept just out of view (until near the climax, anyway). Overall the pacing, the tone of a narrative, descriptions of the setting, etc. make this little story stand out. In many ways, the story reminds me of older writer friends and their stories of the 60s, 70s, and 80s: traveling to write, hooking up with bands, and diving into drugs and depravity. Behind it all, the mythos surrounding the happenings, its elusive nature (is it the Demiurge, ancient native American feral spirits, or something more monstrous?) help build up the final moments. However, that's where my praise stops.
What Didn't Work For Me: The dreamscape scenes, while I appreciate them, are a bit of a mess structurally. Sometimes they flow in a standard surreal way. Other times they try to comingle the prose of the first person scenes with Carvel, which can be a bit thick to read through. Also, at about the two thirds (or 3/4s?) waypoint, the familiar first-person scenes get a bit messy. I know why this occurs in the plot, but it makes what should be more dramatic or at least enrapturing a bit of slog going into the climax. While the ending itself is interesting, there is a sense of pretension never alluded to in the rest of the story. It all fits well in the end, but I wish we had a bit more about this "cycle" the character is experiencing. It reminds me of Sam Niel's character John Trent from "In the Mouth of Madness" and the loop he gets stuck in with the monsters coming through the writer's story.
The Gist of It: Overall, Black Veldt is a pretty neat little abominable horror thriller that does an excellent job with its first-person and surreal perspectives, characterizations, setting, and overall plot. It incorporates some fun mythos into its surreal devolution into madness, elevating it above standard horror pulp. If the last third (or fourth?) and climax were a bit tighter, this would be a 5/5 for me.
==============================================================================================================
= SPOILERS BE HERE
==============================================================================================================
I said this above, but at 2/3s (3/4s?) through the story, the book loses a lot of momentum and becomes a mild slog. After sleeping with the love of his life (and potential spiritual twin) Jakova in a bout of hypersexual mashing surrounded by shadows and the abysmal dark, Carvel ends up deciding he is in love. Until she calls him back, he's going to shoot heroin. He was never a shooter before, but after snorting heroin with his supplier Juju, this has become a thing. Why does he do this? Cause it's the only thing that makes him feel like Jakova does.
For the rest of the book, through the ending, we spend time following this drugged-out malaised character through scene after scene that devolves into something more and more surreal. So I get it. The point is to make the lines between reality more blurred while the world falls apart around Carvel. It makes it harder to understand what is real and what's not as the book builds towards the Demiurge cult. The various events that occur become more and more questionable. Everything from hanging with CC, the altercation between Glen / Carvel / shadow hyena monsters, the meeting with Remus, and the eventual climax where Carvel saves himself (and maybe Jakova's soul) only to revisit the beginning... yes, we're left wondering what is happening. I get all of that.
Where this fails for me is we already had an unreliable narrator. We also had some solid abominable spiritual horror building up. Likewise, this sudden turn to a very different drug from his cocaine because "it makes him feel like being with Jakova" is odd, given the way he was with her is nothing like how he is on heroin. So, there's a bit of a disconnect. If anything, I would expect him to sink into further depravity, seeking out activities and partners that would bring those shadows out to emulate the experience while thinking about her. And when it's not her, sink into further depression and a new low while he waits for her. This would allow the author to show us how the world around them is disintegrating: watching as the murders, violence, and overall devolution surrounding Carvel infest everything else around him.
The other issue is how much of a slog this becomes. There are some interesting bits like the confrontation with Glen, his outing with CC, and small altercation with Desiree... but the rest is just this solitary myopic, almost whiny display that comes from our main character. For someone who has overcome a ton of personal tragedy and darkness in a very outward way (and expresses his inner evil, well, violently or with depravity), this doesn't make a ton of sense to me. To me, I would have gotten almost as much out of it if we jumped straight to the meeting with Remus then climax instead of the middle parts. I probably would find the story rushed then, but emotionally, that's how it felt.
As a horror and thriller enthusiast with a love of the supernatural and abominable, this appeared at first glance to be something I'd enjoy.
What Worked for Me: The novel does a good job setting up its premise - a horror story following Jose Carvel through his later mid 90s life in NYC. As we experience his dreams in a pseudo-third-person dreamscape pace, we start to understand there's more lurking just outside our view from his perspective. As the shadows around the neighborhood and himself extend, his meeting with first Desiree and Jakova culminate in a dark spiral where reality and nightmare meet. For me, this is abominable horror at its best where we are always guessing just what is real and what isn't. The universe keeps showing us something more pulling strings, but it's all kept just out of view (until near the climax, anyway). Overall the pacing, the tone of a narrative, descriptions of the setting, etc. make this little story stand out. In many ways, the story reminds me of older writer friends and their stories of the 60s, 70s, and 80s: traveling to write, hooking up with bands, and diving into drugs and depravity. Behind it all, the mythos surrounding the happenings, its elusive nature (is it the Demiurge, ancient native American feral spirits, or something more monstrous?) help build up the final moments. However, that's where my praise stops.
What Didn't Work For Me: The dreamscape scenes, while I appreciate them, are a bit of a mess structurally. Sometimes they flow in a standard surreal way. Other times they try to comingle the prose of the first person scenes with Carvel, which can be a bit thick to read through. Also, at about the two thirds (or 3/4s?) waypoint, the familiar first-person scenes get a bit messy. I know why this occurs in the plot, but it makes what should be more dramatic or at least enrapturing a bit of slog going into the climax. While the ending itself is interesting, there is a sense of pretension never alluded to in the rest of the story. It all fits well in the end, but I wish we had a bit more about this "cycle" the character is experiencing. It reminds me of Sam Niel's character John Trent from "In the Mouth of Madness" and the loop he gets stuck in with the monsters coming through the writer's story.
The Gist of It: Overall, Black Veldt is a pretty neat little abominable horror thriller that does an excellent job with its first-person and surreal perspectives, characterizations, setting, and overall plot. It incorporates some fun mythos into its surreal devolution into madness, elevating it above standard horror pulp. If the last third (or fourth?) and climax were a bit tighter, this would be a 5/5 for me.
==============================================================================================================
= SPOILERS BE HERE
==============================================================================================================
I said this above, but at 2/3s (3/4s?) through the story, the book loses a lot of momentum and becomes a mild slog. After sleeping with the love of his life (and potential spiritual twin) Jakova in a bout of hypersexual mashing surrounded by shadows and the abysmal dark, Carvel ends up deciding he is in love. Until she calls him back, he's going to shoot heroin. He was never a shooter before, but after snorting heroin with his supplier Juju, this has become a thing. Why does he do this? Cause it's the only thing that makes him feel like Jakova does.
For the rest of the book, through the ending, we spend time following this drugged-out malaised character through scene after scene that devolves into something more and more surreal. So I get it. The point is to make the lines between reality more blurred while the world falls apart around Carvel. It makes it harder to understand what is real and what's not as the book builds towards the Demiurge cult. The various events that occur become more and more questionable. Everything from hanging with CC, the altercation between Glen / Carvel / shadow hyena monsters, the meeting with Remus, and the eventual climax where Carvel saves himself (and maybe Jakova's soul) only to revisit the beginning... yes, we're left wondering what is happening. I get all of that.
Where this fails for me is we already had an unreliable narrator. We also had some solid abominable spiritual horror building up. Likewise, this sudden turn to a very different drug from his cocaine because "it makes him feel like being with Jakova" is odd, given the way he was with her is nothing like how he is on heroin. So, there's a bit of a disconnect. If anything, I would expect him to sink into further depravity, seeking out activities and partners that would bring those shadows out to emulate the experience while thinking about her. And when it's not her, sink into further depression and a new low while he waits for her. This would allow the author to show us how the world around them is disintegrating: watching as the murders, violence, and overall devolution surrounding Carvel infest everything else around him.
The other issue is how much of a slog this becomes. There are some interesting bits like the confrontation with Glen, his outing with CC, and small altercation with Desiree... but the rest is just this solitary myopic, almost whiny display that comes from our main character. For someone who has overcome a ton of personal tragedy and darkness in a very outward way (and expresses his inner evil, well, violently or with depravity), this doesn't make a ton of sense to me. To me, I would have gotten almost as much out of it if we jumped straight to the meeting with Remus then climax instead of the middle parts. I probably would find the story rushed then, but emotionally, that's how it felt.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2020
Spoilers: One thing for sure in Michael Reyes's graphic and terrifying horror novella, The Black Veldt is that its protagonist, Jose Carvel is one seriously haunted SOB.
Even as a child, Carvel has not had an easy life. He was abandoned and unnamed as an infant. He hitchhiked from a children's home in Tulsa with a man who didn't molest him "like other truckers" so he took his first name, Jose. As for his surname, Carvel it came from a guy in Kansas who didn't make much use of the name. Carvel doesn't remember much about his past and what he does remember comes in fragments of freaky nightmares, frequent travel, physical and sexual abuse, and some dark sinister creatures that appear in and out of the shadows. He had spent most of his life running from the shadows, the shadows that he tries to forget but compelled him to commit violence.
In 1970's New York, Carvel sells cocaine, which he uses, and heroin,which he doesn't, hangs out at a local bookstore, mocks the Studio 54 crowd ("Hell will be ABBA playing 'Dancing Queen'", he predicts.), scans the streets for notorious serial killer, Son of Sam, and engages with the eccentric drugged up night life crowd.
There is a strong presence of the setting of New York's nightlife in the '70's. Many nights, Carvel wanders around in a hopeless daze through a decaying city infested with crime, drug dealers, street kids, prostitutes, and of course Son of Sam lurking about. While not mentioned in The Black Veldt, history tells us that New York City was suffering such a financial crisis at the time that they were declaring bankruptcy and requested assistance. This time of hopelessness and poverty also serves as a backdrop to the general haunted mood of the novella of a city that is being swallowed hole by despair, decay, and darkness. It becomes a perfect world for someone with a haunted past like Carvel to live and thrive. If he is surrounded by darkness, might as well enjoy it with the other hedonists, enjoy it to a potentially early grave.
Carvel's nights become even stranger and his hauntings take a more supernatural bent. He runs into people who recognize him and address him by other names even though he doesn't remember them. He follows Javonka, a mysterious woman with green hair and polychromatic eyes who also recognizes him and carries clippings of missing people all around the U.S. He also receives information from a friend about the leucrota, dark mythical creatures that despise humanity. These experiences reawaken the "shadows" inside and the urges that Carvel originally repressed to do violence.
It's hard for a book with such a bleak haunting dark setting and tone to get even darker, but that is what Reyes does. The book actually sets us up for the supernatural experience by featuring Carvel trapped in a place called The Black Veldt surrounded by demonic creatures and a sinister cult from which he struggles to escape. Once the setting hits New York, we are led to believe that maybe this strange introduction could be a nightmare, fever dream, or a drug trip.
Only when the memories start to return and Carvel starts to feel the violent urges and sees the demons everywhere, even in one very frightening passage while making love to Javonka, that we know the demons are real and they have claim over Carvel.
With such natural and supernatural darkness that haunts the novella, any type of positive resolution would be out of character for Carvel and the world around him. In fact without giving too much away, it seems that Carvel is forever caught in an endless cycle of encountering both a real and figurative hell. He gets the Hell of demons and retreats to the hell of his real life only to reencounter the demonic hell once more. The Hell and the haunting darkness will be with him forever.
Many novellas are too short, but this one's length is perfect. Any longer would overdo the sinister dark aspects: too many nights of Carvel taking drugs and sleeping around before we encounter the demons from which he can never really run. Too many passages with the demonic creatures tormenting Carvel when the small tastes that we are given are just fine. At its brief length, The Black Veldt is haunting and terrifying enough without going overboard with padding and filler.
The Black Veldt opens up the possibility that we can be haunted not only by the supernatural, the unknown, but by the known world around us. Reyes expertly mixes both worlds as ones that can scare us almost to death.
September 20, 2021
I feel a mix of H.P. Lovecraft and Victorian Gothic Horror inspired prose created from a time of dystopian imagined futures. The narrator's dreamscape sometimes spilling over into his reality has a definite Lovecraft feel of an ancient subterranean realm while his tormenting creatures are more furry and terranean like a Victorian underworld. Additionally, the author's subtle inclusion of George Orwell's 1984 and Gene Roddenberry's, Star Trek - specific episode The City on the Edge of Forever, often remarked as the best of the series - are clearly not accidental. Even his vivid description of the Lower East Side in 1977 paint a dystopian picture demonstrating a time that inspired dystopian fiction like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a novel written by Philip K. Dick just nine years earlier and became the bases for the cult film Blade Runner.
At times I thought Reyes choice of words seemed a bet flamboyant and bloviated but I came to accept that it was his way of distinguishing between the character's narration and the character's writing. I've read other reviews on this book that claim the story slowed about mid way, but I think that is a necessary recession of the story to demonstrate the narrator's slow descension into an all too real, thought to be imagined, world.
At times I thought Reyes choice of words seemed a bet flamboyant and bloviated but I came to accept that it was his way of distinguishing between the character's narration and the character's writing. I've read other reviews on this book that claim the story slowed about mid way, but I think that is a necessary recession of the story to demonstrate the narrator's slow descension into an all too real, thought to be imagined, world.
August 12, 2021
This book is very dark and gritty, which is what I was looking for. The prose is stream-of-consciousness style, and the writing pulls you into the story quite quickly. The descriptions are great, and the author has the groundwork of the story laid right off as he peppers in the mystery of Carvel's past. I have to say that was probably the biggest draw for me to keep reading until more of a mystery is introduced with the green-haired girl. Then the story really gets going.
The story is set in the 70s in New York, both a time period and place that I have no experience with, so I can't vouch for accuracy. There are some formatting errors, but not many grammatical errors, and I would say this book is worth reading, just for the prose alone. Reyes is fantastic at painting a picture, and there are some dream sequences that I really liked, but some not so much. I understand that Carvel is an unreliable narrator (like towards the first of the book), but some scenes later in the book required a reread to figure out what was going on, although I don't think the reader is supposed to understand everything.
The story is set in the 70s in New York, both a time period and place that I have no experience with, so I can't vouch for accuracy. There are some formatting errors, but not many grammatical errors, and I would say this book is worth reading, just for the prose alone. Reyes is fantastic at painting a picture, and there are some dream sequences that I really liked, but some not so much. I understand that Carvel is an unreliable narrator (like towards the first of the book), but some scenes later in the book required a reread to figure out what was going on, although I don't think the reader is supposed to understand everything.
October 9, 2021
There are two nightmare realities of the protagonist's life. The one prior to and inclusive of his present life in the drug-infested/sex-crazed/junkie/crime/violent settings of the worst NYC has to offer in the 70's, and the nightmare reality of the surrealistic veldt with it demon lords, creatures, and denizens. They are both places of horror.
Some of the gonzo-style first-person narrative reminds of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Other story elements evoke Lovecraft. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of this genre, but I think the author has done a solid job in the overall plot, character, and story arc.
The use of occasional third-person for some of the dream scenes is a little inconsistent. Technically, I found the writing to be overall good with descriptions and pacing. There is a visceral quality to the depictions.
I did feel this could be part of a larger story about this other dark realm--the Black Veldt. The character arc of the protagonist didn't feel complete to me at the conclusion of the story. I do give the author credit for taking some esoteric/occult themes from creation mythology and making them current.
Some of the gonzo-style first-person narrative reminds of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Other story elements evoke Lovecraft. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of this genre, but I think the author has done a solid job in the overall plot, character, and story arc.
The use of occasional third-person for some of the dream scenes is a little inconsistent. Technically, I found the writing to be overall good with descriptions and pacing. There is a visceral quality to the depictions.
I did feel this could be part of a larger story about this other dark realm--the Black Veldt. The character arc of the protagonist didn't feel complete to me at the conclusion of the story. I do give the author credit for taking some esoteric/occult themes from creation mythology and making them current.
April 5, 2021
Literary cosmic horror set in the seedy guts of 1970s New York.
Aspiring writer and drug dealer Jose Carvel finds himself sucked into a world of occult weirdness that connects to his own dimly-remembered past and the strange black infinity that lurks beyond it.
This book starts off like a juggernaut, with evocative dream sequences, a compelling main character, and sumptuously grimy atmosphere. Refreshingly free from the insipid clichés that mar the works of Lovecraft imitators, The Black Veldt takes cosmic horror and promises to do something original with it. For a while that promise is kept. Unfortunately the climax feels rushed and underwhelming, and the threads of subtle world-building fail to cohere into a meaningful whole. Which is a shame, because the prose is excellent overall and the first part of the book is brilliant. Despite these criticisms, I still found The Black Veldt to be a rewarding experience and would recommend it to readers of occult mystery and cosmic horror.
Aspiring writer and drug dealer Jose Carvel finds himself sucked into a world of occult weirdness that connects to his own dimly-remembered past and the strange black infinity that lurks beyond it.
This book starts off like a juggernaut, with evocative dream sequences, a compelling main character, and sumptuously grimy atmosphere. Refreshingly free from the insipid clichés that mar the works of Lovecraft imitators, The Black Veldt takes cosmic horror and promises to do something original with it. For a while that promise is kept. Unfortunately the climax feels rushed and underwhelming, and the threads of subtle world-building fail to cohere into a meaningful whole. Which is a shame, because the prose is excellent overall and the first part of the book is brilliant. Despite these criticisms, I still found The Black Veldt to be a rewarding experience and would recommend it to readers of occult mystery and cosmic horror.
December 19, 2020
Wow! I can breathe again!
The Black Veldt is not the kind of book I would be drawn to and I chose it out of curiosity. It made me uncomfortable yet the level of depravity that the author dragged me into had me shielding my face and whispering..."So refreshing."
I was tempted to stop reading halfway through as the story was slow out of the blocks but the author's brilliant writing style spoke to my love for beautiful prose.
It was a very dark and twisted tale and I sighed with relief when it ended and I was still myself.
Not my ideal book and I wouldn't read it again but I would be unfair if I gave it a low score. At least, though looking over my shoulder several times, I couldn't put it down.
The Black Veldt is not the kind of book I would be drawn to and I chose it out of curiosity. It made me uncomfortable yet the level of depravity that the author dragged me into had me shielding my face and whispering..."So refreshing."
I was tempted to stop reading halfway through as the story was slow out of the blocks but the author's brilliant writing style spoke to my love for beautiful prose.
It was a very dark and twisted tale and I sighed with relief when it ended and I was still myself.
Not my ideal book and I wouldn't read it again but I would be unfair if I gave it a low score. At least, though looking over my shoulder several times, I couldn't put it down.
January 20, 2021
This is the first book I read from this author and let me tell you that I loved it! Such a good book with great characters that keeps you obsessed with every page since the first one. The ending of this book.. come on! I just didn´t expect it! Can´t wait to read other books from this great writer! Amazing job! a must-read! A fantastic book that has it all! I happily endorse this story to any and all who are looking for a Thriller enjoyable read and a completely different experience than anyone could imagine on their own. ¡Great book!
July 31, 2021
Descriptive and eerie
I love the ending how it brought you back to the beginning. I love the descriptions, the dark eeriness of Carvel‘s life and surroundings. There were a few editorial errors that should’ve been caught but nonetheless I enjoyed the read. I wanted more sex. I was glad there was finally one scene but I wanted more. I will say there were times when I was a little confused but it didn’t stop me from wanting to continue reading. I definitely want to read something else by this author.
I love the ending how it brought you back to the beginning. I love the descriptions, the dark eeriness of Carvel‘s life and surroundings. There were a few editorial errors that should’ve been caught but nonetheless I enjoyed the read. I wanted more sex. I was glad there was finally one scene but I wanted more. I will say there were times when I was a little confused but it didn’t stop me from wanting to continue reading. I definitely want to read something else by this author.
September 6, 2024
A Decent Horror Novette
The Black Veldt is very short. The author describes a fictional world that is very similar to the run-down parts of 1970s New York, according to historical accounts. His description of the environment and events makes the novel captivating. It's mostly a first-person narrative through the eyes of a cynic.
The author shifts narration styles, and I'm not sure why. He spends approximately 50% of the book describing the environment, so the pacing in the novel is very slow. However, when the events of the novel unfold, they are gripping.
The Black Veldt is very short. The author describes a fictional world that is very similar to the run-down parts of 1970s New York, according to historical accounts. His description of the environment and events makes the novel captivating. It's mostly a first-person narrative through the eyes of a cynic.
The author shifts narration styles, and I'm not sure why. He spends approximately 50% of the book describing the environment, so the pacing in the novel is very slow. However, when the events of the novel unfold, they are gripping.
June 5, 2022
The Black Veldt
Really enjoyed this trip through a seedy 70s New York. Reminded me a little at times of Clive Barker. One of those where I finished and instantly hoped for more, hopefully the author constructs more novels around the ideas he has created in this book. I would definitely read more.
Really enjoyed this trip through a seedy 70s New York. Reminded me a little at times of Clive Barker. One of those where I finished and instantly hoped for more, hopefully the author constructs more novels around the ideas he has created in this book. I would definitely read more.
November 3, 2025
For Readers who Love Dark stories
If you like very dark explicit content, this is the book for you. For me it took my mind off the story. I like a story to have an arc and characters to also demonstrate change. Enough creepiness for the reader with a strong constitution.
If you like very dark explicit content, this is the book for you. For me it took my mind off the story. I like a story to have an arc and characters to also demonstrate change. Enough creepiness for the reader with a strong constitution.
November 13, 2020
Very Strange
I'm not sure I understand what happened in this book. There's intense sex and weird occult things but none of it seemed to connect to me.
I'm not sure I understand what happened in this book. There's intense sex and weird occult things but none of it seemed to connect to me.
November 11, 2023
Dark and Gritty
A dark and gritty psychological horror set in 1970s NYC. Reminiscent of Summer of Sam and Jacobs Ladder, Black Veldt kept me reading towards the end of the abyss.
A dark and gritty psychological horror set in 1970s NYC. Reminiscent of Summer of Sam and Jacobs Ladder, Black Veldt kept me reading towards the end of the abyss.
September 7, 2025
As soon as I read the beginning of this book it reminded me of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, or maybe a Bukowski novel. At least it's that same raw style of writing.
The story is set during the time of the Son of Sam in NYC.
Jose Carvel works at a used book store and aspires to write in his rundown Lower East Side dump.
He's a loser that likes drugs, smoking Pall-Malls and kinky strippers. His inner dialogues are great, and lucky for us we get to read them! But he also has demons who haunt him from a mysterious spirit world.
It's a dark book filled with great dialogue and creepy moods.
If you're the square pious type- don't pick up this book, it might burn your hand. But if you're like me and appreciate great writing - this book is for you. Just be warned, it's not about rainbows and butterflies.
A great dark and well written book. Looking forward to reading more from this author.
The story is set during the time of the Son of Sam in NYC.
Jose Carvel works at a used book store and aspires to write in his rundown Lower East Side dump.
He's a loser that likes drugs, smoking Pall-Malls and kinky strippers. His inner dialogues are great, and lucky for us we get to read them! But he also has demons who haunt him from a mysterious spirit world.
It's a dark book filled with great dialogue and creepy moods.
If you're the square pious type- don't pick up this book, it might burn your hand. But if you're like me and appreciate great writing - this book is for you. Just be warned, it's not about rainbows and butterflies.
A great dark and well written book. Looking forward to reading more from this author.
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