Today it is my pleasure to welcome author Paul DeBlassie III and his novel, Goddess of the Wild Thing.

Author’s description:

Winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for Visionary Fiction!

Eve Sanchez, a scholar of esoteric studies, is driven into unreal dimensions of horror and hope as she encounters a seductive and frightening man, criminal lawyer Sam Shear.

Sam introduces Eve to a supernatural world in which the wicked powers of a surrogate mother’s twisted affection threaten love and life. Struggling to sort through right from wrong, frightened yet determined, Eve nears despair.

Goddess of the Wild Thing reveals the dramatic tale of one woman’s spiritual journey where metaphysical happenings, unexpected turns of fate, and unseen forces impact her ability to love and be loved.

In the magical realm of Aztlan del Sur, a mythopoeic land of hidden horrors and guiding spirits, Eve, with three friends and a wise old woman, is caught in an age-old struggle about love—whether bad love is better than no love— and discovers that love is a wild thing.

My Review

In Goddess of the Wild Thing, Paul DeBlassie III has written a mesmerizing and unusual book.

What I liked best:

His descriptions are captivating, and his language is poetic. There is a repetition to his style that turns his prose into an incantation all its own. Goddess of the Wild Thing may be a book about spells, but a reader feels the author casting his own spell, too. It’s eerie yet effective.

I enjoyed getting to know Eve, the strong female protagonist. (You’ve got to love a woman who is being sucked into quicksand by an evil witch and gives her the finger.)  But the most amazing accomplishment in this story is DeBlassie’s thorough and horrifying creation of Sweet Mary. This woman (this creature?) has got to be one of the most frightening villains I’ve encountered. He describes her life, motivations and methods with realism and relentless detail

What I liked least:

There was a little thing and a big thing.

The little thing: The author keeps referring to females as felines, almost as if the words are interchangeable. They aren’t. It’s a minor point, but associating half the human race with a type of animal got more annoying with repetition.

The big thing: Well, sometimes it’s hard to tell the true nature of a book from it’s blurb, and I misjudged this one, guessing it was a sort of metaphysical fantasy (which I love) tinged with romance (which I tolerate.)

It isn’t. This book is a modern, compelling and well-written horror novel. The problem is I don’t like gore and most of the book reminded me why horror simply isn’t my genre. So … there was a fair amount of skimming required for me to get through this. But, just because I don’t enjoy something, doesn’t mean I can’t recognize when it’s well done.

So …  do I recommend Goddess of the Wild Thing? I definitely do, to anyone who is not particularly squeamish and to everyone who would enjoy a modern, compelling and well-written horror novel.

About the Author

Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D. is a depth psychologist and award-winning writer living in his native New Mexico. He specializes in treating individuals in emotional and spiritual crisis. His novels, visionary thrillers, delve deep into archetypal realities as they play out dramatically in the lives of everyday people. Memberships include the Author’s Guild, Visionary Fiction Alliance, Depth Psychology Alliance, International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and the International Association for Jungian Studies.

Visit the author at his website.

Buy Goddess of the Wild Thing on Amazon.

Yes, there is a giveaway

Paul DeBlassie III will be awarding $25 Amazon or B/N gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter here to win.

This post is part of a tour sponsored by Goddess Fish. Check out all the other tour stops. If you drop by each of these and comment, you will greatly increase your chances of winning.

My Favorite Excerpt:

“Shirley spoke up, “Maybe we just gotta give it up and say there’s no good out there and no damn good men.” Shirley spat on the sidewalk, as she was prone to do when attitudes turned south and a pissed-off mood overrode a physician’s reserve. A petite woman, hovering around five-foot-three, she was a spitfire to friends and foes. Her red hair was a fine match for her spicy temperament. She never hesitated to snap her tongue, making an envious woman or cocky man shrivel and long to crawl into a nearby hole and cry. Shirley lived as a healer and a warrior, a woman who cared tenderly for the hurting and raged viciously at pretense and abuse.

Eve, Shirley, and two other friends, Tanya and Samantha, were plagued by man troubles the way pollution settles in during dusty days and humid nights in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of Aztlan del Sur. They were four esteemed professional women who could have any man they chose. Yet time and again, they went for the lower, the bad, the  worst. They sabotaged the good, the permanent. Commitment was a frightening consideration for four women who’d suffered childhoods of parental dysfunctional neglect and split-ups. They often quipped, “We found each other because like finds like.” Tonight, Eve’s troubles were front and center. She’d done it again or at least worried she had. The glitch in the man was in the type she attracted: charmers—striking and untrue. Suffering had begun. Time was critical. To stick it out or get out was her dilemma.  Things with a new man had taken a terrifying turn.”