Dark & Twisty

I finally finished my reading list from June.  After all the texts I actually got grades on, I made it Edward Lee.  This particular book was not on my reading list specifically. I was just instructed to read something (or more than one text) by Ed Lee.  Golem was the only book I could find at the local book store. (Since then I found another paperback, which I bought and will get around to reading at some point.)

I will say that Ed Lee may have passed Jack Ketchum as the most disturbing writer I've ever read.  He's really intense and will not pull a single punch.  (I thought this of Ketchum until The Girl Next Door, but I'm glad he pulled the punch.) Ed Lee takes no prisoners or leaves nothing too taboo for his books.

Golem is a recent book by Lee.  It deals with a sect of Satanic Jews who deal crack and use golems to kill the competition.  There is a back story from 1880 where the ancestors of the Satanic Jews use golems to fight against prejudice.  The modern and historical story intertwine throughout the book. 

The story is set in rural Maryland, and deals with crooked sheriff's and crack dealers.  (Maryland must be different from Alabama because our big rural drug is methamphetamine.) The story revolves around a excrack addict, professor of theology and her recovering alcoholic game designing boyfriend.  They buy a house that contains a skull and some holy relics the Satanic Jews need to make more evil golems. 

The story involves a lot of dismemberment and rape.  I was surprised at the excessive number of rapes in this story. (My mentor told me to read this author after chastizing me for having too much rape in my own work of fiction.) The story is very shocking. It deals with a monster not often seen in horror literature, and he did a good job.