This is the third book of Mr. Jefferson I have had the opportunity to review, and while he personally handed the book to me at a The New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival, this will be a fair and unbiased review of his book. I feel what I enjoy about his books, it’s the style and tempo, never taking the easy route, rather mixing the disgust of a scene to the passion of the characters, making them have depth even in a short story.
Now to focus the attention is an interesting avenue of exploration, have you ever wondered how many ways a story can be told, and the primary way it’s deliver is the sole manner, or were there other ways to rephrase a paragraph and thereby change the entire intention of the story. Some might refer back to a series of children books that offered the reader a different ending depending on the viewpoint point, by the way that series is called – “The Power to Choose”. Well, this book is not that easy, rather if you have read Book 1: What Do You Fear? which deals with fear or phobias depending on the story, well that changes to the evil aspect. Thereby a book concerning itself with the fearful word of evil, and everyone is likely to admit that it exists, denying that is blatantly false; however, what is evil to one person might not be the same to another, everyone has their own moral code. Some might regard evil as a pure action against humanity but evil influences all areas, from the power one has over others in a professional setting, to cause harm against someone else; hence leading to some to justify its usage and others banishing individuals that use it. So many people in society almost become immune to evil, using a self-righteous code to accept what they actually do as good rather than evil. This might sound very philosophy based, but really, it’s not, rather this fits into the wheelhouse of horror fans, who enjoy holding a mirror up at society.
I won’t dive through each story rather highlight a few, first noting there’s no table of contents, each title of the next chapter contains a bolded phrase serving as preface, for example chapter 1 – “When desire turns deadly, and you conquer your fear, confronting evil comes down to a battle of wills.” which proceeds ‘Caressed by Evil’; and each chapter heading is filled by the words by evil, Chapter two is entitled ‘Bounded By Evil’ which gives a nod to indulging in one’s desire and fulfilling one’s own pleasure can’t be evil, but often people forget that it one’s passion for self-gratification can come at the expense of others, and destroying not yourself but others around, evil can and often cast a very wide net. In addition, if you choose to read that this is similar to ‘Family Secrets’ from Book 1 – What Do You Fear, and if not mistaken I think Mr. Jefferson wrote other books on this theme. There’s also three lengthy stories near the last quarter of the book, the first is ‘Sanctioned by Evil’ – fighting evil with evil or is your evil goodness in disguise, then a very involved and highly worthy tale of ‘Consumed By Evil’ tallying 90-pages concerning doctors, and the dilemma of helping patients save themselves or working for the protection of society from the evil of their patents, then sometimes evil consumes the self-righteous who feel they are above such pettiness of immoral evils. The final chapter involves family, and how their evil is possibly the most backstabbing and ruthless because it involves love, betrayal, and cross lines very easy, allowing the evil to breed and fester.
Therefore, the recommendation, for the fans of true horror, that effects lives, and to wish to be a voyeur of evil then this the book for you, as a volume two was recently published. I also recommend the book both filmmakers, though unsure if you have the guts to make extreme horror, surpassing the torture realm and making very realistic without trimming any portion for your self-censorship and this might be good for found footage fiends, either way one should support the independent authors.
Baron’s Rating: 8.0/10
Pages: 310
ISBN-13: 978-1483400242
Available as a Paperback or Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/Touched-Evil-L-Jefferson/dp/1483400247/
Author’s link: