Levi Black

The Publisher Says: Charlie Tristan Moore isn’t a hero. She’s a survivor. Already wrestling with the demons of her past, she finds herself tested as never before when she arrives home one night to find herself under attack by three monstrous skinhounds straight out of a nightmare. Just as hope seems lost, she is saved by a sinister Man in Black, dressed in a long, dark coat that seems to possess a life of its own and wielding a black-bladed sword in his grisly red right hand.

But her rescue comes at a cost. The Man in Black, a diabolical Elder God, demands she become his Acolyte and embrace a dark magick she never knew she possessed. To ensure her obedience, he takes her friend and possible love, Daniel, in thrall as a hostage. Now she must join The Man in Black in his crusade to track down and destroy his fellow Elder Gods, supposedly to save humanity from being devoured for all eternity.

But is The Man in Black truly the lesser of two evils–or a menace far more treacherous than the eldritch horrors she’s battling in his name?

Red Right Hand is the first book in the fantastically creepy Mythos War series by Levi Black.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Nyarlathotep! The Crawling Chaos!! I am so so sold on this read. People using ol' H.P.'s stuff in ways that'd probably make him scowl and whine? Bonus points! And Charlie Tristan Moore is someone who would make ol' H.P.'s hackles rise. A woman, a mutt, a person without a pedigree? *gasp* Bring it, say I, and fling it on his grave.

So in this trilogy-starting story, Charlie (our narrator) meets with some really scary, very weird...dog-things...inside her front door as she stumbles in drunk from a binge trying to drink a boy she liked off her mind. The action, in other words, is reported in first person and starts from the get-go, never slacks, and keeps getting higher and higher stakes riveted to it.

What works best about this is that Charlie (Charlotte, really) Tristan Moore's learning what the ruddy hell's going on at the same time we are. She's not narrating from either the Afterlife or a cozy chair in front of a fire, a brandy balloon a-swirl in her hands, relating her youthful wild adventures.

What slightly less impressed me was Charlie Tristan Moore's gradually revealed psych history...it was all a bit too pat, and too obviously engineered to make her the proper tool for Nyarlathotep. It led to the feeling that she was a created tool instead of what I understood her to be, a fortuitously shaped stick that Nyarlathotep found here in ordinary reality and co-opted for his use. If the former is the case, then what the heck would an entity that could exert its will so powerfully *need* with a hench-rat?

Well, no matter, what kept me happily reading was the pace of events once the Man in Black gets his hooks into her and sets her her tasks. I was in the mood for horror, it's Spooktober, we've got truly awful people trying to screw up reality even more than they've managed to do in the past six years...gimme the fake kind, with excitement but no danger, please. This first-of-three violent, gory supernatural-horror-defeating stories filled the bill admirably, used the Lovecraft Universe very creditably while still ringing changes on the themes so they didn't feel leaden and overburdened with MEANING. This is never easy. Author Levi did it well. I know I've slammed those dragon-tattoo books for their repugnant sexual violence against women before. It's not a subject I invite into my entertainment these days.

What made me respond differently to this story is that the violence of Charlie Tristan Moore's past is not presented pruriently, is not downplayed in its effects on her and her life as I felt was the case in those Swedish stories. As she puts herself into terrible situations to serve a man and his needs in this story, Charlie's furiously ragingly hating him, and expressly making herself remember why what happened to her is making Nyarlathotep's abuse of her worse.

It felt, then, for once like her pain was her enemy not her secret power.

And she still succeeds, she still lives, she still has Love to save. It worked for me. If Spooktober's going to mean something to you, try slotting this read into it.… (mere)

I was a bit on the fence about this book, if I should read it or not since I hadn't read the first book, Red Right Hand. However, the fabulous cover and my weakness for Lovecraftian stories made me dare to start this book and I'm thrilled to say that the book worked very well, despite that I had not read the first book.

The story in this book takes place some weeks after the story ended in the first book. Charlie defeated The Man In Black, but he's still alive and Charlie goes after him in this book. If you have read the previous book will you know everything that happened in, Red Right Hand, however, if you like me decides to read this one without having read the previous book will it be easy getting into the story Black Goat Blues. Much of what happened in Red Right Hand is mentioned in this book, so it's easy to understand Charlie's plight to destroy The Man in Black and save her boyfriend Daniel. Also, I just want to say that I quite enjoyed the characters around Charlie, like Javier who becomes an important part of the story. And, then we have Ashtoreth, The Scarlet Harlot, Unholy Ishtar, Concubine of Chaos, and Whore Goddess Galore. Yeah, she just like The Man In Black is an Elder God. But, my favorite characters, or creature rather, is the skinhound. Yup, that surprised me too. What is a skinhound? Just imagine a dog skinned and you will get the picture. Sounds creepy I know, but this is a Lovecraftian novel so creepy things are expected.

I quite enjoyed this book and I hope to read book one some day. And, speaking of reading, this book ended with a hell of an unexpected cliffhanger so now I must read the next book!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!… (mere)

Red Right Hand starts off fast and never lets the lead character catch her breath for most of the story. This Lovecraft based horror pretty much tips it hat immediately to that fact with the Man in Black letting her know that she is a descendant of Lovecraft and he needs her for his acolyte. Granted she doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter and agrees to accept his mark and help him hunt down some other gods that will bring about the end of the world. Overall I enjoyed the book and it was a very fast read.

I’m not a huge horror fan but this didn’t turn me off. Granted there are things in Charlie’s backstory that other readers may not care for. Charlie suffers for PTSD from a gang rape when she was a teen and some of that is dealt with during the story. Also this isn’t a new author, Levi Black is a pen name for the writer’s first book with Tor.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley
… (mere)

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2016/08/18/review-red-right-hand-by-levi-black/

2.5/5 stars

Red Right Hand started out strong for me, letting me hope it would live up to my expectations. However, I am going to start this review with a disclaimer that I decided this was not quite my type of book, and while I had high hopes for it, I think that was because I did not have a clear picture of what the book would be like. And some of that is my fault.

Charlie, our protagonist comes home to be attacked by some sort of evil/hellish hounds. A mysterious Man in Black comes to her rescue and sets her life on quite a different course. The Man in Black may have saved her, but as Charlie learns more about him, she becomes uncomfortable. She stays with him more because she can’t think of an alternative or a wait out.

So, some of the things that did not work for me are probably likely to the Lovecraftian element that was clearly a trait of the book. This is something many people love, but I am not one of them. Also, since I have read very little Lovecraft, I know I missed references and connections to his work. I prefer my horror to be more psychological suspense and tension, I love the emotional ride you go through when things feel more plausible. Pretty much, for me, I am all about the emotional attachment and reaction to a main character when I read horror. Disturbing situations that feel like they could be a bit too close to reality are things that can go over quite well with me. When a book leans more towards the “weird” (I know, that’s a somewhat nebulous term), I find I lose some of my connection to the people and world. Once I lose that, the book will have a much harder time pleasing me. This book fell firmly into that category.

But while many of my issues stemmed from just not being prepared for the weirdness factor in this, at least one of my issues was independent of that. Our protagonist has had something traumatic happen in her past. This is brought up often, referring to pain or struggles she is having because of it. Referring to how she is trying to power on despite her having been a victim of something horrific. You do get some ideas of what kind of trauma she endured, but it is dangled there quite often for the reader without any clear details. Something bad happened. And since I seemed to be missing some connection to the main character, I hate to say, I got a bit tired of it being drawn out and wished they would either just say what it was, or omit it all together because the “mystery” really did absolutely nothing for me at all other than detract from the story. I found myself not caring and I absolutely hate that. When I read, I want to care. I want to really care, and feel the character’s emotions, and I just found I was not capable of that in this case.

So, unfortunately I have to admit that overall this book did not live up to my expectations, nor was it the book i hoped it was. But, that said, there may be an audience for it. I am not a fan of Lovecraftian horror, this is why I think perhaps my response is somewhat my fault as I picked this book up anyway and did not go in with the caution I should have and I hope people that do enjoy it keep that in mind when they read my review. I never want to turn people off of books that they may actually enjoy despite my experience with them.… (mere)