by Laramore Black:
I am a fucking genius.
Fun – that’s the word I muttered after finishing my preview copy of Love is the Law by Nick Mamatas. From the opening line I was hooked without knowing until the book was over. When it was over, I truly didn’t want it to be. I wanted the world of Dawn to be real (because it’s definitely more interesting than my life). Sometimes I get lost in mountains of non-fiction, or the crap some guy in a sweater-vest is telling me is the latest must-read fiction – so it’s really nice when a book like this comes my way as a reminder of why people read (hint: to enjoy it).
Here’s the thing about using one’s Will to go unnoticed. One really has to be nonchalant about it. It’s not true invisibility at all—there’s no atom-sized black hole conveniently sucking the light in all directions. You’re there. You’re visible. You just must act above notice, and not beneath notice. Humans are predators; we seek out the weak, we crave them. The sniveling coward can never hide. Curling up into a ball practically sends out a cloud of fuck-kill-eat pheromones that attracts sharks in the form of men.
The book revolves around a character named Dawn, a badass chunky punk-rock chick with a spiked-ring in her pocket in preparation to knock some heads at all times and who has a dark arts obsession. I forgot to mention she is a fucking genius too, which seems silly of me because it’s the first thing she tells us about herself. Her life has come down to living off her grandmother and peeping through a guy’s windows – a man named Bernstein who eventually invites her in, becoming a mentor-like figure and filling her mind with the wonders of the occult and Marxism.
All is well until she finds him murdered in way that looks like a suicide.
Using her genius abilities, she conducts an investigation of her own, wading through a sea of perversion – every lead only bringing her closer to what appears to be shaping up to a strange conspiracy. The characters of the story so different – crackheads, metal heads, punkers, and rude convicts – just to name a few, which makes every encounter feel new and exciting. Even more peculiar is it is a story of magick, yet written in a way that is believable – the book equal parts gritty, practically noir in fashion degenerative neo-punk culture with dashes of magical realism. It will keep you believing the world of Dawn, even as the ground blackens beneath you.
“He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment!”
This is the first book I’ve read by Nick Mamatas, a man whose writing shows the skill and the honed precision of patience I would expect from an award-winning author – a Hugo, to be specific – whatever that is. I try not to hang around Wikipedia pages to much in the jealousy of my own being non-existent. This is to say he has won over a reader – not from a curiosity in perusal of his life’s thus far accomplishments, but because this book was purely enjoyable.
A book I think any readers of this review looking for a good time will enjoy as well.
Love is the Law
DarkMedia contributor Laramore Black is a dark fiction writer and poet of the American Midwest. He is the editor-in-chief at Revolt Daily, contributor to the Imperial Youth Review and a staff member at Port Cities Review. His recent publications include Out of the Gutter Online, Shotgun Honey, Literary Orphans, DarkMedia, The Shwibly, ThunderDome Magazine, Solarcide, and a few anthologies; like Long Distance Drunks, Nova Parade, and Salvation Black. You can stalk him on both Facebook and Twitter.
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