Other Place, An (Book)
Written by Darren Dash
Published by CreateSpace
An Other Place by Darren Dash is one of those books which should include a waiver, along with a series of warning labels. “May Cause Dizziness” would be suitable. So would “Caution: Hazardous Material!”
I was warned ahead of time: Go in with an open mind. But as a frequent reader of bizarre fiction and an avid viewer of gore-heavy films, I didn’t think much of the warning. After all, what could possibly be considered “shocking” anymore, after all the places horror has taken us over the years?
I tumbled down the rabbit hole, as skeptical of the warning as a teenager rolling his eyes at urban legends. Little did I know it would be the last time I’d underestimate what fiction’s still capable of. Little did I know my psyche would emerge threadbare and overstretched, no longer just a part of me, but a bloody, mauled trophy to display as proof I survived the journey.
The story starts with a bang (that is, the banging of an Amsterdam prostitute), and we’re quickly dressed into the tight-fitting skin of Newman Riplan, an overworked yuppie with poor people skills and a mind only for personal gratification. The prostitute asks Newman what he does, and he brags he’s “the King Kong of troubleshooters,” which is a grandiose presentation of an unfulfilling existence he secretly loathes.
After hooking up with his old college buddies and enjoying a night of hedonism which would make Caligula blush, Newman drunkenly admits he’s not so happy with a life largely spent in front of a computer. His friends laugh at him and quickly decide on just what he needs: a surprise vacation. They immediately blindfold him, pack him a suitcase of bare necessities, and shuffle him onto a commercial airplane heading to an undisclosed destination. They insist of Newman, just as I’ll insist of you, to relinquish any ideas of control and to simply embrace the unknown.
The plane never reaches its destination. Newman begins choking, and when he recovers, he finds every passenger in the cabin has been replaced by expressionless waxy imitations of themselves, which stand as the plane lands and dutifully march outside, into the strangest damn place you’ll ever care to read about.
These drones aren’t Newman’s only company, which is a pretty small miracle. The city’s fully populated, but its citizens aren’t on the same page as Newman, so the speak. No matter whom he asks about his location, he gets the same perplexing answer: “Where do you think you are?” He also discovers there’s no such thing as food and liquor; the drones are the only form of nourishment, and to feed from them, a person either jams a sharp straw into the drone’s skull or eats the drone’s waxy flesh deli-style. Oh, and the universal currency is human teeth!
In some ways, Newman’s experience mirrors that of the reader; he has no choice but to embrace the craziness, all the while wondering, “Am I crazy for adjusting so well?” The novel offers many more curios, as well as hints toward the bigger picture, but it would be sinful of me to spoil further details or to say anything of the unforgettable “climaxes.”
To put it briefly, An Other Place is not for everyone, and the less you know going in, the better time you’ll have. All I can promise is the reading experience will be uniquely yours, and you won’t emerge from this nightmare in the same condition as you entered. Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and Brett Easton Ellis may have written some weird stuff, but An Other Place tops all of it, both in terms of re-readability and overall scope.
Fasten your seat belts, return tray tables to their upright position, and allow me to be the first to welcome you to An Other Place, available December 4 (pre-order from Amazon).
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Categorized:Reviews
