Twisted Tongue Presents
JwBennett's Practical Devil Worship (For all the Family)
AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!
Armageddon in a small town.
The Darkstein's. Your average American family – hardworking, patriotic and devout – the only thing that sets them apart from the God-fearing community of Goat Creek is their chosen faith. -- Following the disappearance of local girl Belinda Popejoy, backwater prejudices threaten to blow the tenuous neighbourly peace to smithereens.
As tension and bigotry mount on all sides, and private vendettas boil over, the Darkstein's will have to rely on the luck of the devil in order to survive…
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Practical Devil Worship (For All the Family) - Reviewed by Shaun Jeffrey (Horror Writer)
When a young girl goes missing, suspicion falls on a family of Satanists in this both humorous and cynical chapbook. The story probes the question of ethics, its premise based on the freedom to practice a chosen religion and the repercussions it generates in society.
Although the character names in the story at first appear clichéd, it soon becomes apparent that the author was only doing what a good Christian family would do when naming their offspring, by choosing names relating to their own faith – so don’t expect to find any John, Paul or David’s here, as these are the disciples of a far darker religion.
Bennett writes with an assured voice, using crisp, vivid prose and characters fleshed out enough to be (unbelievably) believable.
With tongue sometimes firmly in cheek, the author probes freedom of belief, and the reality of how people actually view those who fall outside the accepted norm. A disturbing tale that explores the dark side of religion with devilish aplomb.
Practical Devil Worship (For All the Family) - Reviewed by Colin M (WriteWords website)
"Practical Devil Worship (For All The Family) is a dark satire on religious tolerance, giving us a snapshot of a family of Satanists who have come out with their beliefs and have the support of the local court to practice those beliefs as they see fit. But regardless of the court's decision, the locals aren't quite so keen to have diabolists in the neighbourhood.
The black comedy of the story is an immediate hook, but it's the apparent viciousness of Delilah (the mother in the story) and the way she talks to the other mothers at the school that really made me sit up. There's a slightly uncomfortable edge to her, but to have Satanists without that edge, in a contemporary story, would be too much like reinventing "The Munsters".
I was a little disappointed that Jezebel, the daughter, and her need to rebel against a family that encouraged rebellion, wasn't expanded upon, because this was such a fascinating idea. If anything, it opens the way for a sequel.
The comedy soon shifts aside, giving light to a serious, and uncomfortable underlying message about bigotry, small mindedness and the secrets behind the closed doors of those we are expected to trust. All in all, a damn good read."
Practical Devil Worship (For All The Family) by JwBennett -- Reviewed by Sarah Watts
It’s a great title. It says, now I’ve got your attention I’m going to show you that the devil tells the best tales. Admit it, you’re hooked.
You turn the page. You’re ready to be entertained. And then it hits you, the opening quote by George W Bush. Did the universe just tilt and sway when I wasn’t looking? You don’t want to listen to him but you can’t disagree with what he says. Confused? You will be.
You begin and there she is – Delilah Darkstein, all American Mum and the heroine of this tale. From the moment she opens her rouged mouth, you have to love her. ‘Save your hatred for something worthy, Jez,’ she tells her teenage daughter, ‘like Monday mornings or Jehovah’s Witnesses.’
She is delivering the kids to school in the family car, a restored 66 Chrysler which just happens to boast a large pair of horns and ‘Christ bungee jumping toward the gear stick’ in place of fluffy dice. Any parent who’s ever failed to make the school run with children who don’t want to go to school can relate. But Delilah’s style is larger than life and kind of skewed but fascinating. ‘You gotta stay evil,’ she admonishes her ‘spawn’. This woman is a walking legend – she delivers the best lines in the story – so good she’s bad. Or should that be the other way round? It’s difficult to tell.
You might wonder why the adorable Lou Junior needs air holes like ‘eyeless sockets in the square skull of some unlikely alien’ in his lunch box but the pace doesn’t leave time – it sweeps you up and you read on. All will be revealed. If the style and confidence of the writing isn’t enough, the four meticulously crafted parts to this tale, Denial, Devotion, Damage and Debacle, lay out a road map to the journey the Darksteins and the reader will take. There is much to enjoy, afternoon sex rituals and unexpected revelations as the ride twists and turns.
This is scary satire – funny and terrifying. The Darksteins are ‘different’ and tolerance – unless from their loyal neighbour, ‘Mrs Shor’nuff’, who gives testimony in their favour, ‘sure as hell the nicest Satanists I ever met,’ - is in short supply among the god- fearing folk of Goat Creek. Delilah, for all her bravura and defiance, knows that her babies will never be safe and she has to protect her own. As the day wears on the shadows lengthen.
Not everything in this story is funny. There’s a missing child who doesn’t look like her photograph on the posters any more because her ‘devastated’ father knocked out her teeth. Or so Delilah says but Delilah, loyal wife to Lucifer or ‘Lou Senior’ as he is affectionately known, has secrets of her own.
And who can deny that the wonderful Lou is worthy of Delilah’s devotion? His day in court is magnificent. We see him take on the forces of discrimination, prejudice, bigotry and fear and win. He defends himself magisterially from the charges against him, ‘Am I on trial for my faith?’ And the most serious accusation levelled by the press. ‘Mr Darkstein, do you own any Marilyn Manson CDs?’
Then there are the questions, shadows that flit across a scene set for the darkest ‘comedy’. How badly does Jez Darkstein not like Fridays? And how far will she go to prove it? What will happen to a slip of a girl desperately trying to protect her kid brother when she is cornered by the school thugs? These ‘good ole’ boys aren’t playing.
Bad things happen to good people in this story. The author makes us fear for his vulnerable Darksteins taking on a hostile world with only a fallen angel to protect them. Good and bad are never absolutes. This story shifts polarities like the patterns in a kaleidoscope. As Lou Senior says, ‘I don’t want any questions bein’ raised about our innocence’. But this is a story that raises questions like flies.
Demonised or dehumanised, JwBennett shows us the consequences when people of whatever faith or persuasion begin to believe that others are less than human. The political parallels are easy to draw but are there for us to work out for ourselves, just as the darker more horrific elements of the story are left to our imagination. The writer is far too clever to hit us over the head with a message – his mission is to tell us a story that lingers in the mind and introduce us to a cast of memorable characters that we hope to meet again.
And the curtain line is fabulous.
