The Venus Complex by Barbie Wilde Review

October 11, 2019

This is a story about a deviant fellow.

The Venus Complex by Barbie Wilde

Released November 2018

Dark Fiction | Goodreads | Amazon

Source: Received for Review Consideration

A man rises out of an abyss of frustration and rage and creates works of art out of destruction, goddesses out of mere dental hygienists and beauty out of death. It's also about the sickness and obsession that is LOVE. Enter into Michael's world through the pages of his personal journal, where every diseased thought, disturbing dream, politically incorrect rant and sexually explicit murder highlights his journey from zero to psycho.

My 2 Cents For Free!

The Venus Complex takes an intimate look inside the head of a man with deviant tendencies who decides to act on them and it is horrific and somehow strangely compelling. I felt rather ewww after spending time in his head and had to take breaks but that didn’t stop me from coming back to it. It’s probably not a story for everyone though.

A depressed fellow is told to keep a journal by his doctor in order to help with his recovery. He’s been in a terrible accident and his wife has died because he accidentally on purpose drove them off the road after releasing her seat belt. It is soon revealed that this man isn’t at all sad about the loss of his wife and for chapters on end he stews in own misery, raging at the world and hating on women. In his notebook he feels free to share his dreams of cold, blue skinned girls who aren’t mermaids, if you get my drift. These dreams are disturbing as hell and filled with sexual deviance that leave him aching to act out on these dream-fantasies and his thoughts get pervier and pervier by the day (and that is so a word in my world – leave me alone spell-check). Soon sharing these thoughts in a notebook isn’t enough . . .

There is no sugar-coating the fact that this story isn’t an easy one to sit with. This dude is a HORRIBLE, disturbed, revolting, disgusting person, filled with a deep loathing of everyone and everything but especially womankind. He eventually fixates on a woman who he declares his perfect woman and his dream-girl before they ever have a conversation. Really? Anyhow, she becomes the inspiration for his “Venus Project”. He then decides to become an expert in serial killing and we get to come along for the ride whether we’re ready or not.

This is a dark and extreme horror novel that gets a little bogged down at times with the mundane rants made by its protagonist. It’s filled with blood, murder, rape and the blackest of black and hateful thoughts and deeds. Tread lightly if you don’t feel like you are quite ready to read the intimate thoughts of a serial killer who dreams of necrophilia. I’m not sure I was but I finished it despite myself and I feel a little icky for it, if I’m telling the complete and honest truth. Pretty much the same way I felt after reading Poppy Z. Brite’s Exquisite Corpse but that didn’t stop me from having to know how it all ends. Why am I like this? Anyhow, it disturbed me and I’m glad I am no longer in this guy’s head.

Interesting tidbit: Doug Bradley aka Pinhead reads the work most excellently and Barbie Wilde is the actress who played the female cenobite in Hellraiser movie! She has an incredibly disturbing imagination and I will most definitely be reading more of her work. If this book sounds like your thing and you enjoy audiobooks this one is calling your name!