Sacrifice [Mass Market Paperback]

John Everson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

They're coming. They are a race of sadistic spirits known as the Curburide, and they are about to arrive in our world, bringing with them horrors beyond imagination. The secret to summoning -- and controlling -- them has fallen into the hands of a beautiful, sexy and dangerously insane woman.

Ariana has dedicated her life to unleashing the demons in our realm through a series of human sacrifices, erotic rituals of seduction and slaughter. As she crosses the country, getting ever closer to completing her blood-drenched mission, only three figures stand in her way: Joe, an unwilling hero who has seen the horrors of the Curburide before, Alex, a burgeoning witch ... and a spiteful demon with plans of his own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sacrifice is not for the timid or weak of heart, it is a full frontal assault on your senses. It is a dark, brutal, bloody and terribly frightening book. Everson went deep into some dark abyss to bring this book to the light of day.... I highly recommend Sacrifice. --Famous Monsters of Filmland

This book is a non-stop thrill ride, and I had a hard time putting it down once I started it. Sacrificeis a thrilling and shocking piece of genre fiction that deserves to be on every horror fan's shelf. It's got enough gore and perversion to shock even the most deviant of minds, but it also has well-developed characters and an extremely engaging and fast-paced storyline. John Everson is an excellent horror author and I don't hesitate to call him the future of horror fiction! --Fatally Yours

Everson is in full form. The action is quick, brutal, and visceral. In many ways, Sacrifice is like that "slasher flick" we know we shouldn't enjoy but do anyway. --Shroud Magazine

John Everson manages in Sacrifice to dispense buckets of blood, provide edgy perversity, and walk the tenuous tightrope of horror and sex without falling: It's rather an amazing feat. --Hell Notes

If you like horror with lots of gore and sex, with a whole lot of dark overtones, and with the impending threat of demons who want to invade the world and literally screw everyone to death, have I got a book for you. --Dread Central

From the Publisher

In this sequel to Covenant, a sexy sociopath has found the way to bring a race of demons into our world -- through ritual human sacrifice. As she cuts a bloody path across the country, only one other demon -- Malachai -- holds the key to stopping her.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 321 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books; Original edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843960191
• ISBN-13: 978-0843960198
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #993,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I share a deep purple den in Naperville, Illinois with a cockatoo and cockatiel, a disparate collection of fake skulls, twisted skeletal fairies, Alan Clark illustrations and a large stuffed Eeyore. There's also a mounted Chinese fowling spider named Stoker, an ever-growing shelf of custom mix CDs and an acoustic guitar that I can't really play but that my son likes to hear me beat on anyway. Sometimes my wife is surprised to find me shuffling through more public areas of the house, but it's usually only to brew another cup of coffee. In order to avoid the onerous task of writing, I occasionally record pop-rock songs in a hidden home studio, experiment with the insatiable culinary joys of the jalapeno, design book covers for a variety of small presses, lose hours in expanding an array of gardens and chase frequent excursions into the bizarre visual headspace of '70s euro-horror DVDs with a shot of Makers Mark and a tall glass of Newcastle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacrifice turns it up!, July 11, 2009

By 

Erik Smith "ronin57" (North Ridgeville, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacrifice (Mass Market Paperback)

I have only read two books by John Everson, Covenant, which was a good, solid horror novel, and Sacrifice, which takes what Everson did in Covenant, and turns it up to 11. More sex, more violence, and frenetic pacing that doesn't let up. Fully developed characters push the horrifying plot forward in a blood drenched, cross country chase that ends...well, I don't want to give anything away.Covenant made me a John Everson fan. Sacrifice made me a fanatic.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even Better Than the First!, January 30, 2010

By 

Jennifer Whildin "Jen" (South Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sacrifice (Mass Market Paperback)

Covenant (Leisure Fiction) was a great read, but SACRIFICE was even better. The story picks up a few weeks after COVENANT ends, and Joe Kieran is accompanied by the demon, Malachi, as he tries to put Terrel and the events that happened there behind him. He meets Alex, a teen running from the crazy, religious zealots who were her parents and what happened back home, who has the ability to see and communicate with the dead.

In the meantime, a beautiful but psycho woman named Ariana is brutally murdering people across the country, with a goal of immortality. She has a partner, Jeremy, who's had enough of his cheating wife and gets into the spirit of things, helping Ariana slaughter her victims in a ritual to bring forth the Curburide, which the now-broken covenant with Malachi prevented.

Joe and Alex team up to stop Ariana before she brings the world a terrible fate, but Alex is only beginning to understand her powers and how to use them, so the question is, Will she be prepared when she and Joe meet up with Ariana and Jeremy?

I found Malachi to be a rather fun sort of character, moreso than in COVENANT. Surely he has selfish motivations for helping Joe and Alex (or is he?), but he plays it kind of neutral, so you're never sure if he's going to get them killed or save their lives (and souls).

Like others, I recommend reading COVENANT first, but this one is great on its own. This is my third John Everson book, and they just keep getting better!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Everson Loads Up On Gore And Sex, November 18, 2009

By 

William M Miller (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sacrifice (Mass Market Paperback)

I'll be the first to admit I'm a sucker for sequels, especially horror novel sequels. When I love a story, I can't wait to revisit those same characters in even more dangerous situations. However, with Sacrifice, I wasn't that into where the story was taking me. The taking over the world aspect was not as credible as the smaller events that were set up in Covenent. Once the premise in Sacrifice was established, it seemed very familiar ground, one in which the reader was constantly ahead of the characters on the page, which is the opposite of what ideally should happen. I felt the characters were always playing `catch-up' to what I already knew.

There were some effective moments of graphic violence and sex, but strangely, they seemed to slow down Everson's fast pace that was established early on. The flashbacks to Alex's parents also seemed unnecessary as it was already clear what happened to them. I also didn't care for Ted's part in the story and didn't believe for a second that Cindy would allow him to keep The Journal of Broderick Terrel, especially after all the evil things that had happened to her only a few weeks before, not to mention what Ted allows to happen to her later in the story. As time ticked down, there didn't seem to be an urgency with Joe and Alex's character in tracking Ariana down. Even after the fifth murder, they seemed to be more interested in getting drunk, stuffing themselves at hotel restaurants, and painting Alex's nails than stopping the destruction of mankind. The scare factor, also, was an issue for me, with ample opportunities for some potentially frightening moments that just never happened.

The one thing I will say for author John Everson, is that while I enjoyed Covenent more, I did think that, with Sacrifice, he has become a better author. His writing is smoother and more defined, and his level of confidence seems to be that of some of the top horror authors working today. However, I would have preferred for him to explore another story other than the continuing saga of the Terrel cliffs. But I'm still a fan and looking forward to his new novel, The 13th.