Customer Reviews

The Strange Haunting of Johnny Feelwater

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I thoroughly enjoyed The Strange Haunting of Johnny Feelwater. Savannah (Georgia) and Kenya come alive in author Martin Brant's descriptions. The diverse cast of characters is compelling, and the suspense is built-in by the multi-sensorial descriptions of a haunted house filled with a range of unsettling beings, and by the question of what kind of intriguing "debauchery" Johnny will be coerced into next!

Johnny stumbles into a sticky web of relationships between his wife Marilee, the otherworldly siblings Julian and Cassandra, and his new friend Brian. Ultimately he realizes an important difference--love--between the nature of his relationship with Brian and that of his relationship with Julian. Marilee opens up to her body and its responses thanks to Johnny, and Johnny finally learns the reason for Cassandra's revenge.

The ending is a terrific wham/bam whirl, with one surprise after another in the last few pages, including a main character's deus-ex-machina solution, very nicely done.

The Strange Haunting of Johnny Feelwater is a portentous and philosophical novel, not to be confused with barely-sketched characters ripping each others' pants off. Sure there's sex: the erotic massage scene is riveting, and the leather "heathen" sequence appropriately disgusting yet compelling! But beyond this, Brant's writing expertly explores the "haunting" of bisexuality: a phantom sex hovering in the wings, an obsession never completely conquered in the heft and smell of remembered flesh. At times the novel seems to confirm the common perception that bisexuality is merely the mid-life crisis of married men who realize they're gay. But at other times, we read and understand the circumstances of characters for whom bisexuality is not a transitional phase, but a way of life.

Highly recommended, suspenseful, beautiful writing.

If you are a fan of supernatural books then this one is a must read! Johnny Feelwater gets a visit from a lawyer stating thas he has inherited a home. The owner was Cassandra Mott and he has no idea who she is or why she would leave him a house. He later finds out that she was the lesbian lover of his grandmother that his mother was estranged from because she didn't approve of her mother's lifestyle. Cassandra has come back from the dead (she is a immortal) again because she wants to hurt Johnny because she felt that he was the cause of her lover's death of a broken heart because her daughter would not allow her to see him and vows revenge. In the midst of all the paranormal things (sexual) that happpen to Johnny, his bisexuality comes to light after denying if for years and he doesn't know how to explain it to his wife. The ending will blow you away when Johnny finally finds out why Cassandra is set on revenge. I am a Martin Brant fan and this book was the bomb!