The Satanic Bridegroom is a horror-adventure novel written in the Weird Fiction tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and Arthur Machen. Along the way we encounter mysterious undersea caverns, cursed jungle valleys, drug-addled decadents, arias without underpants, mystics, bullfighters, salubrious new exercise regimens for young ladies of the Modern age and secrets man was not meant to know. Spookiness and wit abound in this unhallowed tale of lust, madness and submarines. – Taken from the book.

What I particularly loved about this book is the way in which the style and mood changes so flawlessly to reflect the changes in the protagonist. I don’t think I even noticed it happening until after I had finished the book.

To begin with, The Satanic Bridegroom is really funny, almost in an immature way. The author (or main character) seems unable to write a sentence about a woman without using the word “bounce”. It reminded me of Magnificent Vibration by Rick Springfield, in which the main character has regular conversations with his penis. I should point out that I’m saying all this in a 100% positive fashion – I found both books hilarious.

Thanks Joe Gola for making each evening after work this week fun and exciting. The Satanic Bridegroom is the sort of book one could easily devour in one sitting, but I enjoyed settling down for ten-fifteen minutes at a time to see what the book’s unbalanced libertine would get up to next.

If you enjoy the weird fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, Mike Russell or M. R. James, I’m pretty sure you’ll like The Satanic Bridegroom.

Joe Gola was born in Brooklyn and raised in Connecticut. His hobbies include brooding silently upon the moors and board games. The Satanic Bridegroom is his first novel. He currently resides in a haunted ice cream truck in Connecticut, USA. – Goodreads

Joe very kindly sent a review copy of The Satanic Bridegroom to Examining the Odd.