CarlAlves

The best way to describe Bottled Abyss is dark. Benjamin Kane Ethridge in his sinister and brooding style weaves a spellbinding tale that uses the mythos of the River Styx in a way only he can tell. He does this by exploring the psyches of his main characters, all of them flawed in some major fashion. The novel's two main characters, Janet and Herman Erikson suffer the ultimate tragedy of losing their daughter in a tragic hit and run accident. As expected, they don't cope with it well. Herman tries to get himself lost in work while staying emotionally unattached to everything around. Janet finds her solace in the bottle. When Herman's dog is lost, and he goes to find it, he meets the ferryman who transports people to the land of the dead. The Ferryman's world is slowly disintegrating and he needs a way to recapture it, seeing Herman as the solution to his problems. He heals Herman's dog with water from the Styx, and in exchange produces a coin. When the coin is given to someone, it unleashes the Fury, who has amazing destructive capabilities.
This sets in motion a series of events that dramatically transforms the lives of Janet and Herman and those around them. Ethridge uses his polished prose to capture the reader in a journey into the darkness that awaits them. He travels into areas most writers won't and does a great job of putting the reader into the minds of his characters. The novel is tightly written with few wasted words. Bottled Abyss is often times brutal and graphic, and anything but light reading. If you would like to explore the darkness of the human mind, Bottled Abyss is a great place to go.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street