Hellborn

This was one of the first adult horror novels I ever read and as a lifelong horror fan, it holds a special place in my heart. A woman finds herself stalked by a dark sexual demonic entity that possesses various people around her, trying to take her as it's mate. The sexual content of this book was pretty scandalous at the time and the horror and suspense is outstanding. If you are a horror fan, do yourself a favor and seek this gem out. Brandner is the Godfather of Modern Horror Fiction as far as I'm concerned.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book in that I felt it achieved its goal of both frightening and appalling the reader with a minimum of violence and other seeming necessities for horror today. For the most part, the story deals with invasion: of the heroine's life, of a small town by a malevolent entity, and of several people's bodies (perhaps the sheer horror a rape victim must experience finds a literary counterpart here). Brandner deals with the events on a visceral level but despite the strong sexual overtones, steers clear of pornography for the most part. Also, the end is interesting enough to wonder if Brandner meant this to be a final chronicle of Astragoth and his prey. In all, it is a very scary, entertaining read any fan of true horror would do well to read.