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A must have
“this book is amazing, psychadelic, just the right amount of confusion and everything falls into place in the end. i hope Clevenger has more to come”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-01-21. -
Spiders and Bugs
“Lots of spiders, bugs, and colors in Clevenger's second novel, Dermaphoria - maybe too many for a person without the prerequisite delusional mindset to follow the story which is in there somewhere. Briefly, our hero, Eric Ashworth, is a master alchemist who creates varieties of methamphetamines and hallucinogens for an illicit market that constantly craves new designer spinoffs of the traditional favorite mind benders. Eric is hounded by his bosses who put up the money for Eric's r & d and he is haunted by the image of the beautiful image of Desiree, although we're never quite certain who Desiree is. But that's Ok because Eric can hardly figure it out either. As a result of a drug production explosion, Eric weaves in and out of amnesia and delusional euphoria.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-11-23.
On the other hand, Clevenger is a terrific writer. I read his first novel, The Contortionist, twice. I loved it and even wrote a letter to him saying so (to which he graciously responded). Although this is not The Contortionist, Clevenger still manages to teach us about a world that very few of us can possibly understand and gives us some great lessons in chemistry that our school teachers never touched on. You can have a good experience reading Dermaphoria once you set aside the need for a story to move, in linear fashion, from one scene to the next.” -
Twisty Sizzler!
“This book wouldn't leave me alone. From the very first page I was hooked. What is real? What is drug-induced fantasy? And is there a place to stand between the two? I don't want to say much about the story--the hooks have already been written above--but I will say the the writing is beautiful and shifty and noir, and this is an author worth reading. And watching! ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-07-21. -
2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
If anyone close to you has been addicted...
“To any sort of hard drug, you MUST read this book.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-06-05.
A shockingly large improvement in writing style and story development since his last book (Contortionist's Handbook, which is also excellent). Dermaphoria is a love story, and an epic coming of age piece all rolled into one. Maintaining a clear style despite a clouded narrator's perspective and using ever sharpening wit, Clevenger does well keeping the reader in tune with the story as the narrator races to bring back memories lost in a lab accident while being pursued simultaneously by the police and the group that funded the drug lab that blew his memory to smithereens. While slowly revealing how all this happened Clevenger gracefully shifts in and out of ponderings on the morality and philosophy of drug use. A must read.” -
His second is just as good as his first.
“Really loved this one too. CC is a vivid, intense writer, one of my all-time favorites.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2007-10-28.
