New Book Alert: What Immortal Hand by Johnny Worthen; Hypnotic and At Times Disturbing Supernatural Horror Featuring Kali, Hindu Goddess of Death

 

New Book Alert: What Immortal Hand by Johnny Worthen; Hypnotic and At Times Disturbing Supernatural Horror Featuring Kali, Hindu Goddess of Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Johnny Worthen's novel, What Immortal Hand is one of those types of books that make you think it's going to be about one thing. The Reader goes into the book expecting and mostly getting a dark, disturbing, and at times hypnotic thriller. Then it takes a 180° turn and becomes more subtle, cerebral, and somehow more meaningful. 

Michael Oswald is an investigator for an insurance company who mostly resolves fraudulent insurance claims. He is recruited to look for Isaac Lowe, a semi truck driver who is missing, truck and all. The Reader learns in the prologue that Isaac attended a strange religious meeting in the desert, picked up a hitchhiker, and ran into some very violent characters before he met his untimely end. It is a very graphic beginning that grabs the Reader's attention from the word go.

Michael investigates Isaac's case but he has some mysteries of his own. He can't remember most of his childhood except for one foster family and that both parents died. His current life isn't any better. He is divorced and his ex and kids are settled into a new life with a new husband and father. However, Michael's ex wife keeps him somewhat updated on their troubled daughter. As an investigator, Michael lives nowhere in particular and just bounces around from place to place, assignment to assignment. He seems to be running towards or more than likely running away from something. 

This investigation ends up becoming very personal to Michael. He is followed by people who seem to know more about him than he does, causing him to really question the parts of his past that are blocked out.

One of the more horrifying aspects in Michael's journey are the visions or hallucinations that plague him. Sometimes, he sees tigers out of the corner of his eyes. Other times, he sees a sinister looking topless dark skinned woman with multiple arms. 

What Immortal Hand is an almost hypnotic mesmerizing journey where not only Michael but the Reader is constantly put in a state of unease and discomfort. The desert landscape really helps intensify the mounting tension. Michael gets a taste of it when he hears disembodied footsteps and sees crocodiles and melting faces.

Then there is that strange dark woman who keeps appearing and disappearing, frightening Michael to the point of paralysis.

 There is a lot of barren landscape where your eyes can play tricks on you and you can see the creepiest things. At night, it's a lot worse. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that many semi truck drivers see some bizarre unexplained things during their late night runs down the flat dry barren roads.  Of course the fact that there is a lot of abandoned hot land that could be very useful for criminal activity can't be ignored. Michael and his new partner, Craig realize this as they stumble upon a mass grave. One might be Isaac, but there also seems to be an awful lot of unidentified people murdered in that same place.

Around the halfway point, What Immortal Hand, takes a distinct turn right around the time when Michael runs into people from his past or mysterious people who seem to know him though he doesn't know them. For spoilers sake, I will try not to reveal too much, but the plot twists largely involve Kali.

Kali, for those that don't know, is the Hindu goddess of death and time. According to the Linga Purana, Kali is an alternative form of Parvati, a light benign goddess who has to become the dark active Kali to fight against the demon Daruka. She is usually depicted as a woman with black skin, multiple usually four arms, and a large tongue sticking out of her mouth

 Hindu mythology portrays Kali as a fierce, bloodthirsty, sometimes out- of-control fighter who is able to act on the other god's darker impulses but needs them, especially her consort Shiva to calm her down. She was seen as both strong and wild, protective and violent, creator and destroyer. Her function was to be the fierce warrior that carries the anger, rage, deceit, fury and darker nature that the other Hindu gods no longer carry because of their benign, peaceful, detached personalities. 

While her actual portrayal in legends is nuanced and gives more facets to her character, popular culture concentrates more on her demonic form. The Thuggee cult of mid 19th century India cited Kali as their matron goddess. In film and literature, her legacy is seen as shock value as her worshippers are seen as murderers who cold bloodedly kill without remorse. 

Worthen's portrayal of the Hindu death goddess captures the nuances of her mythological roots rather than the pop culture transmogrification. There are some dark aspects involving her character (the mass grave and hallucinations are still incredibly disturbing), but her worshippers are three dimensional. They have a code on who to attack and who not to. They are protectors who defend each other and those whom they are close to, becoming almost vigilantes. 

They aren't always good though. They are still pretty bloodthirsty and live a chaotic existence. Michael is drawn into their world because of repressed memories and his own fears and insecurities about his placement in the world. He is detached from everyone around him and feels a strange connection to this modern day Kali cult. He fears Kali but he is also drawn to her too. 

What Immortal Hand is a dark hypnotic book that is meant to scare and then seduce the Reader into a Kali driven world.