Gwen, in Green
1974 Fawcett
Paperback, 191 pages
An eco-horror book with loads of
forbidden sex? Sign me up right now!
Gwen and George are a prosperous
young married couple that get a lovely piece of island real estate in North
Carolina for a song. There is a growing nuclear power plant across the water
from them, but their land was safe and secluded, an idyllic spot for them to
build their forever home. Had Gwen, who’d had a lot of hang-ups, mostly sexual
thanks to her promiscuous mother, finally found a place to feel safe and loved?
Between her husband clearing out
brush and small trees to make a better view of the pond and the nearby plant
clearing for new construction, the flora in the area was taking a beating. Gwen
was having a problem with that. In fact, Gwen was becoming more in tune with
the plant life in the area than the humans. She put up a front for George and
her shrink but things were changing rapidly in her world. Gwen could hear… and feel
the thousands of trees falling, the plants being massacred, and she started
thinking that it was about time for a little payback…
This is a remarkable book. I
felt completely in tune with Gwen right from the start. Zachary takes you
inside her head with unexpected sensitivity and clarity and as she changes, you
follow as her story becomes a sad, twisted dreamworld. Shockingly, to relieve
the pain of the plant life massacre, she starts fucking strangers, first the
meter man, then teenage boys from the nearby town. Yeah, the pedophilia is
pretty gross, but Gwen needed many eager pain-relievers. Workmen are also
disappearing…
The book is sometimes beautiful,
sometimes repulsive, but it always casts an eye towards nature, who couldn’t
speak for itself until Gwen came to them. Valancourt Books has reissued the
book as part of their Paperbacks from Hell series and thankfully have kept the
original cover art, painted by George Ziel. The painting is a haunting
masterpiece, just like the book.
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