Madame Antic's Hotel Grotesque

Madame Antic's Hotel Grotesque

In an alternate Victorian era, factory worker Anthony Reynolds seeks to improve his station in life for the sake of his young bride-to-be. Against his better judgment, he joins Richard, a gregarious coworker with social connections, for a night on the town after their late shift. Richard leads them deep into the city's underworld to a brothel of sorts specializing in the illegal art of mutilation. There Anthony witnesses victims skinned, broken, and mangled without lasting damage due to a special drug that returns them to their original state. Anthony immediately wants to leave, but before he can, Constables raid the establishment. While trying to flee the scene, Anthony runs into a giant tumor of a man who spills a viscous fluid on him. Anthony is disfigured by the strange substance, and when the authorities capture him, he is unable to identify himself, let alone speak. What follows is a mind-bending adventure of mistaken identity, multiple realities, and paranoia as Anthony fights to reclaim a simple life he never truly appreciated but now wants more than anything else. Once he learns the truth of his world, nothing will ever be the same again.

This brilliant genre mashup brings the gore and mystery in equal measure. Total Recall meets Hellraiser. Just when you've figured it out, Fowler dashes your reality with a new twist.
- Anthony J. Rapino, author of Soundtrack to the End of the World

An intriguing novel, a twisting labyrinth of shifting realities, a fast-moving adventure merging the ideas of Philip K. Dick and David Cronenberg. Highly Recommended.

- Deborah Walker, author of Future Tales 2101