A man rises out of an abyss of frustration and rage and creates works of art out of destruction, goddesses out of mere dental hygienists and beauty out of death. It’s also about the sickness and obsession that is LOVE.

"After purposefully killing his wife in a car accident, art professor Michael Friday finds his perspective on things has become a little…warped. Via his personal journal, we’re allowed into his mind to slowly watch the disintegration of it, bearing witness to his unnerving sexual cravings and ideas about killing: intertwined with the paintings he loves so much. As Michael writes, he’s ‘turning into something dead’; but at the same time he wants to be somebody, not a nobody.

Using his diary to rant against the world in general – including everything from banks to popular culture, from national holidays like Christmas to politics – he reveals more about the big, gaping hole in his own life. But as the novel goes on the first person narrative tensely builds up, displaying his dark dreams and innermost thoughts; his way of filling that void and presenting his grisly ‘works of art’ to the world. As intelligent and cultured as Hannibal, easily as disturbing as American Psycho and infinitely less reassuring than Dexter, this is a sexually-charged real life horror story that will definitely stay with you.”

—Paul Kane, award-winning horror and fantasy writer

Enter into Michael’s world through the pages of his personal journal, where every diseased thought, disturbing dream, politically incorrect rant and sexually explicit murder highlights his journey from zero to psycho.

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

“Wilde…is one of the finest purveyors of erotically charged horror around.”—Fangoria Magazine #320

"This is one hell of a novel, Barbie Wilde, has written one of the most tense and powerful stories I have read in a long long time. This is not a book for the feint of heart, there are passages in here that will truly shock you...I don't know from which dark recess of Barbie's mind she dragged this story from, but she is really beginning to scare me. It is as though some dark primal rage takes control of her mind when she writes stories like this." --Ginger Nuts of Horror

"...If you are a fan of both the crime and horror genres and want something special to read this Christmas, go for The Venus Complex." --Fear Magazine

"The Venus Complex is a clever, grisly, art-infused, sexually-charged narrative that will keep you turning pages. I apologize, but I simply have to say this: Barbie Wilde's work definitely has some sights to show you."--HorrorTalk

"The Venus Complex is the work of someone who loves and understands the inner workings of truly effective horror, can write with exceptional talent, and combines both of these things into one of the best depictions of steadily mounting evil this side of Poe. Or Clive Barker, for that matter."--Drunk Monkeys

Review

"While Wilde's smart-yet-unhinged character is definitely one of the main elements making The Venus Complex a must-read, it's really the author's writing chops that help this tome stand out. Although this is purely a horror novel, there are passages that make you laugh, a few that wouldn't be out of place in a critical essay about contemporary television, and some so deliciously vicious, evil, and cold-hearted that they place Michael Friday in the spot I mentioned above: right next to Hannibal Lecter."
-HorrorTalk.com

'Barbie Wilde's novel is distinctly Hitchcockian in its portrayal of murderous obsession.' "The Venus Complex, as the title suggests, is an erotically charged novel, and there are some passages that give the likes of Anais Nin and Alina Reyes a run for their money."
-Starburst Magazine

"... the Professor appears, even in his writings, to be a normal man, perfectly capable of living alongside any one of us without raising suspicion. And that is Wilde's genius in charting the rise of a sociopath of cleverness and cunning enough to match that even of Dr Hannibal Lecter (God knows where and how she did her research)."
-Fear Magazine UK

"This brilliant look into the mind of a serial killer is full of poetic anger, and beautiful vitriolic ranting, that it makes you wonder from which pit of hell the lovely Barbie came from. In a genre saturated with bland serial killers, and even blander plots, this book shines out like a beacon."
-Ginger Nuts of Horror: Books of the Year 2012

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