Tim Waggoner’s Your Turn To Suffer is one hell of an experience. The story that unfolds on these pages is reminiscent of Clive Barker at his horror and fantasy weaving best, while still feeling original and authentic as a Waggoner novel. Blending horrors both supernatural/unnatural and psychological, Your Turn To Suffer draws you in and refuses to let go.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a random encounter on the street, followed a week later by an even more surreal and disturbing one in a grocery store sends Lori’s life spinning out of control. From an admittedly disorganized life as a physical therapist with a complicated living arrangement with her slob of an ex, her world becomes something unrecognizable as familiar places become unsafe and the people in her life are transformed into horrifying, monstrous strangers.
Lori is forced to come to terms with her past as she struggles desperately to discover what she needs to confess to and atone for.
This story reads like one of those nightmares you wake up from only to learn you’re still sleeping and experiencing a nightmare…except that it just continues like a Russian nesting doll of nightmares within nightmares. The narrative paints a distorted and dreamlike allegory, showcasing how guilt, even (or especially) when associated with long-forgotten–or suppressed–memories can weigh heavily on us.
Once you’re on the Nightway and heading toward the Vermillion Tower, it’s already too late. The Cabal has you. You will suffer.