Australian author Neal Drinnan, known for his pungent worksof fiction, delivers this feverish, stimulating story about two friends whobecome more interconnected in each other's lives after they partake in areality-altering drug. The pair in question is Israel and Evangeline,40something roommates and best buddies for life. Izzy is gay, always searchingfor new, unrealized pleasures, awkwardly stumbling through life as an eroticcartoonist with an edgy demeanor; while Eve, dark and cynical, fashions steeljewelry and answers phones at a local brothel where girls mysteriously vanishwithout a trace. Both live together in a perpetual red-light district known asthe Gilgal, a somewhat oppressed, Muslim-influenced futuristic city populatedwith "artist-trash."

Izzy, bored and unsatisfied with Gilgal life, acknowledges asteady need to "disassociate" himself from reality. Currently, thatneed is being fulfilled by extreme, boundary-pushing bondage play with Germanplay partners Torsten and Gustav, who have a "secret kingdom" intheir basement and supply mind-altering chemicals that create an experiencecalled "astro traveling." Hidden beneath the city's underbelly, Izzyalso visits dank bars and sex clubs with names like Crouch, Trashed, and Gutz,places that boast a cloaked, risquŽ clientele and feature pitch-black backrooms where fisting and toilet-pig sex are not only commonplace, but the onlytrue religion practiced on the premises. Meanwhile, Eve, always willing toshare her innermost, negatively-opinionated thoughts on the male race,ruminates on the crestfallen state of her hopes and dreams for a better life,and of Izzy's deteriorating state of mind and her increasing lack of patiencewith him.

When Silt, a powerfully addictive drug, hits the streets,Izzy suddenly disappears (along with scores of other gay men), and Eve cranksinto full detective mode to find her pal, using her innate intuitive ability tocomb the city's obscure boroughs, but finding more trouble than she'd everexpected, including her own encounters with Silt.

Drinnan's authorial allure lies not in his storytelling, butrather in the description of varied raunchy scenes and desperate sexual acts,making them seem almost romanticized and transformative. It's the kind ofwordplay and writing style one scans for when flipping through a new book tosee if it can deliver the amount of debauchery discerning readers may beseeking.

Drinnan shows dexterity by conveying the story using Izzyand Eve's separate perspectives woven in with some heady bondage scenery andgraphically descriptive passages, a narrative structure that won't surprisethose who have read Drinnan's material before. Virtually everything that happensto this odd couple provokes thought and generates curious theories andintrospection on S/M activities ("the gateway to the chakras") andthe nature of the out-of-body experience, fortifying an alreadyprovocatively-themed storyline. This is Drinnan at his brawny, aggressive, andGothic best, and readers can count on a heady experience that will titillateand challenge, and maybe even cause them to break a sweat.

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