Carly

I finally found a copy of this book, brand new and it's the Barnes & Noble Leatherbound edition of the book.
For some of the authors in the book, they are my favourite authors, but some of the authors and the short stories they wrote, I have never heard of the author and I haven't seen or read some of the short stories in the book.

My favourite Authors:
Edgar Allan Poe
H. P. Lovecraft
H. G. Wells
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sheridan Le Fanu
Ambrose Bierce
Arthur Machen
Charles Dickens

This book about a couple that chose to stay in their apartment during (hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, 2005)
Zackery Bowen was a veteran in the American Army when they were in Iraq & Afghanistan & his friend Greg “Squirrel” Rogers was in the American Navy & they had a mutual unbreakable bond of brotherhood with each other.
Zack & his friend Squirrel are both a negative influence on each other & a enabler of their bad habits, since Zack's friend gives him a bag of drugs for free after Zack and his girlfriend Adrianne “Addie” Hall took care of him after he had a car accident.
Zack had already made up a lie about his girlfriend, supposedly ripping him off, taking his bag of drugs & leaving him to live with her family which wasn't true, what really happened was far worse.
They were both reliant on Zack's friend Greg to feed their drug habit.
Adrianne is already dead at this point, that's why Zack was acting suspiciously, he was very anxious while he was in the bar of the Omni Royal Hotel's rooftop bar and then decided to jump from the rooftop to his death.
Overtime the New Orleans police department unravelled what had transpired between Zackery Bowen & Adrianne & the people of New Orleans were shocked & disturbed by the grisly, gruesome details.
There's no explanation for how or why Zachary Bowen did what he did to his girlfriend, but demons can cause natural disasters so believe what you want to believe about that.
Only a man that is insane, mentally ill, suffering from combat related PTSD, (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder there are various reasons why people have PTSD) or was potentially possessed, influenced by a demon or entity or had a demonic attachment to him would kill their girlfriend, defiled her corpse, dismembered, mutilated their corpse, cooked their severed limbs with the intention to cannibalize their girlfriend's corpse for no apparent reason, then committed suicide.
He was already susceptible to the influence of drugs and alcohol and addicted to both, but nothing really explains what made him do what he did to his girlfriend other than being kicked out of the apartment, removed from the lease so he was pretty much made homeless.
Don't forget that this man was a father of two children-Jaxon & Lilly
He obviously felt anxious, guilty, ashamed of what he did, he was anxious about being caught so his way out of the situation was to end his life by jumping from the Omni Royal Rooftop bar roof to his death.
I think it's quite disgusting how Zackery Bowen & his girlfriend Adrianne were treated with nothing but disdain, hatred, intolerance & the way they were perceived by the Natives of New Orleans, spoken ill of by New Orleanians just because they weren't natives of New Orleans or didn't have any ancestry from there.
Not everyone that lives in New Orleans is born & raised there, or has ancestry from there, so I think it's disgusting how they were treated like unwanted outsiders, but I can also understand the unwanted bad publicity about Zackery murdering his girlfriend Adrianne when there were more important issues to focus on at the time.
People that suffer from PTSD depending on the context of their individual PTSD can affect them in various ways, it is psychological trauma due to experiencing very traumatic, distressing, or disturbing & non consensual events, incidents that have happened in their lives.
It can affect men and women, subtle things such as fireworks, loud sounds, flashing lights, a particular scent can trigger their traumatic memories, which makes the person feel very anxious, they are in a flight, fight, freeze, or fawn state of mind.
They can be unpredictable, very violent, angry, more aggressive than usual, for some people it might totally change their personality so they are a shell of the person they used to be due to trauma they have experienced.
Zackery Bowen at the time had undiagnosed (combat related PTSD) due to being in a very hostile, violent, volatile, combat environment while he was in the Army and stationed in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Not having been diagnosed with PTSD explains why his behaviour is weird, he was unaware that he was suffering from combat related PTSD it explains why people describe him as being a weird, unpredictable or a violent person.

This book is very slow-paced and some aspects of book are a little bit boring to read about.
I understand the author is explaining the background history of Zackery Bowen's life so you as a reader understand him better as a person and how he became a traumatized, soldier/civilian but it's long winded, it takes forever to get to the point of the book being created in the first place.
There is some information about Zack living in New Orleans as a teenager which describes his personality, his awkward, socially anxious, somewhat needy type of personality.
It's not until Chapter 8 that Zack's life in New Orleans and how he met his girlfriend Adrianne “Addie” Hall that he eventually horrifically murders, defiles her corpse, mutilates, dismembers and partially cooks her corpse with the intention to cannibalise her corpse, it's insane.

Chapters 4-7 were somewhat interesting, but also boring and depressing to read.
I never understood why any military organization, Corp doesn't have mental health, or counselling facilities for the traumatized, combat soldiers to prevent any unexpected incidents when they leave the army, after serving for several years.
PTSD induced paranoia, gun related violence, unaliving of themselves because they can't adjust back into civilian life, it's too difficult for some people, they saw their comrades, their friends die in front of them while they were helpless, overpowered by the terrorist, or foreign enemy that's in control and have power or weapons of mass destruction in the country they are deployed in.
A lot of male & female combat soldiers are traumatized and suffer from PTSD, depression, anxiety etc.. There should be more done to help them, especially if they were also injured in combat war zones.
How Zachary Bowen met his girlfriend Adrianne “Addie” Hall and the events leading up to the horrific, creepy and disturbing crime Zachery committed and his own suicide afterwards is explained.
I can understand for this particular incident that this is why Zahery Bowen was hated, but I don't understand the hatred towards his girlfriend.
Both were prone to consuming copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, their relationship was a love/hate, very volatile and abusive, toxic relationship, it's a very codependent type of relationship that they had.
To be honest i'm not surprised that Zackery Bowen murdered his girlfriend-what is disturbing, creepy and absolutely disgusting is how easily and calmly Zachery strangled Addie, but then defiled her corpse several times, disarticulated her corpse-(dismembered her corpse) then partially cooked and consumed some of her corpse. What the actual fuck? Why?
No one deserves this to happen to them, not even an abusive ex, it's totally fucked up, unnecessary, it wasn't justified or deserved.
He wrote a suicide note/confession of the murder of his girlfriend Adrianne “Addie” Hall then committed suicide.
People don't just randomly kill their girlfriend, violate & defile their corpse, dismember them,then partially cook and consume them for no apparent reason, so this has always seemed to me at least that there was a demon or entity attached to him and it influenced, coerced or potentially possessed him and that's was one of the contributing factors for why he did what he did, but it's just a theory.
There have been cases of people that were possessed and they committed murder, very strange, bizarre or unexplained behaviour, which included murder & cannibalism so form your own opinion about that.
The type of murder/suicide & what Zachery did to Adrianne is overkill, intense, bitter hatred of Adrianne in my opinion.
It's really sad and disturbing that men or women that are veterans that have PTSD don't receive the help they clearly need, they are traumatized, emotionally, mentally, psychologically damaged by what they have experienced during combat, warfare in war torn countries they are fighting against.
There is a documentary about the relationship Zachery Bowen & Adrianne Hall had and her murder/his suicide.

I own a physical copy of this book, so my review is for the paperback.
I resonate with Konstantinos due to him being Greek, I have eclectic beliefs, that includes the Roman, Greek, Norse pantheons, Dark Goddesses & Daemons I know of one of my past lives in Ancient Rome, so what the author is saying about Gods & Goddesses resonates with me.
The path of night & being a nightkind resonates with me as well.
I don't believe in the New Age love & light, positive only vibes, toxic positivity, that denies that the dark part of the self even exists, these types of people don't do shadow work and it shows, they are the most likely to experience spiritual psychosis.
This is a good book to start with if you are new to practicing witchcraft, it's good to learn the basic principles of witchcraft first, then you can focus more on what does or doesn't resonate with you and what works best for you as a individual person, solitary witch, not all witches believe in Deities, not all witches celebrate the sabbats, solstices or equinox's either, it depends on the type of witch they are and the type of witchcraft they practice, not all spiritual paths includes witchcraft though.
I own the author's other books, so I am intending to read them next.
I have read the first portion of the book, it's interesting even though the explanation for the godform assumption & casting & circle, banishing ritual seems a bit complicated & I wouldn't say it's beginner friendly if you're new to the craft.
I need to study & learn the basic principles of witchcraft, protecting my energy, consecrating objects/items that will be magical tools, or statues & other items that represent the Deities or offerings I want to give to Deities I want to work with.
Raising energy, grounding energy etc .
There is a lot to learn.
I don't have privacy to openly practice witchcraft like I want to unfortunately.
There are various methods for establishing a strong bond/connection with Deities over time, but it takes a long time to develop.
If you have psychic/intuitive/empathic abilities it will make it a lot easier to use your intuition & spiritual to communicate with the Deities you want to with, it will be a lot easier to perceived their energy, presence & influence whenever you interact with them.