(Para)Normal Society: Island Complex by A D Wills

Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone who could go into your head and kick out all the pesky oddities that cause anxiety, depression and self hate? There is such a man, and Curtis is his name.

When mysterious hacker, Dungeon Master, sends not quite alive Curtis and the goddess of fortune Yana to investigate a young woman with an identity crisis who has been seeking help on the internet, they find her island home to be perfectly normal – too perfect. What darkness lies beneath its happy facade?

Ok, what’s Curtis’s phone number and how soon can he give me an appointment? I need him to go into my head and evict the little nasties that live there – stat!

I love the idea of thoughts and emotions being influenced by oddities – elemental creatures that feed off pleasure or pain. These pesky beings can cause a lot of trouble if you invite them into your head, but luckily Curtis can pop inside your head too and root them out.

The characters are great fun. I particularly liked Yana, who is persistent in her delusion that she’s in a relationship with Curtis, despite all evidence to the contrary. Curtis’s voice is entertaining and well developed, and I emphasized with his anxiety regarding certain situations.

The central story, once the characters and world have been introduced, is interesting but I would have liked a little more detail to give the plot the heft that it deserved.

The dialogue is excellent, and often humorous, but the lack of description between character’s speech impacts negatively on some scenes and left me feeling discombobulated at times.

Overall, I enjoyed this original novel and I look forward to reading more of Curtis’s adventures.

I award (Para)Normal Society: Island Complex…