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Mistress of the Dark
Abigail Barnum, submerged in a dark world of sex, drugs, and violence, slowly gives into the insanity that has been threatening to consume her, descending into a lethal world of obsession, pain, seduction, and murder. Original.
- GenresHorror
325 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 2005
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Sèphera Girón
75Ìýbooks98ÌýfollowersSèphera Girón is a multitalented artist with a background in stage, film, and music as well as writing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fine Arts Studies with a minor in Psychology from York University and is the author of many books and short stories.
When Sephera isn't writing, she's a professional tarot card reader. She also holds Certificates in Reiki and Touch for Health.
When Sephera isn't writing, she's a professional tarot card reader. She also holds Certificates in Reiki and Touch for Health.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 22, 2013
Giron really did a good job with this story of a young woman who descends into madness. the story's presented as the main character's diary.Abigail first seems like a somewhat eccentric but moderately likable young woman living in the big city � but from the beginning, there are few things that are strange about her. Like the skeleton she has in her apartment � an art piece � right? And the crazy, over-the-top sex with her male and female partners.pretty soon though, it becomes clear that something is very wrong with Abby. Very, very wrong. The quintessential unreliable narrator, soon you can't tell what is real in Abby's life and what is not. she becomes obsessed with a regular customer at the bar where she works, following him and sneaking around in his apartment when he's not home, determined to get him to notice her. Pretty soon she gets involved in her first (?) Murder, a killing in self-defense � right? And her collection of macabre skulls and bones begins to grow in her apartment as the body count rises and things get more and more surreal.
My biggest problem with the book was that I wasn't sure if it was realistic � could one person in New York really get rid of so many people in her life and not get caught? All these bodies in her apartment � yes, it frequently talks about her boiling cinnamon and doing things other things to hide the smells, and all the different techniques she learned aboutto preserve the bodies, but you would have to think it would be quite a smell after a while. You just can't keep bodies in an apartment without stinking up the building. So I'm really unsure if such a thing could actually happen � although I know stranger things have happened in New York City � and she may have lived in one of the areas were neighbors just don't really call the police on other neighbors. But it's strange that the landlord never kicked her out, and that the police never put together the fact that people around her were disappearing. So the main problem was realism.
I like how the diary was found in the end and we get a little bit of an independent reality check in the form of the nameless person who discovers it � we're not sure which one of Debbie's friends from the bar it was. But she described Abby is seen from the outside � and casts a different light on some of the scenes in the diary.
Overall this was really a powerful book � well written definitely, the story of a woman's full and complete insanity and the horrible consequences it has on the people around her.
My biggest problem with the book was that I wasn't sure if it was realistic � could one person in New York really get rid of so many people in her life and not get caught? All these bodies in her apartment � yes, it frequently talks about her boiling cinnamon and doing things other things to hide the smells, and all the different techniques she learned aboutto preserve the bodies, but you would have to think it would be quite a smell after a while. You just can't keep bodies in an apartment without stinking up the building. So I'm really unsure if such a thing could actually happen � although I know stranger things have happened in New York City � and she may have lived in one of the areas were neighbors just don't really call the police on other neighbors. But it's strange that the landlord never kicked her out, and that the police never put together the fact that people around her were disappearing. So the main problem was realism.
I like how the diary was found in the end and we get a little bit of an independent reality check in the form of the nameless person who discovers it � we're not sure which one of Debbie's friends from the bar it was. But she described Abby is seen from the outside � and casts a different light on some of the scenes in the diary.
Overall this was really a powerful book � well written definitely, the story of a woman's full and complete insanity and the horrible consequences it has on the people around her.
February 19, 2020
A excellent novel in a diary style. You see Abby slowly going insane as the days go on and her obsession with Jimmie growing everyday. I do wish the ending you figured out what happened to her after her journal was found though.
January 22, 2021
this book was a total trip, I had a couple of different ideas as to what the end result might be, I bounced back and forth between wondering if she was delusional or flipped out on drugs; very well written
April 29, 2013
Imagine the world of our earth cast forever into the shadow of night time sky, illuminated only by the moon and the stars and what Man had invented to light everything from cities to flashlights, but in this world no living creature was adversely affected. Birds still chirped in the morning, great forests flourished, every minute seemed like Saturday night, and Sephera Giron was basking in it all, maybe even queen of it. I think Sephera would be just fine with that scenario. Her life is one exquisite dark side. I’ve seen that in her personally, and, now that I’ve read her, (and for the purposes of this review did some homework on her), I’m even deeper of the opinion that Sephera is full of night, yet full of life, and full of ample creative productivity reflecting that. She has over a dozen published books, has spread her short works thick around the online and printed universe, is a favorite at genre literary cons enough so to be honored at them and a prominent headline. She’s a certified and recommended tarot counselor, goes by the name of Ariana when she does her readings, is learned in astrology and numerology, carries a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts. All that said and good and set aside, she is, in my overall opinion, a very literarily talented woman of the night.
Some women I’ve met and read and who had a bestseller or two under their belts can’t hold a candle in the dark world of Giron’s, and with Mistress of the Dark, this writer writes in a first-person narrative prose that actually dances poetically and descriptively. The character of Abigail as a lonely waitress, distraught with her loneliness and of her own self-image, amplifies into a mental and social vortex of lust and envy and the deaths of those around her, whose corpses she utilizes as furniture-like “works of art� collecting in her livingroom, very Gein-esque. Drag queens and chain saws and a lowly young woman just trying to make herself happy is what this book is about, baby.
And Sephera does a hell of a job bringing it all to life, under a canopy of dark.
Some women I’ve met and read and who had a bestseller or two under their belts can’t hold a candle in the dark world of Giron’s, and with Mistress of the Dark, this writer writes in a first-person narrative prose that actually dances poetically and descriptively. The character of Abigail as a lonely waitress, distraught with her loneliness and of her own self-image, amplifies into a mental and social vortex of lust and envy and the deaths of those around her, whose corpses she utilizes as furniture-like “works of art� collecting in her livingroom, very Gein-esque. Drag queens and chain saws and a lowly young woman just trying to make herself happy is what this book is about, baby.
And Sephera does a hell of a job bringing it all to life, under a canopy of dark.
September 7, 2016
This is a fun book. In fact it takes a while for you to realize it's a horror book. it's the story of a party girl who wishes she could be a little more pretty, lose some weight, get Lazik eye surgery. She has a huge crush on a Johnny Depp lookalike who comes into the restaurant where she works. It's cute at first, but then it becomes very stalker-ish. There's a drastic twist about 100 pages in that completely changes the tone. At first you're kind of surprised, but looking back you realize that the truth's been there all along. You just didn't notice. You'll slap your forehead over how Monica tricks you. There's a lot of nasty stuff in here (and a healthy helping of sex). By the end, this is not the book you began with. I love the afterword, which goes to show that the protagonist is not only good at fooling others but is also very good at fooling herself. The only thing is, the narrator isn't very focused. She wanders a lot. It's written as her diary, yes, I'm aware of that, but it bothers me. Also, I don't like dream sequences of any kind, especially if they're long. I'll let someone get away with it for maybe a paragraph, but not for pages on end. There were a lot of these in this book. Aside from that, this book is definitely worth the read.
January 27, 2009
I loved this book. The author did a wonderful job of integrating the reader with what the character was thinking. I was involved in the book the whole way through it. Not to mention, after reading about this lady...I feel VERY normal.
April 9, 2012
Creepiest book I have ever read
April 29, 2012
I read this in 2005, starting it on Christmas Ever. Couldn't put it down! Quite recommended!
August 28, 2015
super creepy
March 31, 2017
2.5 Not a terribly interesting book, the 1st 100 pages or so are just about the main character and her life (sex, drugs, work). Seems to take awhile to get to the point (that she is crazy). Also writing seemed a bit choppy at times (this is from the prospective of a personal journal, but still could have been cleaner separating dreams from reality as the character had difficulty with it.) Had some fun points though (with what she did with victims) and other things, but in the end not a very good read. Seems like the author had difficulty separating herself from the book to. You get an idea of what the author looks like, then look at her pic and was pretty close to what I thought.
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