Curtis M. Lawson
Weird House Press
2024

The body. What a terrible phrase. Say it aloud. Let it roll off your lips. Are there any two words so macabre when placed beside each other?

  • The charmed life of aging rock star Nathan Pharaoh comes to a screeching halt when his wife and daughter meet violent deaths. Unsure of how to cope with this immense tragedy, Nathan embarks on a road trip down Route 50, “the loneliest road in America”. As Nathan grapples with grief, anger, and survivor’s guilt, he is haunted by a demonic figure responsible for the death of his family. The monster is hungry for Nathan’s soul, urging him toard oblivion. Nathan is not alone, however. On his voyage he comes across old friends and older gods, each guiding him toward life and rebirth. Will Nathan Pharaoh make it across Route 50, or will he be dragged into the underworld for all eternity?

It’s been nearly a couple of years, now, when my friend, cohort, and partner in podcasting Delphine talked me into purchasing and reading the novel Black Hearts Boys Choir, in order to not only do a review, but also interview the author–Curtis M. Lawson–for my podcast. Which was odd enough by itself: this was the Movies+Beer=Podcast, and I generally talked about…well, movies. And this wasn’t the only book Del discussed with me on the show. Regardless, the book grabbed my attention by how it was written, and the interview was awesome, so yadda yadda yadda, here we are, doing a written review of his latest (at the time of this writing) novella, Couch Surfing Through the 12 Chambers of Hell.

Released earlier in March in the year of our Lord 2024, through Weird House Press, Couch Surfing Through the 12 Chambers of Hell tell the tale of Nathan Pharaoh, a famous rock star guitarist who has suffered one of the biggest tragedies to befall anyone. After an open mic night at a dive bar, what follows is a year-long odyssey across America on Route 50…well, it’s all up top, in the book blurb on the back that I cribbed for this review. It’s one of the times where the descript is pretty spot-on, without needing any embellishment from yours truly.

As far as my thoughts on this goes, Couch Surfing Through the 12 Chambers of Hell, at 102 pages, went at a rather quick pace. It’s a very lean and powerful story, managing to convey the heartache, loneliness and sense of nihilistic self-loathing that the main character is feeling. All the while, the whole thing plays out like a never-ending fever-enduced nightmare, never knowing if what he’s experiencing is real, or just his drug-addled hallucinations, cuminating in one of the more satisfying redemption arcs I’ve read so far.

One of my favorite parts of this story happens early on: he stops by his father’s house on Halloween, and shares a heart-warming reunion with not only him but those he was never there for, only to have the whole thing kick you in the gut pretty hard by the end of the chapter. Second favorite? The last chapter. I’ll let you read it yourself to see why.

Overall: Couch Surfing Through the 12 Chambers of Hell, though brief, was still quite satisfying. The story was like a mixture of Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker, deftly weaving a yarn that is dark yet fascinating, utilizing Egyptian mythology with the dark fantasy/horror elements. I highly recommend this.