Psychological Thriller
Date Published: 03/25/2024
Publisher: Great Whale Books
The wedding was weeks away for two young lovers, who had counted themselves
lucky to have found one another. Then, it was over, as one of them abruptly
disappeared. Audrey was not abducted. Not exactly. She was not taken against
her will. Rather, her will itself had been taken. Coerced and controlled.
Deceived and derailed. Matthias cannot walk away from the catastrophe,
though he has nothing to go on, and is in the dark beyond all personal
darkness he has ever known . . .
The Contraption is a novel that deals with the challenges faced by a woman
who has been recruited into a dangerous, coercive religious cult. Her
fiancé is left not knowing even where she is. Her name has been
changed and she has been relocated to another state. The cult, Church of the
Mountain of Radiance, is an all-controlling psychological prison.
Excerpt
“Have
you ever wondered what was special about all the great geniuses and
special people of history? Was it genetics? No. They were simply able
to align their minds with the great field of Spherules, and
transition off into eternities of infinite radiance! Only with the
emergence of the Beneficence, Earnest Seamark, fifty years ago, was
there a real hope for the average person to align, and ascend. Why do
you think we even have a consciousness, anyway?”
As
unexpected and unreal as this shpiel was, there was something about
the women themselves, especially the one who seemed to be in the
lead. She believed it. The others did, too. And Audrey had not ever
seen anything like their belief. Nor had she ever felt the warmth and
depth of love these strangers had for her. So, what was the reality
that drove their belief?
Standing
alone with them in the empty park in muted morning light, a moment of
the surreal took shape. It felt and looked like a scene from an old
black-and-white arthouse movie.
Did
Audrey want to try to align her mind with the boundless sea of the
spheres?
Audrey
did.
Sheer
curiosity, as much as anything, launched her into what became
multiple hours of subtle head movements. Mostly it was with eyes
closed, sometimes facing the sun, other times face down. Alignment
could be a matter of microns. The pineal gland behind the forehead
and the medulla at the base of the brain stem had to form an
equilateral triangle with one single Spherule in the array. Feel your
way. The conjunction had to hold long enough that her consciousness
recognized what was happening.
The
tiny spheres could vary in size or spacing depending on location, and
some other conditions, but on that morning, at that place, things
were said to be especially promising. One of the ladies quickly
aligned, and cooed and sang about the loveliness of it. Two of them
eventually were in, but the third was dedicated to helping Audrey.
It
was fatiguing beyond words, the precise positioning of her head. At
more than one point she was sure she would fall over, or scream out –
What in hell was this all about?! They kept talking to her, trying to
help her find “it.”
She
thought she saw a fuzzy, indistinct blob or ball in her mind’s eye.
“I
think … I see something,” she said.
“Is
it perfectly spherical?!” the leading lady wanted to know.
“It
was. I don’t really see it anymore,” Audrey said.
“You
were almost there,” she informed her . . .
.
. . They had told her she would easily be able to deal with her
various responsibilities while she studied Ascendant Scripture. They
spoke of how she and Matthias should get married at a Mountain of
Radiance center. But for now, she had to keep it all entirely quiet.
She was so new to the understanding of MOR that she was not
authorized to speak about it to others just yet. There could be some
legal issues involved with doing so, too. Intellectual property and
copyright considerations, they said. She didn’t understand what
that could be. But anyway, just for the time being, they said, it was
imperative to keep all of this to yourself.
She
recalled having every intention of continuing on with her past
affiliations. All of them. The marriage was still on. It had been a
few days since she had spoken to Matt. But she had to get things all
straightened out regarding the new paradigm of reality that had hit
her like a floodlight in the face. After she came to a proper place
to pause in her scriptural studies, she had planned on picking right
back up with everyone. She had to have things together in her head so
that she had something cogent, or at least coherent, to say to Matt
and the family.
That
had been the plan. But after myriad on-line study modules, all-day
seminars at a hotel, the Spherule alignments, the group outreach
sessions to higher-order sentient forms, and the three-day formal
Adherency Inception ceremony in her white-draped bedroom, her
previous life was finished. All of that was dead. True life, life in
the light, began in a very big way.
Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors
Ornery Owl's Review
Rating: Four out of Five Stars
This story has a fascinating premise that kept me hooked from the first line, but the execution needs work. The narrative sometimes borders on melodramatic and can be hard to follow, such as when Matthias' focus shifts between past and present.
I remained interested in finding out whether Matthias could save Audrey from the cult that had brainwashed her. It might seem implausible that such a bunch of over-the-top weirdos could fool anyone, but they have a sinister secret making mind control easy.
Overall, The Contraption is a cool psychological thriller that could use a little tune-up to improve its performance.
About the Author
The author, Barton A. Stewart, is a long time student of the cult
phenomenon, and literary fiction. The Contraption marries together his two
long time interests. Stewart has lived all over the United States, is
presently single, and currently calls Metro Boston home. His book will be
among the most realistic fictional depictions of the kinds of things that
can happen in cases like this. Avoiding the sensationalism of so many novels
on this subject, Stewart offers a look into another world, which
unfortunately exists in the here and now.
Contact Links
Website
Twitter: @BartStewart1
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