This book provided the title for a Luke Haines B-side, so I thought I'd be better off reading it than not. Actually, it's an entertaining romp through the fag end of counter culture with loads of drugs, sex and satanism which is by turn both horrifying and hilarious.Irwin has drilled down on the dysfunctions of the hippy dream and examined the darker side of the late 60's. In real life this was played out via the brutality at Altamont and the Manson family murders, but in this novel we follow the bizarre rituals of a group of London satanists whom the narrator is seeking to become a part of.The novel continually cites influential figures in the history of English esoteric mysticism. Aleister Crowley, Dennis Wheatley and Kenneth Anger are referred to several times and there are mentions of some classic late 60's rock 'n' roll. The funnier side of the book revolves around one main joke. Counterculture on it's loonier fringes was superstition heavy and generally somewhat embarrassing. We are dealing with a group of people who are vulnerable and deluded enough to believe that most of the things that happen to them are part of some bigger 'plan' laid down by esoteric beings.On the darker side, the book highlights how group situations can provide a good setting for individuals to brainwash and manipulate others into believing far fetched ideas and performing acts that would have previously been unthinkable.Overall, a good read if you're interested in the 60's and the reasons why counterculture did not really foster any real political change in the world.
What a twist at the end!What a complete and utter shock!How incredibly perfectly timed, though.I found the beginning and the middle of this book pulling me on the inside.On the one hand I found it tedious, uninteresting, the characters were being manipulated and lacked so called ambition in life. I'm not that into the occult or any kinds of cults or, well, any kind of group activity really, to be interested in reading about people getting together and enjoying all the togetherness.On the other hand all of the characters provoked some kind of feeling in me, all the events were interesting even if I wouldn't care for them in my own life, the occult and cult and togetherness was on some level waking a kind of a beast in me.If it hadn't been for the ending, I probably would have slided right into the arms of my first, initial feelings. Thanks to the brilliant story-telling of Irwin though, who I'm happy didn't let me down, I ended up surprising myself by letting my inner beast break free and run wild.
What do You think about Satan Wants Me (2015)?
"Satan Wants Me" is a novel in the form of a diary. A Sociology grad student, Peter, is forced to keep the diary as he is initiated into a group occultists in 1967 London. Lots of drugs, sex and black magic. This was an interesting period, the late '60s, when psychedelia and the occult were at their peak. People were inspired to push their minds to the furthest extremes. Immortality on the astral plane really seemed possible. This book isn't a horror novel, but an attempt to recreate that zeitgeist. Even as Peter's rituals apparently work, he is obviously most unreliable. His drug intake is huge, and his milieu is so far removed from normal that everything he records in his diary is suspect, considering his altered mental status and his arrogance. Peter can be an asshole. There are fantastic descriptions of rituals, the plot is interesting if a little too convoluted. I recommend this hard-to-find book. I don't know any others quite like it. The closest thing I can think of is the film Simon King of the Witches.
—David Jordan
