I read this novella for the indie novella competition, SFINCS. The following review is my own personal opinion as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole. Find out more about the competition here and my team, The WIPs, here!
The Devil Owns Primetime by Sirius is a discomforting, visceral queer horror, a nightmare of a story that strongly advises you to stay away from making deals with the devil, although we should really know by now, shouldn’t we? The novella focuses on the character of Reverend Josiah Tucker, who is a rich televangelist, a popular face in both his megachurch and on the TV screen preaching the word of the Lord with fervor. Of course, things are rarely what they seem, and we can quickly get acquainted with the true charater of Josiah as he finally faces the consequences of the secret he’s been keeping for years. Because the devil is back for him, herding Josiah towards his unavoidable fate in return of the money and success he’s been given.
Reading Josiah’s story was an intense and uncomfortable experience. He is not a nice or kind man, quite narcissistic, in fact, and the way he uses and disregards people is often despicable. At the same time, it was really hard for me to truly hate him or cheer for his demise. He is a character of contradictions. On one hand, he is the perfect example of your typical greedy, hypocritical preacher personality who is only holy on the podium, spouting nonsense that causes real damage in the world, while being someone he might define as a sinner in life. Just a worst kind of stuff that organized religion can obscure, a cynical, cruel profiteer with a penchant for overindulgence and hiding his emotions, unable to be vulnerable not just with his boyfriend but even himself. On the other hand, behind all this, he is also a wounded person who I kinda imagine maybe hadn’t even been that opposed to God and his commandments once upon a time, and only wanted to be seen and recognized. Case in point, he is a trans man who could only transition using the money he’d gotten through his Faustian deal, and this is a strong drive which I cannot at all condemn. But hiding his sexuality, identity, his true self is still a part of his life as this successful preacher which, I felt like, caused an irreversible twisting of what remains of any goodwill or hope inside him. And as we watch him interact with side characters, such as disregard his hurt, depressed boyfriend or use his young, attractive assistant as a cover but also for his satisfaction, right from the start, we understand there won’t be a happy ending here. Josiah tries to go about his life as always, but the devil is calling out for him, through technology, through shady bartenders in even shadier bars, to pay his debt in a peculiar and devastating manner, and the trainwreck doesn’t stop until it rushes into a quite upsetting ending.
The prose is excellent, both regarding characterisation (mostly of Josiah, but I also got a strong picture of the boyfriend, and, unfortunately, the devil himself) and description of messy, depressing, terrifying, and truly violent events, creating a peculiar atmosphere that gripped me and didn’t let go until the end. The novella sets out to do something, and it has every tool in its repertoir to accomplish it. You will probably know right from the first scene whether it is your thing, and it only becomes weirder and darker from there. Towards the ending, I felt like it was maybe a tad too much (definitely for my taste, but perhaps even considering its promise), just an unrelenting siege of horror and sexual violence, however, again, that is what it sets out to do, and it will damn well do it.
I recommend this well-written, dreadful novella to lovers of queer and religious horror, and devil- and devilish man-enjoyers who do not balk at graphic scenes and love some complex characterization.
Helyna L. Clove 
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