When I Look At The Sky, All I See Are Stars by Steve Stred

Liis reviews When I Look At The Sky, All I See Are Stars, a horror novella by Steve Stred.

An ARC was received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2024 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Now We Are Free

Dr. Rachel Hoggendorf has seen it all. An accomplished psychiatrist, she’s always prided herself on connecting to the patients who’ve been brought to the facility, no matter how difficult or closed-off they are. That is, until David arrives.

At first, she listens to what David has to say. How he claims to be four-hundred-years-old and possessed by a demon. She diagnosis him as having multiple personalities and approaches his treatment as such.

But as their time together continues, David begins to share details he shouldn’t know and begins to lash out violently. When Rachel brings in her colleague Dr. Dravendash, David’s behavior escalates and it’s not long before they begin to wonder if David just might be telling the truth. That he’s possessed by a demonic presence… and it wants out.

A visceral, edge-of-your-seat novella, ‘When I Look to the Sky, All I see are Stars’ is everything you’d expect from 2X Splatterpunk-nominated author Steve Stred. Frantic pacing, hooves and horns and the growing dread that what lies beyond this plane is a land filled with ash and a place we never want to visit.

“Not many people know how to allow the power of the cosmos to enter and flow through their bodies. We learned at a young age. My dad was taught by a fella down the road. They played music together and drank moonshine and smoked until the sun came up.”

When I Look At The Sky, All I See Are Stars has a multitude of cool things to it. The title and book cover are top notch, and the reason this book caught my eye. The next cool thing hit me when I started reading – the Reader Beware page at the very start. That?! Ohhh. Check this out… this markets the book all on its own:

As you gathered from the blurb, we have David at a mental health facility where doctors are trying to determine his diagnosis to properly treat him. There are multiple interviews being conducted with him by doctor Rachel Hoggendorf, and when things get weird and the unbelievable is tabled at the facility’s board meeting (which includes a couple of priests) to discuss next steps for David, doctor Darryl Dravendash is tasked with working alongside Rachel.

Now, if someone told you they were possessed by a 400-year-old demon, you would have a hard time believing it. But if you did believe it, would *you* not think that this demon comes with some sort of perks? 400 years is a long time, and clearly, they have some powers if they’re actually hanging about in someone’s meatsack. I would expect a wealth of knowledge, a great source of wisdom, minds being blown at all the things we don’t know about the past and might get to know about the future.

Alas, in this book, the demon has hooves and it takes great joy in 2 things. Priest-killing and orgies.

So, yeah, it does not take long for things to get weird and chaotic. In fact, the book’s structure plays a big role in throwing the reader through loops.  Poor possessed David addresses the demon more than the doctors, and within each chapter, it takes a little second to know exactly who is talking. Weirdly, there weren’t like multiple POVs or anything but there were some timeline jumps and before/afters. I don’t mind the chaotic structure, personally. Sometimes it adds to the whole atmosphere of the book, as was also the case with When I Look At The Sky, All I See Are Stars.

I don’t know what I expected from this book based on the blurb, but I guess, in a sense, I can say I was surprised. I surely did not expect the full on satanic take to this story, definitely did not expect an entity with hooves, even though it’s promised in the blurb. If anything, I feel this novella is more of a tease. It’s a glimpse of a whole chonk of a horror story of cosmic powers and land of ash and orgies. As this title stands, it only scrapes the surface, yet it has left me with thoughts swirling in my head. I’m still thinking about it… It also remained unclear whether the characters are allowing the possession to happen (due to their ambitions) or whether they are taken against their will.

At 130 ebook pages, I feel like it didn’t get to the depths I would have liked – there’s so much potential to keep the doom and gloom going. So many avenues to explore. I would have loved more of the cosmic feel and motivations of the greater power. Does the story imply that everything beyond this life is shrouded in darkness? Does it suggest that even if we think some greater power will deliver greatness, there’s actually nothing once you step over a threshold.. Nothing else, but some ash, starry darkness, and deep orifice exploration? Essentially, though, I think the moral of the story is that if you want a lot, if your ambitions are great, you will likely sell your soul to the devil to get them, except in reality you end up losing it all. Bar the orgies. Yes, I keep coming back to the orgies. There are a few very graphic scenes occurred of all sorts of orifices being filled with genitalia. Sadly, I am beginning to think that sinful sexual acts are all that drive humanity forward and orgies will always be the endgame. You may make a pact with the devil to get rich and powerful, but the payment will always be in the naked. That’s all that the sins and ambitions boil down to. Sigh.

Generally, I prefer my horror to be slightly more personal, and I don’t mean orgies-personal. A bit of emotional foreplay, say, before the slashing and the bodily fluids start. I didn’t quite feel the presence of the characters as strongly – they were mostly just play-things here (which is sort of suitable as they are possessed, afterall). We simply didn’t have time or the page count to really get stuck into the nitty-grittys. But anyway, that’s okay, too. That may have been the goal here. Also, this is purely a personal preference. Some folks do not like the focus on the characters as much, they want the plot to deliver the oomph. I mean, with horror, who cares, most of them usually die anyway, right?!

The ending of this story can be translated into multiple meanings. But the general ‘after’ – who knows?! The opportunities are as many as there are stars in the sky, or grey flakes in the land of ash. It’s either the bleakest scenario, or the best outcome. Depending on the reader’s personal point of view on matters of religious, spiritual, and life experience. But boy, I sure do hope these real life interactions Stred made with people in the world of cults are okay.

Anyway, this is my first Steve Stred book, and I am curious for more. If you have read Steve Stred, do let me know which book of his I should read next!