Abstract Reality

A Psychological Horror Novel

Rick Ironside, a young cop by profession and a heavy metal band member by passion, meanders down his own winding life path as he struggles to balance his social life on one hand and his private one on the other day in, day out. Scars left by a traumatic childhood and a broken family taint his view of inescapable social life, urging him to find solace in his own intimate reveries and in his sister. Ricks communal and professional life experiences speak for themselves, as if automated, while he strives to stay afloat and keep his instincts at bay. His inner struggles are given expression to through his own inner voice, taking shape as his intimate reveries that are at one and the same time an attempt to exorcise his own psychological demons as much as a signalling of a state of psychological deterioration, which, although being a mere internal whisper, howl fiercely in the readers ear. Things spiral out of control as Rick is suddenly summoned on to the scene of an ongoing crime. He is tossed into a living nightmare, where he is reunited with his sister, whose safety he takes upon himself to keep at all costs. Together, they must delve deeper into a darkly abysmal reality while reacquainting themselves with haunting memories from the past that manifest themselves as monstrosities. But whose is the other voice that appears in Ricks mind? Why is it vying with Rick in a struggle of wits? Can Rick stay sane and see himself and his sister out of this mess? Abstract Reality is an intimate story of a young man who toils with the different faces of his own reality as well as with the ghosts of his own past: a journey through the dark plains of the human psyche, weaving together memory and present external encounters and experiences into a dark veil that barely separates insanity from reality, if at all.