I’d read the original version of this as a compilation and had rated it originally as 4 stars. And there’s stuff I can’t get out of my head, can’t un-read but maybe partly wish I could.Įighteen year old Danny sells himself to Peter Archer to repay his father’s gambling debts. There are twists I didn’t see coming, nuances I didn’t fully experience until I sat back and thought about what I’d just read. This is some sick and twisted stuff we have here… at times it made me feel dirty/wrong just reading it. Are you ready for that? Cuz if non-con and rape bother you, if you’re squeamish and or if horror keeps you up at night, then I’d say this may not be an anthology for you. Holy crap! I mean, seriously folks… this anthology is well-written, compelling, and it will mess with your head. Stealing Innocents is an exploration of our darkest human impulses, where sex is power, love is horror, and there’s no such thing as a happy ending. Or David, the cuckolded husband who decides the best way to get revenge is to seduce his wife’s barely legal son. Or Drew, the mental patient who begins to suspect his nightly delusions of abuse by his doctor are actually real. Or Troy, the cop whose obsession with saving a brutalized human trafficking victim turns deadly. Where you’ll find people like Danny, the boy who sells himself to pay for his father’s gambling debts and ends up in a situation more twisted than he ever imagined. I could have easily read it in one sitting, and even though I couldn't wait to get to the ending, I was saddened to let Daniel go.Those who dare to scratch the surface of ordinary, everyday life may be horrified to find a sick underbelly beneath-a nightmare world populated by villains and victims, predators and prey, where the rules of society no longer apply. Suffice to say, this was one fast hauntingly exciting ride. I should have known Archer had a more long-term plan, since he waited so long initially for Daniel. I was definitely not envisioning the ending happening as it did. I loved his inner dialog and struggles and really wanted to see him come out the other side of this in a good way. He tries to fight for so long to hold on to who he was so that he can reclaim that part of him when he leaves. Archer, but Danny/Daniel is the real star here. There are quite a few creepy characters here, aside from Mr.

It is the process that is, of course, questionable on so many levels. Archer forces Danny to be reborn, first as a child, then as an adult. Archer has other, much bigger, more devious plans.Įven though Danny's transformation occurs in an amazingly short time, nothing was ever really that unbelievable, and most even seemed quite plausible.

Danny accepts believing he can endure a month of basically being a whore. Wow, this little gem doesn't waste much time getting down to business!ĭanny is traded by his lowlife gambling addicted father in lieu of his latest $12,000 gambling debt.

Gamble Everything by Cari Waites