Alternate or rewritten history is one of the many sub-genres of speculative fiction. Like Peter Hitchen's fictitious obituary that has Kennedy surviving his bullet and dying in obscurity in his seventies, alternate histories say not what is but what would be if...

Dante and Hayley's story is not exactly a "counterfactual"--it's more of a countermyth. Sheri Gilmore speculates what would happen if the fallen angel were granted another chance. First there is Jay who escorts his friend Haley to a club called House of Purgatory where nothing is as it seems. Jay finds a version of his secretmost fantasy, but what Hayley finds is the keeper of Purgatory--and her own ancient soul. Then there is the enigma of Samael/Dis.

This story is a mélange of overlaid interwoven mythological and biblical characters and stories twisted with that little "what if." Hot House: Dante & Hayley is a battle between good and evil, between heaven and hell, between human and demon, faithful and unfaithful, the Creator and the Ancient gods, and the crux of it all centers in the ancient split soul of Hayley.

Gilmore illustrates a very ambitious dark (nonreligious) fantasy view of a shake up of Dante's Inferno. Just the list of some of the players gives one pause: Zeus, Hades, Dante, Lilith, Samael, Michael, Charon. It all comes down to old souls divided; and when they fall, the question is if they fall on the side of good or evil. In Dante's case, does his inner beast win Lilith, or will his better soul save the innocent Haley? This is a well conceived erotic paranormal, a duality of (to borrow a phrase from the Ghostbusters movie) biblical proportions with developed characters dealing with anxiety and distress, salvation and sexual rebirth and ultimately tackling the issue of the redemptive power of love. Be prepared for BDSM, voyeurism, multiple personalities.. A dark vision of a very graphic and sexual purgatory. First in the Hot House series, a Eppie Finalist.

Reviewer: Maîtresse
© 2006