J.G. Faherty ‘The Cure’ Review

Written by: Lou Rera

J.G. Faherty’s, The Cure, is a terrifically written novel in the truest sense of the word horror. I think of it as a wild elevator ride where every floor is a new level within the story, and when the door opens on some of those levels, I wanted to peek my head out of the door, have a quick look, shut it, and get the hell away from there.

The Cure takes you in directions that are unexpected and masterfully realized from Faherty’s imagination. Dr. Leah DeGarmo, a dedicated veterinarian with a true love of animals, and her soon to be love interest, John Carrera, a police officer, meet during a botched robbery in a fast food restaurant. Bullet’s fly and the end result is tragic. But keeping with the novel’s title, Dr. DeGarmo has a special power, The Cure, and through this power, she is able to shift the hand of fate in other directions.

But like any human with extraordinary powers, (supernatural or otherwise) dark forces swoop in and try to capitalize on those special abilities. And that’s a nice way to put it. Tal Nova, a henchman for the head of a corporation with worldwide influence and power, makes it his mission to make Leah DeGarmo’s life miserable. He is an amoral character hellbent on getting what his superiors want, but also looking to find a way to serve his own greedy agenda. This is where all the fun starts. Faherty takes The Cure in directions that are pure evolutionary evil. DeGarmo’s powers are to be feared on a scale of Clive Barker’s cube in Hellraiser. Once you are able to open certain doors, there is no way to turn back, and the horrors that await you are described with the hot breath of a hideous creation of something so intense that John Carrera, the only person Leah DeGaramo can trust, doubts his loyalty and love for her.

The ride isn’t without a few over-the-top flaws. There are too many “bad guys” vying for the control of Leah DeGarmo’s powers. It’s the usual assortment of thugs, and rival gangs, corporate greed mongers and of course, a dark ops government entity looking for a new and improved way of killing for their soldiers. At one point, the mayhem in the dark corridors of one of the gang’s detention centers was a killing fest with more bodies than I could count. I think at this point Faherty could have pulled back on the forces working against DeGarmo. It was clear she needed to leave town.

But that aside, it’s a wild read with many unexpected turns. Faherty’s got a flair for this stuff as evidenced by his vast output of short stories and novels. Anyone who can write lines like, “It was napalm igniting in his veins, hammers pounding his bones, giant hands twisting each of his organs.” has got the stuff needed to craft a good horror novel. J.G. Faherty’s, The Cure, is worth the read. For readers with pets, you’ll think twice before you shake hands with your favorite veterinarian, no matter how well they treated whatever you’ve named “Fluffy.”

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Rating: 4/5