Kindle Price: $2.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Michael Reyes
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Black Veldt Kindle Edition

by Michael Reyes (Author), Don Noble (Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 74 ratings
See all formats and editions
Jose Carvel is a scumbag. But he wants to be a better person.

The degenerate writer and former ward of state is trying to recreate himself in the slums of the Lower
East Side, yet his past won’t stop haunting him.

Those violent memories of his dark nights on the road. The tormented faces of those he left
behind. The relentless nightmares of that ancient, demon- stalked veldt with its covenant of
blood and its master of shadow, dirt, and stars.

He must confront his own dark truth while exploring the depths of sexual depravity and obsession in
Fear City during its Summer of Sam.

Carvel must fight to save the woman he loves… While rescuing his own soul from the Black Veldt’s
vile kingdom.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    130 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2020
  5. Grade level
    12 and up
  6. File size
    2480 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Hard Rock apparel
Outerwear, tees, and accessories. Discover the rock shop.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B089MF3FS9
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2480 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 130 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 74 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Michael Reyes

Michael Reyes

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Michael Reyes is an author from Brooklyn living in the Bronx. He writes a dark urban fantasy series named Clock’s Watch.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
74 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Debra Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, dark and gritty story.
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book is very dark and gritty, which is what I was looking for. The prose is stream-of-consciousness style, and the writing pulls you into the story quite quickly. The descriptions are great, and the author has the groundwork of the story laid right off as he peppers in the mystery of Carvel's past. I have to say that was probably the biggest draw for me to keep reading until more of a mystery is introduced with the green-haired girl. Then the story really gets going.
The story is set in the 70s in New York, both a time period and place that I have no experience with, so I can't vouch for accuracy. There are some formatting errors, but not many grammatical errors, and I would say this book is worth reading, just for the prose alone. Reyes is fantastic at painting a picture, and there are some dream sequences that I really liked, but some not so much. I understand that Carvel is an unreliable narrator (like towards the first of the book), but some scenes later in the book required a reread to figure out what was going on, although I don't think the reader is supposed to understand everything.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
EyeDoc
4.0 out of 5 stars Horror in 70s NYC
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2023
Verified Purchase
Can’t say I really understand what went on but the story was dark and captured the grit and decay of NYC in the 70s. Confusing at times, but engaging and you keep reading, even though you’re not sure what’s going on. Gritty writing style.
Helpful
 Report
Pat Luther
5.0 out of 5 stars All about attitude and setting
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2023
Verified Purchase
At first the writing seems a bit over-wrought, going overboard with fanciful imagery. Getting into it, though, it has purpose and the juxtaposition with dreamscape and "real" scenes is well done.
The imagery is spectacular, and the attitude of the main character is something that draws you in and makes you feel as he feels. Eventually, you realize there is a plot and a story here, but really it's the feeling of the setting(s) that kept me turning the pages. I don't know how to even describe it really, but it was well worth the time spent in that world.
Helpful
 Report
Bradley Blankenship
4.0 out of 5 stars Like Lovecraft Meets a Bad Kurt Vonnegut Trip
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
As a horror and thriller enthusiast with a love of the supernatural and abominable, this appeared at first glance to be something I'd enjoy.

What Worked for Me: The novel does a good job setting up its premise - a horror story following Jose Carvel through his later mid 1900s life in NYC. As we experience his dreams in a pseudo-third-person dreamscape pace, we start to understand there's more lurking just outside our view from his perspective. As the shadows around the neighborhood and himself extend, his meeting with first Desiree and Jakova culminate in a dark spiral where reality and nightmare meet. For me, this is abominable horror at its best where we are always guessing just what is real and what isn't. The universe keeps showing us something more pulling strings, but it's all kept just out of view (until near the climax, anyway). Overall the pacing, the tone of a narrative, descriptions of the setting, etc. make this little story stand out. In many ways, the story reminds me of older writer friends and their stories of the 60s, 70s, and 80s: traveling to write, hooking up with bands, and diving into drugs and depravity. Behind it all, the mythos surrounding the happenings, its elusive nature (is it the Demiurge, ancient native American feral spirits, or something more monstrous?) help build up the final moments. However, that's where my praise stops.

What Didn't Work For Me: The dreamscape scenes, while I appreciate them, are a bit of a mess structurally. Sometimes they flow in a standard surreal way. Other times they try to comingle the prose of the first person scenes with Carvel, which can be a bit thick to read through. Also, at about the two thirds (or 3/4s?) waypoint, the familiar first-person scenes get a bit messy. I know why this occurs in the plot, but it makes what should be more dramatic or at least enrapturing a bit of slog going into the climax. While the ending itself is interesting, there is a sense of pretension never alluded to in the rest of the story. It all fits well in the end, but I wish we had a bit more about this "cycle" the character is experiencing. It reminds me of Sam Niel's character John Trent from "In the Mouth of Madness" and the loop he gets stuck in with the monsters coming through the writer's story.

The Gist of It: Overall, Black Veldt is a pretty neat little abominable horror thriller that does an excellent job with its first-person and surreal perspectives, characterizations, setting, and overall plot. It incorporates some fun mythos into its surreal devolution into madness, elevating it above standard horror pulp. If the last third (or fourth?) and climax were a bit tighter, this would be a 5/5 for me.

==============================================================================================================
= SPOILERS BE HERE
==============================================================================================================

I said this above, but at 2/3s (3/4s?) through the story, the book loses a lot of momentum and becomes a mild slog. After sleeping with the love of his life (and potential spiritual twin) Jakova in a bout of hypersexual mashing surrounded by shadows and the abysmal dark, Carvel ends up deciding he is in love. Until she calls him back, he's going to shoot heroin. He was never a shooter before, but after snorting heroin with his supplier Juju, this has become a thing. Why does he do this? Cause it's the only thing that makes him feel like Jakova does.

For the rest of the book, through the ending, we spend time following this drugged-out malaised character through scene after scene that devolves into something more and more surreal. So I get it. The point is to make the lines between reality more blurred while the world falls apart around Carvel. It makes it harder to understand what is real and what's not as the book builds towards the Demiurge cult. The various events that occur become more and more questionable. Everything from hanging with CC, the altercation between Glen / Carvel / shadow hyena monsters, the meeting with Remus, and the eventual climax where Carvel saves himself (and maybe Jakova's soul) only to revisit the beginning... yes, we're left wondering what is happening. I get all of that.

Where this fails for me is we already had an unreliable narrator. We also had some solid abominable spiritual horror building up. Likewise, this sudden turn to a very different drug from his cocaine because "it makes him feel like being with Jakova" is odd, given the way he was with her is nothing like how he is on heroin. So, there's a bit of a disconnect. If anything, I would expect him to sink into further depravity, seeking out activities and partners that would bring those shadows out to emulate the experience while thinking about her. And when it's not her, sink into further depression and a new low while he waits for her. This would allow the author to show us how the world around them is disintegrating: watching as the murders, violence, and overall devolution surrounding Carvel infest everything else around him.

The other issue is how much of a slog this becomes. There are some interesting bits like the confrontation with Glen, his outing with CC, and small altercation with Desiree... but the rest is just this solitary myopic, almost whiny display that comes from our main character. For someone who has overcome a ton of personal tragedy and darkness in a very outward way (and expresses his inner evil, well, violently or with depravity), this doesn't make a ton of sense to me. To me, I would have gotten almost as much out of it if we jumped straight to the meeting with Remus then climax instead of the middle parts. I probably would find the story rushed then, but emotionally, that's how it felt.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Alan Taylor
4.0 out of 5 stars The Black Veldt
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2022
Verified Purchase
Really enjoyed this trip through a seedy 70s New York. Reminded me a little at times of Clive Barker. One of those where I finished and instantly hoped for more, hopefully the author constructs more novels around the ideas he has created in this book. I would definitely read more.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report