Never on These Shores

by: Stephen R. Pastore

Published by: Cohort Press

Reviewed by Jamie Driggers

In this alternate history of WWII, the Axis is invading the continental United States. Japan has invaded the West Coast, Germany has attacked through their new ally, Mexico, and is marching north through Texas, and Italy is invading the Florida coastline. While the United States military is tied up in the warring continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, the homeland is left to be defended by the old men, women, children, and the homosexuals declared unfit for service.

Though this book has an interesting premise-what would happen had WWII taken place on our shores-I have no idea what the author was trying to do. If he was attempting to show the depravity of the human condition, he succeeded. If he was trying to show the resiliency of the American spirit, I feel he failed. I don't think anyone could read this book purely for entertainment. There is nothing entertaining in reading a vivid description of sexual molestation. That only leaves me to believe this book to be a warning of how low we humans can sink.

I have read and enjoyed alternate histories of WWII so it isn't the genre that got to me. It was the sheer multitude of gore. I kept pressing on in hopes that he would pull it all together in a cohesive whole and give meaning to all the atrocities he so vividly described, but instead it ended abruptly with a lot of loose ends. The inspiring Roosevelt speech that gave the "American Spirit" came too little, too late.

Gentle readers will want nothing to do with this book, and for those of us who have become accustomed to a little more ick factor in our reading, you'll cringe, too. I'm sure there will be fans, it just isn't me.

Armchair Interviews says: Heed the reviewer's words to determine if this is for you.