Merry Christmas!

It may be messy, but it's a mess filled with love.  Merry Christmas to you and yours.  There's more than enough time horror.  Today, it's all about happiness!

Book Review: The Writhing Skies by Betty Rocksteady

The Writhing Skies by Betty Rocksteady




I fell in love with Betty Rocksteady's writing when I read her novella, "Like Jagged Teeth." It was a totally different take on haunted houses and loved ones returning from the dead. Rocksteady has totally out done herself with her newest short work, "The Writhing Skies." From start to finish, this novella is filled with dark and disturbing imagery that stays with you even after you have put the story away. The skies are black and filled with writhing, tentacled beasts. Horrific fireflies come by the thousands, filling all of the holes a human has to violate. Creatures wearing living cloaks stalk the streets looking for a sacrifice to offer a giant mouth in the sky. Sarah, the protagonist of the story, is a sympathetic character who undergoes a series of violations by these monstrous beasts. All of these pale in comparison to the terrible abuse she suffered at the hands of her boyfriend, Derek. Derek is a gaslighting, emotional and physically abusive sociopath. He cares only for his well being and will do anything to make sure he is not inconvenienced by anyone or anything.

If you like your horror darker than dark and aren't triggered by transgressive fiction, this is the perfect read for you.



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Book Review: Oak Avenue by Brandi Reeds.

Oak Avenue by Brandi Reeds

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Doors Are Not Scary...

Remember when Monty Python released their "Contractual Obligation" Album back in 1980? No? Well, it was nearly 40 years ago, so bear with me. No one in Python really wanted to do another record, but they were required to do so under a contract with Chrysalis Records. "Oak Avenue" feels like it was something Ms. Reeds was either required to do or was something she promised to do and then forgot about until a day before the due date. While Monty Python's release was brilliant, Reeds' is dull and lazy. There are no original characters or ideas here. From the dream home that turns into a nightmare to the curmudgeonly old person who comes through in the end, it's all been written before and written better. Here's some real world advice, if you did up a haunted door that turns your partner into a violent raging alcoholic overnight, don't just put it back in the hole again. Look. It's a door. It's wooden (like the book's dialogue.) Chop the thing up and burn it. Feed it through a wood chipper like it's Steve Buscemi in Fargo. This is a very uninspired tale. I read it via Amazon Prime so at least the price was right.



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Book Review: Unbortion by Rowland Bercy, Jr.

UNBORTION by Rowland Bercy Jr.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In the hands of Troma, a story about an aborted fetus that murders hobos and kills a pack of raccoons on its way back to its mother could be hysterical. Unfortunately, Bercy is so heavy handed when it comes to his opinion on abortion, it distracts from the story and a toil out of finishing the story. The mother is frequently referred to as a monster who decided to abort over a misunderstanding with the father. The doctor who performed the abortion is portrayed as a morally bankrupt man who sleeps with his nurses and laughs about dumping the fetuses in the trash. Bercy needs to develop a deft hand and learn to tell a story without clubbing the reader with his personal beliefs. That said, I will check out future releases from Bercy because I definitely do see a potential for awesome splatter/gore/horror/bizarro works to come.



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Book Review: Death Dance in the Woods by Jeff O'Brien

Death Dance in the Woods by Jeff O'Brien

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Candy is a gorgeous Goth/Death Metal stripper who flees from her horribly abusive boyfriend in the wee hours of the morning. Kendall is a former death metal grunter who gave up the rock and roll lifestyle to become an accountant. One day, Kendall loses his job and decides to take a road trip. In what seems to be a coincidence, Candy and Kendall wind up at the same seedy motel in a backwoods Massachusetts town and end up having lots of sex in between some seriously creepy events in the town. This story is funny, scary, and sexy all at once and deserves to be read by as many people as possible.



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Book Review: Snuff Film by Tim Miller

Snuff Film by Tim Miller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this corner, we have Justin, an out-of-work actor who is recognized for his role in a god-awful sing and dance cop show that bombed and wrecked his career. This show was so bad that total strangers will spit on Justin when they see him. At the moment Justin hits his lowest point ever, he gets a job offer from a producer who specializes in "underground" pornography. Justin dons a leather mask, becomes "Razer[sic]," and murders women on camera. Justin starts making and amazing amount of money, but becomes addicted to the Razer personality.

In this corner, we have Destiny, an actress who just can't get her break. She is an attractive, large-chested blonde who doesn't stand out among all of the other attractive, large-chested blondes in Hollywood. Destiny starts working in softcore doing fully clothed girl on girl girl on girl films. She then graduates to harder and more bizarre films. During the making of one of these features, Destiny mutilates of the other performs because she feared for her life. Destiny is subdued and delivered onset to Justin for him to kill on camera.

I will leave what happens next for you to read. While this may sound like it was inspired by A Serbian Film, it goes far beyond the horrors portrayed in that film. It contains scenes of extreme violence that hand around in your mind days after you have finished reading. While it may seem impossible, the story is not without its humor. The whole "Cop Rock" scenario and a particularly mind-melting group sex scene involving Destiny, a little person, a senior citizen, and a 500+ pound man both hit the funny bone while Razer hits the rib cage and all major organs.



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Book Review: Gods of the Dark Web by Lucas Mangum

Gods of the Dark Web by Lucas Mangum

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There are so many good things to say about "Gods of the Dark Web" that I hope I can cover them all in this review. This is Lucas Mangum's first release on Deadite Press and earns him is spot among contemporaries like Brian Keene and Ed Lee. The story moves along a breakneck pace that starts from the first age and never stops until the brutal last page. I love the idea that ancient gods have found physical form among outdated computer and networking equipment and that they have a cult of followers who use the dark web to track and capture people to use as sacrifices. GOTDW is narrative driven, the characters exist to either be horrible people or have horrible things happen to them. Sometimes both. There are many horrors within the book's scant 93 pages, most of which are far to explicit to describe in a review. There's disembowelings, infanticide, cannibalism, golden showers, and sexual degradation packed into nearly every page. Mangum's descriptive powers are as strong as his imagination and take the reader deep into a world so horrifying that you want to put down the book, but can't because it's so good.

I'd really love seeing this story eventually fleshed out into a longer work. An extra 50-100 pages could easily bring the characters more life and give them a more detailed back story and, of course, many more gruesome delights to shock and scare. GOTDW is a must read for fans of cosmic and extreme horror.



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Book Review: Butt Stuff by Jeff O'Brien

Butt Stuff by Jeff O'Brien

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Jeff O'Brien is such a national treasure that Nicholas Cage regularly shows up at his place of work and tries to save him from being stolen by Sean Bean. O'Brien usually writes tales about large breasted reanimated corpses, barbarians, and goth girls who can hide large object in small orifices. Butt Stuff is much different. These short stories are still weird, bizarre, and laugh out loud funny but contain themes such as alien butt probing, obscure VHS pornography, trickster glory holes, and an alternate reality where The New Radicals were more than just a one-hit wonder. This new direction for Jeff O'Brien seems to suit him just fine. I'm looking forward to more.



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Book Review: If You Died Tomorrow I would Eat Your Corpse by Wrath James White

If You Died Tomorrow I Would Eat Your Corpse by Wrath James White

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Many of the poems in "If You Died Tomorrow I would Eat Your Corpse" are confessions of love by Wrath James White to his wife. But this is Wrath James White and these are no normal love poems. Each page is filled with vivid descriptions of explicit sex and consensual violence. Flesh is bruised, blood is spilled, tears are shed. White rounds out his collection with two short stories, one untitled and one called "Her Nightmare," which is my favorite entry out of all of the excellent entries. The story is about a woman named Sheila who made a dark deal with a nasty demon so she would never have disappointing sex again. When the demon comes to collect his final debt, it is a gloriously bloody ending to, well, one of the worst mothers in history. If you like extreme horror and violent sex, this will probably be right up your alley.



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Book Review: He Digs A Hole by Danger Slater

He Digs a Hole by Danger Slater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Harrison Moss is having one helluva mid-life crisis. He chops off his hands, replaces then with gardening tools, and begins digging a hole in his backyard. A really big hole. A hole so big and so deep that eventually Harrison, his long-suffering wife Tabitha, their house, and their entire neighborhood are swallowed up when the hole gives way to a horrifying underworld where the bugs are the humans. They go through all the motions humans do. They go to work, they live in houses, they party in clubs. They don't know why they do it. They just do it, because it is the routine, and routine is law. This is one of the many metaphors Slater uses to point out the horrible boredom of everyday life and almost everyone is willing to settle because it seems to be the thing everyone else is doing. "He Digs A Hole" is beautifully written and Slater's creative use of the narrator makes it a lot of fun to read.



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Book Review: Help Me Find My Car Keys and We Can Drive Out! by Jon Konrath.

Help Me Find My Car Keys And We Can Drive Out! by Jon Konrath

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Jon Konrath writes stories for morbidly obese Nyquil addicts who like to pleasure themselves with Minions "massagers" while eating Lunchables. i am one of those people, so I liked it a lot.



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