Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Full Brutal is Splatterpunk gold. It delivered exactly what it intended. There are no limits in this story. Nothing is out of bounds. I have never curled my toes so tightly and had my stomach churn so violently whilst reading.
It left me utterly disturbed and speechless. Frankly, I loved every freaking minute of it.
This story follows high school Junior, Kim White, who is beautiful, smart, popular and the star of the cheer squad. Girls want to be her and everyone wants to be with her. She has the world in the palm of her hand.
But Kim is bored by it all. The whole high school experience. Even her best friend, Amy, has become practically unbearable. Kim’s not sure how much more she can take. What even is the point?
Trying to figure out a way to change her life, shake up her boring existence, Kim decides to lose her virginity. She’s heard that’s a life-changing experience, so it’s worth a shot.
Not just any boy will do though. High school boys disgust Kim. She needs something more enticing; a little more taboo. Seducing one of her teachers should do the trick. Then she can use it against him and ruin his life, bonus.
This is perfect. This is going to be fun. Life is good.
The power Kim feels seducing this man is like nothing she has ever felt before. She is in complete control and loves watching him squirm.
Unfortunately, things don’t go entirely to plan and Kim ends up pregnant. The entire episode has certainly changed Kim’s life, but not necessarily in the way she imagined. She’s now on a fast-track to complete madness and debauchery. There’s no turning back.
This story pulled me in so quickly. I thought the writing was excellent. Oftentimes when things get super gory, you have moments when you’re rolling your eyes, thinking, that’s how they decided to write that? I never felt that during this story.
Triana’s descriptions of gore, torture, fetish acts, were some of the most gruesome, gag-worthy descriptions that I have ever read. OMG, what did I just READ!?
The thing that was so great about this though, is it’s such a fluid story. The plot is cohesive and the pace, as well as the intensity somehow continue to build throughout until the absolute vomit-inducing end.
It’s twisted, deranged and I enjoyed how it sort of flipped the script on the sex-violence connection. After Kim discovers her attraction to torture porn, her imagination runs wild and she’ll stop at nothing to reach new levels of euphoria.
There are scenes, actions, thoughts within this that I never thought I would see on a page and I respect the fuck out of that. I doff my cap.
The final few chapters included probably the most grossest of gross scenes that I have ever read in my entire horror-loving life. I can’t even wrap my head around it all.
Triana, is a beast; a truly violent wordsmith with his finger on the pulse of making a Reader uncomfortable. There are images in this I will never be able to wipe from my memory.
I’ve seen a few people compare this to Mean Girls, like the Extreme Horror version, and I get that. To me though, this read straight up Clueless, with Kim as Cher. Even her best friend, Amy, was giving me Dionne vibes.
Kim’s relationship with her father, her big ole house, the fact that she didn’t vibe with high school boys was total Cher, if Cher had been a psychotic bitch hell bent on destroying everyone around her.
No matter what it reminds you of though, this one will surely stick in your mind as one of a kind. This was an unforgettable reading experience.
Would I recommend it to everyone? Absolutely not.
Only pick this up if you are a tried and true Extreme Horror, or Splatterpunk, fan. If you go into this thinking you are getting a fun, fast-paced, Teen Scream-type, Horror novel, you may never recover. Seriously, I mean it.
