body horror

Review: Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana

~ megs14malloy

Full BrutalFull 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.

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Review: Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

~ megs14malloy

Dead of WinterDead of Winter by Darcy Coates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Dead of Winter is the perfect Summer Chiller to make your blood run cold on a hot day.

If your air conditioning isn’t keeping pace with the heat, look no further, this novel will cool you down quickly!

In this story we meet Christa as she embarks on a two-week vacation in the Rocky Mountains with her boyfriend of around six-months, Kiernan. Christa is a woman haunted by her past and this vacation is a big deal for her.

Kiernan has been such a blessing in her life and she feels like she has a little more courage with him by her side. Kiernan is from the area near the mountains they are visiting and Christa is excited to see a place that is so special to him.

As they are making their way to the remote lodge on the tour bus, along with eight other guests and their guide, inclement weather makes the conditions less than an ideal. A fallen tree blocking the road ends up stalling them further.

As the guide breaks the tree down to move it out of the way, Kiernan and Christa hike up a nearby ledge to get a private peek at the view.

In the worsening conditions, the couple get separated and the next thing Christa knows she is awakening in a cabin, groggy and injured, with Kiernan no where in sight.

As the roads became impassable, the group was forced to take shelter in a tiny rustic cabin they found not far from where the bus is stranded.

They were lucky to find Christa, but the search for Kiernan will have to be put on hold until morning. Their new quarters are tight and claustrophobic, with very minimal supplies. This is not going to be easy.

The group settles in and try to come up with a plan for escape, but they might as well be the last people on Earth. They have no means of communicating with the outside world, and even if they could get a signal out, how could rescue even get to them?

In the middle of the night, their guide goes missing. The next morning the group is shocked to find his decapitated head hanging in a tree just next to the cabin.

Fear and paranoia runs high, as each in the group realizes there may be a killer amongst them. As bodies start dropping, the suspect list grows smaller. Who will make it out of this vacation from hell alive?

Dead of Winter is a fun read. This is the second Darcy Coates book that I have read. The first was a DNF because I was bored, so this one is a huge improvement over that.

I am an atmosphere girlie first and foremost and Coates absolutely delivered in that category here. I loved the secluded location, the claustrophobic-feeling cabin and the cold, uninviting wilderness surrounding them.

I also enjoyed the unlikable cast of characters being thrust together into tight quarters. These were people who probably otherwise wouldn’t have been socializing with one another, but fate brought them together and they had no option than to try to work together.

I also enjoyed their interactions. As the tension rose and people’s paranoia started to kick in, I found how they were relating to one another really believable. I think Coates did a great job with the psychology behind it all.

For me though, in spite of the fact that it was action-packed, I did feel like it went on a little too long. There were some sections that dragged, or felt repetitive, when I was just wishing to move forward a little more quickly.

Additionally, I felt that it was pretty clear who the killer was and why, so it made certain reveals a little less impactful than I think the author was intending. I was hoping for a bit more suspense to carry me through to the end.

With this being said, I don’t necessarily need to be surprised to have fun with a story and I still enjoyed this one a lot. I thought the level of violence and body horror was perfect and as mentioned above, the secluded setting was fantastically done.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a chilling, intense, cold-weather Horror-Thriller story.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I am excited to read more from this author!

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