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Book Review: Welcome to the Splatter Club, Volume 3 by various authors

Welcome to the Splatter Club, Volume 3

Welcome to the Splatter Club, Vol. 3, by various authors

Blood Bound Publishing, 2024

ISBN: 9781940250632

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

If you read the other Splatter Club books, you know what to expect: gore, raunchiness, creativity, and warped humor. The third installment continues the tradition.  Overall, it’s very good, although not quite to the level of Volume 2: but that’s a pretty high bar to clear.  It’s certainly good enough to confirm the series as one that should keep running in the future.

 

There are nine short stories of varying length, plus four additional stories of a couple pages each that were winners in last year’s gross-out writing contest at Authorcon II.  The book would have been better off leaving those four out, as they really don’t add anything, and just read like an excuse to be disgusting.  Still, for readers that just want some barf-inducing material, they’re here.

 

The other nine stories are all good ‘uns, with Rachel Nussbaum’s ‘”You’re Mine Now” being the runaway winner for the best.  The hard-luck protagonist gets partly possessed by a somewhat nice demon, who proceeds to help him fix his life, in suitably violent and bone-crunching fashion.  It’s the interplay between the lead character and the demon that makes this roaring good fun: their conversations are priceless.  The whole ‘demon with a bit of heart’ is an angle that doesn’t get used often, it’s an intriguing one.

 

Stephen Kozeniewski’s ‘”Self Reporting” also deserves mention, for its wickedly humorous style, and re-doing of a horror trope.  We all know killing your family is bad, but this turns it into survival of the father, in a hilariously warped way.  This is definitely a new way to use a pandemic for a horror story.

 

Setting aside the four gross-out shorties, the rest are what make the Splatter Club series better than the rest.  There are no bad stories to be found. The quality does vary, but the absolute worst you can say about any of them is “pretty good..” There are no misses to be found.  I’ve reviewed a LOT of short story anthologies over the past few years, and it’s almost impossible to find one without at least a couple duds.  Splatter Club pulls off the trick of consistent quality throughout, and that’s pretty rare.  Not all the stories will blow your socks off, but there are none to skip over.

 

Drumroll please!  The BOTTOM LINE is…if you want creative craziness with plenty of bloody mayhem and twisted humor, you want this book.  Read it, destroy your mind, and carry on, till hopefully Volume 4 arrives.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on October 16, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: The Little Season by S.C. Mendes

cover art for The Little Season by S.C. Mendes

The Little Season by S.C. Mendes

Blood Bound Books, 2024

ISBN: 9798878808958

Available: Kindle edition

Buy:  Amazon.com

 

You have to give S.C. Mendes credit: in a genre that has some repetitive plotlines, he always comes up with an original one, and this is no exception.  It’s quite imaginative, and trying to figure out how it ends will keep the reader busy till the final pages.  There are enough questions on life in this one that it would actually make for a good choice for a horror book club discussion group.  The book isn’t shallow: it has some good depth to it.  There are some pretty nifty illustrations, too!

 

The protagonist, Jordan Carter, is one of those aimless sorts drifting through life, just hopscotching from one job to the next, with no real clear plan, other than trying to help take care of his ailing mother.  He finds an ad that seems like a godsend– get paid to eat one meal, (sponsored by a company called Talons) give reactions, and pocket $600, with the possibility of further meals.  His problems start with the horrible physical and mental reactions he has to the meal, but the possibility of money is too good to turn down.  It becomes a mystery, with Jordan trying to find out why the food causes such odd reactions.

 

That’s where the story really hits its stride, since there are a few competing ideas as to why the meals cause reactions.  Jordan’s New Age, mystic, neighbor, Michelle, has a theory; the occult doctor in the story has another; and of course, there is the actual reason behind Talons, which the reader will get eventually.  This is a good example of combining a few different ideas into one new one, with parts of all included.  Most people have heard the idea of ‘good karma’ and ‘bad karma’: most people know that everything is made of atoms that vibrate under certain stimuli; and, most people have heard of demons and angels.  What Mendes has done is combine seemingly disparate ideas into one that makes perfect sense for a fiction story, and tied that in to a new definition of what exactly sin is, and why bad things happen in the world.  It’s a good amount of material to ponder over in a 150 page book, and it certainly holds your attention until the end.  Surprisingly, this actually has a sort of happy ending, not something usually found in a Mendes book!  The whole book is a strong contrast in light and shade, in terms of the characters.  None of them are really bad people, but they aren’t saints either.  They are what they seem to be– realistic people, each with there own strengths and flaws.

 

The bottom line is, this is quite good, and won’t bottom you out, like the author’s masterpiece The City did.  For readers of this book: for a bonus, try finding the Easter egg hidden in there referencing Mendes’s fellow author Lucy Leitner.  It’s well hidden, but it’s there.

Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on August 28, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Suck-U-Bus (New Adult Occult) by S.C. Mendes and Nikki Noir

cover art for Suck-U-Bus by S.C. Mendes and Nikki Noir

Suck-U-Bus (New Adult Occult) by S.C. Mendes and Nikki Noir

Blood Bound Books, 2023

ISBN: 9781940250588

Available::Paperback, KIndle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

 

This dark and crazy heavy metal horror is the first book co-written by two very good authors, S.C. Mendes and Nikki “Spleaze Queen” Noir.  The plot line is excellent:  a nice tweaking of the classic “we sold our souls for rock n’ roll’  trope.  How does it fare?  Well…make no mistake, it’s good, it just never feels like the overdrive gear kicks in and blows you away, which is what both authors do.

 

The band Suck-U-Bus (succubus), led by three women called the Mothers, promote their legend online and at shows.  After each show, three lucky winners get a meet-and -greet on the tour bus…with a demon, and they must have, um, carnal relations with it.  That’s the price for the band’s success.  The demon makes them famous, but needs to indulge in his devilish desires after each show.  Lisa Hummer and her brother Danny go to the show, and Danny gets chosen. Next thing, he is following the band everywhere, but NOT doing well.  Alarmed, Lisa goes after him, learning as she goes about the misfortunes of prior backstage winners.  In the process, she gets pulled into the dark legend-or-reality-that is Suck-U-Bus.

 

Those are the basics.  As far as writing, the two authors work well together.  It’s a good blend of the darkness Mendes usually brings to his writing, with the over-the-top insanity of Noir..  The pacing is decent, the story just never quite explodes all over the pages.  There is some real cleverness to it, though.  Lisa’s doubts about the reality of what is happening demonstrate this: is all the demon stuff true, or is this one of the best metal hoaxes ever, a gimmick to get money by using fake exorcisms and possessions? It’s over too soon, but the book does put together a nice final section and a banger of an ending: the final demon confrontation felt like classic Nikki Noir all the way.

 

Bottom line: it’s a decent collaboration, but I suspect the authors can pull a better one out of their trick bag. Let’s hope they do another.  Fun error: the song in the book should have been ‘Necropedophile,’ not ‘Necropedilia.’   Like the authors, I also happen to be quite familiar with the Cannibal Corpse discography.  Recommended. (The book. Well, the music too!)

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on January 24, 2024 by , Reply
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