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Book Review: Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by Wol-vriey

Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by [Wol-vriey]

Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2021

ISBN: 9781948278454

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

 

Where his last novel, Women, was the equivalent of ten cans of energy drink, Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys is equal to a pitcher of sugar-free iced tea.  The gore factor (for Wol-vriey, at any rate) is remarkably tuned down and the sex is minimal.  Instead, this is a dialogue-oriented story, with more focus on the characters than an action-packed narrative.  It’s a decent read, just a change of pace from his usual smashmouth, in your face style.

 

While playing the dating game in his late 20’s, Mike Broadman dates Ashley Brooke Cummins, a vindictive woman with serious mood swings.  He has the good fortune to stop dating her after a couple of months, followed by the misfortune of being cursed by her before her suicide.  The curse?  He can only date Brookes or Ashleys for the rest of his life.  The curse seems to work… too well.  Not only do people Mike knows start getting murdered, people he dates with the correct names start getting killed also.  While Mike is convinced the curse is real, the police suspect an actual human killer.  Or, possibly, a combination? That’s the mystery at the heart of the story, as Mike tries to prevent further deaths and find out the true cause.

 

It’s an original idea, and the story moves at a slower, more measured pace than Wol-vriey’s previous novels.  Character interactions and dialogue account for the majority of the book.   The characters are fairly one-dimensional people in their late 20s, but they are able to carry the story well enough despite the lack of character depth.  The character of Ashley Cummins’ ghost does provide some entertaining contrast, and it would have been nice to have seen her developed into a bigger role.  The Siamese twins (Brooke and Ashley, of course) also provide a bit of extra color.  The violence is at a much lower level that Wol-vriey’s usual work.  There are a couple of messy knifings, but most of the rest of the violence comes from people getting hit by cars; nothing too unorthodox.  It’s minimal enough that readers who dislike splat stories may be fine with this one.  Occasionally, the story does get a bit hokey (finding online hexes that actually work, for instance), and there seems to be an abundance of females named Brooke or Ashley in the book, but hey, it’s fiction.  The story does wind up nicely with a climax that has a twist, and a hilariously amusing curse that causes a real predickament for the person involved.

 

Overall, it’s a fun read, just a different style from the author’s usual work.  This is one the average horror reader can enjoy, but fans of the hardcore stuff may want to stick to his other works.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Book Review: Women by Wol-vriey

cover art for women by wol-vriey

Women by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2021

ISBN: 9781948278430

Availability: paperback, Kindle edition Bookshop.org | Amazon.com  )

 

The Nigerian splatmaster Wol-vriey’s latest novel of enterpainment, Women is a solid, fast-paced story, but fair warning: it contains scenes of cruelty and sadism unmatched by anything ever written before.  Unlike the somewhat toned-down material in his last novel, The Final Girl, this is the author back with a full-throated roar.  This is ultra-hardcore, and for adults ONLY.

 

The story runs two plot threads concurrently that tie together partway through.  Megan Kemp tracks a friend of hers who is late on paying back a loan, and the trail leads to a mansion in Raynham, Massachusetts.  She goes in to confront him, and winds up in a hell that nothing could have prepared her for.  Five other women are gathered there preparing to end the life of John Miller, the millionaire who married and divorced them all while dodging any sort of alimony payments.  They all got nothing due to their infidelity, which Miller facilitated by hiring a porn star to seduce each of them, thus violating the terms of their respective pre-nups.  While the women plot, Miller is held captive in the basement and subject to the machinations of Mrs. Pain, the mansion owners’ henchwoman for hire. Megan finds herself in a fight to save her life and sanity, while also trying to save John Miller.  Megan is a rare character in the modern world: she has a conscience and wants to help John, even though she has no prior involvement with him.

 

Wol-vriey’s books are usually extremely fast-paced, and this is no exception: the story fires through its 216 pages without a slowdown.  It’s a nice split between action and dialogue to fill out the characters, and there’s enough backstory to evoke feelings of sympathy (or disgust) for the five ex-wives.  Instead of weaving their backstories into the narrative, the author simply inserts a backstory chapter for each of them where appropriate.  It’s a style that works well; they function successfully as interludes to the plot.  It wouldn’t be a Wol-vriey story without a few plot curveballs, and John Miller’s fate, along with that of some of the other main characters, provides them.  Suffice it to say, this is NOT the standard hack-and-slash revenge plot, and the plot twists keep the interest level high.

 

Mention has to be made again of Mrs. Pain, one of the most psychotic characters I’ve ever encountered on paper.  Her acts of sadism make the infamous ‘Animal’ from JF Gonzalez’s landmark horror novel Survivor look like a wimp.  Her actions are what make the book unsuitable for anyone but mature adults, but they do serve a purpose: readers will be praying for her demise in a painful fashion by the end.  She doesn’t spare old people, kids, or fetuses, and grenades, chainsaws, and hedge clippers are tools of her trade.  She is what nightmares are made of.

 

Women is another creative entry in Wol-vriey’s catalogue of excitement and splat, and is perfect for readers of insane fiction who want the boundaries of conventional horror fiction shattered.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Book Review: The Final Girl by Wol-vriey

cover art for The Final Girl by Wol-vriey  Bookshop.comAmazon.com )

The Final Girl by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2020

ISBN: 9781948278263

Available: paperback, Kindle

 

Wol-vriey’s prior novel, The Virgin, previously reviewed here, was a hit with his fans, and left them clamoring for a sequel.  Ask, and ye shall receive: The Final Girl was a game show alluded to in The Virgin.  Thankfully, the Nigerian splat-master listened to the fans, took the idea and turned it into its own bookIt’s chock-full of what his readers love and expect: a fast-paced story with creativity, gore, and twisted humor.  It has everything that made the prior novel such a good read, the main difference being this one will appeal to a broader audience, due to the non-existence of rape and graphic sex in the book.

 

Like its predecessor, The Final Girl revolves around a reality show broadcast on the dark web, and available for viewing to anyone willing to pony up the dough.  It stars eight women contestants placed in an underground mock-up town. A sum of 24 million dollars is hidden somewhere in the town.  All the ladies have to do is find it and avoid getting killed by the monsters that populate the town.  The catch?  There can be only one woman alive at the end, so the contestants have plenty of motivation to kill each other, as well as the monsters.  After the starting bell goes off to open the show, mayhem ensues.

 

As expected, The Final Girl is another runaway train of a novel, most readers will burn through its 190 pages in a sitting or two.    The creativity shown with the monsters in the book is one of the highlights.  They aren’t made up monsters per se, but instead, they are made from human corpses, stitched together and re-animated by a company that has mastered genetic engineering.  Example: the human centipede, made from a bunch of human torsos sewn together in sections, with arms for legs, and a human head on each end.  Kids aren’t spared here either; there are also children’s bodies with flippers added, turning them into homicidal fish-babies that populate the lake in the center of town.  These creatures are mean and scary enough to give the gun-toting contestants all they can handle.

 

As for the contestants, they are fleshed out better than the last story, well enough the reader will actually be cheering for some of them, and despising others.  The pious little Muslim girl, Fatima, is a genuine charmer who is almost impossible to dislike.  On the other end, you have the identical (and identically brain-dead) twins Cherry and Berry, who are easy to dislike and root against.  Their annoying habit of always finishing each other’s sentences contributes greatly to their aggravation factor.  A dysfunctional mother-stepdaughter team, a cop, a nurse, and a hooker round out the rest of the characters, but be prepared for some surprises, as not all the characters are what they seem.  The one uniting factor is these ladies are no wimps; they can dish it out as well as any Western gunslingers when survival is on the line, as long as they have enough ammunition.

 

Combine the above with the author’s usual fast-paced style of writing and splat, and you’ve got a winner of a story. The Final Girl does have broader appeal than his usual work.  A weak spot in Wol-vriey’s writing has always been the frequent, graphic sex, that never really seemed to contribute to the story.  This time, there isn’t ANY sex in the book, although there is a rape threat, which never materializes.  By removing this element, Wol-vriey trimmed the last bit of fat off his writing, leaving a pure, stripped-down thriller of a horror novel.  Fans of Jack Ketchum and Brian Keene should devour this book, and for people looking at reading splat writing for the first time, this is a great place to start.  It’s the closest the author has come to writing a book with mass market appeal, and it’s his best yet.  Highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

Contains: violence, extreme gore, profanity, drug use, body horror

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson