Ratings14
Average rating3.3
I liked how this was written and the pacing, it was so easy to read I just zoomed through it. The gruesome moments and the incredible detail though was not so easy to read, it was enough to make me squirm and feel sick. Although I did find it to be an interesting premise for a story, the way it was executed may've been a little too much for me.
What. The. Hell. Was That. And I mean that in the best way possible. This is a crazy horror/disgusting book that literally has no light to it...I mean good GRIEF was this book dark and tormented. I wonder what's going on in Beauregard's head, though honestly, when I say that, it's a compliment. I literally almost threw up at more than one part. Wow. Just wow.
there were quite a few things i liked about this book (the character background and development, the overall “moral” of the story around greed, the mental health content, the small insertions of quirky humor amongst the gore, and of course the extreme gore and disgust.... this is splatterpunk, people) but there were also quite a few things i didn't enjoy (the writing had an overwritten quality to it that disturbed the fluency of the novella... every SAT word ever is not required lol, the ending (in my opinion) took a great meaningful story and undermined it by going full throttle into ridiculous humor and offensive stereotyping, and the very last sentence so obviously set us up for a sequel that we didn't need). overall, i feel like the good outweighs the bad here and if you're a fan of splatterpunk, you will definitely be entertained!
Definitely a wild ride. Big huge trigger warnings. Beauregard does not shy away from descriptors or leave things up to the readers imagination. He describes things, in great gory gross detail. I enjoyed the story, for the most part. But it definitely has issues.
SPOILERS BELOW
The first being, as a woman, you can absolutely tell a man wrote this. Some of Vera's actions are unbelievable and just kind of feel like, guessed?
The second, I was not the biggest fan of the “ending”, the big “twist”. Vera is our narrator, main character. It's told from her perspective, “I”, “My”, etc. To be pulled out for the last two chapters and suddenly be in the body of one of the delivery men who pick and farm the TYG was jarring. It really interrupted the flow of the story and even more so because the last chapter we're back in Vera.
Third, which goes along with the second, these chapters are so unnecessary in this book. It felt rushed and out of place. Leave the reader in the dark because Vera's in the dark. She sees, and thus we see, the TYG cans getting filled and labeled. It was unsettling knowing they were essentially being turned into food but then also canned?! Plus knowing the story continues in “Son of the Slob”, this could have been a better way to tie in this secondary side to the story if wishing to tell it. Maybe this group of bad people comes after Vera/her son? I will be sure to read and see how the story continues.
Fourth, I really felt that it was unnecessary, maybe even harmful, to make the bad guys gay. And I don't want this to come off as if gay characters cannot be bad guys or written to be also evil. It was just the way these chapters were written. It felt weird and off. Like they were almost caricatures of gay men. It kind of felt like they were being made fun of? I don't know how to best explain it. They were a group of rich gay men consuming women in hopes to absorb their beauty, characteristics, and otherwise femininity to better attract men while also effectively thinning the herd of competitor suitors. Just feels so weird.
Needless to say this is absolutely gut wrenching extreme horror. There was a lot of Gore packed into such a tiny book.
Few things I didn't like are the fact that half the book was a buildup to understand our main character, so I was getting a little impatient. But that's okay I suppose.
Sometimes the horror and gore was unrealistically ridiculous. I couldn't understand how our protagonist was still alive after everything she'd gone through. So that made me roll my eyes a little.
Next the female pov was very weird in my opinion. She was saying the weirdest things for the situation.
And there were times that the she contradicted her own descriptions.
TW she calls his cock “tiny manhood” one page and “mammoth” in the next. I was very confused.
SPOILER FOR THE ENDING I cannot for the life of me fathom how she got pregnant. There are vivid descriptions of him absolutely ruining her uterus.
But the positives was that this book was unhinged and that is what I was looking for. If you have any triggers at all don't read this.
Also the artwork accompanying each chapter was really good. And the writing was really good too, with a lot of alliterations used, it made for a fun reading experience. Overall this held up on the promised shock value.