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Book Review: EnterPAINment by Wol-vriey

EnterPAINment by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1964172521

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy:  Amazon.com

 

This is an example of a book with an excellent plotline, but subpar execution. An overwhelming amount of sleazy sex permeates nearly every page, and turns what could have been one hell of a thriller into a softcore porn novel.  It’s a shame, because this is from a writer with a solid track record of hardcore horror novels.  I’ll have to grant a mulligan on this one, it’s below what he is capable of.

 

The plot is established in the first few pages, and again, it IS a good one.  Dave Ferguson is a down on his luck former MMA fighter who gets a shot at making big money again, as a trainer.  The catch?  It’s in a large, hidden facility, and he won’t see the outside world as long as he is there, for what goes on is a highly illegal underground fighting competition, held on a regular basis for extremely wealthy spectators (mainly females) with no moral scruples.  They want to see pain, blood, and death-for real. Think of a modern day version of the whole Roman gladiator thing, and you’ll get the idea.  As the story progresses and some of Dave’s friends get killed, he has to decide whether it is all worth it for the big bucks.

 

That’s the bare-bones basics. There is a bit more to the plot, but unfortunately some intriguing ideas get short shrift. A subplot about one of the characters doing wacky black magic and demon summoning was intriguing, but it barely figured into the overall plot. There is some good material in this book. For example, the author has a handle on how to write a pretty good fight scene, and he has some really messy ones with weapons such as utility knives.  They are good, drawn-out battles with plenty of back and forth, and they are enterPAINing. The brawls are pretty brutal, and the gorehound readers should love them.  If the book had concentrated more on the fighting scenes and character development, it would have been much improved.

 

Alas, such is not the case, as the sleazy sex simply overwhelms the book and draws away from the good stuff.  Yes, raunch is a part of the hardcore genre, but it needs to be a tool in service to the story, not the overriding aspect. It’s difficult to get through more than 5 pages of this book without something explicitly sexual happening, and it detracts from the overall enjoyment of the story.  Case in point: the fights themselves were good, but the author kept cutting away at various points in each fight to describe explicit sex acts. It was a needless distraction, and took away from what should have been the most impactful moments.  Sex even made its way into some of the fights, and while I give credit for thinking outside the box, the times when it happened were rather ridiculous.  You’re fighting for your life, and you suddenly have the urge to get busy with one of the spectators?  It just didn’t work, and came off as an excuse to throw in another dose of sleaze.  As a reader, I expect better. The characters aren’t remotely interesting: they needed to be more developed. I would have settled for them at least playing strip poker, but they seemed to be there just to add doses of explicit sex.

 

There really isn’t much else to add, since there wasn’t much to work with.  If you have a thing for serious sleaze, this one may interest you, but I actually have to stamp this one with Not Recommended for other readers.  Hopefully this is a one-time aberration for the author and he gets back to doing what he does best, writing hardcore horror with warped humor, in his next book.

 

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on March 2, 2026 by , Reply

Invasive Species by Ellery Adams

Cover art for Invasive Species by Ellery Adams

Invasive Species by Ellery Adams

Hanover Square Press, 2026

ISBN: 978-0369774903

Available: Hardcover, ebook edition

Buy: Bookshop.org

 

There aren’t many neighbors like Mrs. Smith, someone who stands out for all of the wrong, strange reasons. In the beautiful seaside town of Cold Harbor, where the moms are in competition and have a lot of socializing to do, no one really knows Mrs. Smith because she rarely leaves her home. What the annoying moms do know is that she doesn’t care at all about their high standards for landscaping. While their yards are ready for the cover of a magazine, hers is a dark and brooding tangle of creeping vines, large trees, and scary, dark shadows.

 

We quickly learn that Mrs. Smith is an actual monster, an ancient sea monster, who has been biding her time while planning to carry out a centuries old way of making herself young and more monstrous again. Mrs. Smith has a distinctive aquatic form and a fairly human body when on land. To the particular men she’s interested in cultivating, she seems to be a gorgeous, desirable woman. But, to a few people who are knowledgeable in the areas of myth, legend, and folklore and think she is suspicious, she could be the greatest danger their little community has ever seen.

 

A special part of Mrs. Smith’s renewal strategy involves the children of the town. When an ambitious mother sends two of her kids to do some outdoor chores for Mrs. Smith, the timeline is already nearing its end, and some people will have to die to keep Mrs. Smith on schedule. Worst of all, some people have already been selected for an especially terrifying death.

 

Ellery Adams tells this horror story in a rather upbeat, casual, and non-threatening way that helps to enhance the ominous nature of Mrs. Smith’s presence in the neighborhood. The local women are usually oblivious to what is happening around them because they are so focused on their status and how they can prevent Mrs. Smith’s property from reflecting badly on their own rather than on protecting those they love. Instead of the invasive vines they hate so much, Mrs. Smith is the real invasive species they should be trying to eradicate, and Ellery Adams makes her just as intriguing as demonically evil.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

 

Posted on February 12, 2026 by , Reply

Book Review: You’d Better Watch Out by Frank Cadaver

 

Cover art for You'd Better Watch Out by Frank Cadaver

You’d Better Watch Out  (The Blood Texts #1) by Frank Cadaver

UClan Publishing, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1916747227

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Amazon.com

 

Nothing says the holidays like a young adult novella about a vengeful elf that indiscriminately flays anyone who misbehaves. You’d Better Watch Out is a gripping tale from the Blood Texts series that will have you turning the pages hoping for more. The author listed is Frank Cadaver, the pen name of Colm Field when he writes YA horror. This book would be a great stocking stuffer for that wacky teen that would prefer chilling horror over another rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.

 

Evangeline and her friends are part of the mean girls clique at school, and after she gets in trouble for bullying the new girl, her mother and father choose different strategies to change Evangeline’s ways. Her mother tries empathy and compassion, while her dad uses a vindictive elf, the Watchful Elf, to guilt her into being a better person. There are so many parenting strategies, who’s to say which is best?

 

The plot seems very simple, but the author imbues it with many questions of morality. It is not as simple as goodness being good and evilness being bad. The elf punishes everyone. It is his perception that makes him act: it doesn’t matter if it was a malicious lie or a white lie to avoid hurting another person’s feelings, the actor will be punished. Everyone around the elf will be attacked; there is no way around it. Wherever Evangeline goes, the elf will follow and inflict injury on everyone around her. Should Evangeline leave her family to save them? The elf has broken many of its previous owners. Will Evangeline fall into the same fate? How long can Evangeline pretend to be good when it is against her nature? The ending is captivating- it is not just black and white, like most morality tales for young people. I like it because it suggests that in a messed-up world, the only way to deal with it is to be a little messed up, too.

 

The Watchful Elf is a play off the ubiquitous Elf on the Shelf that’s pulled out every December. It is poorly constructed, with felt, cardboard, and a saccharine smile on its plastic head. Kids cannot touch the elf or it loses its magic. It is so flimsy that if you were to hand it to a kid, it would be torn apart by the end of the day. Whew! Now we can keep producing this product as cheaply as possible.

 

The Elf on the Shelf watches kids’ every move and reports it to Santa every night. This is why it is found in a different place every morning. Every night, parents place the elf in elaborate and hilarious situations for the kids to find each morning. There is ambiguity in this ritual because the elf acts as a surveillance tool for Santa, reporting the children’s misdeeds, yet the parents are encouraged to put the elf in mischievous situations, because it’s fun to be bad. It’s very counterintuitive and promotes extrinsic motivation instead of intrinsic motivation to be good. Such are the joys of consumerism and living in a police state.

 

It appears the elf did not spark joy in the author’s house and has probably been lazily positioned in a guitar sound hole for multiple days, with his children complaining about the lack of magic in their household. Is this why the author has written about a murderous elf, so his children will never request it taken out of its box again? I don’t know, but in some households, putting away the Elf on The Shelf and reading this spooky novella could be the new holiday tradition.

 

 

Reviewed by Lucy Nguyen

Posted on February 12, 2026 by , Reply
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