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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

Book Review: Across the Dunes: A Folk Horror Fairy Tale Set in the Present Day by Dan Soule

Cover art for Across the Dunes by Dan Soule

Across The Dunes: A Folk Horror Fairy Tale Set in the Present Day by Dan Soule

Silver Thistle Press, 2025

ISBN: ‎ 9781917794008

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Amazon.com

 

An eclectic mix of fairy/folk tale, horror splat, and modern times, this will certainly appeal to readers who were taken with Stephen King’s Fairy Tale and Joseph Sale’s Carcosa series. Across the Dunes is not set in a separate realm, unlike the above, but it retains many of the same elements. Most importantly, like those books, this tale is one you will want to read right through to the finish.

 

The story takes a measured pace through the first 88 pages, as protagonist Michael Lorimer returns to the English seaside town where he grew up to sell the family beach house nestled by the dunes of the ocean. He has his 16 year old son with him, who he has just learned about. It’s a good use of a lead-in to the main plot, as you learn a bit of the town history and associated legends, and get the idea that there is something forbidding about the sand dunes around the house and town. It’s given in snippets: there’s no predictable, lengthy, exposition. On page 89, the gears of weirdness start really whirling and firing, with a graveyard of dolls and an abandoned bus starting the next phase of the story. From there on, it runs in high gear right to the finish.

 

This book gets high marks especially for its unpredictability and creative settings. Just when you think it will throw you a fastball down the middle, you get a curve instead, and it happens throughout the story. What happens in the sand dunes with the old equipment found there is a good example, but you’ll have to read it, as I don’t want to give too much away. Creative settings, like the doll graveyard (and other oddities found there) keep the story interesting.

 

The author does an excellent job turning the sand dunes into a living, breathing entity that exudes menace; not the easiest job in the world, considering the normal state of sand, but it is great fun here, as the sand slithers and worms its way after the heroes, always finding a way in. This is turning the inanimate into an animated object, without resorting to overblown gimmicks like screaming faces and appendages appearing in the sand. It’s a fresh take on folk horror, brought into the modern day with some pretty messy sections, especially when one of the locals starts going wild with a meat cleaver. This book truly is a blend of a lot of different things, and the parts certainly add up to an entertaining whole.

 

It’s hard to categorize this book overall, and that’s probably a good thing, it doesn’t slip neatly into any category, other than the “you don’t want to miss this” category. It’s certainly worth the read, and recommendation.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on July 9, 2025 by , Reply

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
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