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Book Review: LGBT: Lust, Gore, Bloodshed & Terror by Wol-vriey

cover art for LGBT: Lust, Blood, Gore &Terror by Wol-vriey

 

LGBT: Lust, Gore, Bloodshed & Terror by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2024

ISBN: 9781964172002

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

The author himself has referred to his writing as ‘bizarro fiction,’ and this story certainly qualifies.  It also qualifies as a good improvement over his last two novels.  The book feels like a Greek tragicomedy of errors, with a lot of raunch, blood, and hilarious irony mixed in.  Oh, and a vampire, too.  And a witch.  And a crazed scientist/artist.  It’s a good read, for the excitement as well as the laughs, and it keeps you guessing all the way.

 

This is a ‘character web’ story, with four disparate main characters who barely know each other, and a host of secondary characters that slowly tie their fates together.  The main players are: Lavelle, a sex-crazed lesbian porn actress who is hounded by a lovestruck ghost; Greg, the elderly gay man cuckolded by his young trophy husband; Bryn, a lovelorn bisexual vampire eternally searching for her soulmate; and Tammi, a trans woman short on cash for gender affirmation surgery. It’s certainly an eclectic crew!   The four of them all plan on doing not-so-nice things to others to improve their lives, but…things just never seem to quite work out according to plan.  What makes the story fun, is all the unexpected ways things just go to hell in a handbasket.  Just when it seems that it might get predictable, the story swings off in an unexpected fashion.

 

The story does an excellent job pulling all the plot threads together a little at a time, and heaping delicious irony at every turn.  The characters are great fun, often due to their deadpan way of looking at things.  My personal favorite: one character’s initial response to winding up in everlasting Purgatory is, “this sucks already.”  None of the four main characters are particularly nice or sympathetic (well, maybe Greg, but only at first) and that works very well for the plot.  It makes it more fun when each of them reaps what they sow.  The whole story is completely over the top. The entire thing is a puzzle, guessing who is going to get killed, condemned, or cursed next, and it usually doesn’t happen the way you would expect it to.  The unpredictability of the story is one of its big selling points, and that alone makes it worth the read.

 

Bottom line time: it’s a good book from an author with a pretty large catalogue of stories to his credit This certainly ranks in the upper echelon of his works.  Just remember, this is ADULTS ONLY material, it’s not for your kids!

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on July 31, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: F.U.B.B by Daniel Volpe, Candace Nola, and Jasper Bark (Dark Tide Horror Novellas Book 14)

F.U.B.B. by Daniel Volpe, Candace Nola, and Jasper Bark (Dark Tide Horror Novellas Book 14)

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2024

ISBN: 9781957133928

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

 

If you’re going to title a book F*cked Up Beyond Belief, you had better back it up.  And man, do they ever in this one.  These three hardcore novellas are exactly that: blood-drenched gorefests, with excellent stories and writing to boot.  These are like Eli Roth films, the main difference being these actually have good plots and are addicting to read.  Let’s look at the basics, shall we?

 

“Church of the Splatter Spray Saints” is a crazed take on modern tent-pole revivals, although the basic theme fits with some real-life ones, like ‘screwing the people for fun and profit (mainly profit).’  In this case, the revival is run by organized crime, and they have a sentient virus to contend with that may bring the whole house down.  For a horror novella, it has a fairly intricate plot, and all the pieces fit perfectly.  Body parts fly and pain abounds as people pay to witness voluntary suicides, all in the name of worshipping the Blood.  Totally screwed up, and totally fun.

 

“Double Feature” is my personal favorite.  Combine a typical Friday night at a hick town drive-in with a group of redneck nuts somewhat resembling the lunatics from the movie Wrong Turn, and you have a story, and a  very well written one it is.  A good setup and absolutely breakneck pace keep this one firing till the end.  It’s frightening to think of any people actually being like the antagonists in this one: they have absolutely no remorse for the warped things they do.  And, their motive?  Money.  The best part is that author Candace Nola excels in misdirection.  Every time you expect the story to zig, it zags instead, right to the hilariously ironic ending.

 

“The Chatter of the Night Bugs”: is an agonizing story of “white trash”, snuff films, and black magic.  Fair warning: this one is the most difficult to read of the three. The torture sequences are brutal, made all the worse by the fact that you care about the victim in this one.  However, payback is a wonderful thing, and old mountain magic provides the means for punishing the evildoers a hundred times over, in the form of bugs, and… something else.  This was a creative take on old Appalachian legends.  Revenge has never been sweeter than in this story.

 

The ol’ bottom line? This book should win some sort of award for best horror story collection this year.  For horror fans in general, and gorehounds in particular, this is a can’t miss.  Highly recommended (to those with a strong stomach, that is).

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on June 18, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: The Man Who Killed His Wife (and What Happened Afterward) by Wol-vriey

cover art for The Man Who KIlled His Wife (and What Happened Afterward) by Wol-vriey

 

The Man Who Killed His Wife (and What Happened Afterward) by Wol-vriey

Blood Bound Publishing, 2023

ISBN: 9781948278690

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon..com

 

Wol-vriey’s latest is so nutty that readers might just laugh at the absurdity of it all, and that’s not a bad thing.  It’s a merry-go-round of horror craziness, like his last one.

 

Maryanne Wilson wants to get pregnant, but her poor, overworked husband Bob simply doesn’t have the energy for bedroom fun.  So, she turns to her neighbor (who of course happens to be a witch) for a demon sex charm.  That works until an argument with Bob ends in her accidental death.  Unfortunately, the charm causes Bob to have sex with her corpse, which makes him leery of calling the cops.  So, he enlists the help of another neighbor (who of course is a top-level computer hacker) to dispose of the body and come up with a viable explanation.  Naturally, nothing goes right for Bob.  Ashley, the hacker, is a psychotic sadist who wants payment in pain, the corpse won’t stay dead, and there’s the matter of the little blue demon who eats everyone he finds.  It’s a tragic comedy of errors for everyone involved.

 

Enjoying this means not taking it too seriously, as Bob constantly makes boneheaded decisions that no rational person would.  While skipping details to avoid spoilers, let’s say Bob probably could have got out of his mess in less painful ways.  Plus, this must be some apartment building, as it has a witch with real powers and an ace computer whiz with government connections under the same roof.  Who knew they were this common?  That’s why it’s important to remember, none of that matters in this type of fiction.  It’s meant to be fun and not taken too seriously, much like some of the pulp writing of yesteryear.  And, fun this is.

 

As always with this author, the book speeds along, with no deep soliloquies or wasted time.  Despite the pain and gore that show up (and, if you’ve read Wol-vriey before, this isn’t as brutal as some of his other works) the book still has a somewhat lighthearted touch compared to some of his darker, more ‘serious’ efforts.  The little blue demon goes a long way towards keeping this from getting too ugly: it’s such an obnoxious eating machine that you have to chuckle at it, and its final fate is hilarious.  Some of Ashley’s ridiculously painful ideas of a good time (and her amusing notes afterwards) also keep the story trending that way.  Quite over the top, but still entertaining.

 

Bottom line?  This isn’t a book to terrify readers, or bowl them over with its profound nature.  It’s just big, goofy horror fun, and should keep the author’s fans happy until the next one.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on February 26, 2024 by , Reply
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