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