Quick Horror Gore

Hello my flourishing leaves,

How are you all feeling?

I’m in good spirits and back with another book review. This one is very different from my previous entry and I will give you a heads up that if you’re squeamish, this one may not be for you.

Off Season by Jack Ketchum is about an editor from Maine who hires a remote cabin in the woods to edit her latest assignment. The peace and quiet the seemingly idyllic setting for her to do her work. But, there’s something lurking in the woods.

Cuddled in an Oodie with a book = Bliss!

A hidden cave by the ocean is home to a primitive family of humans who hunt and feed on other humans. When the editor is visited by her sister, boyfriend and some friends, she thinks it will be a weekend of drinking by the fire and catching up. But pretty soon, they are being taunted and  hunted like animals.

This book isn’t particularly unpredictable, you realise very early on what’s likely to happen, but what Ketchum does so brilliantly is build the tension. And then he savagely attacks you with disturbing imagery and moments that will make your stomach turn. Personally, I had to put the book down at one point and physically squirmed. As I said, it’s not for those with sensitive stomachs.

The ending left me feeling exhausted, as I was hoping for a different outcome for the hunted, but I think that’s what makes this a good book for horror/gore horror fans. There’s blood on everyones hands.

If you’ve read this before, I’d love to know your thoughts, so please leave a comment below. 

Stay Spooky!
👻LWG👻

Dark and Deeply Depraved

Hello my little ghouls,

I hope this finds you in a suitably ghoulish mood, and if you’re not feeling ghoulish right now, you may by the time you’ve finished reading this.

I’m always on the lookout for books that will shock me, scare me or leave me wondering what the hell I just read. So when I saw a few people mention this on various threads, as one of the darkest things they’ve ever read, I had to check it out. 

Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison

And honestly, they weren’t lying. It’s really hard to talk about what happens in the book without giving away too much, but summed up? It’s about an unnamed man who works security at a hospital and is a necrophiliac. He meets a maternity Dr who cannibalises dead babies. If you think that’s pretty f*cked up, then trust me when I say, that’s just the surface!

There’s a particular moment in the book, that I can’t talk or think about without feeling sick and massively uncomfortable. This has to be one of the most depraved books I’ve ever read. I don’t know what Chandler Morrison’s goal was in writing this book, but if it was to be the darkest book ever written, he definitely accomplished it.

All the darkness aside though, there are moments of dark comedy in some of the dialogue and thoughts shared by the protagonist. Despite the content being gory and nauseating, it’s not too clunky in it’s writing style, so you should be able to get through it quite quickly. There aren’t many morbidly dark areas of life that Chandler doesn’t cover in this book, so it’s not for the faint of heart. But if you’re morbidly curious check it out…Thought don’t say I didn’t warn you.

You may want to clutch on to a quartz crystal after reading, to purify your mind and soul!

Stay spooky!

👻LWG👻