Pus Junkies by Shane McKenzie

by Shane McKenzie

Kip has the worst case of acne that anyone has ever seen. Zits cover his entire body; his skin is aflame with bright red, pus-filled sores. He has become an outcast in his school and the other kids call him Toad.But what they don't know is the pus leaking from Kip's acne is actually a powerful narcotic that produces strong psychedelic effects. Soon, everyone in school will want a taste of his hallucinogenic cream and this former-loser will become the most popular kid in school. But once you lick the Toad, there's no going back to normal drugs. His classmates just can't get enough. And as their addiction grows, they will stop at nothing to get it...In the spirit of Street Trash and Class of Nukem' High comes a novel about growing up, finding yourself, and tripping on bodily fluids. Shane McKenzie and Eraserhead Press present a bizarro high school drama drenched in Technicolor-splatter!

Genres: Horror, Bizarro Fiction, Humor, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Debbie Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

⛧⛧⛧⛧

Corridors of pain for some, hallways of glory for others, both shrouded in the mist of artificial reason. Remember high school? A fluorescent-lit purgatory where time crawled, hormones raged, and the air reeked of Axe body spray and existential dread. I was the back-row philosopher, a stoned oracle of algebra who could unravel space-time and Nietzsche even with the janitor. I drifted through those years with my Slayer backpack like a Zen bong-hit Buddha. I wasn’t bullied, nor did I suffer from acne that oozed with the fury of a thousand neglected dermatological appointments.

But I saw them. The ones with volcanic complexions, forever one sneeze away from an epidermal Chernobyl. And somewhere, in the THC haze of my subconscious, I knew: one day, they would rise. 

When I read Shane McKenzie's 𝐏𝐮𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬, I knew that day had come. The book slathered itself across my face, seeped into my pores, and whispered, “Behold, the most poetic, putrid, biblical scale revenge story ever conceived.” 

At its festering heart is Kip, a kid whose face is a living, breathing CDC violation, a human pus factory. The bullies called him 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘰𝘢𝘥. But the laws of suffering have a way of mutating. Kip’s body stops being a curse and becomes a literal drug den of divine retribution. The same bullies who tormented him turn into withdrawal-shaking, dignity-evacuated fiends. They get addicted to his pus and want to see it flow like the Nile in biblical times and drink from it.

Yes. 𝙃𝙞𝙨. 𝙋𝙪𝙨.

This isn’t just a revenge tale. This is the social hierarchy collapsing under the weight of its own infected flesh. Kip ascends, no longer prey but a god. And like all gods, he starts to believe in his own divinity. That’s when the horror begins. 

𝐏𝐮𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬 is a splatterpunk hymn to the rejects. Forget every underdog revenge story you've ever read. This is a skin-based 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘤 annihilation. This is 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦 if Stephen King had been force-fed sewer water for a month. It’s David Cronenberg meets a rabid raccoon on bath salt. It’s a death metal concert performed on a stage of infected flesh. You don’t read this book. You 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵 it. 

By the time I reached the final page, I was laughing like a hyena in a burning dumpster, inhaling the fumes of my own moral decay. I considered calling a priest. Instead, I called my facialist. Shane McKenzie has crafted something brilliantly vile, something that should not exist, yet here it is, leaking into your bloodstream with a warning: don't bully the kids with the cysts, because one day, you'll be licking them for a fix. 

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d like to take this opportunity to mention the foods that I’ll never eat again after reading this book. They include custard, rice pudding, mashed potatoes, and cottage cheese. I had to actually focus on my breathing to not vomit, which is rare for me while reading. Now the first half of this book was fairly slow and uneventful, but had a good story of two polar opposite cousins who are best buds braving the awful high school experience that most of remember. Then things just burst (Gross!) out of control and you have some of the most depraved and nauseating behavior that I’ve come across to date. Now there were a bunch of things here, like Kip’s mom, that could have used a huge amount of development, but the focus was to gross out the reader. And the mission was absolutely accomplished, so everything else needed to fall secondary to that. The whole book came across like a softcore splatterpunk, which I had a good time with. It is funny, disgusting, and entertaining through and through, and is an amazing bizarro debut for Shane McKenzie.

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

High school student Kip has a vicious case of acne. His body is engulfed in pulsing pustules.  They make Kip feel kinda funny, but not in a bad way.  Touching them gives him surges of ecstasy.  Unfortunately, Kip's dermatological problems make him very unpopular with his classmates, who taunt and bully him.  But ... what if he could share the blissful blemish euphoria and become popular?  When Kip accidentally expels some gooey zit juice on the hottest girl in the school, something amazing happens.  The girl becomes intoxicated with Kip's ooze, and suddenly The Toad, as Kip has been dubbed, is sought after by the student body. Everyone wants a piece of him.  After they become hooked on his addictive pus, they cannot get close enough to him.  Poor Kip.  I had great empathy for him until he became a chemical fix for his army of addicts.  Being desired all the time can change a shy person.  Power breeds cruelty, and cruelty breeds technicolor explosive body parts.  Author Shane McKenzie is an addictive storyteller, sans side effects (so far).  Pus Junkies will induce pathos, the quest for vengeance, disgust and possibly some projectile vomiting.  I liked it a lot. 

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s not enough bleach in the world that can erase this book from my brain and I’m not complaining about it at all!

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

If it’s white and creamy, I won’t be eating it. I was on the verge of being grossed out the whole time I read it. It was amazing! Honestly though, bizarro is still new to me but it’s captures my attention.

I would say this is also an extreme horror that’s so well written and easy to read. I zipped through it in no time.

[Steph's_Creepy _Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a spot squeezer. I love watching shows like Pimple Popper and my fyp consists of tonsil stones/blackhead removal videos...I know...gross. Let's not open that door.
So when I got my hands on this I thought I'd sail through it with no gastrointestinal upset. Was I wrong? Yup!
The descriptions of acne in here was stomach churning and crunchy BUT the story was addictive as hell as really unique.
I felt so so sorry for the main character Kip and how he had been outcast by his peers for something that he had absolutely no control over but that feeling shifted quickly!
This is a book that you wanna look away from at certain parts but it's just impossible to do because you wanna get to the next juicy zit!

[John The Crippledgimp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this turned out to be way better and way more fucked up than I thought it was going to be. This was a crazy ride. If you are one of those people that watches those pimple popping videos and find it satisfying this book is for you😆😆. Pus junkies is true to its name. It's zits it's pus and it's gross and i recommend this to anyone that likes bizzaro crazy reads cuz this one is up there. I will say it did take a while for this one to get going but once the craziness started it never let up. 4.5 stars for me

[Lindsay Crook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pimple popping.

What a weird and wonderful tale. It started of like any teenage high school story. The smart kid Kip who has terrible spots gets picked on by everyone but his cousin Zac and the girl of his dream. That when the story takes a bizarre turn.
Pus sucking teen junkies. I had a lot of fun reading this it was gross but very entertaining.

[Angel Gelique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come!

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

What starts out as a coming of age story about two cousins attending high school evolves into something else entirely bizarre. The story revolves around Kip and his troubled cousin Zak two teenage boys going through teenage boy's problems. The caveat is Kip has acne. Some terrible acne. The worst case of acne in the entire history of puberty.

If you are adverse to any of the following this book may be disturbing.
1. Extreme sexual situations
2. Extreme violence
3. Extreme political incorrectness
4. Pus

If you replace the word Pus with any addictive drug such as heroine, LSD, ecstasy or all three combined, then you have some idea of the content of Kips pus.

The book evolves into a kind of reverse Vampire novel. Kips offerings become highly addictive to those of his classmates who sample his oozing's. Then the book evolves again into a tale of extreme horror.

This book is not for the squeamish. This book is quite gross, and has quite outdone perhaps anything I've ever red by Mr. Lee. And like a car crash, quite compelling. One can not stop reading.

Be warned.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Shane McKenzie's bizarro debut but don't think for a second that he's sold out or gone soft. While the idea and story seems bizarro this is Shane McKenzie and this book is a total gross out, sex filled, bizarro, violent, gore fest.

The book is about addiction, and then revenge. You have those that are addicted to Toad's pus and you also have Toad addicted to the feeling of being a God and then Toad unleashes hell.

True to form Shane McKenzie may have had every intention of writing a straight up bizarro novel but soon the novel hits splatterpunk territory and that is what makes McKenzie so good. If you've never read one of his books you are in for one helluva ride.

This book is dark, twisted, and if you have a weak stomach you want to stay away from this book. For fans of McKenzie and bizarro this one of those books you have to check out. What happens when you mix bizarro and splatterpunk? You get Pus Junkies.

[Lisa LeStrange · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is stuck in my brain.
Forever.

[Ju$tin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

this was absurd and clever and good.
read it. the end.

[Uptown Horror Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one felt like a bizarro, x-rated version of one of those Disney Channel original movies from the early 2000's. If you're looking for a book with disgusting imagery and gag-inducing scenes - look no further.

[Shaun Meeks · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I had been in the middle of reading another book when Shane McKenzie's Pus Junkies arrived and couldn't wait to pop it open. So I set aside the other book, which had been turning into a chore to read and got right into this. I'm already a huge fan of Shane McKenzie, have yet to be disappointed by anything he has written so far, and once again he delivers. This one is packed full of fun and moments of pure, delightfully disgusting bits, I think it has moved up to be one of my favorites of his.
When I first started it, the main character in it, Kip, is one of those sad and pitiful characters that are usually victims in stories. He's a little bit Carrie, a little bit Brian (from The Breakfast Club) and some of the guys from Revenge of the Nerds. I went to school with a girl like him, someone people called Crater Faced Carrie, so I felt bad for the guy right away. When I started to get introduced to the other characters (his super cool cousin Zak, the asshole jock Chuck and the hot, but seriously messed up Jade), I started connecting them to people I went to school with, and it was easy. The characters are very well thought out and you hate and like the right people.
Then, the story takes a strange twist when Kip follows the advice of his cousin and joins in on Senior Skip Day. I was on the subway on my way home from work and I laughed, groaned and winced on utter disgust at what followed. It was vile, hilarious and one of the best things I have read in years. I have been reading hardcore and Bizarro fiction for years and never has a story made me react quite the way this did. Part of it is the normality that surrounds the absurd. Instead of Shane just writing to shock and gross you out, he writes plausible characters and dialogue, then boom, you're no longer in Kansas and all the Munchkins are drink body fluids.
I also loved the nod to one of my favorite movies from the 80's, Street Trash and how the influence of that movie paints a lovely picture at the end in Kip's house.
If you have never read Shane McKenzie before, this is a great intro to his work. Highly recommended.

[Garrett Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have said this before and I will say it again: a big element of Bizarro is escape artistry. The Bizarro author escapes good taste and escapes all the things they have stacked against them. One of the things a Bizarro writer has stacked against them is the central absurd premise. To make dying of cancer sad is a magic trick roughly as impressive as "pull my finger" or "is that a quarter behind your ear?" To make an eternity selling dildos tragic and loaded with pathos is in the realm of Copperfield, Blackstone and Houdin. (No, I did not misspell Houdini, I mean Robert motherf***ing Houdin). Shane McKenzie has tasked himself with making hallucinogenic acne beautiful and tragic and with merging American Pie and Porky's with a touch of cosmic horror. He's set up a big trick. And he pulls it off. He pulls it off really well. You might very well be repulsed. It's a book called Pus Junkies. That's the kind of thing that grosses people out. But in this case, it's also the kind of thing that makes you laugh and makes you think. It's good. It's really good.

[Nicholaus Patnaude · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is possibly one of the grossest books you will ever read--if, that is, you can make it to the surreal and violent conclusion without burning the book with flammable hand sanitizer and running to the shower with a two gallon tub of soap and a three gallon bottle of shampoo. I read it in about two days.

The writing is precise and direct and the voice feels authentic, even though the premise is nightmarish and disturbingly disgusting: you see this kid Kip's numerous zits contain a pus substance that is a highly addictive drug. And his blood? Well, I won't spoil that surprise...but if you dig the imagery of Lovecraft at his most body-horror-ish, you will love this.

Reading it feels like watching a b-movie (as many books of the bizarro genre); so, while it is not exactly a literary masterpiece, it is pulpy, fast, and fun.

So what's different about this bizarro stuff than your ordinary, run-of-the-mill police-procedural drivel that you can pick up at your local drugstore? Originality. This weird fever dream has never been written before.

[Margaret Hamnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time you think the threshold for grossness has been reached it gets upped and upped and upped. There are so many comparisons to food in this writing that I’m not gonna be able to eat anything even slightly squishy for a while.
The idea was original and I hate to think about where it came from.
Shane is by far one of my favourites and I’m slowly making my way through all his work and it always delivers.

[Hanaa]

I need to fucking read this ASAP

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disgustingly delightful as only Shane McKenzie can do!

[Honey Dy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is disgusting.

Like, truly vile.

Growing up a pimple popper, all I had was a mirror, bad lighting, and very little self-control. So when Shane McKenzie asked if I wanted to read Pus Junkies, my brain said...um...OK!

This was no ordinary tale of a boy growing up with adolescent woes and having bad skin...

NO WAY! We are talking full scale infestations - angry, red, oozing and acne thats virtually alive.

Shane writes like he makes you feel every sore like it’s blooming on your own skin. I gagged. I winced, and yet, curiosity kept me reading...

Because here’s the nasty little secret: it’s also painfully relatable.

There's the shame, the bullying, and literally being the "gross kid" in school, and there's just something painful about wanting to be liked so badly, you'd let people do anything to you...even eat you 🤮🤮🤮

Yep, Shane actually went there!

He went so far as to make the pus edible but here is where the madness begins...

Kip’s pus is a hallucinogenic drug, and suddenly the kid everyone called Toad is the most popular person in school. And once people get a taste? There’s no going back, and at 160 odd pages, this story about addiction spirals...FAST!

🧠 Final verdict:
Its gross, unforgettable, and yet, disturbingly human.

If body horror is your thing—or even if it very much isn’t—Pus Junkies will stick with you like something you can’t stop picking at!

[Daniel Vlasaty · Rating 4 out of 5]

PUS JUNKIES is nasty. Like nasty-nasty. It is a gross out high school drama bizarro story. But it’s also horror. It’s kind of more horror than bizarro. But it’s gross and it’s Shane Mckenzie so you can kind of assume it’s going to be nasty and drippy and a bit unsettling.

Kip has acne. Terrible acne. The worst acne in the history of puberty. It’s so bad that he’s basically a monster. The kids at school call him The Toad. They hate him. They make fun of him. They beat him up. He doesn’t have any friends. He’s alone. His best friend is his mommy. But then his cousin, Zak, moves in with him. Zak’s having trouble at home, at school. Trouble with drugs. His mom’s boyfriend is beating him up. So he moves in with his aunt and his zitty cousin.

Kip thinks things are going to change. He’s got his cousin back. They used to be best friends. When they were kids. Zak’s cool and handsome and far more popular than Kip after only a week at school. Kip was right, though, things are going to change. Things are going to get nasty and dirty.

On Senior Skip Day, Zak convinces Kip to skip and attend a party with the cool kids. One thing leads to another and the prettiest girl in school, Jade, ends up eating a small amount of pus from one of Kip’s zits. (That might be one of the weirdest sentences I’ve ever written – and I’m a bizarro writer).

It turns out Kip’s zit-pus is a strong, highly addictive drug. It instantly turns “users” into raging monsters. Their only reason for living is Kip’s pus. And they’ll do anything to get some more of it.

This book is nutty. It’s funny and gross and not at all for the squeamish. It’s also everything I’ve come to expect from a Shane McKenzie book. There is so much pus and blood and shit and just about every other body fluid here that you almost need to wear a hazmat suit while reading. It basically jumps off the page at you. All the grossness. All the gooey colorful sick.

I loved it. There were times when I felt like I should have been even more grossed out than I already was. Maybe I’m just a sick, desensitized man. But if that’s true then Shane McKenzie is the sickest person ever. He’d have to be to write PUS JUNKIES, right?

[Mavoc · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,75 stars
It wasn't as gross as I hoped for but it was truly enjoyable. The writing was also good.

[Mitch Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotta be honest, the cover hooked me! And this was every bit as bizarre and extreme as I expected.

It’s a quick read that follows the typical nerd/bullying/revenge storyline. It felt like I was watching a Troma movie and that’s not bad. The writing is good. And the plot is about what you’d expect, which is decent.

I didn’t care for some repeated derogatory terms used towards kids with intellectual disabilities and although this was a short book, I was ready for it to end a lot sooner than it did.

So yeah, this is ok read. I’d be interested in possibly reading some of McKenzie’s other works.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.6 stars rounded up. Don't let the cover, or the fact that this is Shane McKenzie's first bizzaro fool you into thinking it is just your typical weird gross out kind of story, this is splatterpunk at its finest. Yeah he stepped the non violent type of gross out level up a few notches to match the blood and Gore levels but that's really the only difference from his past novels. The thing I love about Shane's writing is that even though they are splatterpunk which just means they are heavier on Gore than they are story is that they still have great story and characters. I think Shane has found the perfect balance of character development, story, and splatter, and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pus Junkies represents author Shane McKenzie's first full foray into Bizarro. Though it took awhile for the story to get rolling, once it did it became a fast paced crazy rocket to the finish line. While the story is Bizarro in nature it doesn't lack McKenzie's signature disgusting gore.

I have to admit, I don't think McKenzie should stick with Bizarro. The story fought hard to get where it was going. The bizarro aspects felt forced and the story only began to shine when McKenzie reverted back to his horror style of storytelling.

I admire Shane McKenzie tring to branch into bizarro. The story however feels like he held back or just wasn't fully comfortable in that zone. Not my favorite story from this brilliant horror writer but still holds up as a reasonably good Bizarro story.

[MadameD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pus Junkies by Shane McKenzie is a well-written and original Bizarro story.
It made me laugh out loud while I was trying not to expel my stomach contents because of the grossness of the explicitly described situations.

Imagine the worst case of acne you’ve ever witnessed, exaggerate it tenfold, and you still won’t be close to what poor Kip is experiencing. His life is a nightmare, and even fate is bullying him. Then one day he discovers that the pus from his hundreds of pimples has power, and suddenly, everyone wants him. Kip can’t help himself, he craves love, no matter the cost. Then the madness begins and ends in pus, ecstasy, and gruesome death.

Thanks to this story, I have a new phobia: pus. 🤢

Enjoy!! 😉🤣🤣🤣

[Melanie Catchpole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gag inducing.
Well it would be if I wasn't so used to reading gross disgusting things. I did cringe plenty though and express my disgust with some verbal 'ewws'.
Pretty easy reading for those with strong stomachs.

[Randy Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disgusting but yet I enjoyed every minute of it

[Evillllllyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic! Funny parts of bizarro and body horror galore that actually got really dark.