Sloughing Off the Rot

by Lance Carbuncle

John the Revelator awakens in a cave with no memory of his prior life. Guided along El Camino de la Muerte by a demented madman and a philosophical giant, John sets out on a quest to fill in his blank slate and slough off the rot of his soul. Part dark comedy road trip, part spiritual quest, and part horror story, Sloughing Off the Rot is literary alchemy about John's transformation from repugnant wretch to reluctant hero.

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Adult, Humor

280 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2012

About the author

The Dr. Reverend Lance Carbuncle was born sometime during the last millennium and he’s been getting bigger, older and uglier ever since. Carbuncle is an ordained minister with the Church of Spiritual Humanism. Carbuncle doesn’t eat deviled eggs and he doesn’t drink cheap beer. Carbuncle doesn’t wear sock garters. Carbuncle does tell stories. Carbuncle’s stories are channeled through a pathetic little man who has to work a respectable job during the days in order to feed the infestation of children in his house. Carbuncle's first novel, Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed, his award-winning Grundish and Askew, Sloughing Off the Rot, and his recently released The Unmentionables are sold through Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. More reviews of Carbuncle's books can be found on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterful and shocking story. Lance Carbuncle is a genius. Lance Carbuncle could write about rubber band ligation of hemorrhoids and it would put all other written works to shame. Lance Carbuncle could train monkeys in the deadly art of Krav Maga. Lance Carbuncle is the King of All Authors. I want to ride him, rim him, and give him a reach around with both hands, all at the same time. I love this brilliant man.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A warning to those who laughed their way through Lance Carbuncle's first two bawdy romps. You will laugh through Sloughing Off the Rot too but it will be the kind of uncomfortable laughter that comes from handling donkey bezoars; a object you will be quite familiar with once you finished this bizarre masterpiece.

Carbuncle's new travesty is quite different than anything he wrote before. While the wicked humor is there, as well as the scatological word feast and the multitudes of cultural references from rock lyrics to literary and religious sources, the author has risen to a weird psychedelic form of seriousness; a tale that is a sort of The Wizard of Oz as told by Carlos Castaneda. It is an intense spiritual journey down a red brick road as John the Revelator, a man who wakes up in a cave with no sense of who he is and why he is there, travels through a purgatorial wilderness loaded with creatures like zombie-like Lunkheads and sexually irresistible Blumpkins. John is aided by a group of guides that feels an awful like a id, ego and superego set-up, not to mention the bezoar-puking Alf the Sacred Burro. All of this madness is steered by Carbuncle's manic over-the-top style that isn't afraid to offend and always entertains. Lance Carbuncle has already been proven to be one of the most original writers around. Sloughing off the Slough merely broadens and cements his already infamous reputation.

[11811 (Eleven) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book through Goodreads giveaway and appreciate the opportunity to review it. I was intrigued by the premise and I do like the occasional bizarro but this one didn't do it for me. It was too random and chaotic for me to follow. Judging from the some of the higher ratings for this book, I can only draw a liquor comparison: Some people like brandy, I like scotch. This book was a quality brandy that my underdeveloped palate could not appreciate. It wasn't my thing but it could be yours.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read 11/13/12 - 11/19/12
3 Stars - Recommended to readers with strong stomachs and a sense of humor
Pgs: 125 (eBook)
Self Published - Release Date Unknown

In his third self published novel, Lance Carbuncle takes us inside the head of a comatose man and leads us down the red brick road to redemption.

Our protagonist, John, awakens in a cave with no memory - he has no clue who he is, how he got there, or why this is happening to him. With a voice in his head and a demented madman by his side, he sets out on a dream-like quest to cleanse his soul. Along the way, he picks up Alf the Sacred Burro (long time Carbuncle fans will remember this filthy, lovable little guy), a philosophical giant, and a group of colorful desert indians - all of whom play a special role in John's unusual spiritual journey.

While it's not a story for the weak of heart or soft of stomach, Sloughing Off the Rot does have quite the cheeky sense of humor. Pop Culture references are hidden like Easter Eggs in this incredibly raunchy, slightly pornographic, bizarro mashup of the Bible and the Wizard of Oz. John's quest comes complete with its own red brick road, burning bushes, sleepy field of poppies, and new-wave zombies who will either eat you or gang-bang you. The strange, dreaming landscape is reminiscent of what we're taught to think of as purgatory - that in-between place where you work off your sins to prove you are worthy of living the good life in heaven.

In Carbuncle's hands, though, the inherent good in people is tested in the most hellish and nightmarish ways. A near-complete departure from his previous books, he plays around with salvation and forgiveness and the ability to overcome one's own festering wounds. He toys with man's willingness to persevere. He decorates the path to redemption with some of the most foul and disgusting things I've ever read.

Clocking in at a short 125 pages, I found myself wishing that Lance taken more time to expand on the story - there were times where it felt as though it wasn't as polished as it could have been, where some moments flew by at lightening speed while others seemed to plod along unnecessarily. However, the overall dream-like/ nightmarish setting made it easy for me to forgive those. When we dream, things are not always as clear and linear as we would like them to be, right?

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably closer to 3.5 because, of Carbuncle's books this is probably my least favorite, but still a whole helluvalota fun. If you're into the absurd, if you find characters quoting song lyrics as if they're mystical wisdom hilarious, and if you're not easily made queasy, you need to hop on the icky train, just remember to bring a towel.

This was a crazy, almost fantasy story, some of the jokes got a little repetitious, but for some reason I laughed every time. I was a little confused by the ending, but not enough to ruin the story. Also very curious where the name Android Lovethorn came from.

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one hell of a fantasy adventure tale with plenty of beautifully crude humor, sex, and mind-altering substances. On the flip side, it is also intelligent. There are philosophical elements, soul searching and the quest for answers to life’s big questions. The combination of all of these elements worked very well together. I was grabbed immediately by the humor and weirdness, but happy to stay for the richness and originality of what followed.
John dreams of a voice commanding him to walk 500 miles and to now refer to himself as John the Revelator. He awakes in a cave with no idea where he is or who he used to be. He is instructed to “polish the rod with aromatic balms and oils,” the first of many scenes involving the unusual use of bodily fluids. His journey then begins. Leaving the cave, he hears an out of tune guitar being played by a man named Santiago. Santiago speaks in riddles, odd sayings and song lyrics. This is very irritating to John, who very quickly tires of the man, but needs him as a guide. They are off to a rough start from the beginning. Santiago is one my my all time favorite characters and the narrator in the audiobook does a great job portraying him.
John and Santiago must follow El Camino de la Muerte or the “Red Brick Road” until reaching the villain Android Lovethorn. John must then force Lovethorn to send him back to his previous life, which will not be an easy task. The voice of the burning bush feeds ​John bits and pieces of information about the person he used to be and why he must redeem himself in this other world along the way.
In all, this book was very easy for me to love. The characters and the surroundings they encounter are oddly unique. Their often vulgar names and characteristics are sure to stick with me for a long time. One last thought, if there really are beings called blumpkins I think I would go for a one night stand or two if anyone knows where to get one.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wtf did I just listen to? This was one crazy ass ride down the El Camino de la Muerte. There were some truly gross out and laugh out loud moments for sure.

I would be lying if I said that this one didn’t lose me a couple of times while listening to it in the car, but I seemed able to recover and get back on board with little difficulty…for the most part. There was a whole lot of bizarro going on here. Possibly too much. I don’t even know if that is possible, but it felt like it.

The basic premise here was good and the story itself was written very well. Mr. Carbuncle definitely has skills. If I was more versed in the genre it may have clicked more for me, it just seemed to get a wee repetitive in theme in a few parts and may have been better served (for me) in a shorter format.

I will definitely keep an eye out for more from this author.

*I received a review copy of the audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review and this was it.

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarro novels are so full of nice surprise. I was not expecting anything in particular from that novel and I was treated to an intoxicated potion that oozed fumes of Dante, Cormac McCarthy, Henri Michaux, Antonin Artaud and several others maniacal geniuses. SLOUGHING OFF THE ROT is an epic poem, a Western and a horror novel with religious undertones all wrapped up in the twisted, yet oddly life-affirming journey of a man through pure chaos. I thought it giving it 5 stars, but the onslaught of imaginatively gory situations became a little jarring past midpoint, but it was a refreshing experience nonetheless.

[David Katzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Lance's pre-release manuscript. He writes what he wants and doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks. I stand by my blurb, as follows:

Carbuncle is a writer who gets you in the gut. He writes with a raw energy that tells it like it is, warts and all. In Sloughing Off the Rot, Carbuncle has conjured a fascinating vision, an epic, Biblical quest for identity and meaning. His books are obsessed with our physical, bodily nature, but here he’s managed to fuse the physical with the spiritual, seeking out answers to the big questions. His journey is worth taking.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I beta read this book before it hit shelves. I am just now going through and realizing how uninvolved I became with Goodreads for a while there. Anyway, here's what I put up on Amazon when I read this bitch back in the day:

Carbuncle's writing has always infused the grotesque underbelly of our world with an inherent beauty only a careful eye can perceive, and while Sloughing Off the Rot continues this trend, giving us more of what we've come to know and love in his previous works, Carbuncle turns over a new leaf in his latest, a tale of self-discovery rich with metaphor in the vein of Frank L. Baum & Lewis Carroll . . . then he bursts that vein, infecting the reader with his own unique brand of fantasy. This is not to be missed!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lance Carbuncle is demented and disgusting in all the right ways. Sloughing Off the Rot is a soul-searching journey through a porno set in a festering and diseased version of Oz. Guaranteed, this is not a journey you’ve taken before. Don’t forget to wash your hands when you’re done, because this book is as filthy as it is bizarre.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lance Carbuncle, Sloughing Off the Rot (Vicious Galoot Books, 2012)

When I was about thirty pages into Sloughing Off the Rot, Lance Carbuncle's third and (conditionally) best-so-far novel, he and I (we've known each other since he emailed me out of the blue asking me to review Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked, and Spewed six long years ago now) had a brief conversation about whether his work fits in the bizarro category. Lance doesn't think so. In general, I agree, though when one of the first people you thank on your acknowledgements page is bizarro icon Andersen Prunty, you've gotta figure that the influence is rubbing off at least a bit. But—and this is a very odd thing to say about a book that takes place entirely in a dreamlike alternate universe, to be sure—Carbuncle's work has always seemed a little more rooted in reality than most of the bizarro stuff I've read. In this case, “rooted in reality” includes a number of gratuitous musical references and a very strong Biblical parallel, both things which pretty much guarantee this book is bound to offend pretty much everyone you know—and if that's not more than enough reason to read it, for the love of carrot sticks, what is?

Plot: a guy named John, who adopts the name John the Revelator after a conversation with a burning bush (see where this is going?), loses consciousness one night in the real world and wakes up in a cave, dressed like Jesus in any number of cast-of-thousands Hollywood Biblical epics (including having linens that seemingly cannot be stained). After said burning-bush conversation and meeting up with a slightly (okay, more than slightly) crazy sidekick named Santiago, John starts off on a journey to redeem himself of the sins he committed in the real world. John, you see, is not a nice guy. At all. But, rather like Douglas Quail in Philip K. Dick's Total Recall, John discovers that his actual personality is, well, a pretty nice guy, and he wants to help people. HELLO, DIVINE PLAN! But how to reconcile these two halves of John's personality? For that, he learns, he must confront the Boss Monster in this world—the right reverend Androind Lovethorn, whom John must convince to send him back to the real world of his (Lovethorn's) own free will...

It's a classic quest/redemption tale, made even more classic by the strong Biblical parallels I mentioned before, which include Carbuncle's writing style, which consciously echoes the Old Testament in a number of places. Rather than making this like the unreadable dreck that is the Old Testament, it lends the book a certain gravitas that it might not otherwise have, as long as injecting it with an extra layer of humor if you happened to grow up subjected to the strictures of Mother Church. There are some bits that I found, shall we say, unsettling (going into them in any detail would be a bit of a spoiler, but let's say I found the blumpkins and niksiks to be... objectifying...), but your mileage may vary, and even if it doesn't, I would not in any way say the ultimately minor problems I had with the book should stop you from going and grabbing a copy posthaste. If you are not yet familiar with the wonderfully wacky world of Lance Carbuncle, this is as good a place to start as any—but you can grab any of his three (so far) novels and you will find yourself with a helluva good time on your hands. *** ½

[Joshua Hair · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a...unique novel. I had thought of not reviewing it at all, but I won it in a Goodreads Giveaway so I figured I owed at least that. Although I had never read anything by Mr. Carbuncle, one of his older books was on my list to buy. I'm not sure, however, if it will stay on there after finishing this.

The story itself was interesting enough, but the characters themselves all seemed quite hateful and off-kilter. For instance, one of the main character's first encounters in the book has him get in a wrestling match with a mysterious guitar player who bites part of his ear off and then sends him up a mountain to talk to a God-like entity with a foul mouth.

I'm used to reading some novels that are really out there, but they generally find a way to seem more genuine and somehow more realistic despite still being about mind-controlling ants, a giant bear-man terrorizing a village, etc. In my opinion, Mr. Carbuncle simply did not manage that in Sloughing Off the Rot. The characters were all just a bit too out there and never really seemed real to me.

Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed overall. Perhaps this just isn't my style of novel and there are others out there who would appreciate his work much more, but for me this was a first and probably last attempt at reading Lance Carbuncle.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this from the author, Lance Carbuncle, and I am so glad I did!

Few books can make me laugh out loud within the first page, as I have a pretty strange/dark sense of humor, but when Sloughing Off The Rot accomplished that, I knew I was going to enjoy myself!

If I wasn't won over at that point, which I was (and strangely am almost every time a novel/film is introducing the story with some strange version of sperm, Ichi The Killer anyone?) I would have been won over by the Arthur Brown reference a few pages later.

At 50 pages in I was in love. Lance manages to capture the dark/morbid humor that I crave, the awesome and obscure cultural references that I appreciate and the surrealism that I love!

This is definitely a book that fits into my favorites, which is to say, I wouldn't expect just anyone to enjoy it, and it's weird in the most delightful way possible.
My best summation of what the book feels like....Say Chuck Palahniuk and Haruki Murakami made love while on a Hunter S. Thompsom-esque road trip, taking LSD while listening to "Over The Rainbow" and the works of Divine after having just binge watched John Waters movies, while picketers are lined up at random intervals screaming about God, the Bible and the meaning of life....The resulting love child would be this novel. And what a beautiful, truly unique thing it is!

[Deneen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered where the red brick road in the Wizard of Oz leads? In Sloughing Off the Rot Lance Carbuncle plops you down on the red brick road and gives you a push in the direction of complete insanity. There are no good witches or flying monkeys in this story. Instead, Lance Carbuncle provides a hallucinatory tale of redemption drenched in gore and perversity. Amidst the massacres of brain-worm addled monsters and the characters’ lust for sexual release with creatures called blumpkins (and niksiks, blumpkins’ completely repulsive relatives), Sloughing Off the Rot has, at its stinky core, a message of salvation and the nurturing of the inherent goodness in each of us. As with his other books, Lance Carbuncle slaps his reader in the jaw with a deranged, sometimes vulgar and almost obscene, tale that still captures the reader’s imagination and makes one root for the main character. Perhaps his best book to date, Sloughing Off the Rot is a scary, funny, philosophical tale that is a huge departure from his other books. And though the subject matter is different, there can be no mistake that Sloughing Off the Rot is a Lance Carbuncle book. His style comes through loud and clear.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Stephen King's DARK TOWER SERIES made sweet funky love to Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD the bastard child that results would be Lance Carbuncle's SLOUGHING OFF THE ROT. Don't let the comparisons fool you though, this book is a very unique spirit. Carbuncle weaves horror, fairy tale, comedy and pop culture into a story about rehabilitation.

The writer has a knack for storytelling. This story depends on hiding the true intents of plot elements. I find a lot of stories can lose me when they try this tactic but this story keeps drawing you along while keeping you in the dark. The result is a wonderful and perfect ending.

This book also contains a villain who should be recognized as one of the all-time greats. Android Lovethorn rivals Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort or Randall Flagg as one bad mutha. Read this story for him alone.

If The Wizard of Oz got darker it would have become SLOUGHING OFF THE ROT. This story id a little bit of everything that most can relate too. It is above all smart and you can never go wrong with smart.
This book was reviewed on Books, Beer and Bullshit Podcast. Check out Episode 15 for an interview with Lance Carbuncle and further insights into the story

Http://booksbeerbullshit.podbean.com

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its the Wizard of Oz on crack. A mind bending tale of hallucinations of John. Who wakes up in a cave with no memory. Following the red brick road. With a guitar playing man turns out to be a heroic event.

At some points I had no idea what Lance was gooping together but as I read on I figured out the sloughing of the rod. This is my second Lance Carbuncle novel both being a helluva ride.

Some of the characters names were very unusual like; Two-Dogs-Fucking, Throws Like A Girl and Three Tooth. It was like some messed up Indian tribe from parts unknown.

If you want some bizarre fantasy with a horror to bash you in the head. Then find your self tangling with some new bug species "Lunkheads" then read "Sloughing off Your Rod"

[Byron 'Giggsy' Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is Sloughing Off the Rot like? Take 2 cups of Stephen King's The Gunslinger and mix in 1 cup of each of the following 3 films: Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo, Lance Mungia's Six-String Samurai, and George Englund's Zachariah. Add 2 tablespoons of The Old Testament, 1 tablespoon of Stephen King's The Stand and 2 teaspoons of cumin. The cumin is crucial, don't forget it.

Intrigued? Then go read it.

[Nathan Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea how to put it into words what I just read... Wow. Just wow. Thanks, I think, Lance for this acid trip of a Bible referenced Wizard of Oz with maybe a little Dark Crystal mixed in? Or Labrynth? Regardless, this was a fast read that kept my interests mostly bc of the insanity of what was taking place. I just had to know what was going to happen next, regardless of how perverse or disgusting it was. And Two Dogs Fucking? Seriously kid, just admit you like it haha
Anyway, def thankful to lance for sending me a copy of this book and i guess I'm gonna have to read the other two books now. I mean, how could I not!?

Which one first tho, suggestions?

[Arnav Melendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a poignant tale for one who enjoys tongue-in-cheek humor sometimes in the most grotesque ways. Combine the Bible with the Wizard of Oz, toss in some zombie-like creatures and a person who realizes he must find redemption, goodness of human kind, and the ability to not only like himself but also forgive himself of his past transgressions (that he cannot rightly recall) all while his body is in a coma and you realize you are in for one helluva ride. Part nightmare and part acid trip, follow the red brick road to see where it leads.

I will be reading other books by this author!

[Gregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jizz-critters

[Joe Noto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very crude, gross, crazy, insane, wild fantasy story. Not for your mom or your friends that enjoy wholesome Hallmark movies and think that Law and Order is too obscene. This is for those that enjoy immature, adult, crude humor like The Boys on Amazon Prime.

When I was 4 pages in, I was thinking, "WTF is this? This is shocking and batsh*t." I decided to keep going purely fueled by "what shocking thing is going to happen next?" and pretty soon, I was 60 pages in and actually quite entertained. Though the answer is yes, if you are at the 4th page now, the grossness continues throughout. Some it is so obscene it is funny. As I read it, I imagined old 80's adult animation of like a druggy, mindtrip, fantasy in a desert. Seemed like the author wrote freely and had a lot of fun with it.

The last 60 pages are very different. The tone and story changes completely to a Frodo and Sam perseverance to the bad guy kind of story. It gets more serious and less wild and loose as the story tries to end. The end wasn't great, but wasn't bad. 3.5 stars

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild ride down the path of the dead! I read and rated The Unmentionables by this author a while back and this book impressed me just as The Unmentionables did, just in a different way. I claimed with The Unmentionables that the author did a fantastic job adding humour to the more grotesque parts of the work to make it manageable for all; this one can only be swallowed by the most stretched of throats. Caution is thrown to the wind with perversion in this one, but if you can handle sick humour you will still be cracking up much like myself. I have read a few reviews that state this one was hard to follow or random...it literally follows a linear plot (follow the path) so I feel like maybe they simply are slightly illiterate. What I enjoyed the most was how the author made use of allusion as literal jokes throughout the book, I have rarely seen that and appreciated its frequency. To summarize if you can handle some sick shit than read this it is worth your time.

[Colton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this book.

[Amanda M. Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sloughing Off the Rot is the third novel by Lance Carbuncle an author who, as time passes, I can think of few others to which I can compare. Wildly unusual and inappropriate his books are if not for everyone, certainly just what the reader looking for something bizarre and interesting might need. I have enjoyed his first two novels and this third one is also well worth your time.

What is Sloughing Off the Rot about? You could reduce it to an exploration of the uncanny landscapes of the mind (after all many of those things we dream about are strange and if we were awake we could never explain them while in dream they are perfectly reasonable)more specifically a strange trip into the mind of a man injured and festering in his own rot. However in the end it's a lot more fun to just take it at face value as a wild foray into a strange world where everything can happen and little pieces of Oz, Seuss and many other worlds happen to take up residence.

SOR is a vivid, colorful and raunchy ride into a world where one man will come to affect the fate of hundreds of strange, desolate and insane people. That man is John the Revelator who is just as confused about why he matters so much as he is about what he was before he came here. Walking El Camino de la Muerte he discovers many strange men who all tell him he has to follow the path and many, many different pieces of advice on how to do just that. He will also encounter the likes of niksiks, blumpkins, lunkers and many strange and unusual variations on the animals of our own world. All of this he is told is part of him, some strange place that inhabits the real John lying sick in a bed in another world.

I think in the end it's less the battle he faces than the people he meets on that journey that end up being so fascinating. That and that John himself takes most of the strangeness for granted and goes on down that road anyway.

[Marjorie Frum · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you get when you dump the scent of a few pages from L Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, pour in an essence of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, cram a healthy dose of pickled King James Bible, add a sprinkling of echoes of the works Jack Kerouac, top the whole conglomeration off with the brain-baby of one twisted, yet creative genius, toss it into a turbo-blender and then pour it out through Mr. Carbuncle's fingers onto the blank page? One amazing journey. This new book stays true to the style of Lance Carbuncle. It's dotted with allusions to things the reader may or may not be familiar with; little Easter eggs hidden in the pages of a deliciously twisted story. If you're familiar with the works of the great Lance Carbuncle, you'll know it's not for the faint of heart, those who have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or those who like to eat while reading. Sloughing off the Rot is a new turn for Carbuncle and an interesting change. This one starts with a blank slate and the book is all about the journey. If you're willing to follow some interesting, if not terribly insane, characters on a journey of becoming, this book is for you. Lance Carbuncle grabbed me on the first page and didn't let me go until the very end. That, to me, is the sign of a great storyteller. And Mr. Carbuncle is a phenomenal storyteller. Thank you, Lance Carbuncle for opening your brain and allowing me to step into your mind once again. I look forward to your next offering.

[Arthur Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I was given the audiobook version in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed it so much that I have since purchased the ebook version.

Having already read Lance Carbuncle's first book, Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed, I thought I was prepared for Sloughing Off the Rot. This book is so much darker than his first. Calling this book bizarre doesn’t really do it justice. It is profane, silly, at times gross, goofy, profane, dark, clever, weird as hell, familiar, foreign, touching, confusing, profane, and hilarious. I loved it, but would be quite selective about who I recommended it to. If you like to laugh and are not bothered by occasional (alright, frequent) profanity and “weird”, this book is awesome.

I particularly enjoyed the occasional inclusion of song lyrics and references to 70s pop-culture. The narrator did a great job, and voicing Santiago as Wolfman Jack was genius.

[Norm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quick little read is like an LSD-laced Dr. Seuss-meets-Hunter S. Thompson tumble into a rabbit hole, where you roll out the side of the hill, trip and face-plant into something slimy and putrid.

I'd read previous books by Carbuncle, so I had some preconceptions of what to expect.

Forget that. My preconceptions totally let me down. This was a strange tale with weird creatures, strange settings, twisted sexual eroticism and words I thought Carbuncle made up (until I looked them up afterward). Though, to be fair, most of the words I didn't know were exotic musical instruments, so being admittedly musically inept I didn't feel so bad about not knowing them.

It all kicks off when John the Revelator wakes from a coma (well, not exactly, but bear with me) to find himself in a cave where he proceeds to create ten thousand creatures by ... well, having sex with himself. Similar stuff happens after this, but you realize right from the start what you're getting into.

If can you read the first chapter without putting it down in revulsion, you'll be rewarded because Carbuncle doesn't pretend to write happy, joyful bubbly stuff.

Sloughing Off the Rot isn't for everybody, but I enjoyed it. Yet, strangely, I felt I had to take a shower afterwards.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reverend Carbuncle has done it again. John the Revelator starts off as a blank piece of worn out paper and develops into this fascinating character with a cohesive personality that you end up rooting for (which I don't usually do, as I tend to side with the secondary characters, most of the time).
The story is insanely bizarre but hides what I think is a powerful message of self-discovery and balance underneath. Those crude, disgusting moments other readers have mentioned before me serve to accentuate particular situations and help lighten up the mood at times; I honestly didn't think they were offensive at all, quite the opposite. They also didn't feel forced as what happens with other works of this type.
The writing is phenomenal, but what else is new? Alf the Sacred Burro, that's what. Every time I read that name I laughed out loud, it's so simple yet so perfect. And such an endearing character, too. Santiago and -particularly- Joad were amazing supporting characters and I have a special place in my heart for Two-Dogs-Fucking.
It was a hell of a ride and everything I hoped for and more. Thank you, Reverend, once again: I feel enlightened and an all-around better human being thanks to your almighty awesomeness.

[Henri Moreaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where to begin...

The blurb about this book sounded unique and intriguing, and sweet baby jesus it certainly is unique. For the purposes of this review the rating will be based on creativity, originality and writing quality.

The story is that of the road to redemption - a man wakes up in a strange place and has to cross a strange land filled with strange things in order to absolve himself of past deeds whilst overcoming present adversity.

If you've ever felt your books lacked homosexual gang rape, anal fisting, beach ball like organisms covered in supple breasts & vaginas which characters copulate with whilst drinking milk from the lactating breasts, or just all over general weirdness then you're in luck this book will solve that issue for you!

The author certainly has spun a creative and unique image of the fictitious realm, however I found myself wondering if he kept burning the envelope of good taste out of a need to be edgy, artistic or just because he could.

It's well written, certainly original, but personally not my cup of tea.