Joel

by Kayla Stevenson

Joel has been long single and just craves another human attention, but something is wrong with his world perspective. Which version is the real him? Can you stand reading long enough to decide? Is he just a poor little divorcee trying to make his way in this world or is Joel the scary version that haunts others nightmares. No matter what you see the truth will always be, Joel just really loves people.

Genres: Horror, Splatterpunk

37 pages, Paperback

Published July 18, 2023

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few thoughts on this...as a foodie, a horror junkie, and someone who just published a book that involved cannibalism and such last year...this really did it for me. The story was kept extremely simple, which was wonderful, and stuck to Joel and his, seemingly, dueling personalities throughout. It was vulgar and gory and everything that the cover promised. And this felt really self-contained, too. Usually, I struggle with short stories, as they leave me wanting more, but this was the perfect length. Kayla Stevenson made the most out a short shelf life and, as a new reader of hers, I am absolutely looking forward to seeing her other works.

[renee w · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reminded me if Stephen king was to try his hand at Extreme horror. A 40 page book that has 30 pages of repetitive details.

[Sherij · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐
So good! The format was incredibly insightful and unique and keeps you reading.
The story itself is absolutely disgusting...and amazing.
Really fun read, but VERY descriptive, so reader beware.

[luckykarmatx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truly a vile book, and not one to read during a meal. Splatterpunk fans will have alot of fun with this one!

[gee ☽ (IG: momoxshi) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joel has been single and alone for far too long. He spends his days on dating apps, chatting up and meeting up with women who don't stay long. But Joel is very much an unreliable narrator and what he's really doing with the women in reality is far more sinister.

+

Interesting premise but without much plot, it's just there more for shock value (then again it is just around 40 pages and I got it for free during the Halloween Stuff your Kindle event so it might be unfair for me to expect more). Writing (and proofreading) could have been better though.

[Mrsgmamma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joel is having problems finding women to date. Joel didn’t understand what was wrong with him, he thought he was a catch (he even knew how to cook decently). Joel used dating apps to try to match up with women, but deep down Joel was far from the perfect man. Joel has a darker and sinister side to him.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the style of the book and that’s what kept me reading.

[The_5ft_reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahhh joel, those first few pages almost got me,I almost felt bad for poor old joel lol A gory quick little read

[Yvonne (the putrid Shelf) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Ultimately, I wasn't sure how to rate this one. It took me entirely too long to finish it-mainly due to the fact that the poor grammar, sentence structure and lack of an editor kept taking me out of the story. I know how incredibly hard it is to get your work out into the wild, but in order to present your work in its best form, it really needs to be edited. It's a real shame because this story had a huge amount of potential.

Joel appears to be a character with multiple personalities. One - he lives a relatively normal life, he's a divorcee, has lost his job but is trying to get back on the dating horse. He's meeting ladies for dates and is enjoying getting to know them.

His other personality is that of a cannibalistic serial killer. He lures women back to his home and kills them, eating their remains. I do think the separation of these two personalities could have been more seamless and I was just left a bit disappointed.

[Veronica ☠️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly the type of sick shit I love! Poor Joel lives a sad life. He wife left him, he's lonely, and doesn't really leave the house. He's gone on several dates but they just never call him back ....

.......

Joel is delusional! Lol Joel is in fact an awful cannibal and he just isn't aware of it.....yet. This was disgusting but yet scratched my itch so well! I truly love when an author will throughly describe in detail what everything sounds like, smells like, taste like, etc and this author nailed that! Some scenes were so gross but so well written

I did enjoy seeing this delusional side of him. Watching Joel battle his mental health (delusion) was so fun to read, I want more of this story! If you have the stomach, read this! If you love reading about cannibalism, then you'll eat this right up like I did 😏

[Gabrielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've rewritten this a few times. My first review was fairly harsh and I'm better than that so I'll try again.

I understand the premise, and I like the idea that this story tried to portray. It has so much potential to be grand, but... it falls flat for a handful of reasons. Wordy repetition, incorrect grammar and spelling, a couple contradictions and inconsistencies with the backstory of "good" Joel, and the ending seemed to have the bulk of the plot explanation when I feel it should have been laced throughout the story. I feel with more revision and editing this story would have hit it out of the park, but in its current state, it's rough to read which takes away from the story itself.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I felt sorry for Joel, but no…fuck Joel.

[Jenny Toupin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never written a one star review before. But this honestly should be delisted and edited by the author. It just isn’t fair to have a work for sale that is so underdeveloped. There are either grammatical errors, spelling errors, or typos in every single sentence. The formatting is awful and there are random sections that are bold and some that are not.
I want to reiterate that my rating is not at all because of splatter and gore. I give books in this genre, the benefit of the doubt if they have bad reviews.
The amount of errors made it impossible to follow any type of story. There are just scenes of Joel being a cannibal, and then, for some reason, having a multiple personality maybe?
If you are the author reading this, please don’t take this as a discouragement not to write. Definitely continue your passion. But please do not continue to have this book for sale until you edit it.

[WTF did I just Read Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whiplash of the utmost disgusting and vile you can imagine.
This story may be short but was long enough to make me decide to be a vegetarian and dent any snacks I had previously decided to eat.
Not for the weak of stomach.

[Siobhan Falen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joel is an average divorcee who is looking for love through online apps and periodic dates and he's just not finding something that sticks. Maybe it's his too nice demeanor, his perhaps a touch bit larger build, or it could have something to do with the fact that Joel is an unreliable narrator.

Read forward at the risk of SPOILERS!!!
*
*
*
Joel has two sides. The nice Joel who's telling this lovely fairytale of trying to date and this other side of Joel that's well, eating people. Not even cooking them, just chomping on them on his table, enjoying the bits and pieces, and even though he can barely move from his couch or bend over, is somehow catching his dinner on a regular basis.

I couldn't decide if it was split personalities we were being exposed to, denial, or just weirdness, but I was interested in more. I think, to avoid simply being a shock factor story, this would have been better developed in a longer story instead of squished into such a short read.

There were also inconsistencies and questionable hunting tactics that made me scratch my head. For example, how is he hunting this often in the same area, because he's too large to wander far, and no one's beginning to catch on? He reeks, is slow, cumbersome, so big he can barely fit through his door, makes noise with every movement, and eats people weekly... anyway, seems like someone might take notice of him and his hungry habits.

Now, despite needing to suspend my belief, I did appreciate the storytelling. He's monstrous in his appetite and his desire to find love is no less motivating than any other's. And, I appreciate he overall kept his grisly actions reserved for the dead and not the living. Not sure how comfortable I would have been on the num numing of live bits.

If you enjoy, though enjoy always seems such a relative term, if you read extreme horror, I would recommend this. But if you don't read extreme and can't handle very graphic cannibalism, might want to read other horror.

[✟⛥☠︎︎~ Kelli ~☠︎︎⛥✟ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m so sorry but I DNF’d at 40%

I can’t read it with how many typos, structural sentence errors, repetition and grammar problems. It’s really difficult to enjoy the story with such bad editing.

The premise is amazing and the idea was shaping up to be an awesome book, but it really needs editing. Sometimes it felt like the book wasn’t even English, just poorly translated english. The errors were in pretty much every sentence and at first I was highlighting the problem to report to the editor to help, but then it felt like homework it was that often. I wasn’t even able to stay on the story.

Please please take this down and edit it, develop it and bring it back. I would absolutely love to read it then ☺️
It’s absolutely not fair taking people money for something that’s not ready for sale.
Thankfully mine was on KU.

Sorry to be negative

[Laura Bilodeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style used in this story was definitely unique, I liked the dual perspectives and it certainly kept me hooked. Some minor grammar and wording errors were distracting at times but it didn’t take away from the story.
Joel is a lonely and unforgettable character, and definitely the main character in his own demented reality. This book was VERY graphic so if you have a weak stomach beware, not many books can make me woozy but this one certainly did. (Although eating some bbq wings during his “pork skin” scene probably didn’t help matters). I enjoyed this book, but as others said some parts were repetitive for sure, but Joel’s mental health definitely plays a part in that redundancy.

[Ryan Rains · Rating 3 out of 5]

Due to the compound-complex sentence structure, this novelette was difficult to comprehend and engage with. I considered rating this book a DNF, but I do not want to be one of Harrison Phillip’s reviewers in the book “Triggered.” Anyway, the concept of this book was quite intriguing. From my interpretation, Joel believes he is an awesome and upstanding guy. However, the truth is that he is a sick and depraved maniac. Joel believes he is going grocery shopping, but he is actually harvesting the remains of his latest victim. As a result of the book's original and interesting premise, I am awarding this book a generous 3-star rating. Overall, it was a difficult read, but I ended up enjoying it.

[Shennelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really rated this 1.5 (however I typically round up).

This is a splatterpunk book, so if that isn’t your thing, this book really wont be your thing. This is the first time I’ve encountered this author.
The details themselves were very visual and they did a good job of making my stomach roll. There were a few errors in the book that caused me to pause because the wording was confusing, like using her instead of here, which doesn’t sound like much but it throws off the mood for me.

This does have an interesting concept of two perspectives with one individual, one being a monster and the other being a normal person both trying to get over the divorce.
If you read playground, you’ll love this book. If you couldn’t get past the first forty pages of playground, don’t even bother.

[Christain Meshell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this completely blind, I love a good splatterpunk so I was mentally prepared to have all my limits pushed…and this did just that. It was descriptive to the extent you would expect from a SP. If you’re looking for something that you can’t visualize in your head, this is not it. Blood, gore, etc not to mention having your mental health checked before you walk the line of what’s real and not real. As always, trigger warnings are your friends. If you’re triggered easily this is not your average horror, this is extreme horror it’s meant to press every boundary possible and make you question everything.

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good concept for an extreme horror story, but dear god, I was BEGGING for an editor the entire time I was reading. The author’s lack of understanding of punctuation was almost more horrific than the cannibalism. Plot holes, inconsistencies, and repetitive sentences galore…almost impressive for a story under 40 pages. I’m glad I got this for free during a Stuff Your Kindle event. This really shouldn’t be for sale in the state that it’s in. The ideas are there, but the quality of the writing makes it impossible to enjoy. Don’t even get me started on the shitty AI cover that I didn’t how to clock a few years ago when I downloaded this.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did enjoy this short book and enjoyed the writing I did find it somewhat repetitive, the first 5 or 10 pages were really great and hooked me after that it was all a little unnecessary and repetitive, then the last few pages were awesome, I just feel there could have been more story/character progression, I would read more of this authors work as I'd be interested to see what they could do with a longer book. I would not recommend to people with violence/torture/ triggers as it is a very graphic book.

[Cecelia Lamonte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this book during the stuff your kindle Halloween event for free. Thought it was an interesting concept, however the book was short which wasn’t initially a problem, but the writing goes on and on with little to no action or reward to the reader. It gets repetitive, the grammar and spelling made it hard to follow. As I read on it felt more like a young author who was angry at an ex and taking it out on them through a grotesque character. I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I was let down. I might give the author another shot eventually.

[Maritza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this filled with body horror and gore? Yes. Is there a story? Meh that’s questionable. Was it filled with typos? Yes!! Was it repetitive? Absolutely.
We follow Joel’s descent into madness. I really liked how in the beginning the story switched font to show the difference between sane Joel and insane Joel and how towards the end, the fonts combined when he realized he was nuts. Idk read this for its gross factor not for a story 🤷‍♀️

[Brenda Frueh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, if you want my honest opinion, I thought this book was gross. I don't usually read scary/horror books, but my daughter is devouring books (much like Joel with people lol) and I'm screening books for her to read.

I wish there was more to the plot besides chomp, hunt, chew. I LOVED the split mentalities. I think the author could have delved into this much MUCH more, and made this a truly awesome book.

Overall, not bad.

[David Swisher · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very interesting premise for this extreme horror, but it was maybe the most poorly executed story I've read. It's riddled with syntax issues and other editorial/grammer problems, it's very repetitive, the story contradicts itself at times, and there isn't really any plot to speak of.

If you just want to read some absolutely vile stuff then this could be for you as long as you don't care about the aforementioned issues. It certainly delivers on the nasty!

[Carly: o)Odell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost stopped reading because of how many grammar and spelling errors. Literally almost every page had a run on sentence, misspelled words, the wrong version of a word being used, little to no punctuation, it was truly painful go get through. I felt like I was doing one of those assignments in elementary school where you correct the grammar and add punctuation. The storyline and imagery were both very good though

[heyyoshell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.25
I went into this book blind and I think that is the best way to do it.
Without giving it away, the premise of the writing style here I really enjoyed, a few pages in you think one thing and then it completely flips on it's head. However it was repetitive in areas and I would have liked to have known more about the wife and what happened in their marriage, as the ending felt a little random to me.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting premise, but the execution needs work. Joel is a lonely man who may just be out of his mind. This is sort (40 pages) but there isn’t much plot. It might be good for someone just starting out with extreme horror, but I would love to see some more revision done and the story expanded. I’d be interested in more of Joel’s backstory and how he became who he is.

[Kwee Ayu Hapsari Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite like the premise and the two perspectives there. It gives a glimpse how different a person's inner thoughts to the reality perceived through 3rd party perspective. The only downside for me is the ending and storyline, it is pretty much predictable.

The book cover is amazing, I started this one only based off that.