Chaindevils

by Matthew Mitchell

Take heed, and smoke what you got…

In the far-distant post-apocalypse of rural America, an embattled company of chainsaw-wielding hillbillies are set forth by Her Majesty of the Ozarks on a quest for precious methamphetamine.

Beset by religious zealots, militarized sex workers, and their own addictions, the CHAINDEVILS slash their way across the drug-addled border between Missouri and Arkansas.

Embrace the chaos with Matthew Mitchell's debut novella, which tears off pieces of horror, grimdark fantasy, dying earth fiction, and drug literature, and smashes them together in hazy, mud-coated ways unlike anything you've ever seen.

Genres: Horror

Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2023

Reviews

[Tyler Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chaindevils is the best book I’ve read this year and it’s not even close. This was such a wonderfully violent, hazy dream. Initially when I saw this book announced I had a feeling it would read like a mixture of all the scenes with the Black Skulls from Mandy mixed with space marines from 40k. I kept thinking about the book and my expectations rose despite trying to temper them from disappointment. I was not disappointed. My expectations were met, surpassed, and gleefully torn apart. This book is more than I imagined it would be and days after finishing it I can’t stop thinking about it. I’ll be recommending this over and over - if you’re reading this review and you haven’t gotten your copy yet then take this as my highest endorsement. Buy Chaindevils. Read Chaindevils. Suffer sweetly within its pages and thank me later.

[Madison McSweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

MAD GOD meets Blood Meridian, a seamless fusion of ultraviolence, immersive worldbuilding, and mysticism.

[Rick Claypool · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. The spare prose and succinct violence and new weird things always happening in this book are extremely my jam. Officially Mitchell-pilled -- I can't wait to see what he does next.

[Tony Anuci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how to describe this book, but it is my type of read. Weird, insane, and brilliant are just a few words that come to mind. I loved it!

[Jeremy Espinoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feels like a drug fueled fever dream of Warhammer 40k and Fallout.

[C Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book of the year. The subject matter may be heavy but the writing isn’t. It’s breezy, fun and spiced with madness. Through every gory description, through each crazy character you feel an enjoyment seeping out of the writer. Vomiting us out into a world rich with mayhem, murder, myths and legends that offers no promises that anyone will survive.

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wild fever dream of a book. violent, vile, and gross with a whole lot of bloody heart throughout. This was a read I couldn’t put down reading like a folk tale of the ozarkian chain devils and apocolpytic America. This was such a fun read. I really enjoyed my time with it and was so happy I found it on Twitter. Weird punk books is great

[Books For Decaying Millennials · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOT A PAID REVIEW:
Somewhere outside the Tromaville city limits lies a neglected forbidding structure. Part Truck-Stop, part Buffet and Strip Club (managed by Leatherface and The Greasy Strangler). The Denizens are the actions figures we played with as children. The motley plastic hoard sent down drain pipes and stranded amongst the grass and dog turds of forgotten yards. Here there is passion, pain, rage, terror and tragedy. Here...the air is thick with story and the siren call of a rich and tortured world. Author Matt Mitchell (part of the Void Collective) has penned this tale and released it like a feral hound into the woods of your imagination. Only, that's not actually a dog, and it's sporting a massive erection festooned with spikes. From Its mouth seeps a rank drool. In place of a bark or howl, scarred vocal chords grind out a verbal slurry of GWAR songs....Best go read CHAINDEVILS before this "hound" sinks its teeth into you too!
-
I received CHAINDEVILS as part of the Weird Punk Books 2023 SubClub release

[James Krstulovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book puts paid to the trite complaint that it's a crime for a story to only have 'unlikable' characters. If our protagonist(s) are 'morally grey' it is the murkiest murk murk of grey.

Ceaselessly repugnant but compulsively readable.

Weird, violent, and imaginative.

Casually peels back layer after layer of its world but never so much that it's stripped of its mystique. Expertly lean, impactful worldbuilding on display here.

Others have referenced Mad Max and Warhammer 40K, but it's so much more gonzo. It's more like the Italian or Filipino knock-offs of Mad Max by way of Takashi Miike. And if we're talking a there-is-only-war sorta grim future fantasy, then I want to riff on Steven Erikson's quote re: Glen Cook's The Black Company being like "Vietnam War fiction on peyote": Chaindevils is like a meth'd up Black Company.

[Grant Wamack · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read this year. Think Mad Max, Mad God, and Warhammer 40k thrown into a hillbilly gumbo and you have the Chaindevils. A bleak post-apocalyptic fever dream, rich with dark imagery, survival, and immersive world-building. I could have read 800 more pages in this book, but this whetted my appetite and left me satisfied. Mitchell is an author to watch and I can't wait to see what he conjures next.

[Ivy Grimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gory and raucous weird fiction, Chaindevils is one of the most outrageous stories I've ever read. If you'd like a taste of A Clockwork Orange with a Southern accent, Mad Max on meth, and Blood Meridian with chainsaws, then you'll want to dive into this vivid and original desolation envisioned by Matthew Mitchell.

[Sam Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wholly original. In a world of reboots and remakes, Chaindevils offers something original. It's ambitious and was such a blast of fresh air. Check this out if you're willing to take a chance on something different. It may or may not land for you, but you won't regret it.

[Joshua Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gruesome poetry.

I really liked this. The absolute mental world that Matthew has created appeals to me in so many ways, and his way with words just lets the story bleed out.

I truly cannot wait to see more from this world if Matthew would kindly oblige.

[NerdyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The cover art is better than the book. Had some good parts and good bones but really there was no plot and the ending completely lost track and fell flat imo.

[Lucian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Review to come.

[Phillip Keeling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going to be honest: I wasn’t ready for this to be a masterpiece.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moderately entertaining in parts, but too disjointed to really function as a story.

[Ellen Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the reasons I don’t like this book are the exact reasons someone else will love it.

I’m a prude. I’m self aware. Mad Max meets more meth. Violence was fine, characters interesting, world building colorful, however the dialogue took me out of it.

[Danny Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chaindevils fucking rocks. It's a meth-fueled, heavy metal romp through Missouri and Arkansas, a series of chainsaw dismemberments, but it's much more than that, and Mitchell has created a wholly unique protagonist, at once deplorable in his bloodlust and sympathetic in his circumstances. This book has made me a MM fan for life. Can't wait for whatever is next.

[Zack Wiggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

The word of mouth culture of the Ozarks mixed with the war-crazed action of Warhammer 40k and a setting so grim and drug fueled it feels right out of The Road. Every sentence seems to shock and add another layer to the world Mitchell throws you in