Jason is having a midlife crisis, but not the kind where you go buy a boat or motorcycle. He’s been binging porn and meeting up with casual encounters at a nearby motel for months, and it just isn’t enough anymore. After scheduling another hookup, he picks up a hitchhiking teenage girl on the side of a desolate road. What first seems like an opportunity for him to take advantage of her, quickly turns on its head when he realizes she is the real predator.
"An edge-of-your-seat, tension-filled ride that will have you regretting every wrong thing you've ever done." Rayne Havok, author of the Killstreme series
"Stockton brings us a brutal page-turner that doesn't go where you expect it to. Baby and Sassy are names you won't soon forget!" - Jason Nickey, author of Rural Decay
Megan Stockton is an indie author who lives in rural Middle Tennessee with her husband and two children. She primarily writes, horror, thriller, dystopian, and science fiction/fantasy novels that are character-driven and immersive. She is known for delivering works that are raw, thought-provoking, brutal, and cinematic.
Impulse is an extreme horror for fans who love the dark side of humanity. Torture, humiliation, and SA. Not usually my thing but the writing was great, the characters were believable, and the horror was real.
4.5⭐️ This was REALLY GOOD revenge horror. I hated the MMC within the first two chapters and wondered where this was going (I went in blind). Man it was so so good! I had to re-read some cringeworthy scenes to get that extra chill on my arms from how gross they were 😅 So good!!
This was my first read by Megan Stockton and damn girl you know how to write an Extreme Horror story!
Impulse follows Jason, a man in his 50's, a teacher and a total scumbag if you want my honest opinion. He's unhappy in his life with his high school sweetheart and two daughters. He was once infatuated with his wife until she became "fat" and stopped taking care of herself, according to him anyways. He tries to trick his wife by claiming he works overtime but really he goes off to meet with other women. He even has the audacity to use her car instead of his! IKR? ugh. Well this particular night he is in for a rude awakening.
If you love Extreme Horror then please give this one a go. I'm looking forward to checking out more works by this author in the near future!
“I want you to realize what you are. You’re a fucking disgusting piece of human garbage.”
As soon as I opened my kindle and saw the dedication, I was fucking SOLD. But we aren’t here to review dedications… however, I’m sure as hell going to highlight part of it. 👇🏼
“This one's for the girls. If you need an alibi, you were with me all night watching movies. If you need help moving furniture, I know a professional.”
So yeah, when I quote a dedication, which I rarely do, that author usually sky rockets to the top of my list. 🫣 And Stockton absolutely did just that with this one. 🫶🏼 (She also has a Buffalo Bill reference in here, so a ton of points for that too).
Anyway, this is one of my favorite parts about going into a book blind. Realizing it’s exactly what you need, when you need it, and not even know it until you finish. This book couldn’t have come at a better time, and I’m so freaking here for it. The feminine urge to just rage out on all the creeps and scumbags is so strong after this one. 🤌🏼
I’ve read Stockton’s work in a couple anthologies before, but this was my first time reading a standalone and damn… I see why she’s so loved around here, not only for who she is as a person, but for how much of an amazing writer she is as well. I knew anything I chose by her would be a good read, but this book fucking hit, and I’ll be honest… I wasn’t expecting it to be as unhinged and brutal as it was. Even I gagged/squirmed/held my breath a couple times. 😅 (I mean that as a compliment—I tend to read/review the more chaotic horrors. 😝)
Typically in a review I would praise certain aspects of the book whether it be the tone, writing style, character development etc. But with this one?! Like I said above… it hit every nail on the head, in every way possible. There aren’t just a couple things I can highlight as amazing, or anything to even critique. The story telling was phenomenal from A-Z, in every aspect. Simple as that. 🤷🏻♀️ It was a binge in one sitting read for me and clearly one I’m now recommending the hell out of with every ounce of my being. 🙌🏼
I did not think that I would be coming here to write a review, much less that I would even finish this book. I haven't had much of a foray into Extreme Horror or Splatterpunk, so I knew that reading the 32 entries of the Books of Horror Short Smack competition would expose me to some things I hadn't read before. I almost DNF'd this. I actually put it down for a few days because initially, the 70% of the book that I had read, I just didn't get. Yes, it was horror, it was uncomfortable, dark, degrading, and it really pushed me to picture some pretty gross things. These were not my issue; my issue lay with that I didn't see the point in it. And I know that extreme horror is basically extreme and over the top simply for the gratuitous sake of it, and that's what I felt that this was. It may be! I'm honestly not sure. But when I sucked it up and decided "No, I'm gonna read the last 30 pages" man, everything turned around. I am SO glad that I finished this book because that ending? It was 100% worth it. I didn't see it coming. There was a reason. There was a point to it all. And the way the ending flipped the story on its head just had me shellshocked. Is this extreme horror? I have no freaking clue. I felt like it fit more into the splatterpunk side of things because I feel that there IS a message here of sorts? I could be incredibly wrong though.
I'm so glad that I read this book. It was gross, it made me feel uncomfortable, but man was it worth it.
Megan Stockton sure does know how to write an extreme horror story! Everything about this was awesome. A short read that really packs a punch. I love a good story about women getting revenge. This had such a satisfying and wild ending! Definitely check your triggers before reading this one as it does not hold back one bit!
I loved this story and it was actually very cathartic to read. This book was suggested to me at the right time in my life and I knew it would be a 5 star read the minute I stated reading!! Do not read this if you are squeamish and don’t like gore! Do read if you like women getting revenge :)
Look - for fans of extreme horror - yes, this is the book for you. This is well written and intended to express a particular message, and I thought that message was delivered. I even stand by the message of rectifying injustice, particularly when there is such an unethical, unempathetic, systemic, and sexist power imbalance at play.
However, I learned this is not the book for me, so please don't take this rating to reflect poor quality. It just reflects private experience.
I love horror, particularly psychological horror, with elements of body horror. So as I ventured into the Godless website space for some more *eccentric tastes*, I'd discovered an uncomfortable zone that I've now learned from.
My physiological response throughout was quite close to pure disgust and terror, and I am quite certain that was the whole point. I was even surprised how the story kept providing new forms of tangible disgust. Amazing. I couldn't stop reading. So yeah, if you want this as an experience, this is for you.
Now I just need a generic thriller palette cleanser, haha.
Alright you splatterheads and extreme enthusiasts, I’ve got a good one for you. Megan Stockton’s Impulse, from D&T Publishing, is certainly gross enough to get your juices flowing. It’s quick-paced, and though there isn’t a lot of blood, there is plenty of gore in other forms. Trust me, you’re gonna love it. Unlike every other book Megan has written there are no “good” characters in this one. Everyone is messed up in one way or another, though some to no fault of their own, and don’t have redeeming qualities. I was pretty much ok with whatever happened to them. They deserve what they get. I’ll just finish with this: Men … do better.
IMPULSE [2024] By Megan Stockton My Review 4.0 Stars
I am ordinarily a thoughtful evaluator of what I like and vice versa. I spontaneously bought a short work by a relatively unknown Indie author named Megan Stockton one day and became a fan. The book was “Bluejay”. I have read other works by Stockton at this point and was never disappointed.
Somebody somewhere made the pithy prediction “Never say never”. I bought “Impulse” before the ink cooled. The Description sounded delicious and right up my alley. I am prone to providing a bit of verbal context to complement my Status Updates. I knew how I felt when I finished this short work of extreme horror. I was disappointed and I acted immediately and spontaneously leaving the author 3 Stars. The simple truth is that I had a preconception of my expectations, and the author had the unmitigated gall to go off script.
This is a story that is bereft of even a shred of decency from the main character of Jason. There are no decent characters in the storyline. None. I like a story that has a ruthless female protagonist who exacts the pound of flesh or decimates the entire male carcass to settle the wrong that was done. I am certainly not sexist. It could be a male protagonist just as easily in my book. I am perhaps (as a lover of quite a bit of extreme horror) a bit chagrined to admit that this story was just too much for my stomach and sensitivities to take with no pause to recoup and without shouting internally Whoa!
The storyline was broader in scope than the simple discipline of Jason and taking the lethal tools to his man-bits. It encompassed a pattern of bad behavior originating from several male sources, and the keys to the dungeons were in the hands of girls who did not pass “Go!” and collect the $200. That is their brains were running on a gerbil wheel and their moral compasses had likely already been rammed up one of some worthless human male animal’s orifices on a whim to make him bleed.
I was in the mood for a tightly knit, satisfyingly sadistic tale of revenge on a piece of fecal matter like Jason. Instead, I got matched crazies carrying out such sickening behaviors on the captive rat vermin males that I wanted to stop for a breath of air clear my head.
Instead of realizing that it was ALL about expectations, and on another week, or even day I would have relished such atrocities and rated 5.0 Stars, I did what I said I would NOT do and gave a rating due to a knee-jerk reaction. I am going to bump this rating to 4.0 Stars because Stockton showed in this story that she had the gravitas of some of the heavy hitters in extreme horror. The author deserves it, and I am willing to admit that I need to avoid any such idiotic maneuvers in the future to sleep at night and think that I give honest, thoughtful reviews of what I read to perhaps help a reader on the fence about hitting the Buy Now button.
STOCKTON SHOWS SHE CAN GO EXTREME AND CHECK ALL THE RIGHT BOXES
GIRL POWER! Rating these types of books is difficult...they're so disturbing, but this one was written well, hence the 4 stars. Plus, I really liked the ending. I read a lot of extreme horror and I've never gotten a sick feeling while reading them. This one....!...Got a little queasy at parts. Good job, Megan!
One of the best dedications I've seen: "This one's for the girls. If you need an alibi, you were with me all night watching movies. If you need help "moving furniture", I know a professional."
The first half of this book was so hard to read because it is extremely gross. There are some images I will never get out of my head. I actually stopped about halfway because I mostly read on my lunch break at work, and I just couldn't handle gagging so much while I was trying to eat. For this reason it took me months to finish it, but I'm glad I finally did. The end is so freaking perfect. Megan always sticks the landing.
I can't have enough of Megan's extreme imagination when it comes to images of dread and torture. She knows exactly how to create scenarios that will keep the reader into a state of terror and disgust at what they're being exposed to. And satisfaction, because Megan's victims deserve what they get. My only complaint is that the end felt too sudden, I wanted to see what happened next.
Jason is a creep; he underplays his transgressions to the extent that you want to jump into the pages and rip him a new one! But perhaps just leave it to the experts 😱
Yes, I'm here again to pour more effusive praise upon Megan Stockton. Megan's ability to jump in and out of all genres of fiction is elite, and somewhat unfair to other authors. She's just as comfortable writing a thriller as she is getting disgusting in her more extreme stories. Impulse is a perfect example of how depraved her mind can be.
Impulse follows Jason as he is making poor choices in his life. On his way to hook up with a stranger for sex, he sees a young woman hitchhiking on the side of the road. He stops to pick her up (for purely chivalrous reasons, obviously), thus beginning a chain of events that are far worse than he ever imagined.
If you've read Megan before, you know how well she excels at writing deeply flawed, complex characters. They are not always completely likeable, but you still find yourself rooting for even the vilest humans. The characters in Impulse are no different. Jason, Sassy, Baby, and poor, sweet Sugarman are all well thought out characters with questionable pasts.
To say anything else would be risking spoilers, so I'll just say I highly recommend this one if you are a fan of extreme horror. If you enjoyed Bluejay, you'll love this one!