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Canine
OBSESSIONS DON’T GET SOLVED—THEY GET FED
Canine is a psychopath who spends his nights mutilating young men, searching for what it truly means to walk around in someone else’s skin. But people are weak, and the ritual is losing its spark—until he meets Percy, an enigmatic man whose vacant expressions conceal dangerous secrets. Unraveling Percy becomes an obsession, driving Canine to deconstruct not just bodies, but the limits of his own mind. The pursuit of transcendence spirals into fixation, and the deeper he goes, the fewer exits remain—for anyone.
Detective James Pierce, still grieving the death of his wife, returns to his coastal hometown only to be confronted with a grisly case. A serial killer, known only as the Canine, leaves behind a trail of disemboweled corpses, each with their front teeth missing. As Pierce hunts for the killer, every lead collapses into a dead end. When the case finally cracks open, the revelations strike perilously close to home, forcing Pierce to confront not only the murderer, but his own unraveling sanity.
For newly promoted Detective Vera Stanton, the investigation begins as her first chance to prove herself. But what looks like a career-making opportunity twists into something far more consuming. The bodies mount. The evidence dissolves. And as her personal life frays, Stanton must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to bring one man down—and whether she can live with the wreckage left behind.
This is an extreme horror novel that contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
Canine is a psychopath who spends his nights mutilating young men, searching for what it truly means to walk around in someone else’s skin. But people are weak, and the ritual is losing its spark—until he meets Percy, an enigmatic man whose vacant expressions conceal dangerous secrets. Unraveling Percy becomes an obsession, driving Canine to deconstruct not just bodies, but the limits of his own mind. The pursuit of transcendence spirals into fixation, and the deeper he goes, the fewer exits remain—for anyone.
Detective James Pierce, still grieving the death of his wife, returns to his coastal hometown only to be confronted with a grisly case. A serial killer, known only as the Canine, leaves behind a trail of disemboweled corpses, each with their front teeth missing. As Pierce hunts for the killer, every lead collapses into a dead end. When the case finally cracks open, the revelations strike perilously close to home, forcing Pierce to confront not only the murderer, but his own unraveling sanity.
For newly promoted Detective Vera Stanton, the investigation begins as her first chance to prove herself. But what looks like a career-making opportunity twists into something far more consuming. The bodies mount. The evidence dissolves. And as her personal life frays, Stanton must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to bring one man down—and whether she can live with the wreckage left behind.
This is an extreme horror novel that contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
342 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 13, 2026
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 15, 2026
⭐️ 3.5 stars ⭐️
♪𝚂𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 — 𝙰 𝙻𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝙿𝚒𝚎𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚢 𝙰𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚍♪
// Must have stabbed him fifty fucking times
I can't believe it
Ripped his heart out right before his eyes
Eyes over easy, eat it, eat it, eat it //
If those were the objectives, then yep. I am disoriented, tense and thoroughly churned. I need to cleanse my eyeballs and my brain. And therapy. Lots of therapy.
SPOILERS AHEAD
An extreme psychological horror with multi POV, following a couple detectives and their new case — the Canine killer.
The plot is pretty straight-forward, but what has me all confused is the writing style. I can’t deny it’s grotesquely beautiful. Macabre. But also too poetic and complicated. Even the dialogues are so curly and wispy, unrealistic.
It made it difficult to get through at times, having to go back and reread, because when everything is poetry, the important things get all mixed up in my brain. BUT it was weirdly pretty. Especially considering what the words are describing.
Now, this isn’t my worst saved quote. I can’t bring myself to save it in a review forever. Have to reread it every time I look at this review. But just know, this book is gruesome and extremely graphic and disturbing to a degree I didn’t know was possible. This is by far the most nauseatingly detailed horror book I’ve ever read. The contents aren’t even the problem, it’s the level of specific details the author gives us of said contents. God, I’ll never be able to scrub my brain of those images.
All these pros and cons make it hard to rate this book. It was way too confusing to be enjoyable, the ending even more discombobulating, but also morbidly fascinating as these things usually are. I’m very intrigued by this author’s style, even if I don’t completely understand it. Hopefully, he writes something less mentally scarring that I can appreciate a little more.
The rating is more of an objective one, because despite the horrible content, the book is very well done and thought out. I personally didn’t end up enjoying it, the style making it more of a chore to get through than I would’ve liked and the gore wayyyy too much for me. But I liked the weirdness of it, the wild premise. And it’s probably my fault for underestimating how extreme this was gonna get.
If you’re into extreme horror with queer undertones, unhinged characters that blend the lines of good and evil, and endings that don’t feel like endings — Canine is right for you.
Thank you Damian Pryce for sending me an ARC of this book!
CW and NSFW info (spoilers):
- Extreme violence
- Death/murder
- Gore
- Torture
- Sexual assault & rape
- Child abuse
- Necrophilia
- Cannibalism
- Drug abuse
- Self-harm
- Suicide
- Animal abuse
♪𝚂𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 — 𝙰 𝙻𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝙿𝚒𝚎𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚢 𝙰𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚍♪
// Must have stabbed him fifty fucking times
I can't believe it
Ripped his heart out right before his eyes
Eyes over easy, eat it, eat it, eat it //
With Canine, he wants readers to feel the disorientation of addiction, the tension of mystery, and the gut-churning disgust of gore pushed to its limits.
If those were the objectives, then yep. I am disoriented, tense and thoroughly churned. I need to cleanse my eyeballs and my brain. And therapy. Lots of therapy.
SPOILERS AHEAD
An extreme psychological horror with multi POV, following a couple detectives and their new case — the Canine killer.
My smirk is either too expensive or too cheap—either way, he doesn’t buy it.
I rub at the razor burn under my chin like I’m reading braille in its bumpy irritation.
The plot is pretty straight-forward, but what has me all confused is the writing style. I can’t deny it’s grotesquely beautiful. Macabre. But also too poetic and complicated. Even the dialogues are so curly and wispy, unrealistic.
It made it difficult to get through at times, having to go back and reread, because when everything is poetry, the important things get all mixed up in my brain. BUT it was weirdly pretty. Especially considering what the words are describing.
His broken ribs splay outward like wings, and I guide my shoulders beneath them, fitting myself into the husk as though it were prepared for me.
Now, this isn’t my worst saved quote. I can’t bring myself to save it in a review forever. Have to reread it every time I look at this review. But just know, this book is gruesome and extremely graphic and disturbing to a degree I didn’t know was possible. This is by far the most nauseatingly detailed horror book I’ve ever read. The contents aren’t even the problem, it’s the level of specific details the author gives us of said contents. God, I’ll never be able to scrub my brain of those images.
It isn’t that I don’t yearn to devour every inch of his body—it’s that I know I’d only get to do it once.
All these pros and cons make it hard to rate this book. It was way too confusing to be enjoyable, the ending even more discombobulating, but also morbidly fascinating as these things usually are. I’m very intrigued by this author’s style, even if I don’t completely understand it. Hopefully, he writes something less mentally scarring that I can appreciate a little more.
My clothes suck at the contours of my skin like they want to keep it.
The rating is more of an objective one, because despite the horrible content, the book is very well done and thought out. I personally didn’t end up enjoying it, the style making it more of a chore to get through than I would’ve liked and the gore wayyyy too much for me. But I liked the weirdness of it, the wild premise. And it’s probably my fault for underestimating how extreme this was gonna get.
If you’re into extreme horror with queer undertones, unhinged characters that blend the lines of good and evil, and endings that don’t feel like endings — Canine is right for you.
Pain is knowing something is ugly and doing nothing about it.
Thank you Damian Pryce for sending me an ARC of this book!
CW and NSFW info (spoilers):
- Extreme violence
- Death/murder
- Gore
- Torture
- Sexual assault & rape
- Child abuse
- Necrophilia
- Cannibalism
- Drug abuse
- Self-harm
- Suicide
- Animal abuse
Displaying 1 of 1 review