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Very Violent Ghosts
BOO, YOU'RE DEAD!
The film students just wanted to pitch movie ideas in the haunted house—little did they know, this was a ghost's cutting room floor.
Endless reincarnations, endless kills, time and space interweaving like sutured thread. No one is safe. This paranormal slasher will chew your mind like scenery, barfing it out into a frothing bucket of blood.
Lights. Camera. Death.
"For a dizzying ride of sidesplitting hilarity and simultaneous projectile vomiting, you owe it to yourself (and your sides) to seek out the sickening delights of R.J. Benetti—one of the genre's most comically deranged and supreme talents!"
—Ryan Harding, Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Transcendental Mutilation
The film students just wanted to pitch movie ideas in the haunted house—little did they know, this was a ghost's cutting room floor.
Endless reincarnations, endless kills, time and space interweaving like sutured thread. No one is safe. This paranormal slasher will chew your mind like scenery, barfing it out into a frothing bucket of blood.
Lights. Camera. Death.
"For a dizzying ride of sidesplitting hilarity and simultaneous projectile vomiting, you owe it to yourself (and your sides) to seek out the sickening delights of R.J. Benetti—one of the genre's most comically deranged and supreme talents!"
—Ryan Harding, Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Transcendental Mutilation
124 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 2, 2026
Oh, this was so much fun! Everything you'd expect from Benetti, gore, depravity, hilarity and jizz!! 💦😂 Told in a descriptive, smooth flowing voice like only Benetti can.
Film students at the haunted Clancy House are trying to come up with the perfect idea for a movie, when one quite literally smacks them in the face, or through the chest, with a machete!!!! And there are likely to be lots of re-runs as the gang find themselves stuck in a weird kind of purgatory. Their pasts start to haunt them, and blend together with the mystery surrounding the house and its deceased occupants. The revelations unravel terrifyingly, disturbingly, hilariously, and with buckets of blood and other bodily fluids!
With a truly eerie atmosphere, this is a surreal and haunting read.
A read that gets more disturbing as it progresses. It's deep, it's dark. And it continues to get deeper and darker and more emotional.
A bizarre, twisted, trippy nightmare, that is as addictive as it is entertaining. I was eager to fly through the pages, to devour every word, yet hesitant for it to end.
Benetti just gets better and better with every book he writes!!
The imagery in this is so vivid and descriptive! And the characters quickly become very likeable, mostly. Benetti!! How dare you cause feelings to happen! 😭😂
I loved the transition phase from human to ghost, a brilliant idea that legitimately gave me chills.
And the ending was perfect! 🖤
"Behind the bright lights of old Hollywood, one finds the darkest shadows.”
Don't be a "Sheet-Head", grab this book and make sure you leave a review! 👻
Film students at the haunted Clancy House are trying to come up with the perfect idea for a movie, when one quite literally smacks them in the face, or through the chest, with a machete!!!! And there are likely to be lots of re-runs as the gang find themselves stuck in a weird kind of purgatory. Their pasts start to haunt them, and blend together with the mystery surrounding the house and its deceased occupants. The revelations unravel terrifyingly, disturbingly, hilariously, and with buckets of blood and other bodily fluids!
With a truly eerie atmosphere, this is a surreal and haunting read.
A read that gets more disturbing as it progresses. It's deep, it's dark. And it continues to get deeper and darker and more emotional.
A bizarre, twisted, trippy nightmare, that is as addictive as it is entertaining. I was eager to fly through the pages, to devour every word, yet hesitant for it to end.
Benetti just gets better and better with every book he writes!!
The imagery in this is so vivid and descriptive! And the characters quickly become very likeable, mostly. Benetti!! How dare you cause feelings to happen! 😭😂
I loved the transition phase from human to ghost, a brilliant idea that legitimately gave me chills.
And the ending was perfect! 🖤
"Behind the bright lights of old Hollywood, one finds the darkest shadows.”
Don't be a "Sheet-Head", grab this book and make sure you leave a review! 👻
January 17, 2026
Very Violent Ghosts is a gleefully unhinged mash-up of paranormal horror and slasher chaos that fully understands the assignment: be loud, be bloody, and be fun. Film students pitching ideas in a haunted house is already a great hook, but Benetti cranks it up by turning the location into a kind of cosmic cutting room floor, where death loops.
The kills are frequent, creative, and intentionally over-the-top, leaning hard into camp rather than realism. It reads like a haunted VHS tape that keeps rewinding itself just so the ghosts can kill you again and that’s the charm. The meta elements, reincarnations, and stitched-together timelines add a weirdly clever edge beneath all the splatter, making it more than just mindless gore.
The kills are frequent, creative, and intentionally over-the-top, leaning hard into camp rather than realism. It reads like a haunted VHS tape that keeps rewinding itself just so the ghosts can kill you again and that’s the charm. The meta elements, reincarnations, and stitched-together timelines add a weirdly clever edge beneath all the splatter, making it more than just mindless gore.
January 18, 2026
VERY VIOLENT GHOST
By: R.J. Benetti
Release: 1/10/26
Page count: 100
KU: TBD Hoopla: TBD
Synopsis: Four film students visit a celebrity house known for being haunted. They are in for a killer time.
First line: “I got an idea… a ghost who’s scared of other ghosts.”
Favorite line: “If I were dead, Martha, like you said, who gives a flying squirrel’s twat about a little light fondling?”
Thoughts: Just when you thought Benetti had written it all, he gives us ghostly reverse beastiality. That aside, the story is surprisingly complex - a commentary on suppression of trauma, the lengths people will go for stardom, and the protective nature of a mother. But, mostly ghostly reverse beastiality for sure.
Rating: 5/5
By: R.J. Benetti
Release: 1/10/26
Page count: 100
KU: TBD Hoopla: TBD
Synopsis: Four film students visit a celebrity house known for being haunted. They are in for a killer time.
First line: “I got an idea… a ghost who’s scared of other ghosts.”
Favorite line: “If I were dead, Martha, like you said, who gives a flying squirrel’s twat about a little light fondling?”
Thoughts: Just when you thought Benetti had written it all, he gives us ghostly reverse beastiality. That aside, the story is surprisingly complex - a commentary on suppression of trauma, the lengths people will go for stardom, and the protective nature of a mother. But, mostly ghostly reverse beastiality for sure.
Rating: 5/5
January 4, 2026
another banger by R.J. Benetti. he checks all the boxes in this super entertaining never made VHS tape. i was hooked from the spoiler warning, and you will be too. and Benetii rhymes with Serengeti, so there's that.
March 14, 2026
“Reshooting the forever-film… the reels spin without end… powered by our remembered suffering.”
This was hands down the hardest ARC I have ever received that I was asked to keep under wraps. Why? Because Benetti came out and did something insanely special with this one. IT’S DEEP. If you’ve ever read Benetti, you know things can go a little rogue and get on the bizarro side. And don’t get me wrong, you totally get that with this one. But you also get so much more. The depth of certain things was awesome to read by him, and he executed it perfectly. I loved this book. Every time I read a new book by him, I think it’s my favorite, then he comes out with a new one, and I am forever blown away.
I think this will be a favorite amongst Benetti fans. I also think this will be a huge hit with horror fans in general. It’s brilliant. One of the best ghost stories I have ever read. And there’s a reason it sat pretty at the top of Godless. So yeah, read it asap.
This was hands down the hardest ARC I have ever received that I was asked to keep under wraps. Why? Because Benetti came out and did something insanely special with this one. IT’S DEEP. If you’ve ever read Benetti, you know things can go a little rogue and get on the bizarro side. And don’t get me wrong, you totally get that with this one. But you also get so much more. The depth of certain things was awesome to read by him, and he executed it perfectly. I loved this book. Every time I read a new book by him, I think it’s my favorite, then he comes out with a new one, and I am forever blown away.
I think this will be a favorite amongst Benetti fans. I also think this will be a huge hit with horror fans in general. It’s brilliant. One of the best ghost stories I have ever read. And there’s a reason it sat pretty at the top of Godless. So yeah, read it asap.
May 6, 2026
Long overdue, but at last, after four long months, with breaks in between, I finished Very Violent Ghosts by RJ Benetti, a book that revels in over-the-top gore, assault, and hauntings, with its cover making no secret of what it is: a slasher with a spectral twist!
Right from the get-go, the setup is simple: four film students, Nico, Marky, Raj, and Martha, who gradually becomes the primary protagonist, sneak into an allegedly haunted house owned by Ridge Clancy to film a school project. Then, almost immediately, a specter murders Nico, and from there, each chapter escalates, with characters murdered in the most gruesome, larger-than-life ways, which I admit got some chuckles out of me.
However, it is not all bloodshed. Later on, and this is where the novel really shines for me, it introduces psychological elements, with Ridge Clancy and the haunted house, which is really an extension of Ridge Clancy’s specter, getting the characters where they really live by exploiting their traumas and horrible pasts, akin to how the eponymous Hill House torments the characters in The Haunting of Hill House. Along the way, as more film students die, the survivors discover that saying Ridge Clancy’s name is the surest way to die, and that Ridge Clancy has skeletons in his closet regarding his family.
My only real criticism is that, with the constant demise of the characters, the story can come across as repetitive. But when it gets psychological with the characters, that is where the story ramps up, culminating in an intense fire at the Ridge Clancy house. And what becomes of the characters? That is for the reader to figure out.
Get the book; you won’t be a disappointed Sheet-Head!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5— B+
Right from the get-go, the setup is simple: four film students, Nico, Marky, Raj, and Martha, who gradually becomes the primary protagonist, sneak into an allegedly haunted house owned by Ridge Clancy to film a school project. Then, almost immediately, a specter murders Nico, and from there, each chapter escalates, with characters murdered in the most gruesome, larger-than-life ways, which I admit got some chuckles out of me.
However, it is not all bloodshed. Later on, and this is where the novel really shines for me, it introduces psychological elements, with Ridge Clancy and the haunted house, which is really an extension of Ridge Clancy’s specter, getting the characters where they really live by exploiting their traumas and horrible pasts, akin to how the eponymous Hill House torments the characters in The Haunting of Hill House. Along the way, as more film students die, the survivors discover that saying Ridge Clancy’s name is the surest way to die, and that Ridge Clancy has skeletons in his closet regarding his family.
My only real criticism is that, with the constant demise of the characters, the story can come across as repetitive. But when it gets psychological with the characters, that is where the story ramps up, culminating in an intense fire at the Ridge Clancy house. And what becomes of the characters? That is for the reader to figure out.
Get the book; you won’t be a disappointed Sheet-Head!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5— B+
March 25, 2026
Picture Happy Death Day, Groundhog Day, and Beetlejuice but written and directed by a perverted mass murderer. But also funny.
Benetti continues to mix the gross, the sad, and the hilariously over-the-top gory to a fever pitch in this fast-paced haunted house Scooby-Doo-on-bath-salts horror comedy riot.
I really appreciated the classic, golden age of Hollywood angle (a "treasure trove" of depravity and debauchery) and of course the ghost dog with a libido didn't hurt one bit (except for my sides as they split with supernatural guffaws).
Seriously, RJ Benetti rocks. His stuff is nasty and funny and bittersweet all at once and not everyone can perform that balancing act well at all.
January 13, 2026
Benetti took me by surprise with this book. Is it your typical ridiculous extreme slasher haunted house horror comedy? Absolutely it is. I was chuckling while I winced during some of the scenes.
I was content with another Benetti horror comedy. But then...
But then the tone changed. It became a story about secrets, regret and past trauma. It became a story of hope and friendship. It became more that a ghost story.
I'm blown away by the depth of this story and you will be too.
I was content with another Benetti horror comedy. But then...
But then the tone changed. It became a story about secrets, regret and past trauma. It became a story of hope and friendship. It became more that a ghost story.
I'm blown away by the depth of this story and you will be too.
January 13, 2026
A group of film students enters a haunted house, unaware that a ghost is lurking in the shadows—and waiting for an audience. One by one, they’re killed in increasingly ridiculous ways, only to be reincarnated and forced to relive their bloody fate all over again.
With sharp wit, outrageous kills, and a gleefully twisted premise, R. J. Benetti once again blends humor and gore into a fast-paced slasher novella that proves dying is only the beginning.
With sharp wit, outrageous kills, and a gleefully twisted premise, R. J. Benetti once again blends humor and gore into a fast-paced slasher novella that proves dying is only the beginning.
April 19, 2026
Paranormal horror meets slasher in this unending death fest of a story. Very Violent Ghosts felt like being stuck in one of those nightmares where you are aware enough to know you are dreaming, perhaps right on the verge of waking up, but helpless to do anything about it. Benetti weaves a disconcerting tale of a group of film students stuck in a haunted mansion running for their lives from some very angry ghosts trying to solve a mystery, almost like a very fucked up episode of Scooby Doo.
January 29, 2026
This book was highly entertaining and even though its extreme horror, it's also humorous. The first dog scene will always be with me. Very funny and very dark! I also appreciate that the author didn't go there, meaning it's one thing to imply, it's another to describe, so I'm happy that he only implied. Fantastic read!!!
January 29, 2026
review to come.
March 26, 2026
Both very goofy and very disturbing.
Brilliantly written. I would go so far as to say unique as well.
Brilliantly written. I would go so far as to say unique as well.
April 18, 2026
I went into this book with the preconceived notion that ghosts could not be very violent. Boy oh boy was I wrong.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews