"Oscar Brady's The Pigman is deeply poetic yet profoundly repulsive, pushing the concept of religious guilt to the extreme. This is elevated Splatterpunk and truly shows Brady's knack for storytelling, revealing how a human can be systemically dismantled by its own mind. A fairytale of body horror anchored in religious psychosis. Decadent. 5 grotesquely satisfying stars." ---RJ Powell, best-selling author of eight cases of Jane and Dollface
From the author of Potato and other stuff comes this short, nasty tale of a man who becomes the embodiment of sin that he believes himself to be. It's like 20 pages and costs a buck, so what do you have to lose?
Oscar Brady (he/they) is the award-winning and best-selling author of Bunny Room, Potato, Oops! All George! and other weird stuff. He is originally from Richmond, Virginia, where most of his stories are set.
Forgive him father, for he has sinned. When told never to sin as a child, even when he didnt truly understand sin's, this little boy learns his lesson a little too much.. for the rest of his poor disgusting life. What lengths will you go to be Forgiven and wash away your sin?
This was a very fast read. To be very honest, I dont think I took a fucking breath the whole time. The vile descriptions from start to finish really doesn't ease up. I think this was a perfect description of a true extreme splatterpunk! I ran to review and still feel dizzy.
There is just a uniqueness in Oscar's writing style that I havent read before and I hope he never 1. Seeks therapy 2. Never stops writing/creating. And that cover, HELL YEAH!! ... maybe him and I can go to therapy together because this book was amazing there has to be something wrong with me 🐽🐖🐷
God damn, was this a quick, disgusting, and absolutely wild read. In just over 20 pages, Oscar Brady tells the disturbing tale of the Pigman. I loved how he switches between his final moments on Earth to each moment of brutal self mutilation that he performs as repentance for sins that he has committed.
WTF was that i just read!!! 20 pages of OMG, WTF and retching. But the eyes.. seriously anything grotesque with eyes makes me squirm, i just can't. A book like no othet I've read before.. Huge thank you to indietron and the author for this one.
This was...unique 😅 In the best sense. 100% brutal and makes you sit back and say WTF out loud! It's definitely not for a weak stomach. How did you come up with a story like this?!
Brady’s The Pigman is a disgusting, gross, and horrific story that mixes trauma, faith, guilt, and madness. The disturbing idea of self-mutilation under the guise of penance makes the book deeply unsettling. Brady creates a world where trauma and faith become horribly tangled together, turning everything into a pigsty of madness. It is disturbing, uncomfortable, and definitely not for the faint-hearted.
“Religious guilt has never been this grotesque… or this unforgettable.”
Some books aim to entertain. Others aim to make you uncomfortable. The Pigman proudly chooses the second option. Oscar Brady delivers a brutally effective short story that proves you don’t need hundreds of pages to leave a lasting scar. At roughly twenty pages, this is a fast descent into religious psychosis, self loathing, and disturbing body horror that lingers long after you’ve finished. What stood out most to me wasn’t just the gore although horror fans won’t be disappointed but the psychological unraveling beneath it all. The story explores what happens when guilt consumes identity until someone truly believes they have become the monster they fear. It’s unsettling, poetic, and surprisingly thought provoking for such a short read. If you’re a fan of splatterpunk that actually has substance behind the shock, this is well worth the time. It’s nasty, disturbing, and impossible to look away from.
Holy mother of god. (Literally and figuratively) 22 pages of artfully pieced together filth and decay. A story that even I could only handle the small amount of words put into it without wanting to wash my eyes out with holy water. And By the end the cover began to make more and more sense. Along with making the underlying image become more clear. A image that will sear itself into your brain for a long time.
The Pigman sure went to extremes to lessen his shame and guilt. This story is very well written (and disgusting) but there is a lesson to be learned. It's grotesque, smelly, horrific, and ultimately very sad. Please don't read it while you are eating.
Wow. That was a fun little ride. I haven't made that many faces while reading a book in a long time. So many wtf moments, that actually made me say wtf out loud. it was just fucking disgusting and I loved every gross minute of it.
Wow pig man was quick and pretty disgusting, but I loved it. I liked the way it went back and forth to him back as a child and now to how he got the way he was.
The descriptions in this was incredible. It will make you sick to your stomach. The brutality was insane. The self infliction because of his sins were intoxicating and simply so sad
This was a disturbing and visceral perspective of religious trauma but it was extremely unique and exceptionally well written. The descriptions were so vivid it felt as if I was moving along with him as he stumbles through his house. Although it is a bit tough to stomach at times, this short work of art clearly shows the literary genius of Oscar Brady. #indietron
🖤𝓺𝓾𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓼🖤 “The man was now free of penile turmoil and was near, so very near, his final form.” “The Pigman was born a boy, a simple boy, a little portly but otherwise not very piglike.” “The Pigman, dying, continues clawing, continues choking, until he feels the final sin leaving his body.”
🖤 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀🖤 When they described this as an elevated Splatterbook novel, they weren’t lying. The way you are both experiencing past events and in the present, corresponding with each other behind the origins of the Pigman. It’s thrilling. Its brutal. And coming just under 20 pages, it’s a stomach-churning story about one man’s grotesque form of repercussions for the sins he has given into.
*spoilers* The Pigman is recollecting all of his final moments, alongside the origins how he had become the monster he appears to be. The graphic descriptions of his living conditions are rather disturbing, but coincide with how he feels internally. It switches from him walking around his complex, to how he mangled his own face and gained the ‘piggy’ nickname in the first place.
The man’s ambitions towards his younger sister as a baby are one of the reasons he self-mutilates himself. The gnarly details of the scissors against his nostrils was one scene that replayed itself too much in my brain, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the story unfolds into a dark abyss of carnage until the Pigman’s final moments.
🖤𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓵𝓵🖤 Under 20 pages of vile and extreme brutality towards one’s self. I absolutely loved it. The pacing was perfectly executed in keeping my attention after grabbing it in the first place. The trauma upon finishing was present. And as a first time read by the author, i was heavily not disappointed.
**no AI was used to generate any part of this review**
Oscar Brady's The Pigman is not exactly a subtle book. It is filthy, grotesque and very comfortable making the reader squirm. But underneath all that nastiness is a story about guilt, punishment, religious conditioning and what happens when somebody is taught that every mistake deserves pain.
That part worked especially well for me. The Pigman's transformation isn't just there for shock value; there is an actual reason behind what he becomes. The body horror is obviously the main attraction, but the psychological side gives it more weight.
What didn't work quite as well was the amount of description in some of the more extreme scenes. Brady occasionally keeps piling it on after the reader has already gotten the point. A little restraint here and there would make the really horrible moments stand out more.
If you're looking for a clean little morality tale, this isn't it. If you're looking for something revolting with an actual story underneath it, you've found it.
I received a copy of this novella through the 2026 Horror Indie-Tron initiative and chose to review it honestly.
At only 20 pages, this one definitely packs a punch, and left me staring at the wall once I finished! 😂
The Pigman wasn't always that way, once he was a boy. A boy who believed he was a sinner, and must pay retribution. Something that followed him through to his adult life, getting increasingly more brutal with his self punishment. This one was body horror to the extreme, the imagery was so graphic it created a visceral reaction for me, and probably wasn't the greatest choice of read while having a little cake treat in Costa. 🫣
Although I had to read this partially with my eyes shut, and I'm pretty sure the Pigman will haunt my nightmares, I absolutely loved this one. It was a grotesque and repugnant statement on religious guilt and psychosis to the absolute extreme.
This one again, is absolutely not for those who are easily nauseated, or struggle with intense graphic self inflicted violence.
If this was your first given book in the 2026 Indie Tron, then the hosts were really testing you! If you're still here, than I would say you're hardcore, and congratulations for getting through it!
This book was relentless extreme horror which pushed the gore and smells to a new limit. Was it too much? I wouldn't say so, not at all, the more the better and this delivered on the gross-out factor, for sure!
I'm a seasoned reader and yet to find anything that I can't continue with, if you're not, then I invite you to a challenge on reading this short little tale! Don't let the length fool you, for it is utterly depraved and written in such a way that you can smell the rot and guts!
This was a fast-paced, extreme read, proceed with caution if you're not used to this level of inhumanity!
This book is only about 20 pages long... and honestly, that was enough. 😅
It dives headfirst into religious extremism and extreme self-mutilation, and it absolutely does not hold back.
I'll be honest, body horror isn't usually my thing, so this was definitely outside my comfort zone. But I could absolutely see what Oscar Brady was going for.
I genuinely think this book was trying to be the most fucked up thing you'll read all year... and honestly? It gives it a pretty good crack. 😂
I'm actually glad it was only 20 pages because I think anything longer would've been a lot.
If you're into body horror, extreme gore, and books that make you question why you chose this hobby, this one's definitely worth checking out.
Don’t let the small size fool you. This story packs a punch…a bloody, disgusting punch.
The Pigman moves between past and present, showing how the Pigman came to be grotesque and revolting, and the why he feels that this is his lot in life.
The story hits on religious abuse and trauma, and how that can affect the way we view ourselves, emotionally and mentally. And in the case of the Pigman, physically. Every sin requires a punishment, and the MC does not hold back.
This tale is perfect for religious horror, and splatterpunk, fans. 4.5 stars
Thank you to the Indie Horror-Tron group for my e-copy. My opinion is my own.
Filled to the brim with disturbing imagery, this story tackles religious punishment and childhood trauma.
While I think the author is on to something with the idea, and my initial reaction was one of enjoyment at the visceral description, as the story went on I became overwhelmed by the thesaurus problem.
There is another stylistic choice that i found pulled me away from the story and eventually became something i was skimming over which I'm sure is not the intent of the author.
From the beginning i was getting some mad Carrie vibes but the story takes a mothers religious abuse in a completely different direction and that concept is what gives this book its stars from me.
Twisted, dark, yet deeply creative. It's a tragic tale of abuse that gets handed down, and begs the question if it's a trait that can be hereditary.
Vastly graphic, this dual timeline novella takes you by the hand to show his origin story; then violently snatches your wrist and drags you through the waste-infested home of this disfigured and sadly misguided man.
If you're a splatterpunk reader, go in blindly if you can. If you don't know what splatterpunk is, PLEASE don't pick this unless you want gut-roiling visceral imagery and vividly depicted abusr and trauma. And for the animals lovers put there, the dog is NOT okay.
Went into this blind for the #indietron event and boy oh boy, was that a hell of a way to do it.
The Pigman works as a back and forth series of snapshots mixed with punishment trauma and body horror for good measure. The narration Brady gives the reader has an absurd nature doc feel to it, which lends itself a certain kind of humor, especially if your humor leans a bit into the messed up side of things.
The imagery, the presentation, the Waffle House reference. Everything hits on this one. Definitely check it out.
I was unaware of Oscar Brady’s splatterpunk game, and I have now been educated. I clearly need to read more of his work. I always watch his doodle videos on Tik Tok, but this is my first read of his.
If the Bible verse “if your eye causes you to sin, then pluck it out” was a splatterpunk story, it would be this story. This was vile and beyond disgustingly horrific. The body horror in this story is brutal and yet satisfying. No, I will not explain further.
Never fails that the ones that make me almost barf are the ones I enjoy the most.
Has to be one of the best under 20 page little stories I have read! It packed a hell of a punch. I loved that we got to see ‘Pigman’ grow up from a boy to a man, live through the abuse caused by his mum and how that then developed self inflicted.
This was intense, nasty, gruesome, sad..I’m SHOOK! The writing was almost poetic, repetition done is a fabulous way..I’m actually quite shocked how much I enjoyed this..although I also really enjoyed his Wormy poemy book!😂