GORE ZONE: 15 Tales of Extreme Gore & Terror

by Wesley Thomas

Caution: Extreme Horror Collection

This collection is not for the faint-hearted. Some readers may find the content offensive.

Jump into tales of cannibalistic theme parks, snow monsters, demonic rituals on planes, psychotic women, possessed Kindles, and more!
This collection is for those who aren't afraid of gore, cannibalism, and the macabre.

Bonus: Includes "My Haunting in London: A True Short Story."

Praise for the Collection:

"Gory, sexy, nasty fun! Tales that will chill your spine, turn your stomach, and make you think twice about turning off the lights...you never know who might be in there with you. Echoing Laymon and the godfathers of splatterpunk, Wesley Thomas brings his A-game to this collection of glorious literary mayhem! Go ahead, open it up. I dare you." - Michael Wright, Author of The Hunt and Sleep

"Skin-crawling, stomach-churning, hair-raising, anxiety-inducing and complete terror are just a few things you will experience while reading this book!" - Gabby's Book Reviews

"This book’s title is apt: I haven’t come across so much blood, vomit, unidentifiable bodily fluids, and piles of severed limbs since my last night out in Manchester." - Karl Drinkwater, Horror Author

Genres: Horror, Splatterpunk

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2016

About the author

Bestselling British Horror Author Wesley Thomas

Wesley Thomas, a renowned British horror author, made his mark in the horror fiction world in 2011 with his debut novel. Since then, he has penned several bestselling collections, novels, and novellas. With over two decades of passion for all things horror, Wesley's transition into horror fiction was a natural choice.

His work has been featured in various anthologies, websites, national and local newspapers, and has even been read live on radio. Wesley's dedication to the genre is evident in his regular consumption of horror literature, movies, TV shows, and his attendance at horror-themed events worldwide.

Endorsements:

"Wesley Thomas is one of the very few authors that has managed to completely scare me when reading his work." - Amazon Reviewer

"I always look forward to new stories from this author. His writing style is one that should be taught in writing classes." - Word Forward Blog

"Thomas is an absolute wordsmith and his writing is unique and descriptively precise." - Kay Oliver

"A huge imagination and a unique, inimitable writing style." - C. L. Hernandez, Author of 'Cobwebs'

"Simply speaking, Wesley is a writer who cares for the genre deeply, and contributes to it meaningfully!" - Dustin Urness, Author of 'Disturbing Tales of Anguish & Horror'

"Wesley is an extremely talented young horror craftsman. Love the retro vibe to his work and the presentation." - Terry M. West, well-known horror author, director, and actor

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not too long ago I got a message from Wesley asking me if I'd be interested in reviewing his new short story collection. The moment he said that his editor and proof reader found it offensive I knew I had to read it. I had reviewed one of his books before and he was kind enough to message me and thank me. This is a writer that takes all of the feedback that he gets and uses it. Good or bad. As a writer myself I respect that and promised myself that once I had a chance I would read another of his books and well here we are. Thanks Wesley for the arc of Gore Zone.

If you've read my reviews before you know how I like my splatterpunk. I love gore, and I love reading shit that most people won't. I write the same kind of stuff but what I like and look for in a collection or even a book like this is a story. Why is this happening? Gore just for gore's sake bores me. If done correctly it should be woven into the story and have a reason behind it. Anyone can bring in a bucket of guts and throw it on the floor, but you need solid characters, you need a motivation for whatever horrible thing is happening to make it more than just a gross out. If these were just stories that just featured gore for the sake of gore I wouldn't even be writing this review. We can all agree that this collection isn't for everyone and won't appease anyone looking for mainstream horror. That's okay but here's the thing. It's not really that bad.

I like Wesley's writing style and as I read this I could see that he is trying to find his voice as a writer. He creates unique scenes of terror that stick with you. In this collection you'll find horrors that give you a reason to stop reading just so you can catch your breath. In Wesley's world there are no happy endings and that's not a bad thing. You have a crazy cat lady that gets revenge on a cheating husband, a roller coaster than ends in a wide awake nightmare. These are stories that elevate the splatterpunk genre. These are stories that show us that sometimes we have more to fear than monsters. As a collection there are a few bumps in the road but overall everything flows really well. You can forgive him for clunkers like Horror Walk which didn't make any sense. It was a solid story right up until the end and I actually yelled: "What the fuck?! No, this is bullshit!" Aside from that outburst I was glued to the pages.

If you're looking for something to read that borders on the obscene and the shocking Gore zone is one helluva collection. After reading this I became a fan. Short story collections are hit or miss and this is one is a home run. Wesley Thomas is a writer to watch out for and I look forward to checking out more of his work

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

** I got a copy of this book for free for a honest review.**

I absolutely love collections. Simply for the fact that, in most collections, authors display their skill with different subjects, genres, and styles. So when, Wesley contacted me about reviewing his newest collection; I jumped on it. One thing I know for sure about Mr. Thomas is that he never fails to entertain. Even when I may not fully enjoy a book some part of it entertains me.

Gore Zone entertained and disgusted me, but the damage was done and like a true addict I couldn't resist; jumping back into the depravity and gore. If you are squeamish, this may not be the book or you. But if you've got the fortitude to stick it out, you will be sure to find a story or stories that hook you.

Throughout the collection you'll come across a wide range of creepiness and strange characters but no other character intrigued and disgusted me more than Sady. Sady is a truly disturbing character and her actions had me gagging and clutching myself in pain and repulsion. Before I knew it the story was over and Sady was gone. I need more Sady!! You hear me Mr. Thomas?? Give me more twisted adventures of this demented character. I want to know more about said character and follow the blood trail that she leaves behind.

I think I mention this with each new book released by the author, but Mr. Thomas continues to flourish. Out doing himself with each new release. I recommend this collection for all fans of the author, the horror genre, and gore hounds alike.

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading this author’s stories! They are totally creepy and ALWAYS end with a bang! This book is a collection of short stories. Even though they are short, they got my heart pounding and my eyes bulging. There was actually one story I read with my hand over my mouth the entire time and I didn’t realize I was doing it til the end of the story.

These stories are not for the faint of heart. They are detailed, gory and with his amazing descriptions, the stories come to life.

With this set of stories, he touched upon things that we can all relate to and put such a twist on them that I feel like I will be checking over my shoulder for a while. For example, I LOVE rollercoasters but the next dark one I go on, I KNOW one of the stories in this book will come to mind right after I am buckled in and can’t get out. (Oh, and I may never sleep on an airplane again!).

If you are into true horror stories with lots of details, do yourself a favor and get this book.

[Gabby Hillier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skin crawling, stomach churning, hair raising, anxiety inducing and complete terror are just a few things you will experience while reading this book. I can't not describe in words how reading this made me freely feel. I have never in my life read a book and had so vividly amd forcefully a story thrown into my head by an author. This story is so detailed that you feel like your running through the haunthouse or your standing in the room watching he horror unfold. This is a work of perfection. Nothing I think will ever top the fear I experienced while f reading this story, I cannot wait to see what else is to come from the mind of Wesley Thomas

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying, gory and twisted in the best ways. Thomas hits us with some extreme horror this time around that is not for the weak of heart or stomach. Graphic violence, depraved assault, and disgusting monsters all brought to you in a well rounded collection.

From straight up splatterpunk, munch-out horror to paranormal horror, this collection has something to wet the appetite of any seasoned horror fan. If you're a Laymon, Barker or Ketchum fan, or heck, just a fan of a couple good splattery stories, here's your fix.

I was provided a copy of this collection in exchange for my input and review free of charge by the author.

[Erwin Blackthorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lover of short horror stories, such as Creepypastas and ones you might hear from any youtube spooky story narration channel, I found the 15 "super-short" short stories in Gorezone to be fairly similar to the basic set ups, but with a big focus on gore, naturally. Since this is a collection, the writing is all from the same author, who is not bad at all when it comes to storytelling, despite the defeated tone this review may have at times. My only real problem at first glance is that the writing is all about the gore and nothing more. No real character to be had, no real setting or feel, other than modern day with a very fixed idea of location. That is not a bad thing, sticking to the subject is great when you want to keep everything focused, but in a good amount of the stories, it feels like the things that are missing could make it great, and instead it is between okay and “I-wish-it-was-me-in-an-orange-jumpsuit-in-those-ISIS-beheading-videos” bad. More leaning on okay.

To give a better idea on how each story plays out I’ll go down the list, without spoilers of course(except for one):

PLEASURE ISLAND
Being only a few pages long and as the introduction piece, it was too short for me to really enjoy it, but the concept alone was good enough to make me have decently high hopes for the rest. Even though it sounds like it will be about pirates (wink wink) this story is about an amusement park, one of my favorite places to have a nice child-like fear of fast rides and scary heights. It starts off with a bit of a mystery, something you can hold onto. Then it REALLY forces itself to act out its main part, where it is about a new ride that is not quite kid friendly. I like the way it ended, although the ending is a little iffy due to the lack of real character given and due to the twist being kind of lame, but I’d say it’s okay for how short it was. The intro gets just barely a pass as “worth reading” for being slightly enjoyable but leaving out a LOT of things that could make it good.

ICY PREDATORS
Starting off with a nice cold atmosphere of an urban snowstorm, this story started off well, but quickly fell flat when the majority of details were constantly repeated, yet supplied nothing. Strangely enough, a good chunk of this one is about big boobs. From how this one was set up, I was expecting a bit of an adventure, but it felt even shorter than the previous one, with more subject matter to attend to. The monster was kind of lame, but of course the gore was the main attraction, so I would say it was a little better in worth than Pleasure Island because it had a lovable atmosphere, but then the way it played out with the characters and the monster was not really to my liking. If you don’t care for a snowstorm type of story, it is reasonable to skip this one.

BE BRAVE
I actually liked this one because it was the first creative one, but the ending was… a little annoying. It’s on a plane, so if you like that kind of fear, it’s a good one. But the ending is so abrupt and weirdly written, I can’t quite tell what exactly happens. At this point I am guessing gore and nudity is a major theme, so if that pleases you, it’s in here. But for me, the nudity is really out of place and feels a little shoehorned in there, so it doesn’t do anything for me. This one is worth going through, but don’t expect to enjoy how it ends.

MEDICINE
Here, we have a hospital, which is a classic in my taste when it comes to horror. Sadly, this story itself is not. It’s different, for sure, but it has a moment with a janitor that takes too long and the main character ends up worrying about a stranger at the worst time possible, clearly showing that its ending was REALLY forced upon the victim of a MC. I really wanted to like this one, but just like its main character, it was written too awkward to actually enjoy it. So in short, excellent concept, good gore, lackluster execution that ruins its value.

SADY
This one is better than the previous ones, with a trucker on a highway encountering the horror of being alone for too long, in more ways than one. It had character, humor, and the nudity actually makes sense to have, as well as the gore. But then, the ending comes along and completely subtracts everything good that it started out with and wraps it all up poorly, with incredibly forced on exposition that the story didn’t need, simply because the very last bit explains the whole thing by itself.

WORKING NINE UNTIL DEATH
I like horror stories with trials, think of like a Saw type of thing where the person had to overcome obstacles. However, I could not like this one. This story really felt like it had some kind of a message to it, giving the fact that the main character wishes to die in the very beginning. But after the, quite honestly, very nicely done beginning of setting up its office space setting, the entire story collapses on itself with some of the most odd and out of the way choices, with no explanation as to what is even going on. Not even in randomly put exposition like in Sady. I could see the writer was really trying to make the trails drastic and clever, which they were, but they are so out of place and with no real substance, it would make the reader hope it was all just a dream. As for the ending, I could see the writer was trying to make it weird on purpose, but it didn’t do anything other than make this story (possibly) the worst in the book. I’d recommend to skip this one and just move onto the next one. Although...

SOMETHING'S INSIDE MY KINDLE
Being a rather “meta” story about a horror fan reading horror stories, I personally didn’t like this one. For the main character here to know the horror cliches and then actually perform them knowingly, it’s tongue-in-cheek value was lost rather quickly. Which is a shame because I really liked the monster, it was pretty creative. Good monster, unenjoyable story. It felt like one of the shortest ones, so at least it didn’t drag on, at least not too much.

ONE DAY AT CAMP
Finally, something to enjoy, and for all the wrong reasons. I personally love dark humor, and this one is chock full of it. With a bit of a switch compared to the previous stories, it has the beginning as the boring part and the rest to be enjoyable. The monsters are actually well thought out, with their concept disgustingly great. If you like gross humor, this one is perfect.

CRAZY CAT LADY
A revenge story, and quite the short one, it feels like a set up to a Tales from the Crypt episode. I actually like this one and only wish it was longer or at least had more of a character setup to enjoy the ending more. Nothing to really complain about, other than the overly repetitive use of certain words, which is a really small thing. I liked this one.

ALL ABOARD
I couldn’t enjoy this one. It starts off decent, then everything setup becomes entirely useless, and then the ending is so out of the way. Which is a shame because the kill in this story is pretty creative, but to get to it and its actual reason for happening makes absolutely no sense at all. Plus, I will say religion is involved, but it serves no purpose other than to be the evil in the story. There are so many missed opportunities, like the fact that the main character in here is gay and there is the devil involved. From what I know about Christianity, that right there is a perfect set up on its own, yet the gay exposition serves nothing to the plot. Plus, I know a lot of people find old people scary, but I personally just find them annoying. This one didn’t change my mind. Skip it for sure.

HORROR WALK
I can easily consider this one the highlight of the book, or in other words, the signature story. It’s about two lesbians going to a horror amusement show and of course everything goes wrong. I loved the setup, it gave off sort of a Rob Zombie feel like how House of a Thousand Corpses started. This story is rather well done, compared to what there was previously. However, the whole point of the story, once you get to the end, is so bland and basic, I REALLY wish it was a different kind of ending. Any other kind, ANYTHING other than what was used. Everything was going great, and my hopes were set high, and then the ending appeared and brought it all to the “meh” area. I don’t want to ruin anything, but this story ends in the worst fizzle for it being the biggest thing to blast.

VISITOR
I completely understand that this one was meant to be a dark humor one and it delivered well in the funny department, but I couldn’t really like it. It sets itself up to be one thing, where a teenage boy thinks there is a monster in his closet and then it becomes something entirely different. It felt one story was being written in the beginning and then another, completely unrelated story, came up to finish it. This one is good for sexual comedy, and I really don’t know why there is something REALLY funny mentioned, but it never actually happens. It felt like there were too many missed opportunities. I mean, with what we have here already, might as well go all the way, but sadly it was almost like the writer didn’t want to make it too raunchy after a lot of “naughty” stuff happens. So, because it wants you to laugh at its awfulness, its mission was accomplished, as pyrrhic as it was.

HOMELESS
As a vampire story, this one feels like the setup to a much bigger story that what is given. But, since it is a short story, there are a lot of extra details and side things that are added in without much of a reason to be added in. I know, it lets us know the characters more, but when it has a cocaine addict talk about she has been addicted for 4 years and is still a virgin, it’s kind of hard to believe. It ends up causing more questions than what it can answer, especially when it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual story, other than the character’s background. The way it ends is okay, the gore here is different than the previous stories, and it actually tried to have good character interactions. I saw a lot of effort put into this one, but since it was too “all over the place” and its concept was a little too big for what was given, it went down from good to a little below average. I would recommend it to vampire lovers, but I won’t guarantee that it will satisfy.

LURKER
What starts off as a decent “stalker in the air vent” type of horror, soon turns into one of the dumbest things I’ve read in a good while. Even in the parts that were okay, there is too much pointless exposition in the beginning, and to make it worse, the very middle of the story turns into a bland romance that some could consider okay, but I did absolutely nothing for me other than skip it. Imagine the most generic and cliche first date scene, while having it being told instead of shown, and you have the highlight of this story. The ending is so dumb… I really don’t know what to say. I will reveal this ending, just so you know how lucky you are to skip this one. This girl dates a guy, and the guy’s brother is living in her air vent. The guy stabs his brother over 50 times, tortures the girl, then gets killed by her dog(who also breaks the girl out of her restraints, by the way). Then, after being supposedly stabbed to death, the brother gets up and kills the dog, to then have the girl die in the hospital.

DESPERATION
A man has sex with a life-sized praying mantis… That is all I have to say for you to decide if you should read it or not. Is this the story that ends the book with a blast? No, but it was different, to say the least. It had a bit of a Tales From the Crypt feel to it, and it’s really short, yet strangely it’s one of the most average endings to a collection, despite the bizarre set up. I didn’t hate it and I didn’t like it, and if that summery interests you, or if you’re into bizarro, then have at it.


As a whole, the writing in the story is part good and part bland. Every story ends up feeling repetitive during the violent scenes since the same basic words of gore are used in almost every story. I know there is only so many ways you can describe a person being killed, but if there are these many stories and nearly each one has words like “veins” and “arteries”, it leaves the desire for anything else. Even though each death in the book was different, having the same paragraphs that almost look copy and paste between one another is discouraging. That, and the mass amount of bad endings, makes this entire collection fizzle with frustration, rather than sizzle in satisfaction.

The book is a mixed bag, ranging between school grades of C to F, with a lot of Ds. I’d hate to give it a 3 simply for the fact that it’s proofread well, no real spelling or grammar issues, which gives it an automatic 2 alone. The reason it’s a 3 is because it serves its purpose: to be gory. In reality, though, I think this is more like a 5/10

Could it be more gory? Of course. Was I disappointed? Yes. Is it worth the price? Only if you are in dire need of something new that is in the area of an R rated slasher flick full of brutal fatalities, and tend to spend a dollar on lottery tickets in hopes for something good. For me, personally, the gore is on the tame side(mainly because of how it’s written), with a good amount of the intros and endings being the true source of cringe and dread.

If I could compare it to anything, I would say it’s similar to a low budget horror collection like ABCs of Horror, without the so-bad-it’s-good aspect on most of the segment and if someone dies every time. If that sounds good to you, by all means, knock yourself out.

The best advice I can give for the author are two crucial ones: A bad twist is worse than no twist at all AND exposition is like salt, where too much is obvious in the worst way.