I Died In A Bed Of Roses

by Kevin Strange

Cult horror filmmaker Brian Sully has isolated himself to a simple life on the Oregon coast after being publicly shamed by the lead actress of his most recent B-Movie monster flick for sending her pictures of his dick. Brian's years of isolation have left him on the brink of suicide. But after his best friend and producer books him at a 20th anniversary horror festival honoring their first feature film, Brian Sully's life is about to change. Is true love real? What if you fell in love with something not quite... Human? Would you pursue it? Would you let anything stop you? Even death? I DIED IN A BED OF ROSES is Kevin Strange's first ever crack at the paranormal romance genre. But if you're expecting a mushy love story, well, you don't know Kevin Strange!

148 pages, Paperback

Published March 2, 2017

About the author

Kevin Strange is a two time nominee of the Wonderland Book Award for excellence in bizarro fiction, recipient of the 2014 editor's choice award in the Lewis and Clark college literary magazine The Peppermint Rooster Review and his short story THE TWINS was listed on TangentOnline.com's 2015 year end recommended reading list.

He is the author of 18 books, and the writer/director of 7 films. He loves schlocky B-movies, cult fiction and Iron Maiden records.

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew…that was one wild ride. Zombie on human sex, living farms, undead animals, and all sorts of madness. But it was totally original. Like super, duper unique and the creativity was just off the charts. Our leads, Brian and Maggie, are a darling couple. You just can’t help but fall in love with them. And their passion feels so sincere and intense, as new love can sometimes be. As they navigate the difficulties of her particular situation, as Brian is willing to do whatever is needed to get her and keep her. And the story was kept simple, which I am always a big fan of. The entire experience was just a delight, and it all went by a bit too quick to relish in all the great stuff that the author created. But that’s maybe just me being a bit selfish. I just wanted a little more time here, but what we got was plenty good. Anyway, another great time from Kevin Strange.

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarrely fascinating!

ANY book that makes me sit and read it all the way through until the very last page has GOT to be five stars! A great story... I had NO idea how the heck the main character and the subject of his affection were going to come out of this ‘experience’. I’m a sucker for happy endings, whether they’re bizarre or not.

[Sadie Forsythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm never entirely sure how to review bizaro fiction, let alone bizaro horror, because it's, you know, bizarre. This one starts out pretty well, which was a relief. The cover left me fearing it might just turn into male-centric wank fodder. (It doesn't. It's very male-centric, but not a wank fest.) I'm afraid it does peter out though, veering off into a rushed, simplistic, deus ex mechana climax and ending. This is maybe not surprising, since the author says in the beginning that the book was written during a weeklong writing retreat and the beginning was birthed more easily than the end. It's not bad. It's actually pretty finny at times. But I think this will definitely be a case of finding the right reader for the book.

......Ok, I just want to say wank one more time.

[Kyle Feuerbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the best book I’ve read by Kevin Strange. It’s hard to say why exactly, but I certainly felt a lot of emotion in the one. It felt real to me, like Kevin put a lot of himself in the story. I also think he tied in the bizarro elements well and did an excellent job world building.

I read this one straight through and had to know how it ended. Anytime that happens, I always give five stars. I felt this was a fantastic novella and if you haven’t read much bizarro or Kevin Strange before, this is a solid place to start.

[Bo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin Strange’s most sedate novel. If it wasn’t for the weirdly explicit sex stuff you’d think the first half of it was written by someone sane... the second half still goes crazy though ;)

[Josh Warfel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not nearly the bizzaro book I was expecting. pleasantly surprised at quality of characters in the book!