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Sick Bastards #1-3
Sick. SickER. SickEST: The Bastard Collection
THIS IS AN EXTREME HORROR NOVEL. There is gore. There is bad language. There are scenes of a sexual nature. But hidden underneath it all is also a chilling story. Please do not purchase this book if you are easily shocked, disgusted or offended. This book is not for you. SICK B*STARDS A family will do anything to survive after a nuclear attack has left their world in ruins. Actions which even surprise them... SICKER B*STARDS Home truths pave the way for a journey of self-discovery and revenge in the direct sequel to Matt Shaw's Sick Bastards. SICKEST B*STARDS sickEST B*stards continues on from both Sick B*stards and SickER B*stards, bringing the story to a shocking conclusion!
- GenresHorror
394 pages, Paperback
First published April 27, 2015
7 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
Matt Shaw
534 books2,216 followersBiography
MATT SHAW was born, quite by accident (his mother tripped, he shot out) September 30th 1980 in Winchester hospital where he was immediately placed on the baby ward and EBay. Some twelve years later (wandering the corridors of the hospital and playing with road kill when he was on day release), the listing closed and he remained unsold, he was booted out of the hospital to start his life as a writer and hobbit – beginning with writing screenplays and short stories for his own amusement before finally getting published when he was twenty-seven years and forty-five seconds old.
Once Published weekly in a lad's magazine with his photography work, Matt Shaw is also a published author and cartoonist. Has to be said, can be a bit of a flirt and definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, somewhat of a klutz.
Favourite books
"Roald Dahl's Collection of Short Stories"
Tim Burton's Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy
Anything, really, written by himself. Because he is that good.
MATT SHAW was born, quite by accident (his mother tripped, he shot out) September 30th 1980 in Winchester hospital where he was immediately placed on the baby ward and EBay. Some twelve years later (wandering the corridors of the hospital and playing with road kill when he was on day release), the listing closed and he remained unsold, he was booted out of the hospital to start his life as a writer and hobbit – beginning with writing screenplays and short stories for his own amusement before finally getting published when he was twenty-seven years and forty-five seconds old.
Once Published weekly in a lad's magazine with his photography work, Matt Shaw is also a published author and cartoonist. Has to be said, can be a bit of a flirt and definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, somewhat of a klutz.
Favourite books
"Roald Dahl's Collection of Short Stories"
Tim Burton's Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy
Anything, really, written by himself. Because he is that good.
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 7, 2018
This collection was the first I had read of Matt Shaw after having decided to try him out due to the warnings of "extreme horror, not for the easily offended". I'm very glad that I did, and this trilogy is a great place to start for fans new to Shaw; they give you a good idea of what his novels are like.
The books give exactly what they advertise - extreme sex, violence and disturbing scenes.
Unlike most trilogies, the middle book is not weaker than the other two: all three stories are fantastic.
I read the whole sitting in one night because I just couldn't - and did not want to - put it down.
Highly recommended.
The books give exactly what they advertise - extreme sex, violence and disturbing scenes.
Unlike most trilogies, the middle book is not weaker than the other two: all three stories are fantastic.
I read the whole sitting in one night because I just couldn't - and did not want to - put it down.
Highly recommended.
November 18, 2023
Gross and drawn out to 3 books for what?? The last one felt unnecessary.
September 6, 2022
Sick
Twisted
Vile
Disgusting
The plot was awesome. I really enjoyed it. It's something that I've been looking for for awhile.
Tw Cannibalism, incest, dubcon. Noncon, etc
Personally I feel it could have been a bit More by Sickest. It ended great, but I wanted more out of it. It's just a personal opinion. It wasn't really lacking I'm just into the worst of the worst. This was pretty effin bad. Lol
The only downside is that there are a ton of typos/errors. It doesn't really bother me but some may find it bothersome.
Twisted
Vile
Disgusting
The plot was awesome. I really enjoyed it. It's something that I've been looking for for awhile.
Tw Cannibalism, incest, dubcon. Noncon, etc
Personally I feel it could have been a bit More by Sickest. It ended great, but I wanted more out of it. It's just a personal opinion. It wasn't really lacking I'm just into the worst of the worst. This was pretty effin bad. Lol
The only downside is that there are a ton of typos/errors. It doesn't really bother me but some may find it bothersome.
October 2, 2022
I didn’t even bother reading the description to this one because I wanted to be completely surprised (which is always fun to do when reading a Matt Shaw work of art). Anyways, this one definitely lived up to my expectations! I loved it! These 3 stories had the perfect amount of depravity/grotesquerie in my opinion. I highly recommend reading the trilogy all at once. They all pick up right where the other left off, making it seem like you’re reading one, large novel. As per usual- lots of trigger warnings- this one is not for the faint of heart.
August 23, 2024
I can handle extreme horror. When i finished this book I threw it in the garbage can. I usually pass my books on to whomever i think might want to read them or to Goodwill.
This book was all about porn with a bit of a story that was weak. The last book had so many typos that i could not believe it that it passed through
I could not wait to get to the end of it. It was a downer and I can’t imagine reading anything like it again.
Bring me silence of the lambs. Bring me anything but this! Just a bunch of smut. So hAPPY WHEN IT ENDED. I hated it. there, I said it.
This book was all about porn with a bit of a story that was weak. The last book had so many typos that i could not believe it that it passed through
I could not wait to get to the end of it. It was a downer and I can’t imagine reading anything like it again.
Bring me silence of the lambs. Bring me anything but this! Just a bunch of smut. So hAPPY WHEN IT ENDED. I hated it. there, I said it.
January 5, 2025
What a book! Straight to the point with enough depth to truly get into the minds of the characters written within the story, this trilogy was both a quick read and a fun ride. Definitely not for the light hearted, but certainly not one of the most splatterpunk horror books I’ve read, this is a gentle read that touches on just enough apocalyptic terror to pull the reader in for more.
April 5, 2025
The name hardly does this story justice. I'm into dark things, but this story definitely pushed me to the edge of unreadable. I don't feel like I am a better person for having read it. I truly skimmed some of the pages bc it was THAT GROSS!! I finished it only because I thought it would have a different ending. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
September 5, 2022
So messed up. Loved it.
December 19, 2022
sick bastards was fantastic.
sicker not so much.
sickest less so.
4 stars for the collection.
sicker not so much.
sickest less so.
4 stars for the collection.
December 27, 2022
True to the name. 🤣🤮
February 9, 2023
Unsettlingly raw and bereft of any shreds of morality.
July 11, 2023
Absolutely mental!
September 20, 2023
FUUUUUCK THAT ENDING!
February 2, 2026
Exactly what I was looking for. It's a little graphic, and definitely merits the extreme horror tag. I enjoyed it.
January 29, 2026
Gruesome for sure, a great story of conspiracy and post-apocalyptic setting. The prominence of incestuous themes were too much a part of the plot for my preferences. Too many typos also, namely in the 2nd book, but especially in the 3rd book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2022
*The full trilogy of the sick bastards collection. If a bomb dropped and it changed the world as you knew it, what would you do to survive? For the family in this story....They even surprise themselves.
*
A really sick take on an apocolypse situation!! As with most of Matt Shaw's horror, this trio holds nothing back from the very first few lines. In the first book, you will feel queasy with what this family does, but yet only one character seems to feel ANYTHING towards it.
The second book follows directly from the first, but ''son'' (We do eventually find out names) our empathetic main character, knows more than he lets on to the rest of his family.
The last book brings everything to a huge conclusion for us as the reader....But not so much for the characters in the book.
I really enjoyed this collection for the most part! Full of gory details and things that may just make you wince. I loved the last book and the way it rounded up the story, and in a typical horror style, not always the happy ending we look for. Matt Shaw really did take everything to the next level of fucked up!!!
Some parts are a little repetative, which I honestly think was only noticable for me, because I read the whole triology in succession very quickly.
This is a fucked up take on the classic dystopic horror. Think umberella corp....But about 1000x worse
*
A really sick take on an apocolypse situation!! As with most of Matt Shaw's horror, this trio holds nothing back from the very first few lines. In the first book, you will feel queasy with what this family does, but yet only one character seems to feel ANYTHING towards it.
The second book follows directly from the first, but ''son'' (We do eventually find out names) our empathetic main character, knows more than he lets on to the rest of his family.
The last book brings everything to a huge conclusion for us as the reader....But not so much for the characters in the book.
I really enjoyed this collection for the most part! Full of gory details and things that may just make you wince. I loved the last book and the way it rounded up the story, and in a typical horror style, not always the happy ending we look for. Matt Shaw really did take everything to the next level of fucked up!!!
Some parts are a little repetative, which I honestly think was only noticable for me, because I read the whole triology in succession very quickly.
This is a fucked up take on the classic dystopic horror. Think umberella corp....But about 1000x worse
March 21, 2022
A book that has it all, in three bite-sized pieces that may be hard to swallow!
Two substantial reads and a third very short read to finish off what has to be one of the most disturbing, contentious and downright sickening books that I've read during my 58 years on this planet.
More, please Matt!I
Two substantial reads and a third very short read to finish off what has to be one of the most disturbing, contentious and downright sickening books that I've read during my 58 years on this planet.
More, please Matt!I
February 15, 2024
Read this out of sheer, morbid curiosity. I’d seen extreme horror books like this doing the rounds on “Booktok” and as a fan of horror thought why not, let’s give it a go. Shocking and disturbing. Kept me interested all the way through, but felt like I needed a shower after finishing it.
Read
October 8, 2017 Sick B*stards
No memory. No past. No names.
Father, mother, sister, brother – these are the „names“ they reached an agreement.
The family lives barricaded in a house. Reinforce their identity on one picture – their whole past seems to be a picture. No one can remember, what happens, who they are, where they’re from – a nuclear bomb is what they said. But outside doesn´t wait the nuclear winter, but the sun… birds… and these creatures. Mutants, hunters… whatever they are: they’re bringing the death!
Into the house waits the surviving; the price is not payable anymore since a long time. Surviving at all costs.
Survive as a woman.
Survive as a man.
Survive as a human being – whatever that still means – except of drinking… and eating!
Four people without a past in a house, which transforms more and more to a prison and the one question: is out there a future – and the answer, who you are?
”Sick B*stards” is experienced from the perspective of the brother (son). This ego-perspective offers stylistically the possibility of a more intense experience of the action – and Matthew Shaw knows how to handle it. He doesn’t hesitate, does not allow an acclimatization period, doesn’t let the happenings slowly be effective to the reader, but throws him without warning in the cold floods.
Even the pictures that Shaw spends are obscene, they’re not living ‚cause of perversion, but despair. Sometimes I felt remembered for Josh Malerman’s „Bird Box“.
You are alone. You don’t doubt, but survive; and judge yourself!
The language chances in an absolutely realistic setting between protective sterility and passionate abasement.
The end maybe isn’t that surprising you’ll hope, but you may not forget, that this is just the first of three parts (Part 1: ”Sick B*stards”; Part 2: ”SickER B*stards”; Part 3: ”SickEST B*stards”). And finally the end closes the circle of this first part – but not finishes it.
”Sick B*stards” is one of the books, which needs to be understood. It’s not about splatter and gore, not sex and violence – Shaw created a kind of psychodrama, a morbid Coming-of-Age-Novel, whichs sick origin rots in the development of an increasingly grotesque self-disclosure.
Every (good) author has its own style: Shaw is „dry“. He does not provide dripping fiction, no excessive obscenity or fragile dystopia – he just lets it happen. Less merciless, but just with no emotions, he steers a steam-roller unstoppable onto the reader, but not with the intention to roll over him, but to let him feel the getaway; not to hunt, but to urge with the uncertainty, if there is a possibility to escape – if there is anything like the option to escape or if it’s the last delusion of hope.
Yeah, Shaw is „dry“…
-
SickER B*stards
In principle, if you’re reading a sequel, it’s recommended to have been read the previous book – at Matt Shaw’s ”SickER B*stards” is even a must!
Here I can’t and won’t speak of a sequel (in the classical sense), but of a second part! Indeed a sequel continues the story, it also has an autonomy. A „part“, on the other hand, belongs to something, is a piece of it, so it is interdependent and interacts with the other part – just like in the case of ”SickER B*stards”.
Strictly speaking, ”SickER B*stards” even goes a step further and provides the link between ”Sick B*stards” and ”SickEST B*stards”, but this does not belong here.
”SickER B*stards” welcomes the reader directly in the „family“ – father, mother, sister and brother. But this time John knows about himself, his true life and being – or at least what he was once upon a time…
John continues the game, but now less as an actor, as a director. The cameras no longer make his life a playground, but he feeds the world with his will!
What was a desperate escape in the first part, becomes a sick obsession in the second part! You experience the change of the obscenity of the first part to the primitiveness of finality. In a way you can speak here of a struggle between reality (the actual world outside the experiment, John now knows about) and existence (the „Here“ and „Now“ of life, in which John becomes the „brother“).
The journey, which seemed to be finished in the first part, now shows its end as the beginning – the beginning of the demise. Shaw created here an escalating conflict, which, as an essence, bleeds the pure delusion.
What was previously a grotesque celebration, is now the pure dedication to decay!
Matt Shaw closed the circle with ”SickER B*stards”. Where he let the reader experience a constant abstraction of self-disclosure in ”Sick B*stards”, he concretizes the selection of morbidity in ”SickER B*stards” – and releases it!
-
SickEST B*stards
When it’s time to call something a small stroke of genius?
For ”SickEST B*stards” you might almost be tempted to choose these words.
”SickEST B*stards” represents the final novella to Matt Shaw’s sick journey – and relativizes infinity to a eternal finiteness.
Shaw changes the perspective from John to his „mother“ (so finally not his mother, but „Kelly Dethlefs“)! And that’s what makes the thing so awesome, as ultimately disgusting.
Finally you’ll find yourself in the first part (”Sick B*stards”) again:
this abhorrent devotion, which appears to be the only way through the assumed finality.
”SickEST B*stards” seamlessly follows ”SickER B*stards” and makes the nightmare incarnate to a final reality. The reader is no longer confronted (”Sick B*stards”), no longer attacked (”SickER B*stards”)… actually he’ll get ignored; it does not need any more active action – we are lost!
The complete escalation of the second part impels itself in the abyss of hell: it will never end, because it must begin forever – it will never die, because it never has lived – it will never be good, because it was never evil …
The will to survive as the absolution of knowledge – knowledge as a metamorphosis to delusion.
Just as Matt Shaw has closed the circle with ”SickER B*stards”, he has filled it with ”SickEST B*stards” – to the signum of resignation.
-
Sick. SickER. SickEST: The Bastard Collection
Sick – Sicker – Sickest.
The increase suggests it: these three books simply belong together! And so I can only recommend to everyone to buy the book of the same name, „Sick. Sicker. Sickest. The Bastard Collection“, in which all three parts were united.
Ultimately, Matt Shaw has created a three-part Coming-of-Age-Novel as a degenerate life-cycle:
– The birth
”Sick B*stards”
– The life
”SickER B*stards”
– The death
”SickEST B*stards”
The first part, ”Sick B*stards”, is a prelude, that is closed in itself, but holds the door open to the second part ”SickER B*stards”.
The second part, ”SickER B*stards”, comes through this door with a morbid certainty, closes it, and retains the key – in order to enable an escape into the repulsiveness of the flagellation not until the end; the door opens for the third part, ”SickEST B*stards”.
The third part, ”SickEST B*stards”, less closes all doors, than opening the one gate – the gate to hell…
Sick – Sicker – Sickest…
”Sick B*stards” – ”SickER B*stards” – ”SickEST B*stards”…
A three-part morbid Coming-of-Age-Novel, a horror-drama, a psycho-Thriller… just sick at all.
-
Visit my blog for more reviews:
Die Büchergnomen
No memory. No past. No names.
Father, mother, sister, brother – these are the „names“ they reached an agreement.
The family lives barricaded in a house. Reinforce their identity on one picture – their whole past seems to be a picture. No one can remember, what happens, who they are, where they’re from – a nuclear bomb is what they said. But outside doesn´t wait the nuclear winter, but the sun… birds… and these creatures. Mutants, hunters… whatever they are: they’re bringing the death!
Into the house waits the surviving; the price is not payable anymore since a long time. Surviving at all costs.
Survive as a woman.
Survive as a man.
Survive as a human being – whatever that still means – except of drinking… and eating!
Four people without a past in a house, which transforms more and more to a prison and the one question: is out there a future – and the answer, who you are?
”Sick B*stards” is experienced from the perspective of the brother (son). This ego-perspective offers stylistically the possibility of a more intense experience of the action – and Matthew Shaw knows how to handle it. He doesn’t hesitate, does not allow an acclimatization period, doesn’t let the happenings slowly be effective to the reader, but throws him without warning in the cold floods.
Even the pictures that Shaw spends are obscene, they’re not living ‚cause of perversion, but despair. Sometimes I felt remembered for Josh Malerman’s „Bird Box“.
You are alone. You don’t doubt, but survive; and judge yourself!
The language chances in an absolutely realistic setting between protective sterility and passionate abasement.
The end maybe isn’t that surprising you’ll hope, but you may not forget, that this is just the first of three parts (Part 1: ”Sick B*stards”; Part 2: ”SickER B*stards”; Part 3: ”SickEST B*stards”). And finally the end closes the circle of this first part – but not finishes it.
”Sick B*stards” is one of the books, which needs to be understood. It’s not about splatter and gore, not sex and violence – Shaw created a kind of psychodrama, a morbid Coming-of-Age-Novel, whichs sick origin rots in the development of an increasingly grotesque self-disclosure.
Every (good) author has its own style: Shaw is „dry“. He does not provide dripping fiction, no excessive obscenity or fragile dystopia – he just lets it happen. Less merciless, but just with no emotions, he steers a steam-roller unstoppable onto the reader, but not with the intention to roll over him, but to let him feel the getaway; not to hunt, but to urge with the uncertainty, if there is a possibility to escape – if there is anything like the option to escape or if it’s the last delusion of hope.
Yeah, Shaw is „dry“…
-
SickER B*stards
In principle, if you’re reading a sequel, it’s recommended to have been read the previous book – at Matt Shaw’s ”SickER B*stards” is even a must!
Here I can’t and won’t speak of a sequel (in the classical sense), but of a second part! Indeed a sequel continues the story, it also has an autonomy. A „part“, on the other hand, belongs to something, is a piece of it, so it is interdependent and interacts with the other part – just like in the case of ”SickER B*stards”.
Strictly speaking, ”SickER B*stards” even goes a step further and provides the link between ”Sick B*stards” and ”SickEST B*stards”, but this does not belong here.
”SickER B*stards” welcomes the reader directly in the „family“ – father, mother, sister and brother. But this time John knows about himself, his true life and being – or at least what he was once upon a time…
John continues the game, but now less as an actor, as a director. The cameras no longer make his life a playground, but he feeds the world with his will!
What was a desperate escape in the first part, becomes a sick obsession in the second part! You experience the change of the obscenity of the first part to the primitiveness of finality. In a way you can speak here of a struggle between reality (the actual world outside the experiment, John now knows about) and existence (the „Here“ and „Now“ of life, in which John becomes the „brother“).
The journey, which seemed to be finished in the first part, now shows its end as the beginning – the beginning of the demise. Shaw created here an escalating conflict, which, as an essence, bleeds the pure delusion.
What was previously a grotesque celebration, is now the pure dedication to decay!
Matt Shaw closed the circle with ”SickER B*stards”. Where he let the reader experience a constant abstraction of self-disclosure in ”Sick B*stards”, he concretizes the selection of morbidity in ”SickER B*stards” – and releases it!
-
SickEST B*stards
When it’s time to call something a small stroke of genius?
For ”SickEST B*stards” you might almost be tempted to choose these words.
”SickEST B*stards” represents the final novella to Matt Shaw’s sick journey – and relativizes infinity to a eternal finiteness.
Shaw changes the perspective from John to his „mother“ (so finally not his mother, but „Kelly Dethlefs“)! And that’s what makes the thing so awesome, as ultimately disgusting.
Finally you’ll find yourself in the first part (”Sick B*stards”) again:
this abhorrent devotion, which appears to be the only way through the assumed finality.
”SickEST B*stards” seamlessly follows ”SickER B*stards” and makes the nightmare incarnate to a final reality. The reader is no longer confronted (”Sick B*stards”), no longer attacked (”SickER B*stards”)… actually he’ll get ignored; it does not need any more active action – we are lost!
The complete escalation of the second part impels itself in the abyss of hell: it will never end, because it must begin forever – it will never die, because it never has lived – it will never be good, because it was never evil …
The will to survive as the absolution of knowledge – knowledge as a metamorphosis to delusion.
Just as Matt Shaw has closed the circle with ”SickER B*stards”, he has filled it with ”SickEST B*stards” – to the signum of resignation.
-
Sick. SickER. SickEST: The Bastard Collection
Sick – Sicker – Sickest.
The increase suggests it: these three books simply belong together! And so I can only recommend to everyone to buy the book of the same name, „Sick. Sicker. Sickest. The Bastard Collection“, in which all three parts were united.
Ultimately, Matt Shaw has created a three-part Coming-of-Age-Novel as a degenerate life-cycle:
– The birth
”Sick B*stards”
– The life
”SickER B*stards”
– The death
”SickEST B*stards”
The first part, ”Sick B*stards”, is a prelude, that is closed in itself, but holds the door open to the second part ”SickER B*stards”.
The second part, ”SickER B*stards”, comes through this door with a morbid certainty, closes it, and retains the key – in order to enable an escape into the repulsiveness of the flagellation not until the end; the door opens for the third part, ”SickEST B*stards”.
The third part, ”SickEST B*stards”, less closes all doors, than opening the one gate – the gate to hell…
Sick – Sicker – Sickest…
”Sick B*stards” – ”SickER B*stards” – ”SickEST B*stards”…
A three-part morbid Coming-of-Age-Novel, a horror-drama, a psycho-Thriller… just sick at all.
-
Visit my blog for more reviews:
Die Büchergnomen
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews