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Pied!: (a dark comedy short for grown-ups)
A distressing tale of kidnap, clownish trickery, and carnal depravity.
When upcoming indie crime author Rex Stevens is kidnapped after a book-signing event and forced to create an erotic romance novel by brother-sister couple and pair of cockadoodie coulrophiles, you just know this story will not end well. (“Seriously, you want me to write about clown sex?”)
Definitely not for the squeamish or easily offended!
*Please this is a SHORT STORY (10-11k words) - not a novel.
When upcoming indie crime author Rex Stevens is kidnapped after a book-signing event and forced to create an erotic romance novel by brother-sister couple and pair of cockadoodie coulrophiles, you just know this story will not end well. (“Seriously, you want me to write about clown sex?”)
Definitely not for the squeamish or easily offended!
*Please this is a SHORT STORY (10-11k words) - not a novel.
46 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2018
About the author
Adrian Baldwin
42 books11 followersAdrian Baldwin is a Mancunian now living and working in Wales. Back in the Nineties, he wrote for various TV shows/personalities: Smith & Jones, Clive Anderson, Brian Conley, Paul McKenna, Hale & Pace, Rory Bremner (and a few others). Wooo, get him.
Since then, he has written three screenplays, one of which received generous financial backing from the Film Agency for Wales. Then along came the global recession to kick the UK Film industry in the nuts. What a bummer!
Not to be outdone, he turned to novel writing - which had always been his real dream - and, in particular, a genre he feels is often overlooked; a genre he has always been a fan of: Dark Comedy (sometimes referred to as Horror's weird cousin).
BARNACLE BRAT (a dark comedy for grown-ups), his first novel. won INDIE NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2016 (Readers' Choice) at Underground Book Reviews. His second novel STANLEY McCLOUD MUST DIE! (more dark comedy for grown-ups) published in 2016, and he's currently writing his third book: THE SNOWMAN AND THE SCARECROW (another dark comedy for grown-ups).
An as yet untitled novel (about Sex and Crime) is earmarked as his fourth. It will, apparently, be an orgy of filth, depravity and wrongdoings, filled with weird and wonderful characters (criminals and perverts, most likely!) smothered in copious amounts of distasteful black humour. If that's the kind of thing that appeals to you, you sicko, you're probably just the type of reader he's looking for.
For more information on the award-winning author, check out: adrianbaldwin.info (*There you can read several early chapters of both Barnacle Brat and Stanley McCloud Must Die!)
Since then, he has written three screenplays, one of which received generous financial backing from the Film Agency for Wales. Then along came the global recession to kick the UK Film industry in the nuts. What a bummer!
Not to be outdone, he turned to novel writing - which had always been his real dream - and, in particular, a genre he feels is often overlooked; a genre he has always been a fan of: Dark Comedy (sometimes referred to as Horror's weird cousin).
BARNACLE BRAT (a dark comedy for grown-ups), his first novel. won INDIE NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2016 (Readers' Choice) at Underground Book Reviews. His second novel STANLEY McCLOUD MUST DIE! (more dark comedy for grown-ups) published in 2016, and he's currently writing his third book: THE SNOWMAN AND THE SCARECROW (another dark comedy for grown-ups).
An as yet untitled novel (about Sex and Crime) is earmarked as his fourth. It will, apparently, be an orgy of filth, depravity and wrongdoings, filled with weird and wonderful characters (criminals and perverts, most likely!) smothered in copious amounts of distasteful black humour. If that's the kind of thing that appeals to you, you sicko, you're probably just the type of reader he's looking for.
For more information on the award-winning author, check out: adrianbaldwin.info (*There you can read several early chapters of both Barnacle Brat and Stanley McCloud Must Die!)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 16, 2022
Okay so... I.... I don't know quite how to approach this review.
Firstly, outstanding cover - presentation-wise, this is much more effort that I normally see with a single short story release.
Secondly... I feel like I shouldn't have laughed so much (I know it's a dark comedy so that's the point, but there's some completely unfunny subject matter covered, the likes of which I always avoid if possible and NEVER find humorous, and yet here I am, still chuckling). I laughed out loud several times, at one point having to stop reading until the hilarity subsided because there were tears in my eyes. I don't know what it says about me that I found this story so side-splittingly funny, it's probably worrying.
An ode to Stephen King's Misery, but reads like it was concocted by the demented love-child of Richard Bachman, Matt Shaw, and Terry Pratchett. Which (Adrian Baldwin, if you're reading this), I mean as a compliment.
Firstly, outstanding cover - presentation-wise, this is much more effort that I normally see with a single short story release.
Secondly... I feel like I shouldn't have laughed so much (I know it's a dark comedy so that's the point, but there's some completely unfunny subject matter covered, the likes of which I always avoid if possible and NEVER find humorous, and yet here I am, still chuckling). I laughed out loud several times, at one point having to stop reading until the hilarity subsided because there were tears in my eyes. I don't know what it says about me that I found this story so side-splittingly funny, it's probably worrying.
An ode to Stephen King's Misery, but reads like it was concocted by the demented love-child of Richard Bachman, Matt Shaw, and Terry Pratchett. Which (Adrian Baldwin, if you're reading this), I mean as a compliment.
May 12, 2020
Blimey.
Now this is an odd one. Well written and packed with imagery (some you may wish to unsee 😂)
As good as the writing is this is essentially Misery with Annie Wilkes replaced by 2 clowns so whilst enjoyable it offers little new.
As the author states...
"A dark comedy short inspired by Stephen King's best selling novels: Misery and It - but mostly Misery'
If you are looking for a fast read with more than a splash of deviant clown sex then this'll be right up your alley. (Snigger)
For me, it was too similar to Misery (Maybe that's the point and part of the comedy 🤔) but the writing is good enough to just about pull it off (matron) but makes me want to read something more original from the author.
Now this is an odd one. Well written and packed with imagery (some you may wish to unsee 😂)
As good as the writing is this is essentially Misery with Annie Wilkes replaced by 2 clowns so whilst enjoyable it offers little new.
As the author states...
"A dark comedy short inspired by Stephen King's best selling novels: Misery and It - but mostly Misery'
If you are looking for a fast read with more than a splash of deviant clown sex then this'll be right up your alley. (Snigger)
For me, it was too similar to Misery (Maybe that's the point and part of the comedy 🤔) but the writing is good enough to just about pull it off (matron) but makes me want to read something more original from the author.
May 16, 2020
This short is part homage to Stephen King’s Misery and part nod to clown horror, all in a darkly comedic setting. It’s an easy read which is credit to the author’s writing style, and it did raise a chortle or two at some of the exchanges between the mc and the clowns. There’s nothing particularly outstanding about the plot, no unexpected twist as such but it’s well worth a read. Oh, and the cover is pretty cool. It’s nice to see something beyond the usual stock horror images.
July 2, 2024
Full review at Happy Goat Horror here:
https://happygoathorror.com/2022/08/0...
PIED! is the story of horror writer Rex Stevens, who gets kidnapped by some lunatics after a book-signing event, and held hostage in order to write a story that pleases his kidnappers. Now, before you say “well, isn’t that just a rip-off of Misery”, let me tell you – nah, shut up. It’s most certainly an homage – in fact, on the back cover, Baldwin states that it is inspired by Stephen King’s Misery and IT – but mostly Misery. And what a merging of those worlds this is…
First up, I have to tell you that there should be a sexual assault trigger warning on this book. It is for that very reason that I hesitate to say this next thing… this story is absolutely hilarious. Now, I do not in the slightest think that the particular subject matter is in any way funny, but the character in question’s thought processes during all he endures is just comical to the point of laugh-out-loud funny, as is the general tone of this balls-to-the-wall chaos of a tale.
It’s really hard to get into the specifics of a short story without ruining it for you (I mean, I have no problem with ruining joy for others, but Goat Leader has forbidden it) so I’m reluctant to go into detail because the real fun of reading this is going along with the haphazard, sarcastic inner monologue of the main character, and wondering what in the infernal hell is going to happen next. I will tell you that there are cream pies, and that I cackled like a smug witch with every other page.
This is dark, grisly, and likely to make you flinch, all while you laugh and question your own moral compass and sanity for laughing.
Adrian Baldwin has a unique authorial voice and a daring sense of humour that I really haven’t seen much of elsewhere, not even in the extreme horror community – not pushed quite this far in terms of where he manages to elicit a laugh. A refreshing voice in the horror field and one I will be reading more of. He wreaks havoc. I like havoc.
I would recommend this to extreme horror fans, certainly those with a dark sense of humour, and those who enjoy a quick, entertaining, brutal read.
https://happygoathorror.com/2022/08/0...
PIED! is the story of horror writer Rex Stevens, who gets kidnapped by some lunatics after a book-signing event, and held hostage in order to write a story that pleases his kidnappers. Now, before you say “well, isn’t that just a rip-off of Misery”, let me tell you – nah, shut up. It’s most certainly an homage – in fact, on the back cover, Baldwin states that it is inspired by Stephen King’s Misery and IT – but mostly Misery. And what a merging of those worlds this is…
First up, I have to tell you that there should be a sexual assault trigger warning on this book. It is for that very reason that I hesitate to say this next thing… this story is absolutely hilarious. Now, I do not in the slightest think that the particular subject matter is in any way funny, but the character in question’s thought processes during all he endures is just comical to the point of laugh-out-loud funny, as is the general tone of this balls-to-the-wall chaos of a tale.
It’s really hard to get into the specifics of a short story without ruining it for you (I mean, I have no problem with ruining joy for others, but Goat Leader has forbidden it) so I’m reluctant to go into detail because the real fun of reading this is going along with the haphazard, sarcastic inner monologue of the main character, and wondering what in the infernal hell is going to happen next. I will tell you that there are cream pies, and that I cackled like a smug witch with every other page.
This is dark, grisly, and likely to make you flinch, all while you laugh and question your own moral compass and sanity for laughing.
Adrian Baldwin has a unique authorial voice and a daring sense of humour that I really haven’t seen much of elsewhere, not even in the extreme horror community – not pushed quite this far in terms of where he manages to elicit a laugh. A refreshing voice in the horror field and one I will be reading more of. He wreaks havoc. I like havoc.
I would recommend this to extreme horror fans, certainly those with a dark sense of humour, and those who enjoy a quick, entertaining, brutal read.
July 20, 2020
This is a weird one, taking a cue from Stephen King's 'Misery', Indie crime author Rex Stephens is kidnapped and brutalized in a variety of ways by a couple of psychotic sexually deviant clowns. It has a very high gag factor whichever way to want to take that word and I've given it three stars as it's very short and we're not exactly talking about classy stuff here, it's all about the gore and perversion, which is fine if that's what ticks your boxes. It raised a few chuckles in places and is a quick enough read that it doesn't outstay its welcome.
I'll soon read Adrian's book 'Egor's Emporium' and see how that compares.
I'll soon read Adrian's book 'Egor's Emporium' and see how that compares.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews