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Hell High: The Complete Collection
Raw. Shocking. Provocative. Read the controversial collection about the dark underbelly of high school. Includes HELL HIGH, TRAIN WRECK, and THE BOOK OF LILITH. Plus two short stories: Another Night on the Town and Another Pointless Life.
WARNING: Not for the squeamish or light of heart. Contains material that may offend.
HELL HIGH
Hell, North Dakota. Here, teenagers lose their innocence in a cesspit of recreational and psychiatric drugs, pseudo-macho ideals, and incessant verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. After a cruel prank causes a girl to commit suicide, her fellow students must face their inner darkness. And none of them may survive prom night...
Praise from Amazon readers:
Gloriously Different From Anything Else You Have Ever Read
“Take every person you knew in high school and take their bad character traits to the extreme and you will have the characters of Hell High….Personally, I could not put this book down. I finished it in two days in between classes and homework and do not regret it at all.”
Two Stars
"[Raptor] takes the absolute worst of humans, turns it into a train wreck...and yet, I Couldn't. Stop. Reading."
THE CONTROVERSY
Art That Should Not Have Been Made
"The author seems dead. To live and breathe hate. It's actually striking, the depth of blackness this guy goes to. In my mind, there's no redeeming value. It's art that shouldn't have been made."
Speechless
"The author derived the most sadistic, deranged, disturbed teenagers and put them altogether in the same high school . . . It's hard to believe Satan's hell is as demented as Hell High . . . I don't know how I got through it..albeit, my morbid curiosity."
TRAIN WRECK
Elsa wants to die.
But when she is the lone survivor of a fatal train accident, she starts to wonder if she’s immortal: the worst possible fate for a suicidal girl.
After she makes some friends at Hell High, she no longer thirsts for death…but will this make her more vulnerable?
THE BOOK OF LILITH
Laura Janzer is running for president of Hell High—and she will destroy anyone who gets in her way. Whether it be framing a teacher for viewing illegal pornography or causing her opponent to leap to her death from the top of the school building. Laura is ruthless, vile…maybe the devil herself. But her friend Ashley is slowly becoming aware of her best friend’s psychosis, and in the end, Karma will be a BITCH.
WARNING: Not for the squeamish or light of heart. Contains material that may offend.
HELL HIGH
Hell, North Dakota. Here, teenagers lose their innocence in a cesspit of recreational and psychiatric drugs, pseudo-macho ideals, and incessant verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. After a cruel prank causes a girl to commit suicide, her fellow students must face their inner darkness. And none of them may survive prom night...
Praise from Amazon readers:
Gloriously Different From Anything Else You Have Ever Read
“Take every person you knew in high school and take their bad character traits to the extreme and you will have the characters of Hell High….Personally, I could not put this book down. I finished it in two days in between classes and homework and do not regret it at all.”
Two Stars
"[Raptor] takes the absolute worst of humans, turns it into a train wreck...and yet, I Couldn't. Stop. Reading."
THE CONTROVERSY
Art That Should Not Have Been Made
"The author seems dead. To live and breathe hate. It's actually striking, the depth of blackness this guy goes to. In my mind, there's no redeeming value. It's art that shouldn't have been made."
Speechless
"The author derived the most sadistic, deranged, disturbed teenagers and put them altogether in the same high school . . . It's hard to believe Satan's hell is as demented as Hell High . . . I don't know how I got through it..albeit, my morbid curiosity."
TRAIN WRECK
Elsa wants to die.
But when she is the lone survivor of a fatal train accident, she starts to wonder if she’s immortal: the worst possible fate for a suicidal girl.
After she makes some friends at Hell High, she no longer thirsts for death…but will this make her more vulnerable?
THE BOOK OF LILITH
Laura Janzer is running for president of Hell High—and she will destroy anyone who gets in her way. Whether it be framing a teacher for viewing illegal pornography or causing her opponent to leap to her death from the top of the school building. Laura is ruthless, vile…maybe the devil herself. But her friend Ashley is slowly becoming aware of her best friend’s psychosis, and in the end, Karma will be a BITCH.
397 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 24, 2018
7 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
John Raptor
18 books76 followersJohn Raptor was born in Kagoshima, Japan, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota.
He currently lives in Kokura, Japan as a writer and an English teacher.
He currently lives in Kokura, Japan as a writer and an English teacher.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 10, 2018
One thing that’s almost as good as finding a hitherto unknown book and enjoying it, is discovering a heretofore unknown author and becoming a fan. And I’m happy to find that’s what happened when I read Hell High.
Set in a rather dysfunctional American High School, Hell High (the book and the school) ticks all the boxes of exaggerated cliché stereotypes and yet for all of its character predictability, it gives a fast-paced, cohesive and enjoyable story.
Sure the characters are exaggerated to the extreme so that they become caricatures of themselves but surprisingly, it all still works.
The main story is told in the first person but from the viewpoints of various characters and is a nice idea that worked well and helped with getting into each characters mind-set. My only real complaint would be with the inevitable ending. It would have been interesting to see it having been committed by a different character (as there were initially other possibilities to my mind) so having a little surprise rather than using the most obvious choice would have been a good little narrative twist, but again, there was nothing that was detrimental to my enjoyment of the story.
There are some shorter tales after the main one that also work quite well with the main narrative and I liked how the story Train Wreck, switched to a third person perspective as not only did it change the pace somewhat, it gave a good look at how the author writes using different techniques.
The tales at the end go well into expanding the story of this rather messed up school and there are some nice mentions/crossovers with characters from the main tale which worked well, especially when we get to see that peoples actions and motivations for why they did what they did, have become twisted and perverted over time, either through intent or just by the nature of what happens when stories are retold and embellished upon.
Hell High is a good story that will most likely grip you and make you turn the pages as much as it may also revolt you with the general nastiness that ensues within, although it did probably leave the nastiest scene as a throwaway mention that referenced a dying girl in a shower, that I thought was wonderfully grotesque and extreme, but for some readers that’s probably for the best anyway.
I’m looking forward to reading more from John Raptor who I discovered simply from an email I received from Goodreads that informed me that a chap named John Raptor is now following my reviews (hello John if you’re reading this) and being intrigued by his deadly dinosaur designation, I looked him up and found my way to the doors of Hell High.
Definitely one worth reading.
Set in a rather dysfunctional American High School, Hell High (the book and the school) ticks all the boxes of exaggerated cliché stereotypes and yet for all of its character predictability, it gives a fast-paced, cohesive and enjoyable story.
Sure the characters are exaggerated to the extreme so that they become caricatures of themselves but surprisingly, it all still works.
The main story is told in the first person but from the viewpoints of various characters and is a nice idea that worked well and helped with getting into each characters mind-set. My only real complaint would be with the inevitable ending. It would have been interesting to see it having been committed by a different character (as there were initially other possibilities to my mind) so having a little surprise rather than using the most obvious choice would have been a good little narrative twist, but again, there was nothing that was detrimental to my enjoyment of the story.
There are some shorter tales after the main one that also work quite well with the main narrative and I liked how the story Train Wreck, switched to a third person perspective as not only did it change the pace somewhat, it gave a good look at how the author writes using different techniques.
The tales at the end go well into expanding the story of this rather messed up school and there are some nice mentions/crossovers with characters from the main tale which worked well, especially when we get to see that peoples actions and motivations for why they did what they did, have become twisted and perverted over time, either through intent or just by the nature of what happens when stories are retold and embellished upon.
Hell High is a good story that will most likely grip you and make you turn the pages as much as it may also revolt you with the general nastiness that ensues within, although it did probably leave the nastiest scene as a throwaway mention that referenced a dying girl in a shower, that I thought was wonderfully grotesque and extreme, but for some readers that’s probably for the best anyway.
I’m looking forward to reading more from John Raptor who I discovered simply from an email I received from Goodreads that informed me that a chap named John Raptor is now following my reviews (hello John if you’re reading this) and being intrigued by his deadly dinosaur designation, I looked him up and found my way to the doors of Hell High.
Definitely one worth reading.
November 17, 2019
3.5 stArs rounded up to 4. Basically this book is a lot of boring, reading about teens doing drugs, getting drunk, and having sex. The characters started to run together, and I was honestly bored. Then there's a grand finale, which isn't a spoiler. A kid shoots up a school and his classmates. I've gotta be honest, I was so bored with them I would have killed them too. Just a lot sooner. I mean, maybe I'm a bad person because I agreed with the shooter after seeing things from his view. Yes, I identified with a bad dude. I only kept reading because of my curiosity. This is my second book I read from this author and was expecting a better ending. It was kind of a disappointment. I don't see what the big deal about this book is in the blurb. It's just another story about a kid who hates life. And meanwhile, along the way there's suicides and other murders in this school
.I mean, it was comical that a teacher murdered his wife and just walked around talking about it and nobody cared. It just seems very far fetched
.I mean, it was comical that a teacher murdered his wife and just walked around talking about it and nobody cared. It just seems very far fetched
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews