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They Kill
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 SPLATTERPUNK AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL What are you willing to do, what are you willing to become, to save someone you love?
Sierra Sowell's dead brother Jeffrey is resurrected by a mysterious man known only as Corliss. Corliss also transforms four people in Sierra's life into inhuman monsters determined to kill her. Sierra and Jeffrey's boyfriend Marc work to discover the reason for her brother's return to life while struggling to survive attacks by this monstrous quartet.
Corliss gives Sierra a chance to make Jeffrey's resurrection permanent - if she makes a dreadful bargain. Can she do what it will take to save her brother, no matter how much blood is shed along the way?
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
Sierra Sowell's dead brother Jeffrey is resurrected by a mysterious man known only as Corliss. Corliss also transforms four people in Sierra's life into inhuman monsters determined to kill her. Sierra and Jeffrey's boyfriend Marc work to discover the reason for her brother's return to life while struggling to survive attacks by this monstrous quartet.
Corliss gives Sierra a chance to make Jeffrey's resurrection permanent - if she makes a dreadful bargain. Can she do what it will take to save her brother, no matter how much blood is shed along the way?
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
- GenresHorror
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 11, 2019
13 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
About the author
Tim Waggoner
282 books757 followersTim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then, he's published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, Conan the Barbarian, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Grimm, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Ti West’s X-Trilogy, Halloween Kills, Terrifier 2 and 3, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He’s also the author of the award-winning guide to horror Writing in the Dark. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe Award, and he’s been a two-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
November 23, 2019
“Why are you doing this?” Olivia said. She didn’t expect a reply, but she got one anyway.
“I want to make the world a better place,” the smiley-face man said. “And it will be much better without you two in it.”
He raised his copper knife high, and he brought it down, swift and strong. Then he did it again. Again. Again. Again…."
Not bad at all for a gory and weird read and it had a few real good moments, but in the end it was just like something out what if Asylum and Troma had a joint-venture and decided to release a bizzarro/splatterpunk flick.
Original, but the ride was far better than the ending for me and having loved reading in the past Waggoner's Dark Ages: Gangrel I was waiting for something more.
3 and 1/2 sex and blood dripping stars.
June 20, 2023
They Kill is a tense splatterpunk-ish horror novel with cosmic overtones and a generous dollop of sex and violence. It features an evil entity named Corliss (who is a little reminiscent of King's Randall Flagg), who confronts and challenges a young woman named Sierra on the one-year anniversary of her brother's death. Most of the many characters are realistically quirky, though not especially likeable, and it's a tightly paced and well-plotted race to a conclusion (no, that's a -dead-line!), with an interesting twist. (Note: avoid the back cover! The first 90% of the book builds a suspenseful and mysterious situation that the publisher absolutely spoils entirely by summarizing it in the blurbage. You will enjoy the read so much more if you do not read the back cover before the novel!)
June 28, 2019
This book had its moments. It started out like an old Troma movie with a bunch of seemingly unconnected craziness and without much of an explanation as to why everything was happening. Characters were slowly drawn together but nothing was really explained until the very end and I felt a little more time could have been spent as to what/who was responsible for what was going on. I don't always need all questions totally answered or explained but it did seem like this one was kind of rushed. I also tried not to take this too seriously and rate it using the same criteria as I would say a Charles Dickens or a Mark Twain novel, and I tried to sit back and treat it like I would a B-movie or something I used to go to the drive-in to watch. So, like I said before, it had its moments and it was fun for the most part. They Kill was definitely fast paced, it had lots of different kinds of gore and bodies-going-through-transformations stuff and over the top sexual liaisons that had me laughing and cringing (in a good way) more than once, and if not for a couple of lines of corny dialogue that took me out of the story the book kept my attention and made me want to continue. I had not read anything by Mr. Waggoner before so I did not really know what to expect and I gotta tip my hat to an author who went to some of the places he did without having to resort to gratuitous nonsense. Definitely more than three stars but not quite four, more like three and a half.
I want to thank Flame Tree Press and Netgalley, for they provided me with an ARC of this but that in no way influenced my opinion.
I want to thank Flame Tree Press and Netgalley, for they provided me with an ARC of this but that in no way influenced my opinion.
June 19, 2019
Jeffrey Sowell is dead. Or at least he was dead. Now he's mysteriously alive again....a year after the car accident that killed him. A year after his funeral. A strange man named Corliss resurrects Jeffrey and sends him back to the town where he lived, worked, loved. But this time, he returns as an agent of death. Everything he touches crumbles and dies. Corliss soon visits other people in town, creating monsters. People are consumed by their vices.....sex, technology, alcohol..... Jeffrey's sister Sierra sees the destruction and horror....and her long-dead brother. Can love stop the horror?
Wow....this book has some truly horrific moments. This is not for the faint hearted....from graphic gore to really, really, really (add some more reallys please) icky sex, it's got just about every vice covered. I couldn't stop reading! I had to know how the story ended.....and the ending gave me the cold shivers. I normally steer away from gorefests....but for this story, it worked. There was a purpose to the gore. Awesome story!
This book is definitely not for the kiddos. Pretty adult stuff. It is not traumatizingly graphic, but does have some pretty warped stuff going on (like a woman's vagina that can eat people).
This is the first book by Tim Waggoner that I've read. I'm definitely going to be reading more. This book seriously creeped me out -- loved it! I have to read more by this man!
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Flame Tree Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
Wow....this book has some truly horrific moments. This is not for the faint hearted....from graphic gore to really, really, really (add some more reallys please) icky sex, it's got just about every vice covered. I couldn't stop reading! I had to know how the story ended.....and the ending gave me the cold shivers. I normally steer away from gorefests....but for this story, it worked. There was a purpose to the gore. Awesome story!
This book is definitely not for the kiddos. Pretty adult stuff. It is not traumatizingly graphic, but does have some pretty warped stuff going on (like a woman's vagina that can eat people).
This is the first book by Tim Waggoner that I've read. I'm definitely going to be reading more. This book seriously creeped me out -- loved it! I have to read more by this man!
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Flame Tree Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
August 13, 2019
My review of THEY KILL can be found at High Fever Books.
They Kill is a bit of an odd duck overall. It has a lot of neat concepts, but narratively it didn’t really come fully together for me and required a fair bit more willing suspension of disbelief than I was capable of giving. I typically like Tim Waggoner’s stuff, but I definitely prefer his more direct — and more directly believable — stories, like A Kiss of Thorns and The Winter Box. They Kill, as with his previous Flame Tree Press release, The Mouth of the Dark, goes all-in with the weird, even more so than that prior title, which is saying a lot!
One year ago, Sierra’s brother was killed in a tragic car accident. And yet, Jeffrey is up and about again, wandering the streets of their hometown. He’s been resurrected by a long blond-haired man in a black suit named Corliss, and given a strange gift, the touch of death. Any living thing Jeffrey touches turns to ash. But that’s not all! Sierra’s stalker ex-boyfriend, her drunk neighbor, and a few others have been changed by Corliss, too, and are all gunning for Sierra, eager to exact revenge for the perceived injustices perpetrated by the woman at the center of their crosshairs.
Waggoner shows off a lot of unique forms of body horror with this one, particularly as he details Stuart’s transformation from an overbearing, control freak, electronics store salesman to a deadly, psychopathic cyborg whose body grows all kinds of high-tech goodies to aid him in his hunt. Each of Sierra’s deadly adversaries undergo some kind of radical change, turning them into killer mutants that wouldn’t be out of place in the X-Men’s Brotherhood of Evil.
It’s clear Waggoner has a lot of fun taking such a deep dive into the inexplicable, but the big lingering question at the heart of They Kill is why? Who is Corliss, what does he want, and why is he targeting Sierra? There are a big questions that Waggoner is content to ignore for as long as possible as he, instead, focuses on making strange, bloodthirsty murderers to set against Sierra and Jeffrey’s lover, Marc. Mind you, this is OK, to a certain extent, but around two-thirds of the way through, I was itching for answers and wishing They Kill had some kind of a point to it. Corliss spends too much of the narrative as an enigma, and readers are left in the dark for so long that it becomes a huge struggle to remain invested in this particular freakshow. I found myself getting bored with the chase, particularly as Waggoner kept creating one more weirdo killer after another, seemingly with little reason beyond mayhem.
By the time we do get an idea of what Corliss wants and why Sierra has found herself in the middle of all this insanity, the book is nearly over and the resolution feels rushed. The trajectory Sierra is spun off into as a result of these answers feels under baked, and I would have liked to have seen more of her response and growth as she adjusts to understanding why she’s been targeted.
There is plenty of good stuff happening within these pages, though. I dug the burgeoning friendship that developed between Sierra and Marc, the two people closest to Jeffrey but who also found themselves at odds. Jeffrey’s resurrection draws them together in a way that neither his life nor his death managed, and by forcing them to work together in order to survive, Waggoner creates a really compelling relationship between them. Sierra’s ex, Stuart, and her alcoholic neighbor, Grace, are both intolerable, love-to-hate villains and every time they showed up, I kept hoping it’d be their last scene. I really wanted to see them meet their comeuppance, and the sooner the better! One of the more compelling characters, though, was Randall, a retiree who lives across the street from Sierra’s parents, and who crafts pennies with smiley faces on them, which he calls Chucks, to pass out to the people he meets. It’s his attempt to do a good deed but, good lord, is it ever creepy, and it’s pretty amusing to see people react to his eccentricity, as well as what results from his meeting with Corliss. I couldn’t help but wonder where the idea about these Chucks came from and if this was something Waggoner drew on from personal experience or observation, or if it was just another deranged product of his unique imagination. And let’s face it, as far as imaginations go, Waggoner’s got one hell of a creative mind.
They Kill is a decent read, but it feels a bit imbalanced as the more interesting aspects of the plot get buried beneath an onslaught of oddities. Mind you, Waggoner does write some good straight-up weird horror, but I can’t help but feel like this is a lesser installment in his massive body of work. It’s not a bad way to kill some time, but it doesn’t approach the heights of other strange deeds he’s laid to page, like his post-apocalyptic The Last Mile.
[Note: I received an advance readers copy of this title from the publisher, Flame Tree Press, via NetGalley.]
They Kill is a bit of an odd duck overall. It has a lot of neat concepts, but narratively it didn’t really come fully together for me and required a fair bit more willing suspension of disbelief than I was capable of giving. I typically like Tim Waggoner’s stuff, but I definitely prefer his more direct — and more directly believable — stories, like A Kiss of Thorns and The Winter Box. They Kill, as with his previous Flame Tree Press release, The Mouth of the Dark, goes all-in with the weird, even more so than that prior title, which is saying a lot!
One year ago, Sierra’s brother was killed in a tragic car accident. And yet, Jeffrey is up and about again, wandering the streets of their hometown. He’s been resurrected by a long blond-haired man in a black suit named Corliss, and given a strange gift, the touch of death. Any living thing Jeffrey touches turns to ash. But that’s not all! Sierra’s stalker ex-boyfriend, her drunk neighbor, and a few others have been changed by Corliss, too, and are all gunning for Sierra, eager to exact revenge for the perceived injustices perpetrated by the woman at the center of their crosshairs.
Waggoner shows off a lot of unique forms of body horror with this one, particularly as he details Stuart’s transformation from an overbearing, control freak, electronics store salesman to a deadly, psychopathic cyborg whose body grows all kinds of high-tech goodies to aid him in his hunt. Each of Sierra’s deadly adversaries undergo some kind of radical change, turning them into killer mutants that wouldn’t be out of place in the X-Men’s Brotherhood of Evil.
It’s clear Waggoner has a lot of fun taking such a deep dive into the inexplicable, but the big lingering question at the heart of They Kill is why? Who is Corliss, what does he want, and why is he targeting Sierra? There are a big questions that Waggoner is content to ignore for as long as possible as he, instead, focuses on making strange, bloodthirsty murderers to set against Sierra and Jeffrey’s lover, Marc. Mind you, this is OK, to a certain extent, but around two-thirds of the way through, I was itching for answers and wishing They Kill had some kind of a point to it. Corliss spends too much of the narrative as an enigma, and readers are left in the dark for so long that it becomes a huge struggle to remain invested in this particular freakshow. I found myself getting bored with the chase, particularly as Waggoner kept creating one more weirdo killer after another, seemingly with little reason beyond mayhem.
By the time we do get an idea of what Corliss wants and why Sierra has found herself in the middle of all this insanity, the book is nearly over and the resolution feels rushed. The trajectory Sierra is spun off into as a result of these answers feels under baked, and I would have liked to have seen more of her response and growth as she adjusts to understanding why she’s been targeted.
There is plenty of good stuff happening within these pages, though. I dug the burgeoning friendship that developed between Sierra and Marc, the two people closest to Jeffrey but who also found themselves at odds. Jeffrey’s resurrection draws them together in a way that neither his life nor his death managed, and by forcing them to work together in order to survive, Waggoner creates a really compelling relationship between them. Sierra’s ex, Stuart, and her alcoholic neighbor, Grace, are both intolerable, love-to-hate villains and every time they showed up, I kept hoping it’d be their last scene. I really wanted to see them meet their comeuppance, and the sooner the better! One of the more compelling characters, though, was Randall, a retiree who lives across the street from Sierra’s parents, and who crafts pennies with smiley faces on them, which he calls Chucks, to pass out to the people he meets. It’s his attempt to do a good deed but, good lord, is it ever creepy, and it’s pretty amusing to see people react to his eccentricity, as well as what results from his meeting with Corliss. I couldn’t help but wonder where the idea about these Chucks came from and if this was something Waggoner drew on from personal experience or observation, or if it was just another deranged product of his unique imagination. And let’s face it, as far as imaginations go, Waggoner’s got one hell of a creative mind.
They Kill is a decent read, but it feels a bit imbalanced as the more interesting aspects of the plot get buried beneath an onslaught of oddities. Mind you, Waggoner does write some good straight-up weird horror, but I can’t help but feel like this is a lesser installment in his massive body of work. It’s not a bad way to kill some time, but it doesn’t approach the heights of other strange deeds he’s laid to page, like his post-apocalyptic The Last Mile.
[Note: I received an advance readers copy of this title from the publisher, Flame Tree Press, via NetGalley.]
May 7, 2019
Graphic, gory, and gross pretty much sums up this little slice of extreme horror.
THEY KILL is a fast-paced tale, loaded with graphic violence and sex, buckets of gore, and stomach-churning yuckiness. This one is in your face, all over the place.
THEY KILL is seriously twisted, unflinchingly fucked up...and I dug it.
Sensitive readers, be forewarned!
***I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley (thanks Flame Tree Press!) and this is my honest review.
THEY KILL is a fast-paced tale, loaded with graphic violence and sex, buckets of gore, and stomach-churning yuckiness. This one is in your face, all over the place.
THEY KILL is seriously twisted, unflinchingly fucked up...and I dug it.
Sensitive readers, be forewarned!
***I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley (thanks Flame Tree Press!) and this is my honest review.
April 26, 2019
Whoa! What a WILD ride! I've almost lost hope for humanity, because so many "normal folks," "good people," in this splatterpunk horror novel turn bad, seemingly without too much provocation, including some I least expected. Tons of violence and gore, some really ugly scenes, excruciating pain, and high levels of obscenity, for me were balanced out by the Lovecraftian overlay and backdrop. What a chaotic and random world is depicted here, perhaps an homage to Lovecraft's blind, mad, god Azathoth. Certainly it seems so.
Sensitive readers, beware. Splatterpunk aficionados, hang on to your craniums cause this is a trip you'll never forget.
Sensitive readers, beware. Splatterpunk aficionados, hang on to your craniums cause this is a trip you'll never forget.
May 2, 2019
This was sort of a trip down the memory lane kind of read. There was a time when such books constituted a bulk of my reading and Waggoner was an author I liked. Well, boy did my reading tastes change. Matured, I’d like to believe. Because now I can’t even find any redeeming value in this. I did try. And it isn’t that Waggoner is a terrible writer, in fact he has interesting, original ideas and, when he puts his mind to it, can do some very nice character development, albeit only to kill them off in horrid ways. It’s just that here he made a choice to dedicate the overwhelming majority of the story to guts, gore, sex and find strikingly bloody disgusting ways of going about all of it. It is much too over the top for an average B feature, it’s practically grotesque. And yes, I understand the genre and its requirements, but this is neither scary nor atmospheric, it’s just gross and vulgar, In fact the grossness and vulgarity overwhelmed the plot so much so that by the time the explanations roll around, it almost seems to be like an afterthought. And for some reason, while the author takes his time with minor players, the major ones range so thoroughly from dislikable to repellant, it’s difficult to care about the sh*tstorm they are wading through one way or another. So it was either disgusting or laughable, at times both, so far from literary, it would have to send smoke signals to be acknowledged and, although objectively imaginative, not imaginative in a way one might want. Then again, it might be exactly what someone would want. It’s that sort of genre. So personal mileage might vary. But for me it went nowhere. A disappointing read, albeit a fascinating reminder of changing tastes, likes and preferences. Thanks Netgalley.
August 29, 2019
Review Copy
Now THAT was fun! And original.
If you're offended by sex, drugs and rock & roll, take the stick out of your ass and realize that there are things greater than yourself and other reasons for being. Waggoner thought of a couple. And he plotted it out so well. The ending is kick-butt and I just loved it.
There's a whole lotta murder and sex going on in THEY KILL; coming from Flame Tree Press this summer. Check it out.
&
Now THAT was fun! And original.
If you're offended by sex, drugs and rock & roll, take the stick out of your ass and realize that there are things greater than yourself and other reasons for being. Waggoner thought of a couple. And he plotted it out so well. The ending is kick-butt and I just loved it.
There's a whole lotta murder and sex going on in THEY KILL; coming from Flame Tree Press this summer. Check it out.
&
April 22, 2025
Freaky, gory, but also nuanced and well plotted. I can't comprehend why there are so few reviews... I loved it and I wholeheartedly recommend.
August 2, 2019
3.5 stars
Wow! That was an eventful read!
They Kill throws you right into the action and introduces you to lots of characters in quite quick succession, in some stories this can get really confusing but in this case all were written really well, they all had very different personalities and there was a nice amount of back story for each. Character development in a story is a big thing for me so a thumbs up from me there.
We got to know each character from their own perspective and from Sierra’s POV which made them all really well rounded. I wasn’t confused about who was who at any point.
All of the characters are connected in one way or another to Sierra and all hold some kind of grudge against her, they are all flawed personalities and each is visited by Corliss who turns their personal vices into deadly powers, totally F**ked up deadly powers….
They Kill has some brilliant imagery, with fantastically detailed descriptions, there is gore, body horror and sex all portrayed in the most unscrupulous ways, I was chuckling and cringing (in a good way) on several occasions. Possibly not one for the sensitive reader!
I felt they story was fast paced in the sense that there was action throughout, there was always something depraved happening and I just wanted to know what was going to happen next, I mean what could possibly happen next!?! At the same time there was no explanation as to why things were happening until the end, don’t get me wrong I don’t need answers to everything in a book, I actually really enjoy ambiguity, I found myself enjoying the story but wondering what the point to all of these things happening was and what was Corliss’s motive. There was an explanation at the very end of the book and a really nice twist to go with it, I think I would have felt more engaged with a little bit more clarification earlier on, when we did get it I felt it was a little rushed.
Overall I enjoyed this book, there was brilliant characterisation, extreme gore and body horror, all things I love! I will certainly look to read more from Mr Waggoner.
Wow! That was an eventful read!
They Kill throws you right into the action and introduces you to lots of characters in quite quick succession, in some stories this can get really confusing but in this case all were written really well, they all had very different personalities and there was a nice amount of back story for each. Character development in a story is a big thing for me so a thumbs up from me there.
We got to know each character from their own perspective and from Sierra’s POV which made them all really well rounded. I wasn’t confused about who was who at any point.
All of the characters are connected in one way or another to Sierra and all hold some kind of grudge against her, they are all flawed personalities and each is visited by Corliss who turns their personal vices into deadly powers, totally F**ked up deadly powers….
They Kill has some brilliant imagery, with fantastically detailed descriptions, there is gore, body horror and sex all portrayed in the most unscrupulous ways, I was chuckling and cringing (in a good way) on several occasions. Possibly not one for the sensitive reader!
I felt they story was fast paced in the sense that there was action throughout, there was always something depraved happening and I just wanted to know what was going to happen next, I mean what could possibly happen next!?! At the same time there was no explanation as to why things were happening until the end, don’t get me wrong I don’t need answers to everything in a book, I actually really enjoy ambiguity, I found myself enjoying the story but wondering what the point to all of these things happening was and what was Corliss’s motive. There was an explanation at the very end of the book and a really nice twist to go with it, I think I would have felt more engaged with a little bit more clarification earlier on, when we did get it I felt it was a little rushed.
Overall I enjoyed this book, there was brilliant characterisation, extreme gore and body horror, all things I love! I will certainly look to read more from Mr Waggoner.
July 19, 2019
Oh boy!! This was one wicked ride from start to finish. I raced down the pages as fast as Corliss the evil transformed men into the killing machines, all with a common target Sierra. This was Corliss's game to find out if Sierra had what it took to become the Unhallowed.
My first book by Tim Waggoner, the story had me quite in a thrum of adrenaline when the body count raised. The villain Corliss just had to transform the people then they became their inner selves. It is said the devil resided in some of us. And after reading this horror of a thriller, I agreed absolutely. Tim has taken parts of sci-fi, parts of slasher serial killer, parts of zombie horror to merge them into this book. Each chapter brought out the monsters without consciousness to the forefront
This book was a direct hit to my senses, unexpected and bold, with multitude of gross indecent behavior, inner lust, and extreme violence. The author certainly did not shy away, even when parts of me did. But the rest of me stopped analyzing and just sat motionless on this wild ride. Did I want to get off? Nopes, not once.
Not the book for the faint-hearted!!
My first book by Tim Waggoner, the story had me quite in a thrum of adrenaline when the body count raised. The villain Corliss just had to transform the people then they became their inner selves. It is said the devil resided in some of us. And after reading this horror of a thriller, I agreed absolutely. Tim has taken parts of sci-fi, parts of slasher serial killer, parts of zombie horror to merge them into this book. Each chapter brought out the monsters without consciousness to the forefront
This book was a direct hit to my senses, unexpected and bold, with multitude of gross indecent behavior, inner lust, and extreme violence. The author certainly did not shy away, even when parts of me did. But the rest of me stopped analyzing and just sat motionless on this wild ride. Did I want to get off? Nopes, not once.
Not the book for the faint-hearted!!
August 21, 2019
“What do ghosts always want from the living? Revenge. Or justice, depending on how you look at it.”
The story starts with Jeffrey suffering a fatal car crash during a storm. Corliss, the man in the black suit, brings him back to life.
Guess who's hooked? This guy!
Things kept moving at a good pace, all is good.
Eventually, we're introduced to the other characters. And that, my friends, is when my interest nosedives.
Jeffrey.
Corliss.
Sierra.
Marc.
These are the characters that I cared about.
I don’t want to spoil the fun, so I’m not going to tell you why I disliked all of the minor characters.
Let’s just say that things get... uh, very weird?
Unfortunately, this had a major impact on my ability to enjoy the rest of the story.
Listen, this isn't a bad book. It just didn’t do it for me.
I'm giving it a 3. Rounded up from 2.5, because I thought the plot was intriguing. Plus, the beginning of the book was pretty damn good!
It was my first time reading Waggoner, I had no clue what to expect. I will certainly read more of his works in the future.
Let me finish by thanking the amazing humans over at Flame Tree Press for sending me an ARC of the book.
July 11, 2019
3 1/2 stars
The plot is quite intriguing and, being from the LGBTQ community myself, it is always a thrill seeing gay characters, important ones, in horror novels such as this one, and the author makes them, and the situation they are in, quite believable, I must say. Tim Waggoner is little known for penning long-winded novels that takes forever to pick up, but in this case, the subject matter being so far-out (dead people returning from the grave as grim reaper-like antagonists), I would have loved for him to take things a little slower. However, I still had a good time reading this story and will probably come back for more whenever the author puts out another title. If you like gore and action-sequences galore, THEY KILL is definitely for you. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.
The plot is quite intriguing and, being from the LGBTQ community myself, it is always a thrill seeing gay characters, important ones, in horror novels such as this one, and the author makes them, and the situation they are in, quite believable, I must say. Tim Waggoner is little known for penning long-winded novels that takes forever to pick up, but in this case, the subject matter being so far-out (dead people returning from the grave as grim reaper-like antagonists), I would have loved for him to take things a little slower. However, I still had a good time reading this story and will probably come back for more whenever the author puts out another title. If you like gore and action-sequences galore, THEY KILL is definitely for you. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.
June 5, 2019
Whew! They Kill, by Tim Waggoner, is one roller coaster ride of a horror novel.
Expect blood, gore, sex, and bat (ahem) crazy situations.
While I spent some time confused by *why* everything happens, the author soon makes that abundantly clear. And I didn’t mind the confusion – I was just in for the very wild ride.
Definitely not for people who like their horror soft and slow, but if you like adrenaline mixes with crazy, this one is for you!
• ARC Provided via Net Galley
January 8, 2021
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“They Kill” was fun, creepy, and thoroughly entertaining, and I loved every minute of it! For me, this felt like the perfect book for this genre.
Firstly, I enjoyed the characters and thought they were the best! Sierra shines in the role as she starts to figure out something is wrong in the first year of her brother’s death. More than Sierra, I enjoyed the villains in the story. Whether it be Mandy, Grace, Randall, or Stuart, all of these four characters made compelling villains. It was interesting to see how their personalities drastically changed when Corliss confronted them.
Similarly, even Corliss is a unique and memorable villain, even if he only appeared shortly. He is one of those characters who I will never forget. The author dynamically wrote the cast, and it was interesting to see how even they get conflicting emotions for their actions.
Moreover, the author also wrote the plot in such an engaging manner that I could not take my eyes off the pages. I have read many horror books, but some scenes in this story truly shocked me (like Mandy’s control of Karolyn). Moreover, I found the parts where the four superpower villains confront each other were epic and good! Also, the author also maintains an air of mystery as to why Corliss targets everyone against Sierra, which we find out in the climax.
Overall, I thought this was the perfect story for the genre and loved every minute of it. I devoured this book and finished it in one sitting. Tim Waggoner has become one of my favorite authors, and I cannot wait to read his future works.
August 23, 2022
I didn't have a lot of expectations going into this one. I've read Tim Waggoner before and overall, I tend to find his stuff is just fine. Not great, not a dumpster fire, just fine. And while I came out of this one still thinking it was just fine, I also found myself putting the book down and going....what the hell?
They Kill has all the hallmarks of a book written on a deadline - a lot of good, solid ideas that were just thrown together at lightning speed with duct tape and clown spunk, under the hopes that it would somehow hold up. And while a sizeable amount of it does, there are a lot of cracks in the framework, and the spunk is leaking out and someone better get a mop.
The plot is pretty simple at its core. It actually shares a lot of its pedigree with Evil by Wol Vriey. A strange, alien entity floats into a sleepy, quiet community, enacts some magical fuckery and proceeds to set the world on fire. In this case, it's our resident bloke in a black suit, Corliss, and the community is the town of Bishop Hill. Corliss's plan is pretty straightforward:
a.) Reanimate the corpse of Jeffrey Sowell.
b.) Corrupt/mutate the minds and bodies of four people, all with some connection to Jeffrey's Sowell's sister, Sierra.
c.) Sit back, clasp his fingers together and watch the fireworks.
And for the most part, the story does follow that formula. On the anniversary of her brother's car accident, Sierra spends the day along with Jeffrey's ex Marc, being hunted by these corrupted people as they tear up the town, either to kill her, fuck her or both. And there's a lot to like with this setup. The pacing is brisk with just enough down time to flesh out characters and expand on backstory. The setpieces are suitably gruesome and even a few made me wince as they played out. Waggoner definitely got creative in some parts of his book with the ways in which he twisted and mangled the human body. The plotline splits off between a variety of characters and for the most part, I never got lost. Everything felt overall pretty solid.
But as I read on, things felt...off. And not in a good way.
For starters, Waggoner had this really annoying habit I called DDC, or Developing Doomed Characters. Like clockwork, a new character would be introduced, their backstory would be elaborated, their personalities would be fleshed out and then a page later, they were dead. This happened over and over and over. At least five characters were introduced and killed off this way, just so they could be the first in the bodycount for each corrupted person. Here's the thing. This can be done well. Establish them early on in the background, have them interact with the characters/world, then kill them off. Waggoner even did this with Karolyn, Sierra's boss. But when you can see the strings holding the book together, it comes across as a cynical and LAZY.
Secondly, in a lot of ways, the plot has a kind of 'stuff happens' theme to it. Each of the corrupted people is introduced a similar way. They get under Sierra's skin, Corliss mutates them, they go on a killing spree, only for them to finally turn their attention to Sierra. Rinse and repeat until the climax when they all converge on her. Meanwhile, Sierra and Marc are forced to just faff about, looking for Jeffrey until the plot comes knocking. It also doesn't help that Sierra and Marc are kind of just reactive to the plot. They have no real impact on things until it all comes crashing down.
And speaking of the characters, let's talk about them. Sierra is just fine. Her grief/pain/anger is well explored, her relationships with some people are given ample space to breathe. She's, as I said, fine. Marc is a weak link honestly. He's so superfluous to the plot, functioning as just a hanger-on to Sierra's movements.
The villains meanwhile steal the show, albeit in different ways and to different degrees of success. Corliss obviously takes the cake, if only because he's in control the whole time. Everything he does is designed to fuck with the universe and Waggoner gives him ample space to demonstrate what a gleeful bastard he is. The corrupted folk are a mixed bag. In order we have:
- Grace, an alcoholic neighbour to Sierra who gets turned into a mummy-thing that splits brainwashing vomit.
- Stuart, Sierra's narcissistic, sociopathic ex who gets turned into a cyborg.
- Randall, Sierra's parents' neighbour who gets turned into a smiley-face headed serial killer with shuriken coins.
- Mandy, Sierra's sexually-repressed, bigoted coworker who gets turned into a sex vampire with a carnivorous vagina.
I'm off two minds about these four. On the one hand, some of the elements about them are well-thought out and gruesome. Each of their transformations is thematically appropriate, but they also feel lacking in the creativity department. I liked Grace's form, but it was still pretty basic. I liked Mandy's vampire powers, but physically she could've had some more visible body horror. Randall's form was nasty but the coin shurikens felt goofy. And Stuart's cyborg form feels like it could've been more visceral.
On top of this, all of them range from inoffensive to outright despicable. Randall's worst crime is being weird, Mandy's bigotry is counterbalanced by her history of rape, Grace is a user/abuser and Stuart is a bastard. They're all pretty bare-bones in terms of initial characterisation and it makes their transformations lack bite.
And then we come to the ending, which for me changed everything and not all in a good way. If you don't want to know, suffice to say, it raises a lot of questions and not the kind you wanna be thinking about.
So here's your spoiler count:
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
That being said, despite all my gripes which are admittedly massive ones, They Kill is still just fine. It didn't make jump out of my seat because it set my arse on fire, but since I went in expecting schlock, I got schlock. I went in expecting some grody scenes and I got them. I went in looking for some creative setpieces and I got them. Its a massively flawed book, but one I ploughed through in a day, so that counts for something.
They Kill has all the hallmarks of a book written on a deadline - a lot of good, solid ideas that were just thrown together at lightning speed with duct tape and clown spunk, under the hopes that it would somehow hold up. And while a sizeable amount of it does, there are a lot of cracks in the framework, and the spunk is leaking out and someone better get a mop.
The plot is pretty simple at its core. It actually shares a lot of its pedigree with Evil by Wol Vriey. A strange, alien entity floats into a sleepy, quiet community, enacts some magical fuckery and proceeds to set the world on fire. In this case, it's our resident bloke in a black suit, Corliss, and the community is the town of Bishop Hill. Corliss's plan is pretty straightforward:
a.) Reanimate the corpse of Jeffrey Sowell.
b.) Corrupt/mutate the minds and bodies of four people, all with some connection to Jeffrey's Sowell's sister, Sierra.
c.) Sit back, clasp his fingers together and watch the fireworks.
And for the most part, the story does follow that formula. On the anniversary of her brother's car accident, Sierra spends the day along with Jeffrey's ex Marc, being hunted by these corrupted people as they tear up the town, either to kill her, fuck her or both. And there's a lot to like with this setup. The pacing is brisk with just enough down time to flesh out characters and expand on backstory. The setpieces are suitably gruesome and even a few made me wince as they played out. Waggoner definitely got creative in some parts of his book with the ways in which he twisted and mangled the human body. The plotline splits off between a variety of characters and for the most part, I never got lost. Everything felt overall pretty solid.
But as I read on, things felt...off. And not in a good way.
For starters, Waggoner had this really annoying habit I called DDC, or Developing Doomed Characters. Like clockwork, a new character would be introduced, their backstory would be elaborated, their personalities would be fleshed out and then a page later, they were dead. This happened over and over and over. At least five characters were introduced and killed off this way, just so they could be the first in the bodycount for each corrupted person. Here's the thing. This can be done well. Establish them early on in the background, have them interact with the characters/world, then kill them off. Waggoner even did this with Karolyn, Sierra's boss. But when you can see the strings holding the book together, it comes across as a cynical and LAZY.
Secondly, in a lot of ways, the plot has a kind of 'stuff happens' theme to it. Each of the corrupted people is introduced a similar way. They get under Sierra's skin, Corliss mutates them, they go on a killing spree, only for them to finally turn their attention to Sierra. Rinse and repeat until the climax when they all converge on her. Meanwhile, Sierra and Marc are forced to just faff about, looking for Jeffrey until the plot comes knocking. It also doesn't help that Sierra and Marc are kind of just reactive to the plot. They have no real impact on things until it all comes crashing down.
And speaking of the characters, let's talk about them. Sierra is just fine. Her grief/pain/anger is well explored, her relationships with some people are given ample space to breathe. She's, as I said, fine. Marc is a weak link honestly. He's so superfluous to the plot, functioning as just a hanger-on to Sierra's movements.
The villains meanwhile steal the show, albeit in different ways and to different degrees of success. Corliss obviously takes the cake, if only because he's in control the whole time. Everything he does is designed to fuck with the universe and Waggoner gives him ample space to demonstrate what a gleeful bastard he is. The corrupted folk are a mixed bag. In order we have:
- Grace, an alcoholic neighbour to Sierra who gets turned into a mummy-thing that splits brainwashing vomit.
- Stuart, Sierra's narcissistic, sociopathic ex who gets turned into a cyborg.
- Randall, Sierra's parents' neighbour who gets turned into a smiley-face headed serial killer with shuriken coins.
- Mandy, Sierra's sexually-repressed, bigoted coworker who gets turned into a sex vampire with a carnivorous vagina.
I'm off two minds about these four. On the one hand, some of the elements about them are well-thought out and gruesome. Each of their transformations is thematically appropriate, but they also feel lacking in the creativity department. I liked Grace's form, but it was still pretty basic. I liked Mandy's vampire powers, but physically she could've had some more visible body horror. Randall's form was nasty but the coin shurikens felt goofy. And Stuart's cyborg form feels like it could've been more visceral.
On top of this, all of them range from inoffensive to outright despicable. Randall's worst crime is being weird, Mandy's bigotry is counterbalanced by her history of rape, Grace is a user/abuser and Stuart is a bastard. They're all pretty bare-bones in terms of initial characterisation and it makes their transformations lack bite.
And then we come to the ending, which for me changed everything and not all in a good way. If you don't want to know, suffice to say, it raises a lot of questions and not the kind you wanna be thinking about.
So here's your spoiler count:
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
That being said, despite all my gripes which are admittedly massive ones, They Kill is still just fine. It didn't make jump out of my seat because it set my arse on fire, but since I went in expecting schlock, I got schlock. I went in expecting some grody scenes and I got them. I went in looking for some creative setpieces and I got them. Its a massively flawed book, but one I ploughed through in a day, so that counts for something.
July 29, 2019
My first comment on "They Kill" is that this book was blast to read. After reading "The Mouth of the Dark" and meeting the infamous Pink Devil, I knew the potential for the "ew-factor" would be high. I wasn't wrong and it didn't disappoint. On the year anniversary of Jeffrey's death, he is suddenly reanimated. He starts roaming his hometown which causes some alarm for those who know he's really dead. Most effected are his sister Sierra and his boyfriend Marc, who team together, despite disliking each other, to figure out what is going on.
I can best describe "They Kill" as a B-movie in book format. Which personally I think is great. It's basically a slasher flick with some really unique characters who actually have some depth. By that I mean that Waggoner has really put some thought into these individuals and created some truly scary human monsters - and I use the word human lightly. Honestly, I would enjoy seeing "They Kill" adapted to a movie because it would be a heck of a ride.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be a much faster-paced read than "The Mouth of the Dark." In Sierra I had a character I could cheer on and on a few occasions, I felt a quite a bit of sympathy for Jeffrey. Except when he killed the dog - could have done without that scene but frequent visitors to my blog aren't surprised I'm mentioning it. In addition, the ending caught me completely off-guard so kudos Mr. Waggoner!
If you like body horror and fast-paced death and destruction, then you definitely need to pick up "They Kill."
I can best describe "They Kill" as a B-movie in book format. Which personally I think is great. It's basically a slasher flick with some really unique characters who actually have some depth. By that I mean that Waggoner has really put some thought into these individuals and created some truly scary human monsters - and I use the word human lightly. Honestly, I would enjoy seeing "They Kill" adapted to a movie because it would be a heck of a ride.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be a much faster-paced read than "The Mouth of the Dark." In Sierra I had a character I could cheer on and on a few occasions, I felt a quite a bit of sympathy for Jeffrey. Except when he killed the dog - could have done without that scene but frequent visitors to my blog aren't surprised I'm mentioning it. In addition, the ending caught me completely off-guard so kudos Mr. Waggoner!
If you like body horror and fast-paced death and destruction, then you definitely need to pick up "They Kill."
August 5, 2019
A gritty, intense, fast-paced, riveting, artful melding of modern, unspeakable horror, wickedly-twisted, hide-under-the-covers terror and spine-tingling, hair-raising suspense. An edgy tale, full of dark secrets, shocking plot twists and pulse-pounding, palpable tension. This book brings it ALL! (Caution: Leave your lights on!)
#TheyKill #NetGalley
*I received a complimentary ARC of this book from NetGalley & Flame Tree Press in order to read and provide a voluntary and honest review, should I choose to do so.
#TheyKill #NetGalley
*I received a complimentary ARC of this book from NetGalley & Flame Tree Press in order to read and provide a voluntary and honest review, should I choose to do so.
May 20, 2021
Not bad. But I found it long in places and not scary at all. I wasn’t a fan of Sierra so had no vested interest.
The more I think about it the less I liked it so. Done except...
Didn’t like the end
The more I think about it the less I liked it so. Done except...
Didn’t like the end
October 11, 2023
I’m always a fan of a gory horror story that involves LOTS of twists and turns and violence this book definitely has that in spades. Which I absolutely loved of course! This story had SO much to offer and the potential to be perfect, it really was so close. I think what threw me off is that at one point I just really started to hate all the characters and I’m a very character based reader. I did really enjoy it though, it kept me guessing the whole way through, I just wish the characters hadn’t soured me so much by the end. The ending was absolutely phenomenal as well, I truly didn’t see it coming and it surprised the heck out of me!
July 14, 2019
Witty and whimsical splatter! I won an arc of this book in a Twitter giveaway and couldn't wait to dive in. Tim's humor sparkles through the thick coat of blood in this surreal, gory read. Unpredictable, creative twists ratchet up the tension and absurdity stands as a foil to tragedy. Several times I caught myself thinking, "Oh no, he's not going to...oh, shit, he did."
Overall a very fun read. Solidly horror, perfect for summer.
Overall a very fun read. Solidly horror, perfect for summer.
July 2, 2019
Waggoner’s novel, They Kill is a very interesting premise that pays off with spades. We are lead down a dark road that increasingly gets murky as the tale unfolds. We are left in a world that is both violent and unworldly that addresses the inner self beneath the surface.
The story’s beginning is an interesting premise with an odd character that reveals himself to be a master of design and destruction. It is never very clear what his purpose or reasoning behind his motives but this is part of the intrigue of the story as a whole. It seems that there is a game plan which involves Sierra, a year later after her brother’s death in an automobile accident.
The characters are very well drawn and very three dimensional. They are not the best cast of likable characters but they are interesting enough to keep the reader engaged. They have different motivations, each unique in their own way and they continue to linger within the imagination long past completion. This is a remarkable task because with a multiple of diverse characters, most novels tend to blur these making it hard to differentiate but Waggoner doesn’t do this. His characters are strong and stand on their own.
The plot is intriguing and although violence, sex and gore does happen within the pages, they are important to the story and not done in a gratuitous manner. As the story unfolds, the situations become more and more surreal and although this may come as shocking to some readers, it works well within the plot and in fact enhances it.
The overall novel is an excellent read and although the ending has a lovecraftian meta vibe that for me was a bit unclear. (I have trouble with Lovecraft reading as I recognise the genius but often feel a bit out of sorts with the story). The reasoning behind the story and the epilogue – left me slightly scratching my head. I am sure this is more me as the reader than the overall story itself. It is an excellent novel, thoroughly enjoyable page turner that I couldn’t put down. It is a winner.
The story’s beginning is an interesting premise with an odd character that reveals himself to be a master of design and destruction. It is never very clear what his purpose or reasoning behind his motives but this is part of the intrigue of the story as a whole. It seems that there is a game plan which involves Sierra, a year later after her brother’s death in an automobile accident.
The characters are very well drawn and very three dimensional. They are not the best cast of likable characters but they are interesting enough to keep the reader engaged. They have different motivations, each unique in their own way and they continue to linger within the imagination long past completion. This is a remarkable task because with a multiple of diverse characters, most novels tend to blur these making it hard to differentiate but Waggoner doesn’t do this. His characters are strong and stand on their own.
The plot is intriguing and although violence, sex and gore does happen within the pages, they are important to the story and not done in a gratuitous manner. As the story unfolds, the situations become more and more surreal and although this may come as shocking to some readers, it works well within the plot and in fact enhances it.
The overall novel is an excellent read and although the ending has a lovecraftian meta vibe that for me was a bit unclear. (I have trouble with Lovecraft reading as I recognise the genius but often feel a bit out of sorts with the story). The reasoning behind the story and the epilogue – left me slightly scratching my head. I am sure this is more me as the reader than the overall story itself. It is an excellent novel, thoroughly enjoyable page turner that I couldn’t put down. It is a winner.
July 24, 2019
Jeffrey Sowell was involved in a car accident, orchestrated by the man in the black suit……his head crushed and spine snapped…..dead instantly.
But Corliss, the man I the black suit….brings him back to life and sends him a year ahead…..but why?
Sierra, Jeffrey’s Sister, is still grieving the loss of her brother…..but then she sees him…!
This reminded me a little of Stephen King’s Needful Things, with a touch of the dark man from The Stand, but this is something marvellously different…..
Angry people get angrier, alcoholics get meaner and the creepy get so much creepier…..
Randal and his chucks is horrific….a smiley faced horror..
Stuart and his upgrade is a thing of nightmares….and the vagina dentata…..oh dear god!
Can Sierra fix this? Can she save her brother? But at what cost?
This is gory, unsettling and definitely strange and I loved every minute. It’s what a horror story should be and has reignited my love for the genre. Brilliant.
Thank you to The publishers, the author and NetGalley for a free copy of the ebook and this is my honest, unbiased review.
But Corliss, the man I the black suit….brings him back to life and sends him a year ahead…..but why?
Sierra, Jeffrey’s Sister, is still grieving the loss of her brother…..but then she sees him…!
This reminded me a little of Stephen King’s Needful Things, with a touch of the dark man from The Stand, but this is something marvellously different…..
Angry people get angrier, alcoholics get meaner and the creepy get so much creepier…..
Randal and his chucks is horrific….a smiley faced horror..
Stuart and his upgrade is a thing of nightmares….and the vagina dentata…..oh dear god!
Can Sierra fix this? Can she save her brother? But at what cost?
This is gory, unsettling and definitely strange and I loved every minute. It’s what a horror story should be and has reignited my love for the genre. Brilliant.
Thank you to The publishers, the author and NetGalley for a free copy of the ebook and this is my honest, unbiased review.
August 19, 2019
Flame Tree puts out some excellent titles, so I was excited to find They Kill at the local library. I'm not sure where to begin with this review. I wanted to like this. So much. The first chapter had old-school Stephen King vibes and the imagery was beautiful. Slasher scares. Body horror. An ambiguous ending. This should've been right up my alley.
But.
I had a difficult time with too many aspects of They Kill to truly enjoy this book. Most of the male characters--even the brief foray into flashbacks--are reprehensible and rely on guttural violence against women to further their narratives. The description of the female characters felt stereotypical and dominated by the man's gaze--which, I'll admit, could've been done on purpose in the spirit of the classic slasher genre--but ultimately left me feeling exhausted.
The writing and imagery were strong enough that I'd give a different Waggoner book another shot, but I won't be returning to this title any time soon.
If you prefer your horror with bloody bad guys, abject sexual violence, graphic violence, and crazy amounts of gross-out descriptions, you might want to give this one a try. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend.
But.
I had a difficult time with too many aspects of They Kill to truly enjoy this book. Most of the male characters--even the brief foray into flashbacks--are reprehensible and rely on guttural violence against women to further their narratives. The description of the female characters felt stereotypical and dominated by the man's gaze--which, I'll admit, could've been done on purpose in the spirit of the classic slasher genre--but ultimately left me feeling exhausted.
The writing and imagery were strong enough that I'd give a different Waggoner book another shot, but I won't be returning to this title any time soon.
If you prefer your horror with bloody bad guys, abject sexual violence, graphic violence, and crazy amounts of gross-out descriptions, you might want to give this one a try. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend.
Read
July 14, 2020DNF'd
The first sixty pages of this book were fantastic.
I mean really fantastic.
I actually thought that this was the book GWENDY'S MAGIC FEATHER should have been. That's how it felt to me. It was completely original.
But then the author took this in a direction that just felt off. I started hating everything the characters were saying and doing, their thoughts, everything. Seriously. Every human connection felt lost. It almost felt like I was reading a different story.
I can only suspend my belief for so long and when things get out of hand like this, it's a big no.
Getting to page 130 was a real struggle.
So disappointed.
But I can't spend another couple of hours with this.
I'm not finishing things I don't like anymore.
My tolerance level isn't what it used to be.
I actually think I might be needing a break from horror stories for a while. That's how drained I am feeling at the moment.
The first sixty pages of this book were fantastic.
I mean really fantastic.
I actually thought that this was the book GWENDY'S MAGIC FEATHER should have been. That's how it felt to me. It was completely original.
But then the author took this in a direction that just felt off. I started hating everything the characters were saying and doing, their thoughts, everything. Seriously. Every human connection felt lost. It almost felt like I was reading a different story.
I can only suspend my belief for so long and when things get out of hand like this, it's a big no.
Getting to page 130 was a real struggle.
So disappointed.
But I can't spend another couple of hours with this.
I'm not finishing things I don't like anymore.
My tolerance level isn't what it used to be.
I actually think I might be needing a break from horror stories for a while. That's how drained I am feeling at the moment.
January 31, 2021
For years, author Tim Waggoner has consistently delivered wholly original and disturbing works of horror, and They Kill is no different. While most of this book is a gloriously delicious read, demented and fresh, the culmination of the first big showdown had me a little disappointed. I guess the buildup was too big, and having so much talking between the antagonists lost some of the intensity, terror, and mystery. Regardless, Waggoner's writing is in top form, building layered characters you care about and then feeding them to the wolves. The premise was fantastic and always kept me guessing as to what would happen next, not to mention a very satisfying conclusion. This dark tale is certainly recommended, but Waggoner's Like Death, Pandora Drive, Darkness Wakes, The Mouth of the Dark, and his blisteringly original zombie novel, The Way of All Flesh, are a notch or two better.
June 29, 2019
There are some books that, while you're reading them, you say to yourself: what I just stepped into? This is one of that kind of books and though it start quite interesting, with every page it becomes more and more ridicolous.
There were moments I considered give it up, because it was too much weirdness even for me. What's more, I didn't like the main protagonist and the rest of characters were all of them dickheads. I think it was intentional, but didn't improve my enjoyment of readind.
Despite that I stuck to the end because I wanted to know how the story end and if we get some explanation of all the events. It came out anticlimatic unfortunately.
I give it 2 stars, because it has good enough prose and some moments that keeps you going.
There were moments I considered give it up, because it was too much weirdness even for me. What's more, I didn't like the main protagonist and the rest of characters were all of them dickheads. I think it was intentional, but didn't improve my enjoyment of readind.
Despite that I stuck to the end because I wanted to know how the story end and if we get some explanation of all the events. It came out anticlimatic unfortunately.
I give it 2 stars, because it has good enough prose and some moments that keeps you going.
April 23, 2023
This is a great one, for sure. Way more extreme than I anticipated. There’s some supernatural stuff but it all funnels into the body horror. Lots of emotions. Great characters. Just a masterclass in how horror should be written, from the guy who wrote the book on writing horror. Incredible.
July 11, 2019
Really enjoyed this. Review coming soon on Sci Fi and Scary.
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