“This is a must-read for hardcore horror fans!" –Edward Lee, author of The Bighead
BLUDGEON TOOLS: Built to withstand any situation and endure whatever elements Mother Nature throws their way, Bludgeon Tools are built to last. Constructed for light weight swing ability, no job is too complicated and with a guaranteed splatter radius per pound, Bludgeon Tools is sure to put a wide grin on even the most sinister of faces. 13 authors put the tools to the test by placing them in various splatterpunk situations. The results are a toolbox full of grimy and gory tool stories guaranteed to leave a stain.
ALL NEW STORIES BY: - Brian Keene - Matt Shaw - Wrath James White - Kristopher Triana - Gregory Norris - Christine Morgan - Dustin LaValley - Stephen Kozeniewski - Wile E. Young - Jonathan Butcher - Sam Richard - Vic Kerry - Anton Cancre
K. Trap Jones is a 3-time Splatterpunk Award nominated author / editor of horror novels / anthologies and a decade's worth of short stories. His novel, The Sinner won the 2010 Royal Palm Literary Award.
Other novels include: The Drunken Exorcist, The Big Bad, The Charm Hunter, The Harvester, The King's Ox, One Bad Fur Day and the upcoming splatter western, The Bounty on Jed and Nugget.
He is the owner of The Evil Cookie Publishing and is the Co-Founder of The Splatter Club. As a product of the '80s, he likes his movies bloody and his music heavy. Trap can be found lurking around Tampa, FL
"There's a new generation of horror writers bursting onto the scene, and Jones is one of the leaders of the pack." -- EDWARD LEE, author of City Infernal, Header, and The Bighead ________________________________ Website: http://www.theevilcookie.com Facebook: K Trap Jones Twitter: @ktrapjones
While I am not a huge fan of anthologies, there are enough of the big names in this one to give it a go. Some of the stories are great, most are very good and only two left me disappointed. Overall a very entertaining read for splatterpunk fans.
There are two stories I have to highlight, though.
The first is SMASH IT by Matt Shaw. Yes, I am a Shaw fan for the most part, but it has been a while since I've enjoyed one of his stories this much. Whether it was meant to be funny or not, I laughed my ass off. I'm not even sure of some of the things he mentioned is possible, but it was a great way to end this book.
The second is my favorite story in this collection: TOOL STORY by Stephen Kozeniewski. This one was a blast - thinking way way way outside the box, this story was hilarious and I must give credit where credit is due - while a simple concept, the execution was perfect and something I never would have thought of. Brilliant, sir!
A splatterpunk collection with each bloody story involving the use of tools. There is even an entertaining animated tool story. All of the shorts were quite good, and most of the authors are well-known in the horror community. My favorite stories were by Sam Richard, Christine Morgan, Jonathan Butcher, Wrath James White (a poem) and Matt Shaw. Get off your toolbox and start reading.
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/ An innocent 74 year old widow is bound and determined to make her life long disturbing fantasy come true. An online class is provided to those that desire a profession in the business of utilizing unique tools to their fullest extent. A friendship of inanimate tools are put to the test that would equal Pixar’s worst nightmare.
K Trap Jones, founder of The Evil Cookie Publishing, gathers an unbelievable talent of extreme fiction authors for his latest venture into the splatter genre. Bludgeon Tools is a book of bizarre love affairs for tools and their many morbid uses. It includes a lineup of Brian Keene, Wrath James White, Christine Morgan and many more “heavy hitters”. From Kristopher Triana’s canvas of creative carnage to Wile E. Young’s ritualistic offerings of harvest implements...and finally ending on Matt Shaw’s disturbing interpretation of letting your conscious be your guide. This extensive toolbox of the macabre is a who's who of talented splatterpunk authors.
Bludgeon Tool’s motto,"I can't be broken, blunted or bent!” becomes the storyline linking flesh and horrific cudgel tools for each individual story. Neither grey-matter, blood or skull fragments can stop the aforementioned obtrusive assault on the reader’s intellect. With that being said the highly regarded packaging of this book is absolutely superior. From the beautiful cover art, the best publishing company logo I’ve ever seen and the attractive author pages located towards the back of the of the book. It’s all quite an impressive layout. Five Star Horror Bookworm Recommendation.
A blood filled collection of short stories guaranteed to keep you up at night. Some stories are meh, but majority will give you goosebumps. Grab your favorite snacks and turn on all the lights to snuggle up to this horrifying read.
In K. Trap Jones’ latest anthology, this one spotlighting Splatterpunk tales from some of horrors biggest names, including Brian Keene, Wrath James White, Kristopher Triana and many more. The thirteen shocking stories on offer in this collection include;
• A wealthy artist who goes to extreme lengths to turn himself into his finest creation • Toy Story with Tools! A serial killer’s tool collection come to life when nobody else is around, and what they get up to will put even their owner’s exploits to shame. • A parcel delivery gone horribly wrong when the courier finds that his latest customer had more than door to door delivery in mind. • An online course takes you step by step through effective murder etiquette, with bloody results. • A rock star’s latest gig turns into a bloodbath, much to his fan’s delight. • A rural family who reap a bountiful harvest when tragedy strikes at their farm.
I recently reviewed K. Trap Jones’ Extreme Horror Anthology, ‘Brewtality’, and commented on how he has a knack for getting consistently strong stories for his anthologies. Bludgeon Tools is no exception. There isn’t a single story in this collection that I didn’t enjoy and while I had my favourites, even the so-called ‘weaker’ offerings were high quality and worthy inclusions.
What really struck me about Bludgeon Tools is how creative a lot of the stories are in delivering something different. If you’re expecting a collection of stories featuring maniacs dispatching victims with power tools, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the imagination on display with these subversive shorts. Anthropomorphic tools, torture webinars, pagan gods and talking genitalia all feature, and the overall tone is largely darkly comedic.
One of, if not the, best of the collection isn’t prose, but a poem (Wrath James White’s ‘The Screams in Bobby’s Eye’s). Poetry is typically a hard sell for me, but this one made me a convert. It is able to convey a great deal in a relatively short and simple structure that only poetry can pull off. Other standouts include Wile E. Young’s folk-horror tinged ‘Threshing’ and Stephen Kozeniewski’s aptly named ‘Tool Story’. New-to-me writers such as Gregory L. Norris, Vic Kerry and Anton Cancre also delivered fantastic shorts that made me want to track down more of their work.
There is plenty in the way of extreme offerings as well. Jonathan Butcher’s unsubtly titled, ‘Drilldo’ says more about what you are letting yourself in for with that story in seven letters than I could in a five-hundred-word review and, as a man, I’m not sure I can even bring myself to discuss Matt Shaw’s ‘Smash It’ so I will just leave you to connect the dots with that one.
Wildly inventive brutality and memorably horrendous acts combined with consistently strong stories deliver a killer anthology for those who prefer their splatter delivered with a more hands-on approach. ‘Bludgeon Tools’ is the latest in a growing line of dependably excellent collections from K. Trap Jones.
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/... I also promote indie horror via Twitter - @RickReadsHorror
Bludgeon Tools fucking rules. This collection of stories was just brutal and a fun read. I thought every story was awesome in its own way. I also liked the fact that there were some author's in this collection that I haven't had a chance to read before, because my to be read list is never-ending😆😆 and this gave me a taste of there writing which was really cool. I definitely want a copy for my bookshelf. If you like extreme horror you will like this collection.
This was a fantastic collection of tool based extreme horror and splatter punk stories. K. Trap Jones knocked it out of the park with the authors and stories in this TOC
I'm not usually into the short stories and bought this by mistake. But what a great mistake. Every story was brilliant and the characters had you gripped. On top of some really great stories I also found a more authors to try. By the stories in this read I'm looking forward to reading A longer novel by them.. But very pleased I purchased and would definitely who any horror fan.
5 stars! Triana, Young, White, and Keene deliver my favorites in here. They all blew me away. "Hammer Time" "The Screams in Bobby's Eyes" "Threshing" "Delivery"
This is packed full of useful information, well if you like tools for more than just what standard person uses them for. While I was reading these stories, I had thoughts like they came from movies such as Hellraiser, The Crazies, Hostel, and Halloween. While some stories are similar to others I've read in the past, yet still awesome, others had me tilting my head and going wow this is something new!
Great collection of short hardcore horror stories.
All the stories are drenched in blood and gore. Some range from the darkly comical to the downright violent and disturbing. Entries include a hilarious parody of "Toy Story" (aptly titled "Tool Story"), a woman experimenting with a power drill as a sex toy and a guy who takes heavy rock to a whole 'nother bloody level. Even though I enjoyed some stories more than others, there are no duds here.
Excellent anthology of short extreme horror stories. Some of these authors I already know and love and some I haven't previously heard of, but will be checking out after their shorts here.
A fun selection of Brutal Stories. Don't read many anthologies but enjoyed all the stories in this one. My favourites were probably Tool Story by Stephen Kozwniewski and Drilldo by Jonathan Butcher.
𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡-𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬: My review is for the eBook version of this book. This eBook is a collection of short stories about tools being used in various contexts, some in a creative context, some in visceral, bludgeoning context, to literally drive home their point with a tool or implement of death, to maim, torture and kill. All the authors have a unique writing style, sense of humour, a specific and vivid type of imagination, which I appreciate.
𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞-𝐊𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚: It's the first time I have read any short story by Kristopher Triana, I liked the bizarre short story, I love art and I understand that pain, suffering, trauma can be used as motivation to be creative and express yourself creatively. Pain is art. The body is the canvas and tattoos or piercings are the art.
𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲-𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐊𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐤𝐢; A man is keeping a man captive, while he tortures him with his rusty tools. It's weird that the man's tools are sentient and gleefully anticipate and enjoy watching their master torture, maim and murder various people, they are bloodthirsty tools 😅 I like the way the short story is written, i've never read a short story about sadistic, murderous bludgeon tools, that are implements of torture and death before. It's a unique short story and I like the way it is written.
𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐞-𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐋. 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬: A man with the unique talent for being well endowed and being able to perform self fellasio. When you have that type of unique talent to satisfy yourself sexually, I guess no one else will compare to yourself lol 🤣 A serial killer on a road trip, improving the facial features of men by using their tool named Da Vinci and taking their blood stained moustaches & manhood as a trophy is unique and interesting. The author doesn't specify the gender of the serial killer, but it's interesting that they festihize men with a mustache, as their victim type. All the other male victims were a substitute for the creepy, perverted teacher. The real target was the perverted weird, creepy male teacher. I like that the serial killer abbreviated their accomplices' name to Del Satchel or "Medea" but what kind of ame is Delbert Satchel anyway it sounds like the latest designer satchel bag, it reminded me of that when I read this short story.
𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲-𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞: A elderly lady is unexpected to be a murderer, but the older folk are always underestimated, alienated, ignored by most of society, they still have value as a person, knowledge & wisdom. Elders should be respected, unless they are racist, homophobic, a misogynist that is sexist and hates women and are intolerant of women, I have no respect for those types of people whether they are fictional or real-life people.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲'𝐬 𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐬-𝐖𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞: Bobby is a psychopath, that tortures, maims and murders animals, he has the potential to be a serial killer, his father is a serial killer and a peadophile. All the children are from a similar background, either being abused by a family member or being bullied, Bobby is the scapegoat, the one person all his friends turn to when they need help, he's the only person they trust and rely on. This short story was creepy to read, sadistic, dark but also interesting, I like the way it was written. I haven't read any short stories by this author before but I liked the short story.
𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐝𝐨-𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫: I didn't really like this short story, but other people might like it though. The author refers to a male Dom as a Domme-(this type of Domme is female) It's incorrectly used, a man that is a Dom is known as a Dom in the BDSM community. Safe words are very important, so is aftercare, so I don't like that the creepy Dom doesn't like allowing their female submissive partners to use their safe word that both agreed on, if/when they feel uncomfortable, overwhelmed or they don't like something the Dom is doing, mutual consent is very important. A lot of people inaccurately portray what a Dom/sub dnamic is actually like, but I will always point out inaccuracies, or anything that is a red flag, even when it is in a fictional extreme horror or splatterpunk short story, novella or full novel. I don't really understand why a woman would want to make a makeshift, Drilldo to use on themself, it's bizarre and it seems painful. Doctor Surly doesn't respects women, especially women that are submissive or a masochist. The ending of the story involving the drill was kinda gross, but justified since Doctor Surly is a weird, creep. I don't agree with the author of this specific short story that anyone that is submissive is a "desperate weakling, that wants to be in sub-space" just because a man or woman is submissive or a masochist it doesn't automatically mean that they are weak, inferior, or less than in real-life or even in a fictional short story. I think authors should take into consideration that some people have had abusive Dom/sub dynamics/relationships so it can be a bit triggering to read about (I've had abusive Dom/sub dynamics/relationships so it just made me feel a bit uncomfortable reading this short story especially when Doctor Surly saud about safe words pretty much being useless, like the sub have no rights, even though the sub has control in the dynamic, they decide when their Dom has earned their respect, trust, consent and submission. It's supposed to be mutual & sacred connection/bond you have with the person-a mental, emotional, spiritual/psychic (if your Dom/sub connection/bond is spiritual & involves witchcraft) physical/sexual connection/bond beyond just physical attraction & lustful intentions. There is a lot more to it, than most people think.
𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠-𝐕𝐢𝐜 𝐊𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲: This short story reminds me of the TV series The Following-it's about a cult of serial killers that are obsessed with the writer/poet Edgar Allan Poe, they have to kill someone to prove their loyalty, devotion to the cult leader. Some people are taught how to kill people. It's interesting that people are being taught how to torture, maim and eventually kill their "Volunteers" via Zoom, i'm not sure if they are already murderers, or serial killers or just wannabe murderers, serial killers that are fantasists and they have never killed anyone before, but they have always fantasised about it. I guess if you're being taught how to to kill people in a way that you won't be caught, then you have to prove that you're actually willing to participate and prove that you have the sadistic urge, compulsion and psychopathic traits to actually do it and show a demonstration based on what you are being taught.
𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬-𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧: This short story reminds me of Neanderthals hunting prehistoric dinosaurs for a source of food and living in a cave. It also reminds me Celtic cannibalistic tribes (some Celtic people were cannibals) I don't like reading about animals being hunting, tortured, abused or being killed, even if it's just fictional it makes me feel physically sick 🤢😢 This short story wasn't interesting to read, I don't like reading about animal abuse, murder it's disgusting.
𝐓𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐃𝐮𝐞-𝐒𝐚𝐦 𝐑𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝: Greg Walsh is a shop owner and he's determined to protect his livelihood at all costs, even if it means he has to kill someone in self-defence. The Devil came for what he was owed-the soul of Greg Walsh. This short story had a lot of graphic, visceral, violence and detail, but it was well written, I loved it. The man in the devil halloween costume is not what they seem, looks after all can be deceiving.
𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐢𝐦 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐦-𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞: This author has a sense of humour that I like & appreciate. It's impressive that the singer in the band was able to brutally murder seven people, while the audience didn't bat an eyelid, or seem to care enough to want to pay attention or feel the need to intervene and stop the brutality and violence. This short story reminds me of the horror film The Green Room and era when the band The Doors were a active band.
𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞-𝐃𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲: This short story was interesting to read, the Dark Web, Deep Web encrypted part of the internet has always been intriguing to me. It's not surprising that many people would pay for a bi-monthly subscription to gain access to watch a women being willingly, tortured, maimed for her & the audiences' sadistic, perverse, sexual gratification and pleasure. The woman is submissive and a masochist, she's turned on/aroused by physical pain being inflicted onto her, pain & pleasure work well together. She likes sharing the experience with a audience, that can watch via a webcam if they pay the bi-monthly fee of course, the audience seem like they are sexual sadists and they enjoy watching what is happening to the woman, they like participating as well. At the start of the short story the person inflicting physical pain on the woman had a serial killer, sexual sadist kind of vibe, which was sinister and dark, but the short story went into a different direction than what I was expecting, but I wasn't disappointed.
𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠-𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐄. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠: This short story was okay, it reminds me of Aish people and The Children of the Corn, the entity he who walks behind the rows of the corn that the children believe in and worship. The Mother in the Seed reminds me of the Goddess Gaia-(Mother Nature herself) The entity in the short story seems like the are a ancient elemental being, made of a specific element of nature itself.
𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐭-𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐰: I wasn't sure what to expect for the last short story in this anthology, but it is as equally fucked up as it is darkly funny (to me at least 😂) After consuming acid (LSD) did the main character in the short story develop paranoid schizophrenia and a specific auditory & visual hallucination? Or did they originally suffer from psychosis? Were the main character already mentally ill, suffering from psychosis and auditory & visual hallucinations or was consuming Acid what contributed to his strange predicament and then blacking out and having no recollection of what happened to the women he followed home and had ssex with which may or may not have been rape, and then murder since the main character woke up next to dead women, that were blood stained. Make up your own mind about what really caused the circumstances of the main character and the strange issue that he had with his manhood. It's bizarre and strange but somewhat funny in a dark way, I like dark humour. I would recommend this Splatterpunk anthology of short stories to fans of Extreme Horror & Splatterpunk and to fans of the specific authors that wrote the short stories in this anthology.
𝐌𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Hammer Time Tool Story Mustache Ride Delivery The Screams in Bobby's Eyes Online Learning To the Devil his Due Jesus of Jim Beam Smash it
takes a strong constitution, an artistic eye,and great imagination(the ability to be able to see the content so intensely that I can see or feel it, I felt the ball burst in is sac, ouch 😪). Here they have constructed a viable cohesive story around the gore , I've become a fan. Many times(sadly) the mark is missed and splatter is chaotic, redundant pathetic, yet here every story was fresh, unique voice. I truly enjoyed the order of the stories, the one that almost went wayward was sandwiched between two stories that picked the momentum back to places. Yes, I recommend these stories, I even liked to see a favorite authors story in here(that's why I got it honestly) I also found two new authors to look for. This is my opinion of this book
Jonathan Butcher, Matt Shaw, Kristopher Triana, Wrath James White, Brian Keene, Christine Morgan and others...all in one book? I'm not generally a fan of anthologies, but I couldn't resist this one since it was so stacked with talent.
This turned out to be a good call, although it doesn't fully rise above the general flaws of most anthologies. While each story has emphasis on "tools", there is some repetition (lots of hammers), but some authors took the task to find new ideas to heart and provided unique ideas (one that comes to mind is a singer using a microphone as a bludgeon tool).
There is no "epic" in here - each of these stories is firmly in the 10 minute or less club, but that's not a problem, as nothing outstays it's welcome. But at the same time, nothing stands out as something that will be considered a critical work in the author's oeuvre over time.
13 quick reads that won't necessarily stick in your mind after you finish, but will entertain at the time of reading. I'd say 3.5ish on a 5 scale, rounding up to 4.
It was a fun and refreshing read in comparison to what I’ve been dragging myself through these past few weeks. I will say there were some four star stories in the book that stood out but not enough to bring up all the three star stories that overtook the rest of the book. It was alright for a book but I’m not sure the majority of it would be considered splatterpunk. I was wanting more gore and more stories that make you want to crawl out of your skin, but maybe I'll get that with the next one I pick up.
I thought the best story in this collection was Sticks and Stones: it took the whole 'dual use' of tools back to an evolutionary paradigm shift, when they conferred power to the hands of the otherwise weak. Most of the stories involved modern hardware. And of course the obligatory nut cracker routine. Matt Shaw's little penis story was gory and wince inducing: for a male reader. But my second favourite story involved the female organ: it contained some eye-watering girl power-tool action, entitled Drilldo. Obvious? Not so!
I'm not going to waste my time or your time reviewing this book, It's pretty simple and I can do it in one easy word...C*R*A*P!!!! Stupid,silly and juvenile stories....Don't even bother picking it up or using battery life on your Kindle!!!
Tool-themed visceral horror anthology hits the nail on the head in some parts, strikes a thumb in others. See my full review: https://theakersquarterly.blogspot.co...