If you had the choice, would you want to live forever? You wouldn’t if your name was Igor Rotten.
Igor is cursed with eternal life through reincarnation. But this isn’t some fairytale.
After each death, Igor’s soul is brutally ripped apart by The Grinderman, and the pieces that are left are sewn back together.
No one knows where Igor will end up next.
Will he end up back in his abusive relationship with Kristin, where he is beaten with jars of chunky peanut butter and sexually assaulted?
Or will he end up in a basement purgatory, being tortured by crippling loss and genital mutilation?
Is Igor a victim of unbelievable circumstance, or are there bigger factors at play? There’s only one way to find out.
Time and Place. Life and Death. None of these are absolutes for Igor Rotten. Join him in experiencing the worst that life has to offer, over and over again.
Goodreads Reviews for sentence pounds your sensibilities into mulch and blitzes your moral sense into a fine puree; each page is like a furnace burning the skin from your deliriously grinning face. But it's more than just turbo-charged horror that Parcher rams down your it's literature. It's poetry. It's Voltaire's Candide buried in the Pet Sematary and come back wrong."It was like being forced to watch some unspeakable horror because I turned page after page, mesmerized by our tragic hero...""This is a fantastic book. I've never read anything quite like it."
Typing your own biography in third person is weird, man.
I'm an indie author living in Ohio. I write in my free time, which isn't much. I'm a Dad to an amazing teenage daughter and work full time at a boring job in a boring office.
I've read all the things you're supposed to do to look like a professional author. I'm so sick of being told to be professional. Fuck that shit.
I'm crass, low class, white trash and I've made my peace with that. I write what I like to write and would want to read.
I really do love to hear from readers. I've had people track me down and message me about how my words made them feel. That's cool as shit to me. Can I say shit here? I guess we'll find out.
ROTTEN is my first published book. It is definitely not for everyone. I did it all myself. There's some formatting mistakes and some missing commas and what not. It can be distracting for some, but I hope the strength of the story overcomes all that.
That's it, I suppose. If you read any of my stuff, write me a review or tell me personally. We are all in this thing together.
See you in Hell, it's where all the cool people are.
Alright, I'm done slow blinking at this book and wondering what just happened.
It was an absolutely stunning read, weird and irreverent as can be, a little crass too. It also managed to be funny and a little edgy without going into edgelord territory.
I have never in my life read anything that remotely resembles "Rotten", and that's what I crave - something new, different, and something that pushes the boundaries. It was like being forced to watch some unspeakable horror because I turned page after page, mesmerized by our tragic hero, Igor. The author was successful in holding my attention throughout, and Igor might be one of those characters that I'll remember for years to come.
The book did have a couple of issues such as missing commas, but it did not distract from the story. I also urge you to pay attention, because the author uses a technique going back and forth in time and then sews everything together in this horror tapestry. Don't lose focus or you might not enjoy the story. Looking forward to more from this author. P.S. I will savour each and every bite of soup I eat for the rest of my life. Read it to find out why. 4 enthusiastic stars.
I wasn’t a huge fan of this story. While I appreciate the thought process and work that went into developing the intricately weaved plot, I just personally didn’t enjoy the transitions/jumps in the timeline.
Hmmm I’m not sure what to say or even how to rate this book. I’m giving it 4 stars because it had me working my brain throughout the whole story, but I’m still not quite sure if I actually “liked” it. . It’s certainly different from anything else I’ve ever read. The author knows how to tell a good story, and is vivid in his descriptions. I felt pity for Igor, and found myself rooting for him, even though he’s bat$hi7 crazy! The whole time I kept saying wtf?! So many crazy things going on, but yet there’s a cohesiveness to them all. I just kept going, needing to know what one thing had to do with the next. My 2 biggest complaints are (1)how it ended, like it was still in the middle of the story and (2) Earl got off way too easy! I’m assuming there will be a second book, and I’ll be reading it to find out what happens next.
This is a fantastic book. I've never read anything quite like it. Reincarnation is the main theme, with a helpless chap that can't recall any of his past lives. He is just a pawn in his Father's games, others are there to stitch his crumbing soul together after each death. Wickedly original, hoping there is a sequel to this novel.
So you live a pretty cushy life. Safe, predictable - kind of dull. And then one night Buzz Parcher turns up outside your window and launches a copy of Rotten at your head. 'Come on, pushead,' he says. And you shouldn't - but you do. You follow him out into the night. You submit to his command, even when you begin to suspect that he is, in fact, a maniac. It's too late now - there's no escaping from this nightmarish thrill ride. Each sentence pounds your sensibilities into mulch and blitzes your moral sense into a fine puree; each page is like a furnace burning the skin from your deliriously grinning face. But it's more than just turbo-charged horror that Parcher rams down your throat: it's literature. It's poetry. It's Voltaire's Candide buried in the Pet Sematary and come back wrong. It's Don Quixote for our modern, bed-wetting, zombie-fearing age. At the end of the night Parcher dumps you outside your house and you stagger inside and you make yourself a sandwich... And you wonder when he'll call on you again.
I haven't read horror in awhile and decided to give this a shot. Im glad I did. I found this book fantastic and a little different than what I am use to. I didn't find it gory at all It ended rather quickly, so I now must get my next fix of the authors great writing skills.
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
As a fan of something new, something different, this was precisely that. Starting out, you aren’t sure what’s going on except the brutality of a bad relationship that soon devolves into something much bigger. Without spoiling much, this story takes you on a trip through essentially a multiverse with a little taste of Groundhog’s day. Add in a little bit of biblical satire and you find yourself scratching your head yet wanting more. This book can be scary, especially with the gore content but other than that this book is very much so psychological. I am taking one star off, only because the “ending” felt rushed and should’ve just ended before that so we could have it better explained in book 2. But overall, that aside, I really enjoyed this book.
I do not read horror books. Never have before. I am a huge horror fan of movies and shows etc. This leads me to how I read Rotten.
First ever horror book I read and I must say it was an interesting change of pace. It grabs your attention immediately and throws you for a roller coaster of what is coming next, page turning curiosity (at least for me), did I really just read that and holy cow what an ending.
This book is not for the weak of spirit I warn however. It is dark and it is twisted and will not be a lot of peoples first to 100th choice. So be warned as most people in general will have issues with this style of writing.
Ok all of that aside to the actual book...It was fun for me to read. I enjoyed the fact that I never knew what was coming next. I liked the plot twists and the revelations. It was definitely what I asked my friend for which was something totally screwed up, messed up and make you say WHAT DID I JUST READ?!? The character by the end you couldn't help but feel bad for that is always a good book to me.
The only thing I do not care for and never have in any style was the jumping around. Call it my fantasy reading up bringing or degree in mathematics but I like straight linear story lines so that was the only down point for me.
Overall great story, great characters and will be happy to read more of the story line. I'm ready for more Grinderman!
Have you ever said you've lived many lives? This story will give a whole new meaning to that idea. Rotten was by far one of the most unique stories I've ever read. Buzz Parcher tells many stories that go back and forth, but don't roll your eyes at this, as they stitch together into one large picture, your jaw is going to hit the floor. I have no idea what I expected from this book, but what I got exceeded anything I could have imagined. Page after page of a fantastic horror story, that's also incredibly sad once you learn more, and then just comes out of nowhere with a hell of a twist. I can't wait to get into the second book, and I think I've found a new author to add to my favorites list. If you or any friends are into horror, I highly recommend Rotten. It's nothing like anything you've ever read before. Truly a breath of fresh air amongst the usual stories and tropes. Now, with all of that said, are you ready to meet The Grinderman?
Buzz was nice enough to mail me this series in a push to get his works outside of just his small town. I'll now be bugging all of my horror friends to read it. I'm really *that* impressed with it.
This book is crazy! Kept me at my toes the whole time. The writing comes from the heart, it's raw yet somewhat quirky. The narrative goes into unpredictable directions, and subverts many of the typical tropes of a 'good' book: it's full of confusing flashbacks and flashforwards, there's very little characterization, and there's a huge infodump at the end - still, even that is made to feel almost natural. Why? Because there's a good story here! By the time I realized what was going on, I was hooked and didn't stop reading till the end. Recommended!
This sure was unlike anything else I ve ever read ( in a good way). I like unique. A dude floating through life, named Igor Rotten, has no clue why or how, but misery seems to follow him..he even dies from time to time, but gets sent back to life for some reason. It took me a minute to get into the story, questioning the Grinder man's motivations, but the author did an excellent job of explaining everything. A fun read
This whole book was just distasteful and crass. I only finished it because it was short and I was far enough in hoping it might redeem itself. It didn't. 0/10 don't recommend.
This book is very well written and a very interesting concept, follow Thomas/Igor as he lives many lives and tries to put the pieces together, definitely going to finish this series to see what happens next.
A fun romp through an endlessly horrible existence
I am not sure what I just read, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Funny, gruesome, and a little thought provoking. After reading about The Lives and Times of Igor Rotten, my life doesn't seem so bad at all.
Rotten is a brutal and visceral story unlike anything I’ve read before. Never once did I know what was coming next and I look forward to the remainder of the series.
What a nightmarish fever dream this book was! I am here for it. It was crude, disgusting, and bloody. I cannot wait to read Book 2. This might not be for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I picked this up at a local book fair, the author being from Defiance, OH. Well-written and interesting plot, reminiscent of Dogma and Good Omens, but a little too violent for my taste.