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Boondock Butcher
Nestled within the remote Tennessee mountains, a small town hides an ugly secret. A bloody wound that has never healed. Renee Hunter finds herself broken down on a dark, lonely road. A local Samaritan helps her out. But he may have just delivered her into the belly of the beast. Renee discovers that young women like her disappear in these woods. Now she must fight for survival. But the Boondock Butcher stands in her way.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 28, 2022
So, here's what I'm pretty certain happened. One night, way back when, Richard Laymon was hanging out with Edward Lee somewhere in East Tennesse. Dick and Ed were doing what Dick and Ed did back in those days. They were getting shit-faced. Anyway, it got late, everyone else had long since gone to bed, and Richard and Edward were stumbling and bumbling through the forested mountains of hillbilly country.
It could have been the booze. It could have been 'substances.' Or, just maybe, it could have been a crazy little thing called love, but Dick presented his rump out there in the middle of that moonless night and good ol' Ed couldn't resist.
Anyhoo, nobody can really explain it, but a handful of months later, one Chuck Buda was born to this world. Now, some say if he shaved his wild beard, he'd be the spitting image of Richard Laymon. Other insist, if you look at him in profile and down a double shot of Bourbon and squint, Buda looks cut from the same cloth as Lee.
What nobody can say for certain and what I'm certain I can say is: Chuck Buda's BOONDOCK BUTCHER is nothing short of the bastard lovechild of the sick and twisted minds of Richard Laymon and Edward Lee, stewed and sauteed with a healthy smattering of booze and other substances (and no doubt, a healthy dose of love.) There is no other explanation for this twisted, backwoods, podunk, hillbilly gore festival. It's even sprinkled with a few 'rump's as if Buda had channeled the very soul of his mentor (or momma). Who can say? Who can say?)
What I can say is Chuck Buda has leveled up with BOONDOCK BUTCHER. The writing is fluid and visceral. The story is rife with twists and turns. I can promise you, you may think you know who The Boondock Butcher really is, but you can't. You just can't. And the truth is more F'd up than you can be prepared for. Read this bad boy and prepare to get mind bludgeoned by the new sicko of horror, Chuck Buda!
It could have been the booze. It could have been 'substances.' Or, just maybe, it could have been a crazy little thing called love, but Dick presented his rump out there in the middle of that moonless night and good ol' Ed couldn't resist.
Anyhoo, nobody can really explain it, but a handful of months later, one Chuck Buda was born to this world. Now, some say if he shaved his wild beard, he'd be the spitting image of Richard Laymon. Other insist, if you look at him in profile and down a double shot of Bourbon and squint, Buda looks cut from the same cloth as Lee.
What nobody can say for certain and what I'm certain I can say is: Chuck Buda's BOONDOCK BUTCHER is nothing short of the bastard lovechild of the sick and twisted minds of Richard Laymon and Edward Lee, stewed and sauteed with a healthy smattering of booze and other substances (and no doubt, a healthy dose of love.) There is no other explanation for this twisted, backwoods, podunk, hillbilly gore festival. It's even sprinkled with a few 'rump's as if Buda had channeled the very soul of his mentor (or momma). Who can say? Who can say?)
What I can say is Chuck Buda has leveled up with BOONDOCK BUTCHER. The writing is fluid and visceral. The story is rife with twists and turns. I can promise you, you may think you know who The Boondock Butcher really is, but you can't. You just can't. And the truth is more F'd up than you can be prepared for. Read this bad boy and prepare to get mind bludgeoned by the new sicko of horror, Chuck Buda!
November 26, 2021
Chuck Buda went above and beyond with this book. This story revolves around a young woman named Renee, who has a car accident in the backwoods of Tennessee. After a couple of encounters with the locals, she learns of the legend of the Boondock Butcher.
Buda uses clever cut scenes to add mystery and gore to this story. Everytime you think you know what's about to happen, he adds another twist.
This book is full of gray characters, mystery, bloodshed and brutal kills. Any fan of splatterpunk will want to read this one.
Buda uses clever cut scenes to add mystery and gore to this story. Everytime you think you know what's about to happen, he adds another twist.
This book is full of gray characters, mystery, bloodshed and brutal kills. Any fan of splatterpunk will want to read this one.
December 17, 2021
The literary equivalent of an 80’s slasher film.
Do you like your horror rough and gritty? Are you a fan of delving into the details and minutia of a kill, or a raunchy sex scene, or even a trip to a convenience store for a bottle of sweet tea? If so, have I got a book for you.
In a lot of ways, “Boondock Butcher,” the first standalone novel from veteran serial writer Chuck Buda, feels like reading two screenplays, one for a vintage horror film of the 1980’s and another for a 1990’s psychological or supernatural thriller, that were thrown into the air and zealously combined together as their pages were eagerly gathered up and reassembled. That might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your own personal taste but the end result is a book that frequently shifts between the methodical, building tension of a mystery thriller and the over-the-top gusto of an extreme horror, splatterpunk gore fest.
I’m not gonna lie. There are parts of this book that I genuinely didn’t care for, like the occasional reliance on a few negative and outdated stereotypes as a substitute for proper character and narrative development. In particular, I disliked the “horror movie” logic applied to the words, thoughts, and actions of pretty much every character at one point or another. I quickly lost count of the number of times someone said or did something, not because it was anything likely to occur in any version of reality, but because it served to move the plot forward in an obviously-contrived manner. Of course, one could certainly make the argument that this may have been an intentional homage to the sort of brain-dead behavior exhibited by characters in the aforementioned slasher flicks, but I still found it jarring and off-putting enough times to note it.
There were also some pacing, tonal consistency, and technical issues throughout the book that, while individually minor, did cumulatively diminish my overall enjoyment of the experience as their number built to a total that became impossible to ignore completely by the end of the read.
All that said, I did ultimately end up enjoying “Boondock Butcher” for what it is: a fun, well-intentioned romp through the backwoods of Eastern Tennessee that’s certainly worth experiencing for fans of the genres it embodies.
A final note regarding my score: For me, this was more of a 3.25 or 3.5 but I didn’t want to under-rate the overall effort with a 3 as I feel that would have done it a disservice. I could absolutely see this book garnering anywhere between 2 and 4 stars, depending on a given reader’s personal preferences and tolerances, but I felt compelled to round my score up as I truly believe those interested in what “Boondock Butcher” has to offer will inevitably find a lot to like within its pages.
Do you like your horror rough and gritty? Are you a fan of delving into the details and minutia of a kill, or a raunchy sex scene, or even a trip to a convenience store for a bottle of sweet tea? If so, have I got a book for you.
In a lot of ways, “Boondock Butcher,” the first standalone novel from veteran serial writer Chuck Buda, feels like reading two screenplays, one for a vintage horror film of the 1980’s and another for a 1990’s psychological or supernatural thriller, that were thrown into the air and zealously combined together as their pages were eagerly gathered up and reassembled. That might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your own personal taste but the end result is a book that frequently shifts between the methodical, building tension of a mystery thriller and the over-the-top gusto of an extreme horror, splatterpunk gore fest.
I’m not gonna lie. There are parts of this book that I genuinely didn’t care for, like the occasional reliance on a few negative and outdated stereotypes as a substitute for proper character and narrative development. In particular, I disliked the “horror movie” logic applied to the words, thoughts, and actions of pretty much every character at one point or another. I quickly lost count of the number of times someone said or did something, not because it was anything likely to occur in any version of reality, but because it served to move the plot forward in an obviously-contrived manner. Of course, one could certainly make the argument that this may have been an intentional homage to the sort of brain-dead behavior exhibited by characters in the aforementioned slasher flicks, but I still found it jarring and off-putting enough times to note it.
There were also some pacing, tonal consistency, and technical issues throughout the book that, while individually minor, did cumulatively diminish my overall enjoyment of the experience as their number built to a total that became impossible to ignore completely by the end of the read.
All that said, I did ultimately end up enjoying “Boondock Butcher” for what it is: a fun, well-intentioned romp through the backwoods of Eastern Tennessee that’s certainly worth experiencing for fans of the genres it embodies.
A final note regarding my score: For me, this was more of a 3.25 or 3.5 but I didn’t want to under-rate the overall effort with a 3 as I feel that would have done it a disservice. I could absolutely see this book garnering anywhere between 2 and 4 stars, depending on a given reader’s personal preferences and tolerances, but I felt compelled to round my score up as I truly believe those interested in what “Boondock Butcher” has to offer will inevitably find a lot to like within its pages.
April 12, 2025
I will preface my review by saying I met Chuck at the Knox book festival last Saturday and he was very nice!I really enjoyed this book! The storyline kept me intrigued the whole time and kept me guessing! I dare to say that I felt like I was watching a tv show. The setting almost gave me true blood vibes? Like small town in the middle of nowhere type thing. So this book starts out with the main character being stranded out in the middle of nowhere and a “Good Samaritan” comes along and takes her into the town to get help. From there chaos unfolds! There’s a serial killer in the woods of East TN but who is it?? Is it the sheriff? Is it the deputy? The Good Samaritan? Definitely check this one out friends if you want a fun and spooky read!
August 18, 2024
A really fun book about how legends are sometimes real. There was a real life murder behind the legend of the Boondock Butcher but the young disfigured man was cleared of the charges. Though the community still thinks it's him along with being the cause of other missing girls. Though student Renee wants to find the truth after an accident put her in the remote east Tennessee community. Finding out is dangerous, especially with a secret this heinous.
Highly recommended, it's a graphic tale that has stirrings of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the odd mask and the weird backwoods family structure. Though it's told well with the graphic tale split with a mystery trying to figure what exactly happened during the creation of the Boondock Butcher.
Highly recommended, it's a graphic tale that has stirrings of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the odd mask and the weird backwoods family structure. Though it's told well with the graphic tale split with a mystery trying to figure what exactly happened during the creation of the Boondock Butcher.
January 14, 2022
Chuck Buda delivers a twisted tale of secrets and violence in the Tennessee mountains. Boondock Butcher grabs you from the first chapter and never lets go. It’s relentlessly brutal, but you always have to see what happens next. Every time I thought I had things figured out, Chuck pulled the rug out from under me and sent the story in a new direction. Boondock Butcher is Chuck Buda firing on all cylinders and is not to be missed
May 16, 2022
B-Movie Fun in a Book!
Equal parts gross-out gore and mystery thriller, this story will keep you cringing and guessing. It reminded me of some of the low-budget horror movies I grew up on, which I love! This is Chuck Buda's first stand-alone novel, and for extreme horror fans it will not disappoint.
Equal parts gross-out gore and mystery thriller, this story will keep you cringing and guessing. It reminded me of some of the low-budget horror movies I grew up on, which I love! This is Chuck Buda's first stand-alone novel, and for extreme horror fans it will not disappoint.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews