Clickers Never Die

by Stephen Kozeniewski, Wile E. Young

The seminal horror series created by J.F. Gonzalez, Mark Williams, and Brian Keene reemerges from the depths with the weirdest, most brutal installment yet!

Washed-up oceanographer Cameron Custer is hoping a mysterious living fossil discovered in the South Pacific could breathe new life into his career. Instead, Custer’s new specimen points him toward a heavily guarded secret—the truth behind the Guadalcanal Campaign. During World War II the U.S. Marine Corps had more than just the Imperial Japanese Army to contend with. They also had to wage a vicious battle against the amphibious Dark Ones and an onslaught of their deadliest servants.

Now, an ocean heaving with blood and guts, a battlefield teeming with rage and terror, a man’s demented love affair with a fish monster, and a boy’s heartwarming friendship with a prehistoric crab monster will all combine to prove that… CLICKERS NEVER DIE!

Splatterpunk Award nominated author Stephen Kozeniewski (THE HEMATOPHAGES, BILLY AND THE CLONEASAURUS) and Splatterpunk Award winning author Wile E. Young (THE MAGPIE COFFIN, CATFISH IN THE CRADLE) join forces for one of modern horror’s most anticipated reboots!

Genres: Horror

409 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2022

About the author

Stephen Kozeniewski (pronounced "causin' ooze key") is a Splatterpunk Award-winning author and two-time World Horror Grossout Contest champion. His published work has also been nominated for the Voice Arts and Indie Horror Book Awards, among other honors. He lives in Pennsylvania with his fiancée and their two cats above a fanciful balloon studio.

Reviews

[Horror Bookworm Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horror Bookworm Reviews
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/

A soldier’s tenure develops into being an isolated castaway on a deserted island with only one other inhabitant. A government coverup leads to mind-melting experimentations of extreme hypotheses involving Eurypterid species. The invasion of Clickers upon Earth have taken many distinctive forms over the years. From the 1940’s to modern day, both military and scientific communities have explored these crustacean phenomenas that lead to unexplored dangerous waters.

Originally influenced by Guy N. Smith’s Crab books, authors Stephen Kozeniewski & Wile E. Young have officially received the Clicker baton and are following in the giant footsteps left behind by legendary writers of the series. Their collaboration shines like a beacon of brutality as both imaginative styles mesh successfully as one. Loaded with scorpion like appendaged creatures, lobster-crab monsters and undiscovered beasts of the deep…Clickers Never Die raises the prehistoric specimens bar to a new predatory level.

The attractiveness to this hefty novel for me is not only the creative timeline it holds but also the descriptive chittering, clacking and click-click bone shattering noises these monstrosities make. Ugh, I can still hear them. I also enjoyed the well known “cameos” it provides along with the Clickers alternate meaning of man’s best friend. What can I say, Clickers Never Die is an overall great reading experience that will also satisfy those splatter fans of the genre. Grab your copy and don’t miss what lies in wait beneath the next ebb tide of primal fear. This is a definite five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.

[Kayleigh Marie Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't yet read the original Clickers series but I loved this. It's a reboot so you don't need to read anything that comes before, but I'm going to now! It was a really fun story, sort of great B-movie style, and I could tell that the authors cared about what they were doing. If you like a whole host of entertaining characters (especially Doodles, he was my favourite!), fun monsters, and truly excellent gore, this is definitely for you!

[Jeffrey J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read the entire series and other than the original, Clickers Never Die is my favorite. It reminds me of the horror films of 50s, with a lot more 80s splatter punk gore thrown in.

[Cris Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen K and Wile Y set a high bar for those who follow with more Clickers work. Clickers Never Die is one of the best of the series - humor, bloody mayhem, WWII battles, bloody mayhem, monsters, and, did I mention, bloody mayhem! Loved this book and I'm ready for more adventures in the Clickers universe(s).

[zackary ratliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great new addition to the series

Actually one of the better.books in the series if you ask me I was worried it wouldn't hold up to greatness but proven very wrong. I love the whole world war two to present back and forth as well very well executed engaging and fun to read to boot

[Paul Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Doodles spent the rest of his day taking bites out of a human leg and chewing raw manflesh into puree for a demon from beneath the sea which had become his best friend.”
Here there be monsters.
This book has so much going for it, old school creature pulp horror, characters with depth, an intricate storyline with subplots, gore, humor, and they absolutely do honor to the Clickers series.
I found it fascinating how quickly I would go from laughing out loud to shrinking back in shock and horror.
Clickers Never Die is a total maelstrom. It starts of slowly pulling you in, you know the danger is coming but you are coasting along, enjoying yourself but before you realize it, there is no escape. The tension picks up, going faster and faster, you are sucked in, going down to where the clickers await.
This comes off as a lighthearted book but it has some deep emotional scenes about the effects of war and loss. It is well written and able to bounce from emotion to emotion without feeling broken up. You can never tell whether Kozeniewski or Young is writing.
A fun aspect of this book was the name drops. There are a lot of indie authors names used as characters and it was fun to pick up on this.

[Carlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolutely bonkers book that I could not put down, I had never read a clickers book before but I’m glad I started with clickers never die. Stephen and wile are a duo to watch out for in the future. Clickers never die was full of everything you could ever want! Pretty much grab a blender and add national lampoons and saving private Ryan then add 15 lt of clickers and you’re roughly there. Fast paced and full of gore and violence with a few Ooooo shiiiiiitttt moments and some great cameos you should be able to notice.

[Amby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was skeptical reading this cause its not written by gonzalez or keene but i was pleasantly suprised by how good this book was! I couldnt put it down and read it in one day. The bouncing back and forth from different time periods was very fluid and i was interested in both stories. The only thing i didnt like was that it was pretty unbelievable that cam and jade just got away with killing everyone like that....and i wish they had told more about Doodles ending. Overall it was pretty fast paced and had the gore i expect in a good clickers battle. I hope there are more clickers novels in the future.

[Aaron Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clickers Never Die is a worthy continuation of the Clickers series, and a really good book in its own right. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone, as it “reboots” the series and offers all the information you would need to enjoy it. That said, there are plenty of easter eggs and tributes to J.F. Gonzalez’s series. It took me a little bit to get used to the jumping back and forth in time, as well as keeping all the characters straight in my head (something I struggle with, especially in stories with a bunch of soldiers, with ranks and nicknames and such). However, once it got going I really enjoyed the pulpy, b-movie style monster fun.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

His flesh dissolved as the skin melted off and ran in a slurry, pooling at the bottom of the foxhole. Trick fell into the mixture of sand, venom, and his own juices, howling in agony as he stared wide-eyed at his leg bone, barely clinging to his thigh and dripped wet with gore. 🦀

Clickers Never Die
by Stephen Kozeniewski & Wile E. Young

Action, war, monsters, gore, a bit of a weird romance. Horror doesn't stop after Halloween. It’s a whole lifestyle.

I’ll start by saying that I’m new to the Clickers universe, this is a bit of a reboot from the original series created by JF Gonzales, Mark Williams, & Brian Keene. I had no trouble getting into this and it’s definitely sparked my interest to visit those originals.

The book begins set in WWII, with the US military landing on a beach assuming battle with the Japanese. But this was not the only war they were now a part of. It’s inhabited by many different forms of deadly creatures called Clickers - sometimes massive seemingly crab, lobster, scorpion monsters that are out for blood. And that’s not the only horror to contend with. An ancient race of amphibians or merfolk - The Dark Ones - who control the clickers & keep them as their pets. The story follows many points of view of different military personnel and jumps forward to current day / 2020-2021 to a scientist who has both a Clicker & Dark One in his possession.

The Clickers are horridly wonderful & the Deep Ones mysteriously violent toward humans. The end had me yearning for more. For the history of the race & creatures, of their world, and the continued not-so-pleasant interactions with humans. This hit a lot of my horror wheelhouse - monsters, sea horror, sea creatures, ancient races/civilizations, war. It did not disappoint. A dastardly way to spend Sunday morning.

[Happy Goat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a reboot of the old, beloved Clickers series, originally created by J. F. Gonzalez, Brian Keene, and Mark Williams, and was co-written with Wile E. Young. Splatterpunk finery, with huge crab monsters, weird sea enemies, and lashings of hilarity throughout.

[Michael A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clickers Never Die, They Just Get Better!

The reboot of Clickers, Starts off with a bang. It’s just an amazing book to get the series going again! Usually I don’t like books that go back and forth in different years, but this book does a marvelous job of it and you are so happy every time it switches. It’s like you get two amazing stories for the price of one! Great work guys!

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

If you have ever read any of the previous Clickers novels , Clickers, Clickers II:The Next Wave, Clickers III:Dagon Rising & Clickers VS Zombies.

[Patrick Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, action-packed mash-up of a monster movie and a war movie, Clickers Never Die reads as a perfect reboot to the Clickers franchise. Kozeniewski and Young present a classic WW2 ensemble cast, in the Marines on Guadalcanal who encounter the titular monstrous, crab-like Clickers, and reading their camaraderie, confrontations, and conflict with dark, Lovecraftian forces is like witnessing Sam Peckinpah directing a Lovecraftian horror film.

The authors do a great job of reintroducing the Clickers, the Dark Ones, and the assorted mythos, without feeling too lore-heavy for new readers (like this reviewer). There's a propulsive approach to storytelling on display in the WW2-set chapters.

The present-day interstitial chapters, though not as strong as the Guadalcanal-set chapters, still offer some amusing commentary on current events and pop culture. Tying the existence of monsters to climate change with one scientist desperate to prove the existence of both, is a trope many readers should be familiar with by now. However, the authors handle it in a way that still manages to be entertaining and engaging.

Perhaps the greatest gift and curse of the book is that Kozeniewski and Young leave readers wanting more from the world of the Clickers. And given their role in rebooting the franchise, I'd say that's "Mission accomplished."

[Axl Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an ambitious novel, it has everything from monstrous crabs, the war in the Pacific, genetic engineering, Lovecraftian beings of the deep, as well as socio-political satire. Maybe this complexity coupled with the beautiful but limited skills of the two authors is why Clickers Never Die didn't click for me (sorry, couldn't help it). I think the authors bit off way more than they can chew.

On the positive side, I think the body-horror scenes are well-done and very imaginative. Also, the psychic control the Deep Ones exert over the minds of the soldiers is aptly conveyed. However, many interesting concepts are introduced but not fleshed out. For instance, at some point, a Clicker draws some ancient mandalas in the sand with his feet, signs which point to his genetic connection with the Dark Ones and also to humans, a kind of a collective unconscious across different species. Unfortunately, nothing is made of this, it plays no role in the story. In addition, there's always a nagging gap between the furious action that is described and the style of the descriptions. Instead of using short, fast and furious sentences, the authors opt for long, muddled, repetitive, sleep-inducing sentence structures. The slow pace of the prose put me to sleep several times and when the climax finally came, I could hear myself snoring deeply. I think a healthy injection of Dean Koontz, (from Intensity, let's say) would have helped the authors before embarking on this project. The story is also plagued by wildly implausible events and situations. At one point, when the Americans are attacked by the Japanese, the Clickers, and the Dark Ones all at once, the main character finds time to write in his journal as his comrades are butchered all around. Very implausible. Also, I'm very skeptical about how the relations between the US presidency, the FBI, and Pentagon are portrayed in this novel. I'm aware that this is a make-belief world populated with make-belief monsters, but that is more reason to make the framework of the story as realistic as possible (e.g. Stephen King)

All in all, there's a lot of talent and interesting ideas in between these pages, but the whole construction is wobbly. I think focusing on only one thread of this complex story would have resulted in a shorter yet more powerful work.