Against the Lockers

by Aiden E. Messer

"There’s something genuinely uplifting when you encounter a fellow queer voice shouting out for justice, humanity, and empathy. And that’s clearly the cause behind this story."
-Judith Sonnet

Colin Fern's life is perfect. He has a wonderful group of friends, he's studying at an art school to pursue his dream job, and he's about to ask the man he loves out on a date

But everything collapses the day he gets assaulted. He must now find a way to try and piece his life back together. And maybe take revenge on his abuser.

Genres: Horror, Splatterpunk, Queer, LGBT

84 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2022

About the author

Aiden E. Messer does not exist. Are they an illusion, a ghost, a mere thought? No one knows. If we are to believe one of the children they seem to work with, if they were a teacher, they would be as tall as a human. They are not a teacher. According to various sources, they have studied psychology, and have always had a penchant for horror and the macabre. They like to combine these subjects in their books.

Reviews

[Corrina Morse · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this kicks off with a fantastic foreword by our very own Judith Sonnet!💜

This is a queer, extreme horror, and Aiden is pretty new to the scene, but you wouldnt know it, as he writes a good story. It kept my interest the whole way through, and left me feeling satisfied!

Colin wants to show Evan how much he really means to him, but the school bully soon puts paid to that! After experiencing the ultimate humiliation, Colin tries to seek help, but is pushed away at each opportunity, even, sadly, by some of his friends. People assume that because of his sexuality, he asked for the assault! Thus showing the naivety and ignorance of people towards the LGBTQ+ community, even in this day and age! But Evan sticks by him, and when no-one will help them, when their friendship group sadly starts to dissipate and things start to have a huge impact on his life and the way he feels about himself, they decide to help themselves….
I truly felt for Colin's character, his plight was heartbreaking and I felt so much anger and sorrow on his behalf!

But, the revenge, the revenge was perfect, brutal, savage and horrific, the descriptions had me wincing and yeah, maybe I cheered a little bit too! 😉

I think Aiden is going to be one to watch for sure!

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know much about Aiden E. Messer, other than what they post on Instagram. They write extreme horror with LGBTQ+ characters and read and review lots of extreme horror. And sometimes they see my review previews on Insta and tap that little heart. Which is cool. I love author interactions. I downloaded a sample of Against the Lockers the first time I saw their name on my notifications.

I finished up Full Brutal, by Kristopher Triana a little while ago. Since the work day is half over, I didn’t want to dive into another full length book that would only end up put aside until the weekend once the work day is over. So I scrolled through my kindle looking for something to kill an hour or so and there was that sample. It’s time.

Content warning: sexual assault, blood, gore

My first thought is that it could benefit from another round of editing. There are a few typos and inconsistent verb tenses. There’s some odd paragraph formatting. None of this takes away from the story, but some readers are nitpicky about stuff like that. I am not bothered by that stuff because my brain autocorrects, but I do notice.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. This story has a good premise. The idea of a sexual assault victim getting revenge on their rapist in the most brutal fashion is quite appealing, but I wish it was more fleshed out. This feels like it’s not quite finished. I would have liked to see more details, more descriptions of the impactful moments. The revenge is great. The reactions of some of the supporting characters like the dean, the police, and a couple of Colin’s friends feels pretty realistic. It is not uncommon for authorities to ignore or downplay sexual assaults, particularly of LGBTQ+ people. And sometimes friendships don’t survive difficult times. And if real life judges go on the record saying that victims’ bodies can prevent rape, it is certainly believable that fictional characters would also believe that a victim has control over their bodies’ responses. So yes, this is a good story. It’s just missing a little something to make it a great one.

For a buck and a half and an hour of your time, Against the Lockers, by Aiden E. Messer is a no brainer. It could use some fine tuning, but it’s still a good read.

Afterword

Aiden, if you read this, I hope you don’t feel like my review is too harsh. On my personal rating scale, 3 stars means I liked it! I look forward to reading your future works.

Best,
Monica at Totally Normal Human (aka @mononorama on the ‘gram)

[BooksandBacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Against the Lockers" is a great short story which I highly recommend but It's not for everyone, I'm not squeamish about this kind of topic but I'm currently feeling a bit low due to my recovery from Covid.

There are parts of the story that left me feeling slightly ill, which I believe, added to the story as it's gory and very graphic. As other reviews states, I would have liked to know if they got away with it in the end.

I'm definitely checking out his other works.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A ‘Happy Ever After’ to one sad state of affairs.

‘Against The Lockers’ is a short horror story about two queer guys exacting their revenge upon their tormenting college bully which all begins quite calmly before ratcheting up to a most torturous, sickly, but possibly satisfyingly fitting, end.

A decent quick read, but all a bit simplistically obvious for me, reading like a gory horror tale designed specifically for a YA audience living in the modern world of today.

Rating: 3.5 stars

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

After being tormented and publicly assaulted Colin tries to get help, but when neither the Dean of his college, or the police will do anything he takes matters into his own hands. I love when victims avenge themselves, and take their power back. As is unfortunately really common everyone who was supposed to help was expecting Colin to be a perfect victim but that doesn’t exist in fiction, or in real life. After deciding he would no longer take on the consequences of actions that weren’t his he takes it into his own hands to make sure he gets justice. The author handles trauma in a way that is respectful to this really serious topic while also making a great splatterpunk. It’s a quick, intriguing read!

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check the trigger warnings on this one! Coming in at 72 pages, this novella will anger you, upset you and gross you out! It is not meant for people who are easily offended or upset. As someone who reads a lot of splatterpunk and extreme horror, there were moments in this that had me cringing, so 👏🏻 for that. Remember: support indie authors! Support LGTBQ+ authors!

[Nelli Lakatos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this book was really good! It was heavy and gory. Highly recommend it!

[Madelynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This extremely short novella was ok. I was hoping for more but it just didn’t have it.
I will say this story had me feeling angry.
Unbelievable that everyone who was watching did nothing!!!
As a survivor myself, it’s normal to want revenge but reading how he gets his revenge is where I actually started to lose my sympathy for him. I couldn’t agree with him at that point and it made me sad.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written short story that I recommend. Be prepared for some difficult topics, but the author does handle it well.
I would have been interested to know what happened after the revenge and followed these characters longer, but it was very good for a short story!

[Ashley Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little story awakened so much feelings inside of me. For starters, Evan and Colin are ADORABLE. But it turns bleak really quickly, making you face the horrors of rape and your body betraying you. Though this is, ofcourse, a revenge story! And I loved every second of the payback.

[Jason Nickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I did really enjoy this story, I kept feeling thrown off by the setting. The characters are in their 20s, but the setting and interactions come off as high school (I've never seen a college with lockers in the halls 🤷‍♂️). I also didn't think the ending fit, but this story was still effective in sparking raw emotion.

[H. Everend · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5/5]
This was a fun, gory little read by Messer and I thoroughly enjoyed every last bit of it. There were some harder parts to read, but most things don't scare me off and I really loved the ending of it -- so damn good! My only downside is that I wish the story could have been a little longer as I feel we didn't get to know the characters as much as I would have personally liked...but it was a well written and balanced story. Well done Messer!

[Hayley Anderton · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Trigger warnings: SA, blood, gore

This isn't the sort of story I normally read and it left me feeling queasy, but that's exactly the point of this tale, I feel. While the main character and the villain both do awful things, you're left feeling as though the villain deserved comeuppance for their awful assault.
It's a good old revenge plot, and though it's short, it's also succinct. I also think that Messer did a really great job of expressing the feelings that come in the aftermath of SA.
It did feel hard at times to put an age on the characters. Despite them being college students, they did feel younger to me sometimes. I also would have liked to have seen more of the aftermath of their revenge. But a good, short horror overall, plenty to like if you're into this genre!

[Veronica ☠️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colin loves his friends. He loves Evan a bit more and wants to ask him out. Everything has to be perfect. They all have a bully named Timothy and he makes their life hell. One day Colin stands up to Timothy for a friend and he quickly becomes scared of the outcome. One day, in front of everyone, Timothy has his way with Colin. Although he's hurt and embarrassed, Colin seeks revenge.

You feel for Colin and what he goes through. We've all had bullies in our lives who we hated to see on a regular basis. The only thing I didn't enjoy of this book is that the assault was done in front of people and nobody did anything. I find it hard to believe that nobody would do anything. You feel for Colin and the revenge is sweet!

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too shabby! I actually really enjoyed this book, but one major aspect didn’t make sense to me. If the bully, a raging, drunk homophobe, rapes the main character in front of the whole school, wouldn’t everyone think that the bully is gay too? Especially since it looked consensual apparently? I feel like it would’ve made more sense for the bully to rape him without witnesses, since it would go against everything he wants to accomplish for the whole school to think he’s gay. But who knows! Rapists aren’t sane anyways.

[•Kaitlin T • · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revenge is best served cold

Messer tells a tragic story of a bullied man. Thankfully it doesn't end there! Exciting extreme horror with an intriguing storyline, this novellette is a quick and satisfying read. I really enjoyed the writing and was rooting for the main characters the whole time. Pick it up if horror is your genre!

[Sarah Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love revenge stories! There is nothing more satisfying than reading about someone getting exactly what they deserve. Aiden is an excellent writer and storyteller, it took me long enough but I’m glad I finally found his work! 🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀

[Kia Sconiers · Rating 1 out of 5]

the only saving grace is that the r*p*st was killed.

[Xtina Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in one sitting! Short, brutal revenge story! Check triggers!!!

[taylorr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely heavy and super gory… omg. Like this almost made me puke… BUT! It was pretty awesome

[Susana Mora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fantastic. Disturbing but fantastic. Is it bad that I felt so satisfied for Colin? No? okay good.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had me run through so many emotions in in such a short time! It's definitely not a book for everyone but I did enjoy reading it. It was well written and I did feel for the characters even in such a short time!

[Nikki Kossaris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Against The Lockers is queer splatter punk and a story of revenge with a love story mixed in. Do not take the warnings lightly. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

[Danielle Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed this, but felt like it could have been longer. I felt like the characters came across a lot younger than 24 too.

Good for a super quick read in-between other books.

[Rachel M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great quick read, this book takes you from feeling sad to uncomfortable to angry to revenge!

[Kaylyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story about the injustice LGBTQ+ individuals experience.

The story surrounds Colin, a gay teen, who is about to ask his crush on a date. He instead is targeted for being out and assaulted in front of the whole school. Following his assault, Colin must piece his life back together and possibly seek revenge on his abuser.

This story was quick to-the-point and brutal at times, I think it resonated with me hard because of the content and its relevance to our current society and the hate that the LGBTQ+ community faces on a daily basis. The overall writing was great, my complaint is I wish it was longer so we could get to know Colin and his friends a bit more and form a stronger connection with the characters.

[GiGi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is nearly as good as the writing is bad, so it kinda balances out.
I appreciated the introduction by Judith Sonnet: "So many of us 'shock' others simply by... existing. Our very lives push boundaries. So as a queer person, when I'm asked why I like to write and read shocking books... I tend to say it's just because shocking people comes easily to me."

This book is important for another reason too though. Sexual assault on male victims and how society dismisses their experience. You are there with Colin as it happens. You get glimpses of the aftermath. What society thinks doesn't matter when you experience such horrors 'firsthand', which the writing here accomplishes succinctly.

[Shantel Brunton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping short novelette that packs a hard punch right to the gut.
I could easily feel the character’s pain with the help of the vivid descriptions.
His emotions were also palpable with the shame, guilt, disgust, and the desire for revenge. The revenge plot was executed brilliantly.
I think the only downsides of the book were that I couldn’t really picture what the characters looked like.
At times I found the setting a little confusing and I thought they were in high school at first rather than university.
Other than that this is excellent, brutal, and dark read.

[Carina Stopenski · Rating 1 out of 5]

the suspension of disbelief needed to read this book is astounding. it could have been really great if a.) it was so much longer, like a hundred pages longer, and b.) if the way events unfolded felt remotely believable. you're telling me that no one tried to stop an actual assault from happening right in front of them? plus, i don't know of a single college that has lockers or the ability to chat with the dean the day of an incident, so this really just felt like a high school story with the students aged up.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't the book for me. The torture was fine, lol, but nothing felt grounded in reality and I really would have liked to see it work-shopped a little, and edited a bit better. It was impossible for me to remember these were college students as everything, down to the lockers, read as high school. I should have cared so much more about these characters. If it weren't so short, I would have DNFd.

That aside, I recommend this to people who like a quick, bloody revenge tale who can let go of wanting to play editor as they read. It brings the gore.