Extremities: An Extreme Horror Novel

by Ash Ericmore

Dismembered bodies are being found all over the seaside town of Sandcliffe. Dumpsites are being discovered all the time. Detective Harry James is tracking the killer, but he’s hoping that the job doesn’t kill him first.

Tilly Curran is in an unfulfilled relationship, and needs to get out, but a single incident leaves her changed, a new woman, entwined in the investigation.

Daniel has a problem and can’t stop fucking. He’s beginning to doubt himself … and the bodies keep piling up.

Extremities is an extreme horror novel full of sex, violence, and black humour. Consider this a trigger warning for just about everything.

Genres: Horror

220 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2022

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a pretty solid opening premise. Tilly and Thomas were born to an extremely dangerous, abusive, and troubled mother. They were raised in this horrible situation and then they became separated. I was hoping this would be a story of these two living their lives as damaged adults and struggling with the childhoods that were robbed from them. Unfortunately, the story just seemed to keep everything focused on sex, and to a lesser extent violence, and left so much of its material unattended to. It almost felt like there were several different stories going on, with attempts to link each one together, but everything came off as disjointed. Nothing felt organic and there are so many sex scenes, that it got boring after awhile. I wanted to know more about Thomas and what he went through, which was barely addressed, and the same for Tilly. Instead, we had all this focus on a few detectives that seemed to be repeating themselves over and over again, and Danny as a placeholder, with him just feeling like an excuse to add in a ton of sex. We never know anything about him beyond being a sex addict. Nothing about his marriage to Wanda, his background, or anything of substance. Just the fact that he has sex nonstop with whoever. And the entire mystery over the Death Collector was very obvious, but still could have been done well if the focus was just kept on the estranged siblings. Lots of potential, but I ultimately finished this story frustrated with the lack of development on the important pieces.

[Rayne Havok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ash Ericmore is the master of story telling and character development. He makes you care about them, love them, root for them, makes you cry for them. It's a skill not everyone has, and he has it in spades. A brilliant writer.
This story is wild, it twists and turns all the way to the last page. I highly recommend this book and anything else this man has written.

[KillerBunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goddamn, wow!
A dark thriller, a splatterpunk novel, a brutal and fast-paced read. I really loved it, it was so fucking good, the ending totally got me.

[Lindsay Crook · Rating 5 out of 5]

pokey sticks all round

Oh this was a twisty turny tale. From the first page you get feelings for the characters and those feelings change and grow throughout the whole book. Ash gets better with each story. He gets darker and grittier with both humour and gore.
I said it before but I still want more full length novels.

[Stephen Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark intriguing mystery that keeps you on your toes while creating interesting and broken characters. Loved the short sharp sentences, really good style of writing. Overall found both the writing and the story really good and looking forward to checking out more of his work in the future.

[nemo ☠️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually... tamer than I was expecting, for an extreme horror.

"What the fuck, Nemo?!" you say. "A dude fucked a fucking head!"

I mean, yeah, the dude did fuck a fucking head, but most of the murders and assaults faded to black before the, y'know, really grody shit. Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily, it just... I mean, the book's called Extremities but it wasn't... THAT extreme? I mean, the head was, but everything else wasn't, really. Also, the sex scenes were pretty boring, which is quite a feat in a novel about sex addicts.

I probably sound like some sort of psycho pervert now. Great.

Anyway. Repetitive scenes, no real mystery, but it was kinda compelling and fun, so 3 stars.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out strong but quickly became disjointed. The chapters alternated between three storylines. I could see what Ericmore tried to do—to create a cohesive link between the three stories—but it just didn’t work for me.

And, holy shit was there a lot of sex. The scenes toed the line between raunchy and erotic—which is fine, but sometimes it felt like reading Fifty Shades and not an extreme horror novel.

Not sure if I’ll pick up another Ericmore book, and unfortunately can’t recommend this. But who knows, you might really like this you weirdo 🤷‍♂️

[Carrie Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up only for the amazing beginning chapters.

This book had so much promise. The opening chapters were filled with so much promise and centered around Tilly and her infant brother Thomas, whom she hated. Both live with a drunken whore of a mother who regularly neglects the kids and entertains a different man every night of the week. Tilly thought there was enough attention to go around until Thomas arrived, and she resents his very presence. Tilly commits of act of violence against her two family members, and then the book turns to present day, where things quickly get confusing.

There are several unlinked, disjointed stories in this book that I know the author meant to come together into a cohesive final product, but it just didn't work for me. What was set up to be a case study into what happens to kids who are raised by abusive, neglectful mothers was left by the wayside. I'm a big horror reader and have zero triggers, but the amount of gratuitous sex in this book was eye-rolling and added nothing to the plot.

I really wish the entire book kept the momentum that it started with; if so, this would have easily been a five star read.

[Ashley Twardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really dark and brutal serial killer story filled with blood-soaked pages and depravity. The writing was very good and the story kept me hooked. The characters were well fleshed out (no pun intended 👻) and this was a very unnerving read. I couldn’t put it down.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tilly 12 years old, her mother a drunk whore, never did anything, abused her and Tilly's toddler brother. Tilly hated her life, hated her brother, Tilly spreads gasoline over the house, lights a match, burns down the house with her family she hates. Tilly rescued and settles down to a married life in later years. A spate of gruesome murders, a girl awakes handcuffed, a man wearing a pig mask stands before her, he cuts her wrists, now she can free herself from her bleeding stumps. The killer takes limbs, like a fucking freaky frankenstein. He will penetrate a severed head. This fuck is sick. Tilly will change to a sexual deviant, get tied up with another sex addict and come face to face with her traumatic past. Not a great one from Ash. More a thriller, too long, my least favourite out of his but still have heaps to read and look forward.

[Sharon Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting

This was an enjoyable exciting thriller with some extreme violence. Tilly is a messed up character. A young girl coming from a broken home growing up after a tragic childhood into a bright young woman. Then her friends ask her on a night out and things begin to change for her. From that day her whole perspective on life changes. During all this there is a seriously sick killer roaming the area killing young woman, known as the debt collector. As a child Tilly had a younger brother Thomas but tragic circumstances takes him away from her as well as her mother. An exciting compelling read that keeps you entertained and enthralled throughout. Recommended fully.

[Daniel Lorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my list for a while & I am very pleased I gave it a read.
Extremities is a bleak & gritty thriller with lots of sex & extreme violence!
This book sucked me in immediately with the extremely promising opening chapters. Although I did manage to work out where this very dark story was going, it didn’t stop me from admiring the wonderfully grim world the author created. Very nicely done!
Ash Ericmore is a very talented writer who knows how to keep you turning those pages. I will definitely read more from this author.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic fast paced read!!

Harry stole my heart, the author did too! This scratched an itch! I need more Harry James!! Extreme gore and this will keep you on the edge of your seat!!

Body parts mysteriously start getting round, who is the death collector? Will someone else get the blame for the death collectors heinous crimes?

[Tracy Halls · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting storyline....

Interesting storyline but feel it could have been developed more, lots of sex scenes that were there for the sake of it, I'm not against sex scenes far from it but there just seemed to be to many pointless ones in this book and not enough background/story!

[gregory butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story pushes it to the limit .......

The happening in this story my seem a bit on the ugly side, BUT . The story is an excellent crime drama. You start to get the idea of what is going on, then boy are you Surprized. Great read

[Nicole Oring · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was my first Ash Ericmore read, and I am quite disappointed. I found this story to be incredibly slow paced, poorly developed, and downright boring. There is a lack of cohesiveness in the storytelling that makes it feel choppy and uninteresting.

[Kadlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read! Recommend

People should be more careful. They thought their back gardens were safe places. He shook his head and slipped into the kitchen. Had the rag dowsed in a cocktail of drugs stuffed in his pocket. Push it over her face. Take her. She was finally his.

[Ricky Solis · Rating 5 out of 5]

ore ericmore

As usual, fantastic fast paced brutality. Tons of gore and twists with depraved humour mixed in. Old school detective vibes with Texas chainsaw massacre as a backbone