Still He Kills

by Bryan Michael Ellis

Tyler Wuerth and Ethan Gardner grew up as best friends. They’ve been through everything together; The good, the bad, and especially the ugly. Over the years, the two young men found themselves falling in love in a town that would frown upon their relationship…and when the harassment becomes unbearable, the young couple escapes into the night.

What should be the start of a new life turns into a nightmare when they end up at an old, abandoned grist mill on the night of gruesome thunderstorm, where the devilish Miller resides. Armed with a sickle and a thirst for blood, he is ready to hunt. Can Tyler and Ethan, along with six other strangers seeking shelter, survive their night of horror, or will they never see the sunlight again?

258 pages, Paperback

Published July 17, 2022

About the author

Bryan Michael Ellis grew up in New York and graduated from SUNY New Paltz with his BA in English because all he ever wanted to be was a writer. When he isn’t watching horror films, he creates stories inside his head and performs them with Legos, something he’s done since birth. Bryan loves horror films, often found quoting them and forcing his friends and family to watch them. As an openly gay male, he feels it is important to give a voice to people who are normally silent.

Reviews

[Bill Ellis]

Incredible book

The book was excellent. I guaranty you won't put the book down. It was an amazing ending. I can't tell you how much I am so proud of my son. Love you dad

[Jenny (Nyxie)]

No rating DNF at 5%. The editing was not great, with too many random exclamation points and capitalizations for me.

I love the idea of the book though, and the campy horror movie vibes.

[Jamie Zaccaria]

Ellis knows how to write slashers with unique and gross kills, that's for sure! If you're looking for something slasherific featuring loveable queer characters, check this out.

Trigger warning: rape, pregnant women and children unsafe

[Dustin Domingo]

A movingly romantic and gruesome slasher book that doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to portraying a blossoming romance between two young men, the struggles they have to go through to get out of their homophobic town, and the unflinching violence at the hands of a maniac.

[Joseph M]

I’m not going to beat around the bush with this review. I had very high hopes for this book and they were not met. I wanted to enjoy what I was reading but with the grammatical errors and what seemed like a complete lack of editing, I found this hard. I rate based on my personal four key points:

Overall enjoyment: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I did enjoy the premise of the story but it felt like a revolving door at some points between the two MC’s going back and forth with their feelings and emotions about what was happening. Very repetitive.
I was also disappointed with expecting this to be a “slasher” while only getting the satisfaction until chapter twenty one with a sprinkle of “slasher vibes” earlier!

Pacing/ Storyline: ⭐️⭐️
Jumping back to the previous section, the pacing was slow with the revolving door between the two MC’s. I understand the author was trying to portray the struggles that many LGBTQ+ people face daily but it was all very repetitive.

How well it kept my attention: ⭐️⭐️
Depending on how engaged I am in the story depends on how fast I breeze through it. That being said, a week to read a 264 page book doesn’t add up well.

How much I wanted to reach for the book after putting it down: ⭐️⭐️
I’m not one to DNF a book but I can say with certainty that there were days where I didn’t have any ambition to pick it back up.

At the end of the day, these are my opinions and I don’t know if this was the author’s first novel. If I was to offer some words of advice to the author for any future projects: Edit… Edit… Edit! Im not trying to attack your work but the grammatical errors were very hard to miss and could have been avoided.
Also don’t allow family members write 5⭐️ reviews.

[Dustin Domingo]

Second reading of this gory, queer slasher. Romantic, erotic, horrific, and terrific!

[Brett Burkhardt]

Even if it was edited and corrected, the story and writing still wouldn't be there.