extreme horror

Platinum Blondes: Love Removal Machine by Todd Love

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Todd Love continues raising the stakes with the third installment of the Platinum Blondes series. Love Removal Machine picks up where INXS left off, treating readers to deliciously deserved punishment and violence enacted against Troy. But something more is going on, faint glimpses of unnatural activity from the chair upon which Troy is bound are blurred with the frantic vengeance unleashed by the women of the Platinum Blondes Agency.
Dark secrets have been kept from most of the women Gwen’s recruited, sinister mysteries that originate in her youth and the hubris of her father. Todd drags us through this sordid history, unveiling surprise after shocking surprise along the way, hitting the reader over and over again with the brutal pacing of a professional fighter. In the world of the Platinum Blondes, no one and nothing is as it seems.
Todd Love adds new questions as quickly as he answers the ones we already had, but there’s no need to worry…the story isn’t over yet.

You can obtain the Platinum Blondes series for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

Love Removal Machine (Platinum Blondes – Volume 3) by Todd Love

Your Move by Nat Whiston and Ash Ericmore

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A little competition can be a good thing.
Whether it’s your hobby or occupation, rivalry can be a healthy motivator to push yourself to excel. It’s perhaps a bit less healthy when talking about two serial murderers leapfrogging over one another to produce a more gruesome and intricate tableau, but who are we to judge?
The night can be dangerous, but it’s so much worse if you happen to be a secondary character concocted by the combined imaginations of Whiston and Ericmore. Whether we’re talking about power tools, sex toys, or construction equipment, these two will find a way to utilize it in the most gruesome manner possible.
Am I talking about the characters or the authors?
Is there a line that separates them?
Much as their respective characters seek to outdo one another within the narrative, the authors of this deliciously violent story compete the perpetrate increasingly cruel and vicious acts on the page. It must be said that these two work well together in that respect, as any reader will be delighted to discover.
But is it possible that one of these killers is more than they seem?
Is there a grand design of malevolent intent taking shape before our eyes?
You’ll have to read it for yourself to find out.

You can obtain this title for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

Your Move by Nat Whiston and Ash Ericmore

Woom by Duncan Ralston

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Duncan Ralston’s Woom is a masterpiece of an anthology tale with the most seamlessly incorporated framing story I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It’s like Campfire Tales if that movie had been X-rated and situated in a run-down, no-tell motel room. While Woom works as a single, longer-form piece of literature, it’s also a series of vignettes that flows together surprisingly well. As Angel and Shyla share their respective stories, the content becomes progressively more unsettling and vile. That shouldn’t bother you, though. It’s what you checked in for, after all.
When Angel checked in to Room 6 at The Lonely Motel and requested a big girl from the escort service, he expected disappointment. It’s what he’d experienced previously, both in life and in his previous attempts to find the right woman for the objective he has in mind. When Shyla arrives at the door, it seems like Angel might have found just the woman he’s been looking for. As the night progresses, and he opens up to her as she opens up for him, it becomes increasingly likely that Shyla will be uniquely suited to provide Angel with what he needs.
Mental illness, childhood and adult trauma, sexual fetishes, graphic violence, and a desperate need for redemption and rebirth swirl together into a perversely entertaining book. Woom is a story that dares the reader to continue reading, the whole time knowing that things are only going to get worse but that the way out is through.
What follows might be a spoiler, but I’m not sure I’d consider it one. While it’s obvious from the outset that Angel was telling stories from his own life, I don’t think that was meant to be a surprise to the reader, so I feel comfortable commenting on that without worrying that it’s too much of a spoiler. I suspect Shayla might have been the only person taken aback by that revelation. She wasn’t the brightest character, after all.

Cleared Away by Regina Watts

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Cleared Away is a truly unpleasant story. Were it not for the quality of the writing, I’d suggest there wouldn’t be anything redeeming in these few pages. Unfortunately for all of us, this story was written by Regina Watts, which means there’s plenty of quality in the prose. It should come as little surprise that this story–taking place in Nazi Germany–contains elements of rape, extreme violence, and anti-semitism. The reader should be prepared.
We experience the predations of Major Basilius as he turns his attentions toward a young Jewish girl recently transported to the concentration camp. With Watts at the helm, one should know to expect that there is nothing but brutality and degradation to follow.
There is nothing erotic or arousing in this story. If you’re looking for something like that, you’re in the wrong place, and you’ve picked up the wrong story.
Avoid reading the following if you want to avoid spoilers:
Though we find ourselves continually hoping for something to happen, some vengeance to be enacted against Basilius, Watts tears that hope away with each passing sentence. While this may be less satisfying for the reader, it’s altogether too authentic as far as the outcome is concerned. For most women in the position our young victim finds herself in, there was no salvation to be found. This young woman could have been any of the hundreds–or perhaps thousands–of victims who found themselves raped, abused, and tortured by those in power at concentration camps throughout Europe. Cleared Away is heartbreaking in its brutality and unrelenting, unflinching depiction of the treatment of this poor girl. At the same time, it’s important to remember that this is nothing compared to what was done to so many people in real life.

You can check this out for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Cleared Away by Regina Watts

Unbortion by Rowland Bercy Jr.

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Unbortion begins with a trigger warning sensitive readers will be remiss to ignore. What follows that warning is a description of a late second-trimester surgical abortion procedure, including vacuum aspiration. Skipping past that scene will not spare the reader much, but it will potentially relieve them from the depiction that might be a specific trigger.
From there, Rowland Bercy Jr. takes the reader on a most peculiar and revolting adventure as the discarded and dismantled fetus, tethered by loose nerve fibers, drags itself through the city in search of the host who rejected it. Initially mistaken for spaghetti by a homeless man digging through a dumpster, our vengeance-seeking fetus attempts to take up residence in the man’s abdominal cavity, only to discover it’s an inhospitable place before forcing its way through his rectum and continuing its journey. It gets weirder from there.
In the end–despite the revolting details and the absurdity of the concept–Unbortion is a tale of rash decisions made out of fear, the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child, and forgiveness.
The anti-abortion sentiments underpinning the narrative made me think that Rowland has missed an opportunity by not pushing this book on the most vocal and ardent members of the anti-abortion crowd. For all of its extreme horror elements, I can’t help but suspect that he could manage to find a ready and willing audience for this book in a subsection of that demographic. I could even imagine a world wherein some of those people would push to have copies of Unbortion sitting in the waiting rooms and lobbies of places where abortions are conducted, in an attempt to change the minds of those intending to undergo such procedures. I’m only half-joking about that because he could be sitting on a virtual gold mine there.
While I’m not in the anti-abortion camp myself, that doesn’t make this any less enjoyable or the underlying message any less poignant.

Zola by D. E. McCluskey

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Anthony Zola was a terrible person. One need only look at the cruel joke of a name he saddled his only son with, Gordon. Gordon Zola, a childish gag and a pointed jab at his wife’s obsessive cheese consumption. Unfortunately for Andrea and Gordon Zola, that horrible appellation is the least of Anthony’s transgressions against his wife and child.
Years of abuse and manipulation from her husband had compressed Andrea’s life to the extent that her world revolved entirely around her monster of a husband and her socially isolated son. Just as she finally began transforming herself into a woman she could recognize when she looked in the mirror, a horrific discovery sent her life spiraling out of control. Anthony’s bonding time with their son has a far more sinister purpose than Andrea could have imagined, and the only solution is a drastic one.
Unhealthy codependence and unspeakable appetites become the crux of mother and son’s relationship, inexorably drawing Andrea and Gordon into further segregation from the world around them. As barbaric solutions become the only way the two of them can survive, Andrea and Gordon devolve into a bestial existence of filth and isolation that escalates until the heartbreakingly inevitable conclusion.
McCluskey provides readers with a poignant tale of family and intense psychological trauma through a medium rife with absurdity and graphic depictions of revolting inhumanity. Zola is a coming-of-age story for the perpetual adolescent; a depiction of acute arrested development in the form of Gordon Zola, a boy who grew into a man without ever having a chance to develop any life for himself under the aberrant safekeeping of his traumatized mother.
As easy as it might be to write this story off as being a steadily intensifying gross-out narrative–and there’s a lot to gross the reader out–there’s a whole lot of sadness and distressing truth to be found in these pages as well. McCluskey tells us the tale of a man who never had a chance to be anything but the monstrosity he became, all because of a father’s cruelty and a mother’s misguided love.

You can find this title at http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Zola by D.E. McCluskey

Musings of a Sadist by Ryder Kinlay

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Musings of a Sadist (David Longbottom’s Misadventures) collects the first four stories Kinlay’s written about our favorite Australian Patrick Bateman impersonator. Kinlay successfully crafts something that feels less like a collection of separate stories but serves as more of a sequence of vignettes about Longbottom’s life over a specific period. There is an assortment of self-referential moments throughout the included misadventures, reminding readers that each installment is sequentially consistent.
Naturally, this begins with Longbottom’s Thailand honeymoon from the story that introduced us to this depraved maniac, Bloodymoon. I’ve already reviewed this story, so I’ll refer you to the following link if you want to see what I had to say:


https://meltdownmessiah.com/2021/08/05/bloodymoon-by-ryder-kinlay/


We move on to an installment that is of personal interest to me, as Ryder Kinlay incorporated a character named after me in the debauchery and cruelty taking place. Again, I’ve reviewed This Is Not An Exit previously, and you can find my thoughts at the following link:


https://meltdownmessiah.com/2021/09/13/this-is-not-an-exit-by-ryder-kinlay/


Next up, we have Dia De Los Death, wherein David feels like he might have finally found a woman he can love, and we learn just how perverse his devotion to his mother happens to be. I’ve reviewed this story previously at the following link:

https://meltdownmessiah.com/2021/10/28/dia-de-los-death-by-ryder-kinlay/


And finally, we come to Hot Shots, the newest Longbottom tale and one exclusive to this volume. When David’s best friend, Dakota, calls him in a panic, seeking assistance because he’s in an apartment with a dead man he’d only recently been intimate with, Longbottom resigns himself to helping out. Readers have the distinct pleasure of learning new facts about biology and the biological functions that can transpire post-mortem, so it’s educational. Of course, the excitement doesn’t stop there, and everything turns out splendidly for Dakota and David as they jump into a bonding experience and set the stage for future misadventures.

You can obtain this omnibus collection by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Musings of a Sadist (David Longbottom's MISadventures) by Ryder Kinlay

Insatiable by Rayne Havok, Narrated by The Professor

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Insatiable is, at least for those who listen to the audio narration, a match made in Hell. Rayne Havok’s tale of uncontrollable lust giving way to hunger that bleeds into gluttony is, on its own, a spectacularly visceral story. When one includes the eloquent and superbly articulate narration provided by The Professor into the mix, it serves to take the story to an entirely different level. His voice lulls the listener into a receptive state with an almost soporific cadence that belies the sinister undertones hinting at what’s to come. Even as we arrive at the tale’s vile and blood-drenched conclusion, we’re still held captive by the strangely soothing, borderline palliative quality of The Professor’s voice.
Havok captures the all-consuming nature of obsession with Insatiable, portraying in literal terms the insatiable need of our narrator as well as the object of that attention. Insatiable feels like the result of what we’d discover if one were to eavesdrop on a sexting exchange between the smuttiest members of the extreme horror community; this story could be the adaptation of that cruel, visceral, and uniquely erotic conversation. With The Professor’s narration in the mix, the listener might be forgiven for suspecting that they’d dialed into the phone sex line of the damned. For those old enough to remember the late-night advertisements promising forbidden pleasures with real live participants only a phone call away–and some ungodly per-minute price. Ungodly is certainly an appropriate term in the context of this story, but the price is far more palatable.

This title is available from http://www.godless.com or through the Godless app. The link is below:

https://godless.com/products/insatiable-by-rayne-havok-and-the-professor

Platinum Blondes: INXS by Todd Love

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INXS picks up right where the first Platinum Blondes concluded, though we’re first introduced to Tony and provided with awful glimpses into a childhood from which no one would walk away undamaged. As much sympathy as we might have for the young boy, he quickly erodes that goodwill as we get to know him further, and especially the man he’s become. It similarly doesn’t take long to discover that Tony is no stranger to Tina, the protagonist we became achingly familiar with during the first installment.
The tangled web of connections and intrigue doesn’t end there, and the reader’s exposed to new revelations that paint everything we’ve read before in a different light. Previous sentiments have to be adjusted as new facts become available and more details become clear.
We also learn more about Gwen and Patricia Tobin, the Platinum Blondes orchestrating everything and manipulating the protagonists to achieve their sinister goals. Unfortunately, the more we learn about the two women operating The Platinum Blondes Agency, the more questionable everything becomes, including their judgment.
Todd Love answers questions we had from the first story in this series while providing us with all new questions to be answered in future installments. He leaves us wanting for more but satisfied for the time being.
Violence batters the reader from almost every page, and the story is positively soaked with blood, semen, and other fluids. Monsters elicit sympathy as we witness their development, and those who initially seemed like victims begin to appear more like monsters themselves. In all of this, Love reminds us to leave our preconceptions at the door when we enter The Platinum Blonde Agency.

You can obtain a copy of this story for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your preferred mobile device. The link is below:

Platinum Blondes: INXS (Book 2) by Todd Love

The Night Stockers by Kristopher Triana and Ryan Harding

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It’s Clerks meets Assault On Precinct 13.
It’s Intruder meets The Warriors.
It’s Dawn of the Dead meets Rosemary’s Baby.
It’s none of those things because it’s altogether too original to be classified that easily.
I’m talking about The Night Stockers by Triana and Harding, a true masterpiece of absurdity and gore.
Freshway is struggling now that Devil’s Food has opened up across the road, stealing customers as well as some of the staff. In a desperate, albeit transparently futile, attempt to combat the erosion of the bottom line, Todd demands that most of this Freshway staff work an unexpected overnight shift for deep cleaning and stocking. A miserable night is soon to become altogether worse as the Freshway staff learns that competition between grocery stores can not only be fierce, it can be deadly.
It stands to reason something like that would have to happen when the Devil’s Food chain is owned and operated by Satan. Fueled by a desire to live up to the expectation of his dark lord–and his petty impulse to seek vengeance against the Freshway manager who helped drive him to the dark embrace of Devil’s Food–Desmond decides he and his staff will be destroying the competition. Of course, even with Satan on his side, Desmond and his crew of miscreants might have a bit more on their plate than he could anticipate.
Equal parts an homage to death metal of the late 80s and early 90s and the early days of splatterpunk horror, the authors create a world that feels entirely real so that they can do the most unreal and unspeakable things to the people populating that world. Drawing from their own experiences working in retail during that period as well as their lasting appreciation for the music that finds itself repeatedly referenced throughout the narrative, Triana and Harding successfully bring the world of Freshway to life–for the express purpose of converting it into a funhouse of death and dismemberment.
Filled to the brim with graphic sex and violence, often in tandem, The Night Stockers becomes a barrage of viscera and perverse humor that remains constant from the first to the final page.