horror

The Unclean Verses: Cantos 1 & 2 by John Baltisberger

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Whether you’re a fan of horrorcore rap, brutal poetry, splatterpunk horror, or you simply have an unhealthy obsession with serial killers and the atrocities committed by those degenerates, The Unclean Verses: Cantos 1 & 2 is definitely for you!
I come at this as a fan of John Baltisberger’s poetry–as well as his prose–and this introduction to The Unclean Verses still managed to blow me away.
We’re introduced to a man who feels compelled by demons to perform terrible, violent acts. The descriptive, graphic violence conveyed in verse is so damn impressive, and I’m not just saying that because I volunteered to be one of the victims when Baltisberger was first putting this whole project together. I probably deserved what I got, though, because I feel like I was probably a terrible coworker. I guess maybe I just didn’t have my head in the game.
In a sense, as I wrapped up my reading of Cantos 1 & 2, I felt almost like I’d just read the least remorseful death row confession ever. Imagine, if you will, an unrepentant spree killer or serial killer mocking both the families of the victims and society as a whole by unleashing a hideous, cruel rap detailing his crimes with passionate aplomb. You won’t be far off from what Baltisberger has in store for you with this release.
These first two Cantos will pummel you into submission with the rapid-fire, insidious rhythm by which Baltisberger delivers his barrage of violence and graphic imagery. You’ll quiver with equal parts anticipation and terror, knowing that this is only the beginning.

The Unclean Verses: Cantos 1 & 2 is being released on October 6th at http://www.godless.com as part of the 31 Days of Godless event for October of 2021. You’ll want to pick this one up for yourself by going to the website or downloading the Godless app. The link is below:

Unclean Verses Cantos: I & II by John Baltisberger

Daddy by Iain Anderson

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Iain Anderson’s Daddy was as surprising as it was captivating, keeping the reader–in this case, me–guessing until just before the shocking pivot in the narrative.
Lauren is kidnapped and she’s certain it’s the work of a brutal murderer the press has dubbed The Callendar Man. Forced into a small, dark shed, Lauren soon learns she isn’t alone in the confined space.
This story has something for everyone. We have a father’s love. There’s a sinister string of missing people turning up dead in a gruesome fashion. And, finally, we have the mystery of who or what is in the shed with Lauren.
Iain Anderson might just answer the question that’s been plaguing you your whole life. Who’s your daddy?

Daddy is the Day Four release for the 31 Days of Godless event celebrating October 2021 at http://www.godless.com and you can obtain this story for yourself by going to the website or by downloading the app. The link is below:

Daddy by Iain Anderson

This Is Where Dreams Come True

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October 3rd, 2021 – Day Three of the 31 Days of Godless event at http://www.godless.com

Originally written in 2015 as a futile and frustrated attempt to write a piece of short erotica, the story took on a life of its own and became something altogether unpleasant and not suitable as erotica.

I’ve revised, rewritten, and returned some previously censored content to the story and released it on Godless for only $0.50.

Amy’s expectation of a relaxing summer of housekeeping at a theme park hotel is shattered as guests and staff alike are overcome with carnal desires that cross all lines of decency. Can she escape with her sanity intact? Can she even make it out of the hotel?

Check it out for yourself at http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app on your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Where Dreams Come True by Nikolas P. Robinson

Night Shift by Lindsay Crook

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Lindsay Crook tells us a tale that’s a little bit Hostel, a little bit Nightcrawler, and a whole lot of unpleasantness. Does that sound amazing to you? It really should!
As important as it is to love what you do, Hank loves his job perhaps a little too much. As a guard in the high-security facility where the most depraved desires are fulfilled, Hank witnesses atrocities that would shatter the spirit of most people. He is not like most people.
What happens when watching simply isn’t enough?
We’ve all taken liberties at work. There’s no sense in pretending we’re innocent of that. Unfortunately for Hank, his employers are far less forgiving than most. One might expect such a thing from a shadowy, secret organization that caters to only the ultra-wealthy and decadent when legal pleasures are no longer sufficient.
Come walk the halls with us and tune into the monitors as we watch horrors unfold.

Day 2 of 31 Days of Godless brings us this fantastic title from Lindsay Crook. You can pick it up for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app. The link is below:

Night Shift by Lindsay Crook

The Crimes & Passions of John Stabberger: Volume 2 Antiva by John Baltisberger

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Warning: There are minor spoilers included in this review!

We rejoin John Stabberger as he gleefully slaughters a pregnant neo-Nazi. How else would one slaughter a neo-Nazi than with glee? Upon extracting the baby from her foul womb with perhaps less than surgical precision, he has to figure out what he’s going to do with the infant. As single-minded as Stabberger might be, he recognizes that the newborn isn’t guilty of the mother’s evil.
Unfortunately, there are Nazis everywhere, including the hospital where Stabberger attempts to unload the baby on a buxom nurse. In fact, the hospital is less a hospital than a laboratory environment where awful human experimentation is conducted. Will John Stabberger finally meet his match in the unanticipated battle ahead of him? Well, of course not! He’s John Fucking Stabberger!
Questions are answered:
As sharp as an SS uniform might appear, is it anywhere near as sharp as a scalpel?
How many razor blades can one fit into the wrenched-open jaws of a Nazi scientist?
New questions arise:
What is John Stabberger’s secret past?
What happens when the blade spawning Nazi Annihilator encounters a target who is out of reach, with 24-hour protection and surveillance in a maximum-security prison?
This installment of the Godless League takes no prisoners. Do any of them? Taking aim at anti-vaxxers and Nazis alike, John Baltisberger delivers a tense, exciting thrill ride through hospital corridors and basement laboratories like a B-movie hero on steroids.

This is the first book available as part of the Godless Halloween event: 31 Days of Godless. You can pick up a copy for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Godless League #4 (The Crimes and Passions of John Stabberger – "AntiVa") by John Baltisberger

Cocksucker by Lucas Milliron

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Cocksucker is a joyride through the swamps of Florida. Lucas Milliron paints a not-so-pretty picture of an Everglades populated by incestuous hillbillies, cryptids, and wild pigs…essentially what anyone outside of Florida expects to find in Florida.
We first meet Clive as he and his sister, Abigail, are enjoying each other’s company in a way most of us hope our children never will. The true miracle of this book is that the hillbilly family, and Clive in particular, ultimately come across as sympathetic by the end of this tale. Not many books featuring inbred families manage to make those same people the heroes of the story, and yet that’s precisely what the reader will find within these pages. Sure, they’re disgusting people in essentially every way one might imagine, but they’re also quirky, funny, and–most importantly–human.
When the henhouse is destroyed and the chickens are slaughtered and exsanguinated, Clive is forced to accompany his father on a hunt for the chupacabra-like creature responsible. Instead, Clive makes his first real friend, and that is only the beginning of this strange adventure.
In the meantime, a suddenly tense vacation for a group traveling from Florida back home to California leads them on a collision course with the inhuman residents of the swamp where Clive and his family live, and it’s safe to assume none of them will be the same again, assuming that they survive.
If you only read one book containing graphic depictions of men being raped by a skunk ape, Cocksucker should be that book.
Are there other books with that subject matter?
I don’t know.
Frankly, I don’t care. This is the only one you ever need to read.

You can also obtain a copy of Cocksucker for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app on your mobile devices. The link is below:

Cocksucker by Lucas Milliron

The Woods Are Dark by Richard Laymon, Narrated by Bob Dunsworth

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It’s been a long time since I first read The Woods Are Dark. I was a teenager at the time. This version of the story is vastly different from the one I remember, but that’s probably because this is a different version of the narrative from the version I’d been exposed to back then.
Forty years after it was published, it doesn’t hold up as well as some of Laymon’s other material, but it was still fun to listen to the audiobook edition and reacquaint myself with the story.
Two groups of people stumble across the hideous secrets hidden away in the forests near the seemingly quaint town of Barlow, and their lives will never be the same again if they manage to escape.
Neala and Sherri stop at the diner after a harrowing experience on the road, only to find the patrons are planning to serve up something off the menu.
Lander, Ruth, their daughter, Cordelia, and her boyfriend, Ben, stop for the night at what they anticipate will be a peaceful set of cabins, but they soon discover they’ll never have a peaceful night of sleep again.
Facing off against the murderous, inbred, cannibal Krulls, the two groups of victims and an unlikely ally find themselves in a life or death struggle in the woods. But the Krulls aren’t the only things lurking in the darkness, as there’s something even the monsters fear out there.
None of this is pleasant or fun.
This is not that kind of story, and Laymon was not that kind of author. This short tale contains graphic depictions of violence of all kinds, cannibalism, dismemberment, murder, rape, and pretty much every awful thing a reader might expect to find.
Lander’s story is particularly awful and disturbing, showcasing an educated, well-read man descending into madness and depravity in no time at all. The trauma of the experience, the loss of loved ones, and the constant state of terror hardly seem sufficient to explain how one transforms from man to beast in such record time. This descent isn’t something unfamiliar to those who’ve read more of the author’s material. Laymon–as in much of his work–wanted to hint, not too subtly, that our pretense of civilization is more tenuous than we often fool ourselves into believing it to be. So, while it may be unrealistic and a bit absurd, it’s important to note that this is fiction, and Lander’s transformation is meant to be an extreme example, a caricature in a sense, of how primitive and bestial we are just beneath the surface.
There’s a brief, passing reference in the narrative to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (the basis for Apocalypse Now), and there are some intentional similarities to be found in The Woods Are Dark. Laymon knew exactly what he was doing when he crafted this story.
The narration of the audiobook, performed by Bob Dunsworth, was not the best I’ve heard. Dunsworth has the voice of a radio DJ, with clear, articulate, annunciation, but there’s little more that I can say about him. He managed to make the characters distinct enough that nothing got confused or jumbled along the way, but his delivery was lacking in several ways.

Killstreme by Rayne Havok

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We first meet Fiona, a single mother doing what she can to provide for her daughter. As the story unfolds, we learn just how far she’ll go to do precisely that, and to make the world just a little bit safer for her child.
Wesley is a depraved piece of work. Killstreme introduces us to a man who can’t get off without viewing snuff pornography–or what he believes to be snuff, since there’s some positively hyperreal productions out there. His wife has been neglected as he’s lost all interest in her, instead focusing all of his attention on the dark web where he spends far too much time and money.
When he receives a questionnaire from a contact online, he’s thrilled to discover he might be able to take his obsession to the next level. Wesley has an opportunity to star in his own snuff film.
Will he have his dreams fulfilled or will Wesley discover that some offers are far too good to be true?
Rayne Havok handily subverts the misogyny that goes hand-in-hand with the sort of people who want to see women hurt and murdered. In the end, even as a man, I can’t pretend there was a single aspect of this story that wasn’t deeply satisfying.
The graphic sexual violence is something one should expect when reading anything by Rayne Havok, but this is particularly extreme and so well described as to almost feel real. I’m sure this story won’t be for everyone, but it most certainly is for me.

You can obtain this terrific little tale by going to http://www.godless.com or by using the Godless app on your favorite mobile device. Unfortunately, Amazon has determined this title should be banned twice now. The link is below:

Killstreme by Rayne Havok

The Cosmic Anomaly by Henk Wester

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It begins in 2005, with the unforeseen devastation of a college student’s head in the back of a Japanese classroom. Split down the center, with a sudden burst of blood and gore, the other students don’t have a chance to react before tentacles begin emerging from the space now present between the two halves of the boy’s head. This horrific experience is the first of the anomalies on record.
With that graphic, visually potent scene, Henk Wester drags the reader into his unfolding novella, The Cosmic Anomaly. If you don’t consider that a tantalizing first glimpse of the world he’s preparing to show us, I don’t know what else you’d be looking for.
Wester provides the reader with a brief overview of the succeeding years, as anomalies become increasingly common, ranging from the simply peculiar to the utterly horrific before introducing us to Anton, Irma, Bernie, and the other Splenmalies creators. A South African YouTube channel focused on exploration and exploitation of anomalies, the Splendmalies crew exclusively provides their massive viewership with fraudulent cases, banking on the–largely American and European–subscribers knowing little to nothing about what’s going on in Africa. That is until Bernie decides they need to go big or go home. By venturing into De Aar, a town abandoned by the residents who managed to survive the high rate and destructive level of anomalous activity there, Bernie sees nothing but dollar signs and fame in their futures.
As the story races toward its gripping conclusion, Wester displays great imagination and dedication to bringing the conditions in De Aar to surreal, terrible life. Hellraiser meets Silent Hill is perhaps the best way I can conceive of describing what the reader is in for, and that only provides the bare minimum of preparation.
As Henk Wester introduces us to his native South Africa in a form that, thankfully, should never exist, we realize just how much smaller the world has gotten over recent decades. College students and young adults are the same worldwide, or so it would seem–that is to say, stupid and short-sighted.

This title will be available through Godless on September 30th, before presumably becoming available through other channels a short while thereafter. You can obtain a copy for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app on your smart phone, tablet, or eReader of choice. The link for this title is below:

The Cosmic Anomaly by Henk Wester – SEPTEMBER 30th

Trench Mouth by Christine Morgan

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Trench Mouth begins with a series of vignettes.
It begins with human intrusion into the ocean depths upsetting a balance that existed in an alien world on our own planet, drawing a cruel and vicious attention to our existence–our delicious flavor–and ultimately to the surface waters where unsuspecting prey is in abundance.
It begins with eight people who have nothing left to lose signing up for a chance to become something more, something new, something better than they are. In the dark depths of the ocean, where Fathom-5 illuminates a tiny patch of ocean floor just beyond a seemingly bottomless trench that carves down into the crust of the Earth, experiments are being conducted.
Will Dr. Yale and her colleagues advance the next stage of human evolution, preparing us to venture into a massive new realm largely off limits until now? Will monsters, both man-made and ancient, tear everything apart before we even have a chance to find out for ourselves?
We know how it begins. I guess you’ll have to read past the beginning to discover how it ends for yourself.
It’s appropriate to talk about how it all begins, because Trench Mouth feels like a beginning, the origin story of some larger tale that might unfold over years to come. I, for one, would gladly join Christine Morgan in the depths again if she chooses to tell us more of this world she’s created.
Reminiscent of my favorite underwater science fiction/horror novel, Starfish by Peter Watts (the beginning of his Rifters series), Morgan has done something fantastic with Trench Mouth in telling a story that stands up next to a novel written by a man with a Ph.D and a long history of working as a marine biologist. Nothing feels out of place or poorly researched within these pages, and it makes the whole experience feel that much more immersive.
Perhaps my favorite element is the Morgan makes the denizens of the deep feel like fleshed out characters in and of themselves, by sharing perspectives that are at once alien and strangely familiar.

You can obtain this book for yourself wherever books are sold. I will include a couple of links below:

Trenchmouth by Christine Morgan