Review: From "The Horror Fiction Review"
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 1, 2013
Once again, it’s disclosure time … I have a story in this one too. Nastiest, grossest thing I’ve ever written. I asked myself what it’d be like if Edward Lee did a Viking story, and then tried my best to measure up. The resulting tale, “The Defiled,” is in some good company here.Well, by ‘good’ I mean horrific, disgusting, squicky, squirmy, and all-around vile. A scan of the table of contents should give you some warning, which includes titles such as “Violence for Fun and Profit,” “Amputations in the Key of D,” and “The Viscera of Worship.”There’s gun-lust, blood-lust and sex-lust. There’s flesh in art, and art in flesh. There are professional killers, talented hobbyists, murderers, demons, devils and deviants. Wallow in mayhem, body parts, and twisted sex! Visit other realities and realms!My personal top pick for best of show would have to be “Party Guests” by Chad Stroup, in which a big teddybear invites friends over whether they like it or not. It is brilliant and phenomenally written, really great stuff, blew me away!Other particular stand-outs:Ray Garton’s “Housesitting,” exposing some secrets behind normal life; it might make you start giving your neighbors some weird looks.J. Michael Major’s agonizing revenge-porn fantasy, “A Letter to My Ex,” which is horrible and heinous in a dark, dark, all-too-plausible way.This anthology aspires to “reawakening the splatterpunk revolution,” and, in my opinion, it’s certainly up to the task.