Review: Oh for gore's sake!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2014
This review courtesy of horrornovelreviews(dot)comThe Country Club is an old place, though no one knows quite how old.  It houses the rich, the powerful, the political, and also greater secrets than anyone would imagine.  It's here at the Country Club that for a price, you can do what you want to anyone you want, and walk away with your most primal instincts fulfilled.Torture, rape, death, anything, and I mean anything goes.The Country Club is so secretive, that nobody is even sure that it really exists, almost like an urban legend.  One person, Crystal, a blogger, believes that it exists, gathers her friends Joel and Sophia, and what happens from there is one disgustingly terrifying trip.Now, you may be reading this and think to yourself, this sounds a lot like the movie Hostel, and you'd be right on.  The premise of the club is EXACTLY like Hostel, which is not lost on the author as he makes mention of that in his book.The gore is also there, and in droves.If you have even the slightest bit of a weak stomach, stay far away from this.I'm going to mention this scene here in the review because I think this will either make or break your decision.  There is a scene where one of the people cuts out a baby from a pregnant woman and then cooks the infant and feeds it to her.  I myself almost stopped reading as I thought that was there only to make you squirm and didn't really add anything to the book.The violence is well written and it's incredibly sadistic, you have to be a special kind of someone to write something like this I would think.  Although, if you see this book online, and you read the description, you pretty much know what you're going to be getting into.There were a couple things that didn't sit well with me however.  The first thing is that the blogger, Crystal, and her friends Joel and Sophia had some of the most unrealistic dialogue I've ever seen.  It felt very forced and very un-organic.  Second, the actions of these characters towards the end do not match how they are in the beginning.  Without trying to give everything away, with the exception of Joel (his actions make sense based on his character), they really become no better than the members of the club.The Bottom Line:  If you can suspend your disbelief about the ending, then you will have a disgustingly wicked read on your hands.  If you've ever really wanted to see what could possibly go on behind the scenes of the place in Hostel, this book could give you that insight.  It's fairly thoughtful in how the place operates, and of course the gore, oh the gore!  Keep a bucket near you.If the main trio of characters were written better, I could probably push this to 4 stars.  I thought those were lacking in big ways, so I'm giving this a 3 star read.  Not terrible, not great, right there in the mediocre slot.