This one was available for free on amazon, and as a sucker for extreme horror I decided I would see how a magazine entirely based around the subject would turn out. I didn't figure it'd be as disgusting as Genital Grinder, and as I'd read some Edward Lee in the past I'm ok with most anything else. So here goes nothing.
Breaking Point - Astro Klutz
This is probably one of the more enjoyable experiences with this kind of literature I've ever had. Its short and to the point, and in the end manages to make you happy despite the horrific turn of events. Sometimes there are really annoying people and sometimes you feel like taking out all your anger on them. I really commend Astro Klutz on making such a taboo subject into a story where you were rooting for the outcome the whole time. Easily 4.5/5 especially considering how short it was and how little room there was to add in a whole lot of information, I got everything I had to in the short period of reading it.
My Name is Dave and I am Dead - Matt Demers (The editor)
Not really a gory story, but the editor did mention that fact in the introduction and as such I really wasn't too disappointed to find it. As the title informs, its about a guy who is dead but still has the capability of speech, hence the telling you he's dead. I enjoyed the interesting take on being a dead guy in the kind of world we live in. Honestly it really hit a chord with me because I've felt kind of like the dead guy did even while I'm still being alive. It had a pretty nice ending as long as the reader has empathy with the dead guy and honestly I found it pleasant and enjoyable. 4/5
Craigslist Cannibal - Matt Demers (yet again =P)
An interesting story of how the ability to communicate with people all over the world so easily has changed a lot in the way things work. Now you really can find someone wanting to do anything within a couple days. I had been familiar with a real story somewhat similar to this one before reading it and was not disappointed. I must say that it really wasn't that gory, but in a sense that almost made the story better because it had a lot more of the mental side of the situation. I would definitely recommend this to basically anyone who's interested in weirder parts of the human psyche. The ending brings the main arc of the story full circle and gives it a satisfying ending as well. 4/5
Designer Dentata - Sean Avery
This was kind of a disappointment to be quite frank. The characters were flighty and tacky and uninteresting except for the doctor, and the gore wasn't compelling enough to save it by that merit alone. I suppose part of this came from the fact that the subject matter lent the characters to being unlikable, but they were just caricatures in the worst way. I will give it 3/5 though because the main character had an interesting perspective in everything, and the ending made it definitely better as you start to realize that there is something else going on as well.
Saw Erotica - Luke Lafferty
Kind of worried when starting this because it becomes clear that this is something that mainstream media does not want people to be able to read. Then of course I realized that that wasn't really a deterrent cause it'd have to try awful hard to go too far for me. So it was off to the reading.
Ok that was a slightly unexpected story for such a name. It really wasn't too disgusting or anything, and just entirely talking about the sexual side of things. There were some kind of bizarre ritualistic mentions that weren't explained too well so the reader was left to wonder what caused the perpetrator to do what he was doing. I guess I didn't really take too much out of this, once day one was over the rest of them seemed fairly formulaic. It did have an ending with a bit of a twist which made it significantly better because when you're reading a short story that is where you can make the most impact. I still give it a 3/5 because of the previous downfalls. I'd be interested in whether someone who was unaccustomed to such stories would react however.
Overall 3.7/5 and recommended to anyone who was possibly interested in pursuing extreme horror but not really ready to jump in head first. The last story was the only one I could see being really disturbing to anybody.
No comments:
Post a Comment