Lenni Reviews – Challenge Edition: “100% Match” by Patrick C. Harrison III

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*This book is intended for mature readers only.

At 30 years old, Bart is looking for his perfect woman, a match for him in every way, and is obsessed with the statistics around what women want. But with a dead-end job, rotund bod,y and suspect habits, how would he find such a woman?

The horror comes from Bart’s proclivity for contaminating customers’ food at his fast food job and murder. My first complaint is the physical book:

This story was originally part of an anthology, and as you can see in comparison to my hand, it’s really small. I am shocked I was able to get this, as in my professional librarian’s opinion, books like this are a shelving nightmare. I expect them to vanish either by being stolen or lost among the regular-sized materials.  What does this have to do with the content? Nothing, I walk about what I want. Deal with it. If the author wanted this as a physical copy on its own, I don’t see any better way of doing it other than a pamphlet or holding on to it until you write a bunch of other stories to pad things out to a regular-ish sized book. This is a very mild complaint, and I don’t hold it against the story itself.

Reading this gave me the same sort of feeling I had when I watched August Underground, only this was significantly less boring. The same casual tone used when speaking of his normal actions, Bart uses with the obscene acts he commits. It’s not poorly written, and the twist ending gave me a chuckle, but overall, this was just an okay read. 2.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews Challenge Edition: “Woom” by Duncan Ralston

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Determined to end the pain of all his accumulated trauma, Angel rents Room 6 of the Lonely Motel and enlists the services of a plus-sized prostitute named Shyla.

This book uses Angel and Shyla’s “date” as the wrap-around to a bunch of other stories having to do with the motel and Room 6. Each story is leading up to Angel’s ultimate plans for Shyla, which I will not spoil, but there’s a reason why her being plus-sized is important. I’m not gonna lie, I expected SOOOO much worse. After “Cows” and “Playground” this was a cake walk. In fact, it was almost tragically beautiful because it’s all about Angel dealing with his pain and rage. And I will spoil a tiny bit where I don’t think Angel’s penultimate plan is… Biologically possible? I wasn’t about to Google that. I’m probably on several watch lists already. I appreciate not having graphic descriptions of rancid female private parts but it is graphic; detailed descriptions of shit, vomit, and gore. No spoilers, but I was not expecting the outcome of the prom date gone wrong. It also read fast and in the end, I just felt bad for Angel. I finished it in an afternoon. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Dark Gathering” Vol. 9, by Kenichi Kondō

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Yayoi and her friends are trapped at school by a dangerous spirit forcing them to play a deadly game of dream tag and Yayoi has only one spirit of her own to fight back with. After overcoming this challenge, Yayoi prepares to face the god that has laid claim to Ai.

Dorothy is awful. Just, horrid and I can’t wait for her to get far, far away from everyone in the cast. Other than that, Yayoi’s plan is wild but it kinda disappointed me that this volume felt like another round of fetch quests before we get to fighting this god. I liked it before because it was gathering these powerful spirits to face the god and each one was unique and terrifying. This time it felt more like padding to me. The spirit designs are still creepy and they’re a menace so it’s not all bad. 3.7 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Stitches” by Hirokatsu Kihara & Junji Ito

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

This is a horror anthology but is not like what I would typically gravitate to as a work featuring Junji Ito. It’s not a full on graphic novel. It’s a short story collection with illustrations from Ito in the same vein as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with a complete comic at the end as a bonus. The stories aren’t bad but the illustrations do NOT take advantage of how horrifying Ito’s art can be, which is shocking. How do you have Ito collaborate on a project and have him draw more than a puppet on the ground or a pretty girl dancing? The stories are decent, they give the sense of unease and do their job but holy crap was attaching Ito’s name to this a let down… 2 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “A Naked Kiss from a Broken Doll: A Giallo” by Peter Marra

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

*This review is cross-posted to Otakus and Geeks.

In the style of Giallo (Italian crime thrillers), we follow Criselda, a sadistic killer as she rips and tears her way through victim after victim eventually encountering a likeminded woman, Cenci. This book follows them as they sink into a life of blood-soaked, lust-filled tales.

This book reminds me very much of Lucio Fulci movies. Visceral, gory, erotic, highly detailed, and graphic, this book will take you on a ride. The way it’s written, it’s almost as if you are in Criselda’s head, trippy, warped, and a bit confusing at times. And while it doesn’t hold back on the gore, there’s a poetry to it. It sure isn’t for the faint of heart but I enjoyed reading it. 3.9 out of 5.

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