horror

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Lenni Reviews: “Fool Night” Vol. 4, by Kasumi Yasuda

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

As Hourai is recovering from Ivy’s attack, Toshiro is looking into the murderous plant’s origins; which leads him to Pauper Town. This area is so poverty-stricken, they hold an event called The Parade where someone is sacrificed to get bare minimum resources to the area.

I’d already thought the wealth disparity contributing to “voluntary” transflorations was bad but (spoilers for more exploitation) cultivating transflorated children for furniture is just fucking sick. This volume is mostly tracking down Ivy’s origins so they can show the transfloration company doesn’t make killer plants on purpose. It’s all really sad and empty to think they only want to stop Ivy because the company needs to save face. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews – Challenge Edition: “Cows” by Matthew Stokoe

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*Trigger warnings for gore, sexual assault (of people and animals), and fecal eating, animal death, child death.

25-year-old Steve lives in poverty with his mother, who he affectionately calls The Hagbeast, and his dog named Dog. With dreams of a life like the shows he sees on TV, he starts a new job at a slaughterhouse where he quickly discovers it’s no ordinary place to work.

What is with these “extreme” books and poop-eating? And describing lady parts as smelling like fish? Is it a trope to just go for the easiest gross-out content (I can’t really say “humor” because it’s not funny) because I think the gore and animal fucking were plenty to accomplish that. There are obvious themes about the cycle of abuse and institutionalized abuse because I got the feeling in the slaughterhouse scenes that it was expected to do such out of pocket things to your coworkers and the cows while on the job. It’s normal to the men in the slaughterhouse to drill holes into a living cow and use it as a disgusting Flesh Light but Steve has to be initiated; taught that this is a normal thing.  Also, ew. Overall, this is not about Steve triumphing over this cycle. It’s a gross book with a depressing ending that didn’t even give me the feeling of horrid beauty that Tender is the Flesh did. Is it silly to expect more than just over-the-top gross stuff and have more meat (no pun intended) to these types of books? 2 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews Challenge Edition: “Playground” by Aron Beauregard

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*This book contains VERY adult themes. It is not for children or the faint of heart.

Geraldine Borden offers the chance of a lifetime for three low-income families to test out her state-of-the-art playground equipment in exchange for a substantial payout. Little do the parents know that these new devices are deadly, putting their children in grave danger.

Trigger warning for… Everything.

You ready? Yeah, no you’re not.

Okay… I had to sit on this review for a while to ponder where I am considering this book. I was prepared for the gore and the dead children. The plot and cover give those away. Yes, being a parent did have me getting angrier than perhaps a non-parent would be (especially since some of these parents fucking suck). However, I was NOT prepared for the disgusting sexual content (rape, incest, uncleanliness) and shit eating. To say Geraldine is disgusting is an offensive understatement. Brace yourself cause I’m gonna spoil this so, skip the rest of this paragraph if you want to avoid it… Not only did Geraldine harbor incestuous feelings for her own mother (who seemed to be a perfectly normal person), she acts on these desires by masturbating with her mother’s feces and is responsible for her mother’s death because when her mother was on her death bed, Geraldine sat on her face and rode it until her mother smothered to death. The book also goes into great detail about how Geraldine does not believe in properly cleaning her privates or her sex toys and that it’s so disgusting; Rock (her unfortunate adopted son – an adult at the time of this book) is so disgusted by what he is force to do to her, he uses his own bile as lubricant. I gotta give it to the writing because I had to hold back from gagging and desperately needed to take a shower.

Ya’ll still with me? Need a breather? I did when I read this. Geraldine is hypersexual and later on in the book when her attention is on the children, I actually prayed to go away from any further sexual scenes with her and back to the child murder. She has a Nazi scientist, Fuchs, as her assistant and I kinda found that to be cliche. That’s a common trope in horror: death/torture machines made by a Nazi to bring to mind the actual atrocities committed. It makes sense in that of course Geraldine would have a Nazi in her back pocket but still.

The descriptions of what physically happens to the children are properly harrowing. It gives a very Squid Game vibe with how the group either stays together, falls apart, or brings the best/worst out in each other. The kid’s personalities are so well done! You get to know them and they – as well as their parents – all are written well enough that I was very much invested. So, after all that, all the horrid blood gore and wishing I could bleach not only Geraldine’s physical descriptions out of my head but powerwash her body as well, this book as the fucking gall to end on this tragically beautiful note. Or perhaps it rewards me after putting me through that rank ass snatch. So, where do I stand with this? I mean, I got what I came for: extreme literature. I can’t give the book a low rating for that, especially if it’s written well enough that it makes me react so vicerally. I was rooting for the kids, I got attached to them and the parents that weren’t awful, and again, that ending…

I am going to give this a biased 2.3 out of 5 because how dare this book make my bisexual ass hate vagina by being so disgusting, I’d rather read about children being mauled.

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Lenni Reviews: “After God” Vol. 3, by Sumi Eno

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

Just as Waka learns what god is inside her (Alura), things change when a mission ends in the deaths of several Institute members. In the chaos, a traitor is revealed.

This is a very twisty volume and by that I mean it has a bunch of twists in it. Not to spoil anything but there’s a lot of “this guy is really working for THIS guy” and “this guy is disguised as THIS guy” or this guy is dead, NOPE he’s not!” It’s not bad; it feels fast-paced and dripping with dramatic intrigue. If you’ve been waiting for a bunch of lore about Waka and Alura, that takes a back seat for a bit but it’s still action-packed. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews – Challenge Edition: “Tender Is the Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica & Sarah Moses (Translator)

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If you’ve been on my blog for awhile, I do movie reviews on occasion and have a side thing of “Challenge Edition” where I watch extreme movies. Now that I know extreme books are a thing you know I have to do that, too.

This book is a dystopian world where a virus has rendered all animal meat inedible. A worldwide campaign is launched to acclimate everyone to accept eating humans instead; classifying them as “head” that as strictly regulated. Marcos runs a slaughterhouse and in addition to his wife leaving him and his elderly father losing his battle with dementia in a nursing home, he struggles with the realities of what he does for a living.

I totally get the allegory; treading a certain class like cattle, the mental gymnastics to justify this, the tole it takes on people to eat people, Marcos desperately trying to hold on to his sanity in a world where humans are just buying time before they end up on a plate, cruelty is normalized, and everything is permeated with an undercurrent of fear. The writing is great and that ending? Woof… But my suspension of disbelief was tested. Because I’m a writer, librarian, and general nerd; I know the little factoid that cannibalism in humans causes diseases and is not a viable replacement for traditional meat. I had to keep pushing that aside and plow on but it was worth it. It’s depressing because, not too spoilery but damnit Marcos:

This book is good, I loved the prose. And the graphic descriptions of the slaughter of humans for consumption will turn your stomach if you’re sensitive. But if you’re in the mood, this is a great book. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Face Meat” by Bonten Taro & Ryan Holmberg

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

This book is an anthology of horror stories that give a very pulp magazine, “Tales from the Crypt” vibe. While the stories are short, they pack a punch. Some of the art is colorized and some is black and white but there is plenty of blood and gore typical of the genre. There is a bit of nudity thrown in there but it’s not overdone. It’s fits the exploitation sort of feeling these usually give off. There’s ghosts, yokai, and all sorts of supernatural creatures told in a rapid fire fashion so for me, this read really fast. If you’re in to pulp fiction, this is an awesome collection and totally worth the read. 4.9 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “My Name Is Shingo: The Perfect Edition” Vol. 4, by Kazuo Umezz

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

“Marilyn” has now renamed itself to “Shingo” and thinks of Satoru and Marin as it’s parents. Shingo struggles to make connections to humans and flees from the scientists who are hunting it down.

Shingo has quite the body count at this point so… I’m on the scientist’s side. This isn’t like Johnny 5 or Wall-E or anything cute and decent. This thing is a menace and I do hope they catch it and shut it down. At first, you sympathize with it wanting to live but now? Nah, just junk that thing. I don’t want it to be free. It’s killed children. Not to say this is a bad story just if it’s trying to make me feel for Shingo, it fails. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Choujin X” Vol. 8, by Sui Ishida

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

As the investigation of The Market continues, Palma Shishinegura (a choujin who can reanimate corpses) is captured by the Yamato Mori. Azuma and Tokio had very different feelings about being in the group and how their friendship will be affected by it.

This volume is kinda doofy. Not in a bad way but a lot of the throwaway bad guys are not to be taken seriously at all. While some plot does happen, this feels a little silly when they’re supposed be doing this important investigation so I got a bit of a feeling that this was filler. I do like that we may get more of Palma. Her powers are very cool and unique for what is essentially a necromancer. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Call of the Night” Vol. 18, by Kotoyama

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

Now that things have calmed down, Ko and Nazuna try to have time together but first they have to solve the problem of Nazuna’s destroyed apartment building. As she looks for a new place to live, Ko resumes going to school, meaning less time to roam about at night.

With all the stuff going on with Kiku, I forgot that if Nazuna has feelings for Ko and turns him, Nazuna could die. Since she was born a vampire that may not happen but the Kiku drama ended, I can see why Nazuna would be having second thoughts. And even though it cuts in to his time with Nazuna, it’s nice to see Ko hang out with other people. He’s always seemed so isolated and even though he still wants to become a vampire, it’s good he has people around him who aren’t vampires. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Dark Gathering” Vol. 11, by Kenichi Kondō

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

Keitaro is infected with a fungal curse and Yayoi must find the source before it kills him.

By the end of this, three of the needed power spots have been claimed but we get some interesting side visitors that gives more lore to chew on. With all this ‘kill a god’ stuff going on, Keitaro’s cursed hand got pushed to the back burner in my brain so to have that brought back into play was very interesting and again, very awesome creature designs. The old lady with the baby dolls is fucking awful in the best way. She’s just terrible to have to look at. It feels like there’s more forward momentum in the overall plot, which I like. I’m dying to know what’s going on. 4 out of 5.

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