Review : WIND-UP TOY AND OTHER STORIES by David Owain Hughes

March 19 2023

Smutty and steamy romp in BDSM, rife with violence and perversion. Extreme. Definitely not for under-18 or Sensitive Souls.

Season to taste.

Review: TELL ME I’M WORTHLESS by Alison Rumfitt

Immediately I was lost in this book. I lost notice of the passage of time, of what passed around me. Did I like it? I don't know. Did I enjoy it? Was I entertained? No, but I was compelled to read, racing through the pages, striving to understand, to relate, to empathize . Despite the politicalization, the extreme horror, the splatterpunk, the not-really-familiar setting of post-Brexit Britain and the anti-immigration sentiment prevalent among certain segments of British sociology, I could not stop. I doubt I will soon stop pondering either. My only complaint was that, as with a popular novel I read a few days ago, I found TELL ME I'M WORTHLESS just a little too long (specifically the alternative probability of Hannah and Jacob, near the end . I did find the conclusion satisfying and an effective summation of the character arcs. I guess I want to call it gratifying, in the context of the novel. Definitely my horizons have been expanded.

Now as to the House: I've read reviews [after I first read this novel] that thought the House [yes, it's purposely capitalized] was insufficiently done: insufficiently Haunted, perhaps, or not treated intensely or extensively enough. I think that, like the novel itself, there are a polarity of opinions. For myself, I really "liked" the author's treatment of the House [oh did I, though "like" should probably be substituted for by "appreciate "]. Looking back on the novel and my reactions to it, I think now the House was probably "just right."

#TransRightsReadathon March 2023

Review: HOT PINK SATANISM by Damien Casey

A farcical bubblegum splatterpunk-twisty view of the Underworld as you never expected to see it. "Hot Pink" is the appropriate description, as much of Hell is costumed in drag and flowing with rivers of chocolate pudding. Unicorns go wrong, Satan retires, Baphomet goes sparkly.... The authors riff on pop culture, teenage narcissism, and California's faults--specifically San Andreas. Not suggested for committed Christians nor dedicated Lovecraftians.