I was thrilled to get an ARC of Extremely Weird Splatterpunk anthology. I’m a little late getting my review up due to some mental health issues but am happy to say this little collection of stories actually put me in a much better mood during a burn out situation.
For this book, weird horror isn’t weird enough, and the extreme needs to be more the nineteen stories in Extremely Weird Splatter take the “quiet” respectability that characterizes a lot of weird fiction these days and fuses it with the elsewhere typically grounded—but very loud—transgressions of the extreme and splatterpunk. The results are messy, fantastic, and nineteen kinds of bizarre and disturbing.
Join three Lifetime Achievement Award winners from the top of the horror game along with other decorated veteran authors, rising stars, and emerging talents in deep depravity as skin peels, eyeballs pop, innards become outards, and sex involves… twists… you’ll have to see for yourself.
The authors plotting against your wellness are a coalition from different parts of the US and UK as well as from Canada, Costa Rica, India, Ireland, Italy, and Nick Badot, L. Andrew Cooper, JB Corso, Suvajeet Duttagupta, JG Faherty, Angelique Fawns, Tom Johnstone, Leonardo J. Lamanna, Thomas C. Mavroudis, Christine Morgan, Jason Nickey, Monica J. O’Rourke, J. Rohr, C.M. Saunders, Dan Scamell, Steve Rasnic Tem, Vox Villalobos, Maxim Volk, and Etta Wynn.
Get a little turned on as a man mutilates himself in search of ultimate pleasure in Faherty’s “The Fishhook Prophecy.” Learn all about the historical process called “Scaphism,” perhaps the worst thing you can do to a person, in O’Rourke’s “Symmetry.” Take a frightening look at human skin with Steve Rasnic Tem in “Dermis.” Explore whether dismemberment and mutilation can help you get closer to God in Lamanna’s “How to Build a Meat Radio.” Explore liminal space that makes nasty connections between past and present through Nickey’s “Portal.”
Dive in and get Extremely Weird Splatter all over you. Why be normal?
Such a delicious selection of weirdness, violence, and gore. Splatterpunk readers, we are well fed.
I love how it was sectioned off by subgenres – sex, magic, self-splatter, production, and trips. My favorites were sex and magic but all of the sections had excellent stories.
Stellar splatterpunk stories:
The Fishhook Prophecy by Tom Johnstone (Hellraiser Inferno vibes)
MySkin EverFlesh by Dan Scamell (I laughed out loud for this one, so fun – you can watch my TikTok about this one below or click here if the embed doesnt work)
My Love, Like Moss, Envelopes You by Maxim Volk (deliciously sexy and weirdly romantic)
What They Deserve by Christine Morgan (the closest I’ve gotten to a splatterpunk version of The Craft and enjoyed it so much)
Sam the Cat by L. Andrew Cooper (weirded me out, I had a moment where I sat the book down and questioned myself which is what good splatterpunk does imo)
A Parent Sacrifices by J. Rohr (oof the commentary in this one)
How to Build a Meat Radio by Leonardo J Lamanna (the descriptions in this one were chef’s kiss)
The Architect of the Soft Circuit by Etta Wynn (fucking beautifully written. poetic and surreal and visceral)
10/10 a fantastic introduction to the genre for newcomers and a beautiful collection for those of us who have been here too long.
