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lokkebrenna's review
1.0
Genuinely boring and worthy of eye-rolling. It reads like a 13 year old boy who plays too much Call of Duty and loves gore a little too much. Absolutely zero interesting plot points, just a bunch of macho idiot characters who get off on violence.
trudilibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
SWEET UNHOLY JEBUS!!!!
I'm a self-identified horror addict and veteran of the genre. It takes A LOT to rattle my cage. This book? It is an unholy abomination - a dark, seething morass of gore and human depravity. It is not a fun read. But if you are so minded, it is a keenly compelling and profoundly disturbing one.
And now a word about this book's parentage. What unhinged mind gave birth to such a darkling monster?
There's this Canadian author [a:Craig Davidson|49903|Craig Davidson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1300783703p2/49903.jpg]. You may have heard of him. He is a wonderful literary writer who has been nominated for prestigious awards, and one of his short stories has even been adapted into a critically acclaimed film. But Davidson has a dark side you see -- an alter ego that hijacks his more literary proclivities and pushes his writing into macabre and horrific territory.
Meet [a:Nick Cutter|6984661|Nick Cutter|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1373913431p2/6984661.jpg], one of the most exciting things to happen to horror in the last decade. And he's CANADIAN. So just when you think we're all nice and polite and spend our days drinking Tim Horton's coffee and playing hockey, think again.
About being Richard Bachman (Stephen King's too short-lived alter ego) King quotes the late Donald Westlake referring to his very own alter ego Richard Stark: "I write Westlake stories on sunny days. When it rains. I'm Stark." For Davidson, I like to imagine the same rule applies. Sunny days he writes as Craig -- when it rains, Cutter takes over the writing room and anything goes. Anything.
But here's the twist (are you still with me?): before there was Cutter, there was this guy Patrick Lestewka -- and let's be clear here -- he makes Nick Cutter look like Mister Rogers. In fact, I think when Davidson realized he had this sub-id consciousness living inside of him -- this psycho "other" -- it scared the living shit out of him so much that he created Nick Cutter TO KILL Lestewka in an act of self-preservation. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't? It doesn't bear pondering.
Lestewka had to die. Unlike the late, gone too soon Bachman, we will NOT mourn his passing. Instead we will breathe a sigh of relief, for it is a terrible, grotesque landscape in which he maneuvered, where he beckons us to come play, where the light never shines, where all hope is gone, and cruelty is the only currency.
Back in 2014, I shared a Q&A with Nick Cutter on my blog. I didn't know about Lestewka then, and now really wish I had because I would have loved to have gotten Cutter's take on the guy -- maybe even a confession of murder of the pseudonym! Ah well, there's always next time.
grayh722's review against another edition
It’s not a bad book, just too creepy for me!
lenastormborn's review
3.0
Horrific
Please don’t read if you have triggers. This book is brutal. The story line was okay. A prison for the worst offenders. No rules, just chaos. As you can imagine, horrible things happen. The ending was a bit ridiculous and I don’t think it followed with the rest of the story.
Very graphic and brutal.
Please don’t read if you have triggers. This book is brutal. The story line was okay. A prison for the worst offenders. No rules, just chaos. As you can imagine, horrible things happen. The ending was a bit ridiculous and I don’t think it followed with the rest of the story.
Very graphic and brutal.
bakerreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Gore, Murder, Mental illness, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Sexual content
jeanne25's review against another edition
2.0
Craig Davidson is a Canadian author who has published work under both his own name and the pen names Patrick Lestewka and Nick Cutter. I recently read The Troop (Cutter) and loved it. I saw a glowing review on this story and was immediately interested. It automatically sparked thoughts of The Running Man and Escape From New York. The author, as expected, writes extremely well. There is a lot of graphic violence but one should expect as much from a story based on an extreme prison without rules. While quite visual, I didn't find it disturbing.
I cannot criticize Lestewka's writing. He is quite descriptive and creates very vivid images. I liked the background on the select criminals and how the prison came into existence. The prose was precise and powerful in few words. I really love that. So here are my three problems...…
1) While there were a lot of graphic scenes, there was not enough actual story. Yes there was some background story which was written well. Once the prisoners are thrown in the Coliseum there really wasn't anything but fight scenes. That was unsatisfying for me. Here is a good author - give me some substance.
2) In most movies and books with this theme there is at least one character the reader roots for. We wanted Ben Richards to survive and get medicine for his ill daughter. We wanted Snake to succeed and get his presidential pardon. In The Coliseum there is no one to pin your hopes on. Every criminal there deserves to die. With the exception of one (maybe), each deserves to die in a brutal manner such as they killed. There is not one good guy, a victim of circumstance or prejudice. Without a character to cheer for, the reader is simply reading graphic violence for the sake of it.
3) The ending. This "twist". I detested it. I hated the ending of one of my favorite books, IT. If you have read IT then you know what I am talking about. I backed up to read it a second time to see if I missed something. I didn't. I probably would have given the story three stars (story offset by the evident talent) if not for the ending.
This is a very short story, easy to breeze through in a couple of hours. For that reason, I am loathe to mention any specifics about it. What I can say is that the first thing I did when I got up this morning was to return the e-book to Amazon for credit. I have some Davidson on my bookshelves and Cutter's Little Heaven in my e-reader that I look forward to reading. I won't be reading anything else under Lestewka probably.
I cannot criticize Lestewka's writing. He is quite descriptive and creates very vivid images. I liked the background on the select criminals and how the prison came into existence. The prose was precise and powerful in few words. I really love that. So here are my three problems...…
1) While there were a lot of graphic scenes, there was not enough actual story. Yes there was some background story which was written well. Once the prisoners are thrown in the Coliseum there really wasn't anything but fight scenes. That was unsatisfying for me. Here is a good author - give me some substance.
2) In most movies and books with this theme there is at least one character the reader roots for. We wanted Ben Richards to survive and get medicine for his ill daughter. We wanted Snake to succeed and get his presidential pardon. In The Coliseum there is no one to pin your hopes on. Every criminal there deserves to die. With the exception of one (maybe), each deserves to die in a brutal manner such as they killed. There is not one good guy, a victim of circumstance or prejudice. Without a character to cheer for, the reader is simply reading graphic violence for the sake of it.
3) The ending. This "twist". I detested it. I hated the ending of one of my favorite books, IT. If you have read IT then you know what I am talking about. I backed up to read it a second time to see if I missed something. I didn't. I probably would have given the story three stars (story offset by the evident talent) if not for the ending.
This is a very short story, easy to breeze through in a couple of hours. For that reason, I am loathe to mention any specifics about it. What I can say is that the first thing I did when I got up this morning was to return the e-book to Amazon for credit. I have some Davidson on my bookshelves and Cutter's Little Heaven in my e-reader that I look forward to reading. I won't be reading anything else under Lestewka probably.
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