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A review by motherhorror
Mass Hysteria by Michael Patrick Hicks
DNF-I got this book free from the author for an honest review
I chuckled when I updated my book progress by clicking "I'm finished". Yes, Goodreads, I'm finished with this book.
So, Michael Hicks reads and reviews a lot of the same books I enjoy reading. I recommend you follow him on Twitter and you become his "friend" or follow his reviews here on GR (especially if you like horror!). This is how I came to read Mass Hysteria. I thought that if he has such great taste in reading material, he might be a decent writer and I was not disappointed. Michael is an excellent writer!
However,
I did not know this going into the book but this is best filed under a horror sub-genre called, Splatterpunk.
"Splatterpunk has been defined as: a literary genre characterised by graphically described scenes of an extremely gory nature." Think these authors: Poppy Z. Brite, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert McCammon and Edward Lee.
Like, TRYING to be as gory as possible, it seems.
In this story, a meteor shower rains down an alien virus that makes all the wildlife on earth go bat shit crazy and start attacking humans and each other. At first, I could hang with it. I'm no prude to gore and graphic descriptions but then, about 25% into the story-around 100 pages, I just couldn't anymore. The gore and inhumanity and just the sick (necrophilia, infanticide, bestiality)
I found myself unable to stomach it any further and no justification could be made. So, I'd like to read something else Hicks has to offer, I just don't think Splatterpunk is appealing to me.
I chuckled when I updated my book progress by clicking "I'm finished". Yes, Goodreads, I'm finished with this book.
So, Michael Hicks reads and reviews a lot of the same books I enjoy reading. I recommend you follow him on Twitter and you become his "friend" or follow his reviews here on GR (especially if you like horror!). This is how I came to read Mass Hysteria. I thought that if he has such great taste in reading material, he might be a decent writer and I was not disappointed. Michael is an excellent writer!
However,
I did not know this going into the book but this is best filed under a horror sub-genre called, Splatterpunk.
"Splatterpunk has been defined as: a literary genre characterised by graphically described scenes of an extremely gory nature." Think these authors: Poppy Z. Brite, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert McCammon and Edward Lee.
Like, TRYING to be as gory as possible, it seems.
In this story, a meteor shower rains down an alien virus that makes all the wildlife on earth go bat shit crazy and start attacking humans and each other. At first, I could hang with it. I'm no prude to gore and graphic descriptions but then, about 25% into the story-around 100 pages, I just couldn't anymore. The gore and inhumanity and just the sick (necrophilia, infanticide, bestiality)
I found myself unable to stomach it any further and no justification could be made. So, I'd like to read something else Hicks has to offer, I just don't think Splatterpunk is appealing to me.