A review by ericarobyn
DOGS by Mike Sullivan

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

DOGS by Mike Sullivan is a brutal and terrifying tale filled with violence, confusion, and some perfectly timed and bone-chilling barking. 

Returning to his parent’s house to attend a funeral for his mother who had recently passed, this man just wants a hot shower and to mentally prepare himself for what’s to come. But just moments after entering the house, his parent’s dog gives him a wicked bite though it’s not satisfied with just a bit of drawn blood.

From there, the story takes off on a terrifying rush for safety as the man realizes that something is very wrong.

With a very short opening that centers around grief, readers are already set on a path of dread from page one. But that dread very quickly pivots into the dread of what is to come as the horror comes barreling at us.

The author does an amazing job with the action scenes here. Not only does each scene have the perfect amount of description to show what’s happening, but the author also touches on what the character is feeling and what they’re thinking! This uncomfortably, but brilliantly, forces the readers into the main character’s shoes each and every time, starting with the scene with the very first bite. 

My Favorite Passages from DOGS –

“Something’s wrong with the dogs.”

Sometimes bad things happened on beautiful days. It made Tom wonder: Was it all simply a game of chance? Or were the gods just twisted motherfuckers?

His head felt like it had been harnessed into one of those pneumatic paint shaker machines at Home Depot for a few hours.

My Final Thoughts on DOGS –

I had SO much fun with this read. It has everything I look for in short and brutal horror novellas; an awesome main character, a bit of grief, a terrifying premise, great description, intense action, and lots and lots of blood.

I’ve been bitten by dogs a couple of times, the most traumatic of them being a bite from a German shepherd (not her fault!) and a little terrier (100% that dog’s fault). Luckily, nothing nearly this bad! But boy did this plot bring up some memories! What an absolutely terrifying premise; the biting is bad enough, but the brain power from these dogs as well… Phew.

If you’re sensitive to stories about dogs, tread very lightly here!

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