Title: No One Rides For FreeAuthor: Judith Sonnet
First Published: September 7, 2022
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 75
Genre: Extreme Horror, Horror, Short Stories
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
Jodi was driving her children to college when The Man got in their car.
Uninvited, unwanted, and unhinged...
The Man has no name, but he does have a gun... a knife... and a bag of "toys".
What starts as a forced ride into the desert escalates into a disturbing series of crimes and assaults.
Jodi and her children will soon pray for death.
Review
I had such mixed feelings toward this novella, and it bummed me out. The first five chapters were honestly a RUSH, that first scene where Jodi gets back in the car chilled me to the bone. Home invasion and abduction stories are some of the scariest to me and I was absolutely loving Sonnet’s narrative flair.
Then I hit the warning at the start of chapter six, which surprised me, but it’s an understandable inclusion for extreme horror and I appreciated the warning. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for the other half of this book. Not because I was offended or bothered by the content, though it delivered on the gratuitous violence and grossness that was promised. I was surprised to find myself bored, like I was reading page after page after page of stuff happening but nothing was happening at all and it became a slog to read. Jodi is left alone for most of the book and just sits there ho-hum waiting for everything to blow over even after the man’s intentions are made clear, there was no fight in these characters. I was glad that there was some payoff in the end, the title delivery was fantastic, I think if there was just a little more struggle it might’ve gone better with me.
There was an afterword by the author where she provided some personal context to the book and the heavy influence of 70s Grindhouse exploitation films. I appreciated this inclusion for adding an extra layer of understanding. I do want to check out more of Sonnet’s work. It’s clear from the start of the book that she can write a terrifying scenario, this one was just a hard miss for me.
Quote
“No one rides for free.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Judith Sonnet
Judith Sonnet (she/her) is a horror and splatter author from Missouri, although she currently resides in Utah… where she spends every day reading, writing, watching Italian horror movies, and listening to loud music. She’s a trans woman, an abuse survivor, and is thankful to be involved in the horror community. Noteworthy publications include No One Rides For Free, The Clown Hunt, Something Akin to Revulsion, and Summer Never Ends, all of which are available on Amazon. TOXIC is her Godless debut.
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