Violence on the meek

Title: Violence on the meek
Author: Stuart Bray
First Published: February 11, 2023
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 145
Genre: Extreme Horror, Horror, Splatterpunk
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:


Synopsis:

Paul has hated the world and everyone in it since he was eight years old. As an adult he has decided to write his autobiography, his final words directed at the very existence that he despises. Paul will take you on a path of murder, death, incest, and violence, the likes of which you could never imagine.

Review

Violence on the meek is a brutal story that I think accurately captures the nihilistic misanthropy of 1990s youth culture. The story centers on Paul, a disturbed child who grows into an angry young man who goes on a rampage, spewing all of his hatred on the world around him.

The novel’s beginning is strong, and Paul’s character is fleshed out nicely throughout the story; things get pretty wild. Paul views the world as nothing, the people in it are nothing, even his own life is nothing, and ultimately the story returns to nothing. Although the ending was incredibly dissatisfying, I think it was faithful to the premise. Certain plot reveals, in the end, I didn’t care for, as they seemed like cheap cop-outs that actually weakened earlier parts of the story.

The book could use one more run through an editor, as many sentences, especially in the last quarter of the novel, have very obvious errors that I can see not being picked up by auto-correct. There are also inconsistencies in the plot throughout, most glaringly character ages, with the age gap between Paul and his sister Mary-Ann changing, and holes like that are hard to ignore. Franny’s character is also a bit unwieldy, from a willing participant to a victim of abuse, and she flip-flops a few times near the end. Mary-Ann had a similarly underdeveloped character arc.

Overall I fell in the middle on this one. There is a lot to admire here regarding Bray’s creativity. Splatterpunk fans will eat good with this one, and the dedication to creating an unapologetic misanthrope was great. I think more time could have been spent working out the minor details and cutting out the lame aspects of the “twist” ending.

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