Title: All Men Must DieAuthor: A. E. Soto
First Published: March 20, 2025
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 142
Genre: Extreme Horror, Horror
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
Brandie is a shell of a person, only existing for her next fix, selling her body every night to try and make ends meet. She scores herself a position she’s been able to hold down for eight months at a brothel in Kensington, PA. Until one night Brandie finds herself at the mercy of a deranged client who viciously mutilates her, leading to her hospitalization and unsettling news about her health. All Men Must Die follows Brandie as she uses the time she has left to seek scarlet soaked revenge on the men who have used, abused, and taken advantage of her. Strap yourself in tight for this gore soaked, cringe inducing, nightmare of a novella.
Get the Book: AmazonReview
All Men Must Die is a story about a drug fueled story of urban decay and revenge. Brandie is a working girl surviving on the streets of Kensington Avenue, a low-income neighborhood in Philadelphia that is notorious for rampant crime and an open-air drug market. Brandie is just one of the many people caught in the web of addiction and exploitation, until the day her life changed.
I typically enjoy good for her female rage stories, but I found myself going back and forth on my feelings about this book. The story is disorganized and held down by some plot inconsistencies, such as the main character smashing a specific phone in one scene and then a chapter or two later they are flipping through that same phone. I flipped back and forth between the pages to be sure. There is a lot of back and forth that is ultimately useless to the story that could have been tightened up.
I also didn’t care for the glorification of hard drugs, with Brandie shooting up left and right, especially during pivotal moments in the story, but I understood that is a symptom of the setting. I actually liked Brandie quite a bit, but there is a lack of character development despite her apparently “waking up” to her new reality. Brandie’s story is a tragedy, and that’s what makes the horror in this story so visceral, her experiences are grounded in reality.
The book is a decent debut, just rough around the edges. It’ll appeal to the right reader, especially those that enjoy fast paced stories of desperation and furious reckoning.
Quote
“To die for something you love is usually what most people consider the ultimate act of dedication, but Brandie and all of Kensington lived and died for their habit, and that was something so much more.”
Content Warnings
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