The nasty beasties in Cruelty (1-5) are back for more blood soaked fun in A Final Act of Cruelty. Episodes 6-10 focuses on the origins of the monsters that are tearing down the town around them along with everything and everybody that gets in their way.
I was mesmerized with the back story of how all of this carnage began. The characters were superbly drawn, the tension level was turned up to eleven, and the narrator absolutely nailed the tone and pacing throughout. Edward Lorn has some serious horror chops and he really shows them off here. The complete Cruelty (Episodes 1-10) weighs it at over 600 pages of nasty goodness. Edward has definitely succeeded in creating a very unique and massive tome of small town bloody horror.
Solid 4.5 Stars for the entire work as a whole. I think I shall round this bad boy up to 5, because I don't think I have read a work that made me think "holy sh*t" roughly once every few pages. Edward, you are a deranged individual. Well done, sir.
*I was provided an audio copy of this work from the author. I already owned the hardcover and e-book editions of the book and when the opportunity arose to get the audio, I jumped all over it and his is my honest review.