by Jeff Strand

Part Horror and part farce, this is a fun read, if perhaps with a little too much gratuitous gore on occasion.

A couple of thugs with a reputation for competence are hired to take a man in a cage to a location and told he's supposed to be a werewolf. They don't believe it, but they follow the rules given to them anyway, for all the good it does them. Naturally they lose control of the situation and chaos ensues.

Despite their criminal faults, George and Lou become likeable characters that garner sympathy as they get deeper and deeper into a no win situation. They even start to develop some conscience and blame themselves for the werewolf's murderous spree. Their attempts to recapture a creature that can't possibly exist are the stuff of dark comedy, though there are serious moments.

The story has plenty of action, almost non-stop, all the way to the end. Trying to guess who will survive to the conclusion becomes almost a game, like reading a George Martin book.

Overall very well done. I would consider reading this author again, though what I see of his other works looks pretty squicky.

I love me some Jeff Strand he's my go to guy for a bit of slaughter, grossness and fucked up giggle humour but that was some out the gate crazy but not the good kind of loco more like a trainwreck.
I have some theories:
-Maybe it was that I'm new to audible and I didn't particularly like the voice of the narrator;
-Maybe it was the repetition and lame dialogue;
-Maybe it was because I just read the excellent Ferocious by Mr Strand and it was awesome;
-Maybe it was because I didn't laugh ... once;
-Maybe I shouldn't read two Strand novels back to back;
-Maybe the book went off to a weird lucid dreaming place that didnt make sense; or
-Maybe it just sucked ... sigh

I started listening this before I set my A-Z challenge so it doesnt fall beneath any of my "A" tags:

-Maybe I should start a new tab called Audible.

I’ve read a few Jeff Strand books and that man has one skewed sense of humor. I love it. He manages to make me laugh while I’m wincing at what’s occurring in the scene. That’s some talent there. If you have a dark sense of humor you should really check out some of Strand’s many works. He has written in several genres ranging from the road-trip romance Kumquat, the bizarro Facial, thriller Stalking You Now and a slew of straight up horror that you should seek out. My Pretties is as good a place as any to start though because you’ll get a good dose of his sarcasm and who doesn’t need some of that in their life?

This story is more one about the evils of man. And woman. Both are equally evil when they want to be and especially if they’re not wired quite right. It’s about the bad stuff humans do to each other. The only monsters here are of the human variety but the carnage that happens within these pages is just as horrific as any supernatural horror monster tale I’ve ever read. So if you’re asking me, and I’m sure you were, I’m calling it horror. Or horror-thriller-suspense. Whatever. I don’t really give a cat’s butt about the categorization because it is nasty and it is gory and it is great fun. That’s really all you need to know but I’ll tell you a little bit more.

Ken likes to abduct long-haired brunettes. I am not going to tell you what he does to them. You’ll have to read the book for that horrific information. Gertie’s cousin has gone missing (at least I think it was a cousin, my memory isn’t so great and I didn’t write that down – sorry) and Gertie has taken it upon herself to do some vigilante work. She dons a wig and hangs out in sketchy areas at night hoping to attract Ken’s attention. This is probably not the best course of action but Gertie has good intentions. No one else seems to care about these missing ladies so I can’t get mad at her for that. She engages her new co-worker Charlene in this scheme because Charlene is up for anything. I loved Charlene who is smart-mouthed and sarcastic and a wee bit more level headed than her new friend Gertie .

These not-so-best laid plans surprisingly go off track. Haha. That’s all I’m saying about the story.

If you want some suspense, some black humor and some gore in your life you can’t go wrong with this book. It has all of those things and a bunch of other unpleasant (in the best way) surprises too. I was never, not once, tempted to jack up the speed on my player to get things over with quicker because the pacing is just right and the narrator does a great job with the female voices and a decent one with the males. I can easily recommend it to all of you weirdos who like this sort of thing as much as I do! 

This is the second book in this anthology theme. Inside is a collection of short stories that connect fantasy and a little humor. 

I think it was a great idea to shoot for a sequel anthology because the first one had a little magic in it’s writing. Some stories from the original still linger in my brain. 

After reading and enjoying the first anthology, Blood Lite, I expected not just funny stories in fantasy settings but memorable. Fact is I can only remember one story in Blood Lite II: Overbite and had to do with a guy out with his girlfriend at a diner. The description of the girlfriend was disgusting and not funny. The other stories are lost from my memory. I even had to re-read quite often.

This one missed its mark but there is a third installment and...I probably will read it too.

I can't decide if Toby is mostly pathetic, or just an asshole.

The way he treated Owen as a convenience and as a cool thing he owned had me pissed off through most of the story.

It rarely seemed to occur to him that Owen might be miserable and lonely.