This book will not be for everyone but it was definitely for me. It managed to take my mind off of the current hellish timeline we’re caught up in and thrust me into someone else's for a few hours.

But, yeah, this book is not for everyone. It is extreme horror and by extreme I mean extremely gross and violent. Prepare thyself.

“I want to fuck you with a frozen dog turd.”
(note to myself: remove this most excellent line before the cross-post to those prudes at Amazon!)

It’s funny too, sometimes. Or at least I thought so. And I desperately needed some pitch black humor in my life at this moment in time.

Things start out normally enough. Kim is one of those spoiled little rich cheerleader types that most of us love to hate and by us I mean me, and maybe you too if you’re busy reading a review of a book called Full Brutal but I’m not here to judge. Her daddy gives her whatever her black heart desires, as well as all the freedom in the world but she is deeply unhappy. She can’t feel things like the other girls do. Boo-hoo. Woe is her. Blah, blah, get over yourself and who cares, right? Well, this girl decides to be proactive and tries to fix her ennui and her whining and believes life will be worth living once she finds the thing that gives her a thrill. You can't fault her for that, right? She thinks that thing might be losing her virginity but soon enough she discovers that sex is blah like everything else but she’s a girl who learns from her mistakes. She learns that it’s the thrill of the dark and the dangerous that make her heart and other body parts race.

I’m going to keep from spoiling the ugly surprises that await within these pages because I think the impact will be stronger if you don’t know what’s coming. I spoiled myself because I read the blurb and skimmed a review or two before stopping my nosy self. You should know that this story features a whole heck of a lot of trigger warnings. Quite possibly all of them with the exception of prolonged animal torture (but don’t quote me on that because my brain is not working okay right now). Sometimes things bother me depending on my mood, the day, or the color of the sky but there was nothing here that made me ever want to shut it off and pour bleach in my ears.

I enjoyed this immensely despite knowing I probably shouldn’t. Kim is a monster. One of those human monsters that walk around looking like everyone else and pretending to be like the others. Full Brutal is cruel and evil and so very wrong but the fact that the perpetrator of all of these horrible misdeeds is a beautiful teenage girl worked for me. I’m not even going to pretend to lie, if it had been a grown man telling this story and finding such joy and glee in these atrocities I might’ve pulled the plug, I refuse to think about that too much or attempt to explain myself so please don't ask. You like what you like, you know? And this book held me in its gore-filled grasp until the very last word.

Narration Notes: Dani George does a decent job with the narration. A few of the guys sounded a bit rough but they didn’t really matter anyway, lol.

I listened to the audio of this book and thought that Joe Hempel was a fantastic narrator. I did find a few editing mistakes and not all the stories were for me, for that I knocked off half a star. On the whole this was a very good collection.

The stories in order were:

"Worth the having" by Michael Paul Gonzalez - A somewhat stomach churning look at what happens when you get everything you wish for and the price you have to pay. This one had me cringing at the details in some parts, a great start to the collection.
"Awakening" by Jeff Strand - Hilarious story where a psychopath realises he's a serial killer. I love strand's style and this one didn't disappoint.
"Readings off the charts" by Adam Cesare - Paranormal investigators rope in an unsuspecting amateur as they try and collect data. This was a bit predictable and I realised what the ending would be about half way through. This didn't spoil my enjoyment of it.
"Reborn" by The Behrg - A story of why churches no longer take in abandoned babies. This one was pretty brutal and had the added bonus of making you question the narrator.
"What's worst" by David James Keaton - Jason sees a dead baby on the road and decides to take it for a drive in his car. Very trippy read that has you seriously questioning the moral compass of the narrator. It didn't do much for me except make me angry. This story will seriously test some readers boundaries.
"Dead end" by Kristopher Triana - A serial killer notes something very familiar with the hitchhiker he picks up. A nice twist in the end with this story.
"What you wish for" by Lillith Morgan - Two people live out their fantasies, consequence free. Only one of them hasn't bargained on being attracted to a fledgling killer. Some romance and sex mixed in with the gore for this story, I enjoyed the writing but thought it could have been edited better to condense the story a bit more.
"King Shits" by Charles Austin Muir - A trucker dishes out brutal justice to bullies. Very violent and highly enjoyable.
"Cleanup On Aisle 3" by Adam Howe - What should have been a quick robbery turns into a cat and mouse game as the storekeeper turns the tables. Great story with a satisfying ending, it was also a lot more emotional than I was expecting.
"Bath Salt Fetus" by George Palacious - Maria is pregnant and wants to get rid of her baby, to do this she tries a new drug which has interesting side effects. Wrong, just very, very wrong.
"Bored With Brutality" by MP Johnson - Rocker GG Allen decides to live a normal life. This was one of the weaker stories for me and didn't really hold my interest.
"Exposed" by Monica J. O'Rourke - A mother is desperate to find her child and decides to take the law into her own hands. How far will she go to find out the truth. Some eye watering detail in this story which ends with a great twist.
"Eleanor" by Jason Parent - Father Stuart takes in disfigured baby Eleanor after she is abandoned on the steps of the church. As she becomes a teenager their relationship becomes more intense and confusing to them both. A slow burn story with a heartbreaking ending.
"The Scavengers" by Tony Knighton - Brutal story of 2 ivory poachers who will do anything to get a bigger share of the deal. Things do not go to plan. Great story, I love karma.
"The Most Important Miracle" by Scott Emerson - All hail the God of Breakfast. A diner cook turns psychotic and decides to cook a breakfast to remember. Short and not at all sweet but very enjoyable.
"Hungry For Control" by Clare de Lune - A woman who was in a mutually abusive relationship before the zombie plague, sees a chance to get some revenge. I really enjoyed the story even though I thought the MC wasn't very likeable and was just as sexually abusive as her ex.
"Clarissa" by Robert Essig & Jack Bantry - Pregnant Clarissa plots to escape the basement where she's been kept for years under the guard of her rapist. All is not as it seems as her chance arrives. Depressing and disturbing especially when you think of some of the real life equivalents.
"Where The Sun Don't Shine" by Pete Kahle - Gordy wakes up after being on a trip for 4 days but can't remember anything about the trip and is exhibiting strange behaviour. This starts of with Gordy waking up covered in blood, mud and vomit and then alternates between the actual trip and the continuing aftermath. Creature feature that was great fun to read.
"Blackbird Lullaby" by George Cotronis - Romance blossoms in a support group for people whose demons are literally killing them. A nice end to the collection although perhaps a little too short to get much out of it.

We all need a little darkness in our reading lives, if only to escape the darkness of reality, right? Well, I sure do and this book was gruesomely dark, unrelentingly evil and I loved nearly every black page but especially those where selfish hearted people meet their demise most painfully. 

Does that make me evil too? 

The story begins when a horrible wife abusing man named Rick finds his bliss while praying to a structure in the woods. That structure houses The Behemoth, the one and true God, the God of hellfire, damnation and exquisite pain to all who fail to bow down properly. Rick and The Behemoth infest a local church filled with loyal devotees and demand fealty to their new God as well as make an offering of an innocent child or they all die . . . Just one child though, this Behemoth is not greedy even though there is a basement filled with kiddos.



So, what follows is the evil that happens when humans are asked to make such a terrible decision to save their own hides. All of their ugliness, self-preservation and selfishness come crashing to the surface and spewing through their mouths and thoughts. Some become sheep, just going along with what they know instinctively is very wrong. This all feels so very real and the author does a fantastic job of bringing this terror-filled this scenario to life.

“All was not right in the house of God.”

Terrible, gory things happen at the level of early Clive Barker gruesomeness, mostly to people who deserve it but just know that no one is truly safe, even if they’re not a jerk. I enjoyed the spontaneity of the murders even when I was sad to see someone decent go because it upped the odds. The characters were well drawn and the brief moments of light and hope make the darker bits stand out all the more. My only minor complaint is that there is a bit of head hopping which I noticed most nearest the end. I don’t typically notice such things but there were a few pages that I had to go back and reread to clarify who was speaking.

The ending was very fitting and one I didn’t see coming. I loved the visceral brutality of it all and the picture it paints of the most horrible creature of all: humans. 

Read this one if you dare!