Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 17

Review: Old Order by Jonathan Janz

Old Order

By Jonathan Janz






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Written in 2010, Old Order caused quite a sensation among fans of Amish Romance. As some of the Amazon customers have pointed out in their reviews, "it is totally smutty and definately [sic] not a family or christian read." "I guess one doesn't think of horrors like this in
Amish communities." "Without a doubt one of the most disgusting and vile things I have ever read."

Oh. Wait, hold on. Nope, sorry, those early reviews were apparently not meant to be the glowing endorsements they most certainly should be within the finer circles of horror readership, but they're just as effective I'd say. And let's face it, if that last review quote I pulled isn't cover blurb material, I don't fucking know what is!

So, Old Order. It's decidedly not an Amish Romance, although in Jonathan Janz's afterword it's stated that this novella practically flew straight onto a number of ereaders and that, based on the volume of disappointed one-starers, readers partial to plain people didn't know what the heck they were getting themselves into. Apparently none of them read the book's description and just blind bought the book based on the previous cover's depiction of a barn. Seriously.

What Old Order is is a groovy slow-burn work of erotic horror. Con-man Horace, posing as an Amish ne'er-do-well who's been kicked out of the community, trades back-breaking labor for room and board in the hopes that he can relieve a family of their precious valuables. Janz kicks things off with plenty of titillation and then takes a turn toward the paranormal bizarre, and then rapidly shifts gears into a finale I never saw coming.

Old Order has a nice 80s vibe to it, and it would have fit right in with the Hot Blood series of erotic horror anthologies where sex and scares were part and parcel. At around only 50 pages, this is a quick read, and there's a few moments of hair-raising intensity powerful enough to churn butter and a few barn-raising scares along the way. Horror fans just might find themselves living in an Amish paradise with this one.



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Review: Devil's Row by Matt Serafini

Devil's Row: A Novel of Werewolf Revenge (Feral) (Volume 2)

By Matt Serafini






My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Devil's Row: A Novel of Werewolf Revenge is a solid enough work of fantasy horror, but one that I struggled to form a deep connection with.

Acting as a prequel to Feral, Matt Serafini takes readers way back to 1700s Constanta and the shores of the Black Sea. In the book's opening moments, a group of Vatican-sanctioned hunters slaughter a pack of werewolves and gravely wound Elizabeth. Presuming her dead, they attempt to make their way back to Constanta. Elizabeth, though, is far from dead, even if the werewolf inside her has been cowed by the injuries inflicted upon her. With her pack dead and her lover slaughtered, Elizabeth follows the hunters' scents, tracking them through the forests and hellbent on revenge.

Serafini certainly doesn't shy away from the violence, and Devil's Row is quite an action-packed affair as the various characters sift through one bloody encounter to the next. I never felt entirely connected to the characters, and there wasn't a lot of room for development in any of the cast between the harshness of the world they inhabit. Despite the plentiful number of encounters between the hunters and their various supernatural foes, the pacing of Devil's Row is rather deliberate, rather than full-on frenetic. I would have preferred a more pacey read, but the slower nature is fitting given the fantasy elements and period setting, which often demand a more leisurely turn of the pages.

Although I enjoyed Devil's Row well enough, it wasn't exactly the perfect match to my tastes I had been hoping for. That said, I'm certainly intrigued enough by the world Serafini has crafted here, and enjoyed his writing quite a bit, that I'll definitely give Feral a read. This particular book makes for a fine starting point to Serafini's werewolf series, but I suspect the modern day setting of Feral will be more suited to my sensibilities.



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MASS HYSTERIA: A 2018 Audiobook Listener Awards Finalist

This has been a big week for award announcements! On Monday, the 2018 Splatterpunk Award Nominees were announced, along with final ballot for the 2017 Stoker Awards. Yesterday, the 2018 Audie Awards finalists were revealed. And today, finalists for the first annual Audiobook Listeners Choice Awards were revealed, with my book, Mass Hysteria, narrated by Joe Hempel, listed as one of the five horror finalists.

I don't know if I can adequately explain how much this means to me, but suffice to say I am deeply, deeply honored. 

Probably not too many of you know this, but Mass Hysteria almost never was. I had some pretty deep reservations about releasing this particular book due to the extreme and graphic content depicted within. I was in a pretty different place, both personally and professionally, when I wrote this book in 2015, and over the course of writing Mass Hysteria my wife became pregnant and our first child was born within days of my penning that horrific and bleak final chapter. If you've read Mass Hysteria, you can probably understand just how difficult some of these scenes were to pen. I trunked the book for a good long while before I began editing it in 2016 and found myself having to put the book aside once more. I was unsettled and uncomfortable with the material, and I was no longer sure if it was a work I wanted to be associated with.

Fatherhood had changed me, and it was a long time before I began to feel comfortable with Mass Hysteria, or at least as comfortable as one can feel with a book like that. It wasn't until 2017 that I was really able to look at Mass Hysteria with a more critical eye and accept the book for what it was and what it could be. While there were still scenes within it that I was (and still am) uncomfortable with, I found myself at an impasse. I could either release it, or I could forget about it. 

Ultimately, I think I made the right choice, and thankfully it seems to have paid off! Readers have responded well and have been very supportive of the work since it released in August 2017. Mass Hysteria was a Top 10 finisher in Horror the 21st Annual Critters/Preditors and Editors Readers Poll, and Cedar Hollow Horror Review included it in their list of Best Horror Books of 2017. Now, I am in the delightful place of seeing Mass Hysteria listed as a finalist in the Indie-centric and small press publisher-focused Audiobook Listener Awards for Horror - and alongside Michael McDowell and Brian Keene no less! Pardon me, but holy shit! All of this, of course, is due in no small part to the efforts of my editor Shay VanZwoll at EV Proofreading & Editing, and Joe Hempel's outstanding narration, and the humbling and outstanding dedication of my wonderful, loyal readers.

To top it all off, this announcement came right on the heels of yesterday's release of Broken Shells, my latest horror novella, which has generated a nice bit of early buzz thanks to a number of overwhelmingly positive advance reviews. So, yeah, not a bad couple days so far!

The Audiobook Listener Awards is a "listener's choice" award, and the winner will be selected by you, the listener! Voting in each of the award categories is open until May 31, 2018. Listeners can vote in each category once a day until the competition closes. You can find all of the award categories and finalists here, so please take a moment to check it out and cast your ballots. If you want to head straight over to the Horror category and vote for your favorite title, this link will take you directly there! You may want to bookmark the announcement page or your favorite categories, and remember to vote regularly so you can help your preferred title claim the top spot.

If you haven't had a chance to brave Mass Hysteria yet, head on over here to learn all about this book. You can find the audiobook edition of Mass Hysteria for sale now on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.

NOW AVAILABLE

Antoine DeWitt is a man down on his luck. Broke and recently fired, he knows the winning Money Carlo ticket that has landed in his mailbox from a car dealership is nothing more than a scam. The promise of five thousand dollars, though, is too tantalizing to ignore.

Jon Dangle is a keeper of secrets, many of which are buried deep beneath his dealership. He works hard to keep them hidden, but occasionally sacrifices are required, sacrifices who are penniless, desperate, and who will not be missed. Sacrifices exactly like DeWitt.

When Antoine steps foot on Dangle's car lot, it is with the hope of easy money. Instead, he finds himself trapped in a deep, dark hole, buried alive. If he is going to survive the nightmare ahead of him, if he has any chance of seeing his wife and child again, Antoine will have to do more than merely hope. He will have to fight his way back to the surface, and pray that Jon Dangle's secrets do not kill him first.

99C FOR A LIMITED TIME!AMAZON | IBOOKS | NOOK | KOBO  GOOGLE PLAY | SMASHWORDS

Now Available: BROKEN SHELLS: A Subterranean Horror Novella

99c For A Limited Time!Amazon | iBooks | Nook | KoboGoogle Play | Smashwords

 

Broken Shells is out! After spending a few months with Patreon readers, my latest release has finally gone wide and is now available on all major platforms in print and eBook.

If you're a Kindle reader who still have lots of love for paperbacks, you can buy the print copy at Amazon and get the Kindle eBook for free through Amazon's Kindle Matchbook program. 

For a limited time, you can buy the eBook for only 99c at any of the retailers listed below. But act fast, because in a short while, this digital edition of Broken Shells will be selling for its full retail price of $2.99.

About Broken Shells

Antoine DeWitt is a man down on his luck. Broke and recently fired, he knows the winning Money Carlo ticket that has landed in his mailbox from a car dealership is nothing more than a scam. The promise of five thousand dollars, though, is too tantalizing to ignore.

Jon Dangle is a keeper of secrets, many of which are buried deep beneath his dealership. He works hard to keep them hidden, but occasionally sacrifices are required, sacrifices who are penniless, desperate, and who will not be missed. Sacrifices exactly like DeWitt.

When Antoine steps foot on Dangle's car lot, it is with the hope of easy money. Instead, he finds himself trapped in a deep, dark hole, buried alive. If he is going to survive the nightmare ahead of him, if he has any chance of seeing his wife and child again, Antoine will have to do more than merely hope. He will have to fight his way back to the surface, and pray that Jon Dangle's secrets do not kill him first.

What Readers Are Saying

"A fun and nasty little novella...If you’re a big creature-feature fan (digging on works like Adam Cesare’s VIDEO NIGHT or Hunter Shea’s THEY RISE) you’re going to love this book." - Glenn Rolfe, author of Becoming and Blood and Rain

"An adrenaline-fueled, no punches pulled, onslaught of gruesome action! Highly recommended!" - Horror After Dark

"Broken Shells, the latest release from Michael Patrick Hicks... is another fine piece of...pulpy horror which moves along at eye-watering speed... You’ll have fun rolling with the punches. I found myself cheering on hard-as-nails Antoine in his brutal fight for survival." - HorrorTalk

"A dark and nasty...novella I won't soon forget, mostly thanks to the nightmares I've already had." - Frank Michaels Errington

"The very definition of a page-turner. Michael Patrick Hicks delivers right-between-the-eyes terror." - The Haunted Reading Room

"Ghastly fun ... Broken Shells is an exceptional horror novella." - Dangerous Dan's Book Blog

"Broken Shells is a visceral experience, with oodles of ooze, gore galore, dry heaves and vomit, and some Alien worthy introductions to razor sharp creepy crawlies. ... This, my friends, is horror done right!" - Schizanthus, Goodreads review

"Michael Patrick Hicks has out done himself this time! When I didn't think his work could get any better, he goes and surpasses my expectations. From start to finish, you will get your money's worth." - Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews

"Michael Patrick Hicks has managed, in only 120 pages, to craft a terrifying, steamroller of a story. ... The author makes you immediately connect with the main character Antoine, who is down on his luck and just looking for a possible break. When Antoine is thrust into the dark, you are along for the ride, whether you like it or not. And in the dark is where this story shines. Hicks makes you feel dread, like the walls are closing in as you read." - One-Legged Reviews

"Hicks does a fine job of emotionally grasping the reader with his character creation. You'll come for the story of survival, and stay for the darkness and gore. If you enjoy extremely gruesome creature horror and pitch black underground tunnels, then Broken Shells is right up your alley." - FanFiAddict

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Review: Off Season by Jack Ketchum

Off Season

By Jack Ketchum






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jack Ketchum is an author whose works have been in my digital to-read pile for ages. I'm loathe to admit it, but he's one of those writers synonymous with the horror genre whose work, for whatever reason, I just hadn't read yet. I decided to correct that in 2018. Last week, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018, Jack Ketchum lost his battle with cancer. His passing ignited an urgent need in me to finally discover exactly what I had been missing. I wanted to get to know a bit the man who so many fellow authors called either, or in some instances both, a friend and an inspiration. I decided to start with Off Season, Ketchum's first novel.

Holy crap, what a first novel! It's not entirely perfect - the characters are a bit thin, many of them barely rising out of cardboard cutout territory prior to their victimization - but it is compulsively readable and utterly engrossing.

New York book editor Carla has retreated to the Maine woods for a working vacation, one that, if her nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic pays off, will be more vacation than work. She's invited her sister, friends, and lover to visit and enjoy the quiet. The home she's rented for the month would be idyllic if not for the hungry cannibals whose primal interests her visit has drawn. What follows is an absolutely brutal, nightmarish siege of frenetic violence and misery. Hope is sparse as the blood flows freely from one shocking, nerve destroying, encounter to the next.

I've read previously that Ketchum was inspired by the films Night of the Living Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and boy-howdy do those influences shine through. Ketchum, though, is no pale imitator. Whatever thematic resonance of those films he rode high on while writing Off Season are run through the proverbial meat-grinder twice-over and once more for good measure. There's no joy to be found, and any moments of humor are of the blackest pitch. This is not a fun, action-packed creature feature romp. This is horror shone through the prism of reality, and it's one bleak, serious as a heart attack, motherfucker of a book.

It's also damn good. Damn good.

I may be shamefully late to the party, but I can guarantee you I'll be sticking around for a while now.



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Review: Black Magic by Russell James [audiobook]

Black Magic

By Russell James






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My original BLACK MAGIC audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Black magic is the name of the game in this entertaining horror story from Russell James. Dark magician Lyle Miller has set up shop in the downtown portion of the dying Citrus Glade, Florida, where his magic shop draws the attention of four teenage misfits and a priest who suspects devilry is afoot. Such is the opening of Lyle's Grand Adventure, which promises to deliver plenty of bloody murder alongside an apocalyptic storm that will wipe Citrus Glade and all its inhabitants clean off the map.

Black Magic was a nice surprise to discover. At first, I had thought the story lacked focus as much of the first hour of this 8 1/2 hour listen is devoted to introducing the book's major players, of which there are many. James assembles a large cast to wreak plenty of havoc upon, ranging from the mayor of Citrus Glade to the town's sole DPW worker, a citrus farming family, a drug mule, a handful of retirees living in an old folks home, and more. Thankfully, Black Magic rewards the patient listener and James draws his diverse cast together in a few surprising ways, drawing them all into various energetic and action-packed set pieces. This book also served as my introduction to Russell James, and I was pleasantly surprised at his ruthlessness as he dispatched characters in some rather unsettling, and magically showy, ways (it's only after having listened to Black Magic that I now realize I have several other titles from this author on my Kindle, which I'm now forced to move up the reading queue a bit!). The classic trick of sawing somebody in half gets a gory, gut-twisting workout in a scene I won't soon forget, and James riffs on several other well-known magic tricks along the way in wonderfully gruesome scenarios. James doesn't pull any punches and, frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

On narrating duties is David Stifel, whose baritone voice gives this book's various horrors rich gravitas and plenty of weight. Having listened to a few of Stifel's other readings, I knew what to expect from this reliable narrator and wasn't disappointed. Black Magic is a fun work in its own right, but Stifel makes it an easy listen to sink into. He's a pro, delivering a well-finished audiobook with no noticeable flaws in the production.

Russel James delivers a highly enjoyable and engaging magic-based horror thriller. Black Magic is more Wes Craven than Charmed, so if you're looking for a fun, pulpy romp with plenty of darkness and savagery, this should fit the bill rather well. And if that doesn't sell you, there's some mean alligator action as a nice bonus!

[Audiobook provided for review by the audiobookreviewer.com]



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Review: The Night Trade (A Livia Lone Novel Book 2) by Barry Eisler

The Night Trade (A Livia Lone Novel)

By Barry Eisler






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Immediately after finishing 2016's Livia Lone, I immediately wanted, no, needed, more of this character. Thankfully, Livia is back for a second round, and The Night Trade proves to be just as rich and compulsively readable as Lone's debut. And much like the first entry, I'm immediately left wanting more.

Picking up a few months after the prior novel's finale, Livia is offered a spot on an anti-trafficking taskforce. She uses this position to ferret out leads on the men who abducted her, and her sister, Nason, as children for use in sex trafficking. Armed with the names of these men, she returns to Thailand, intent on dismantling the trafficking ring responsible for her and Nason's abuse.

Operating his own leads in Thailand is Dox, short for unorthodox, which speaks to his methods as an operator, and a recurring fan-favorite in Eisler's long-running John Rain series. Dox is on the hunt for Rithisak Sorm, a former Khmer Rouge soldier renowned for his torture tactics of sexual abuse, as well as human trafficking.

Needless to say, Dox's and Livia's parallel investigations eventually converge, and while sparks fly the relationship that emerges between these two killers is remarkably tender and fascinating. Dox and Livia are polar opposites, and their differences highlight their commonalities, while also giving us some fresh insight into Livia's nature. Through Dox's point of view, we get to see certain facets of Livia that we've been previously denied, and her characterization grows all the deeper because of it. She's a tough, no-holds-barred, tragically flawed heroine, but we get a better sense of just how fragile she is through her interactions with the boisterous, loud-mouthed Texan. Eisler does a wonderful job bringing them together, and opening up Livia's world a bit more with the angles of international intrigue and governmental subterfuge that have been the hallmarks of his John Rain series.

In only two novels, Livia Lone has become my favorite character in the entirety of Eisler's body of work, and, mind you, he has created some fantastic characters. So much of her is broken, some hastily glued back together, and she never stops fighting, against either her own personal inner demons and the demons that would seek to shatter and destroy others like her. She's a remarkable vigilante, and I'm eager to see what other aspects of her character Eisler is able to uncover for us in future novels.



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Review: The Amulet by Michael McDowell [audiobook]

The Amulet

By Michael McDowell






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My original THE AMULET audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

After being wounded in a military training exercise, Dean Howell returns home to his wife and mother in a vegetative state, his face hidden behind layers of bandages. While Sarah administers to his treatment, in addition to working full-time at the local munitions factory (the same factory that built the rifle that exploded in Dean’s face), his bitter, resentful, and domineering mother, Jo, plots revenge. Jo blames the entire town of Pine Cone, Alabama for her son’s debilitating injuries and sets into motion a series of extraordinary murders. The titular amulet, a cursed (or, perhaps, possessed) item gifted by Jo to the man who failed to hire Dean into the factory and save him from being drafted into the Vietnam War, is the only thing connecting the otherwise unrelated and inexplicable deaths. As the bodies begin to pile up, Sarah realizes the amulet lays at the center of it all, and she must find it before any more killings can occur.

Originally published in 1979, Valancourt Books reprinted The Amulet for a new generation of readers a few years ago, and this past August released this audiobook edition narrated by Audie Award winner Julia Whelan. Whelan does an excellent job bringing Michael McDowell’s material to life, giving dialogue a soft and welcoming Southern lilt. Her reading of McDowell’s wonderful writing held me in rapt attention the whole way through, and this is a top-notch production all around.

McDowell is an author that has been on my radar for a while now, thanks largely to Charlene at Char’s Horror Corner, who has positively reviewed a number of the author’s works as resurrected by Valancourt Books. Huge props, too, to Valancourt, because now that I’ve read McDowell for myself I will most certainly be reading as many more of his works as I can get my hands on.

Despite being set during the late 1960s, The Amulet is far from anachronistic. I’ve read plenty of 80s novels that felt far more dated than McDowell’s (even Robert Marasco’s Burnt Offerings, published only a few years prior to this book, felt far old than its original 1973 pub date), and thanks to the human factors at play here — the family drama, friendships, and racial tensions between the white and black sections of Pine Cone — The Amulet feels just as relevant in 2018 regardless of its nearly forty-year -old history. McDowell has an ear for dialogue, and the Alabama-born author successfully captures the regional patois and atmosphere of the region. His characters are believable, each of them inhabiting their own lives within these pages, and we’re given just enough detail to care about them before they’re yanked away from us. None of Pine Cone’s residents are safe (not even the children, and there are several child deaths depicted throughout, so fair warning), and the diabolical piece of jewelry is a sort of traveling gun drawing them all toward danger. The body count here is significant, and McDowell does not pull any punches as he dispatches entire families, friends, and neighbors in delightfully creative and gruesome ways. In fact, I suspect the Final Destination film franchise owes a large debt, and a number of thanks, to this particular novel.

The Amulet is a wonderful and engrossing work of quiet, small-town horror, and McDowell does an incredible job building this story, ratcheting up the tension and taking us from one twisted murder to another as we follow this cursed object across Pine Cone and into the lives of those unfortunate enough to claim the strange necklace as their own. As his first published novel, The Amulet is an excellent introduction to McDowell’s work for newcomers such as myself. I can promise you now it certainly will not be my last, and I’m already debating which Michael McDowell book I should dive into next.

[Audiobook provided for review by the audiobookreviewer.com]



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Review: Smoke Eaters by Sean Grigsby

Smoke Eaters

By Sean Grigsby






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sean Grigsby makes a scorching debut with Smoke Eaters, a fun sci-fi romp set a hundred years hence in the ashes of America's Midwest.

It's the early 2100s and dragons have returned, these massive creatures of myth churning their way up from the Earth's core to wreak firey havoc all across the world. The US is divided into a series of nation states, Canada has built a wall to keep Americans out, and robots are taking everyone's jobs. In Ohio, an elite team of dragon fighters, known as Smoke Eaters, are attempting to keep the peace despite an unsympathetic populace. After responding to a fire, firefighter Cole Brannigan is confronted by a dragon, discovers he's immune to smoke, and quickly gets drafted into the Smoke Eaters.

Grigsby, an Arkansas firefighter, does an excellent job depicting the chaos of firefighting, as well as the mundane, sometimes comical, calls of false alert. Although there's plenty of dragon-fighting action with power suited Smoke Eaters going mano-a-mano with various species of scalies, one of my favorite scenes involved Brannigan and his team responding to an emergency call from a distraught woman whose home has been invaded by a decidedly non-dragon creature.

While there's a few cliches (Brannigan was supposed to retire before getting roped into his new calling, a well tread plot device that had me waiting for Danny Glover to remind us all that he's too old for this shit) and some moments of silliness that didn't quite work for me, Grigsby makes the story as a whole work well. The various plot threads of political corruption, dragon invasions, and robotic workers all come together in an exciting and violent climax of pyrotechnics.

If you're looking for some fun, action-heavy, big-screen ready SFF, or if the premise of firefighters versus dragons appeals to you (and let's face it, it is a freaking awesome premise that should be appealing to everyone with a pulse), Smoke Eaters is an enjoyable way to go. This is a solid debut, and one that leaves me hoping I'll get to take another ride-along through Parthenon City with Brannigan and his company of dragon slayers.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



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Review: Body of Christ by Mark Matthews

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


As a genre, horror is as old as mankind. We've been scaring the hell out of each other as a species for as long as we have been a species at all, and plenty of these stories have been influenced by, or act in response to, the religious beliefs of various groups. In fact, The Bible may be one of the most willfully misread genre pieces to ever come along. Here's a book where the supposed good guy drowns the entire world, killing men, women, and children alike, oftentimes in blind anger and jealous rage. There's demons, zombies, talking snakes, crucifixions, murders galore, all sorts of taboo sexual shenanigans, and a cult of believers who pray for, anticipate, and desire the apocalyptic End of Days while practicing ritualistic pseudo-cannibalism en masse. Yeah, The Bible sounds a hell of a lot like a horror story to me, even if it somehow gives a whole lot others some kind of hope. I don't know what Mark Matthews personal beliefs are, but even if he is a religious man he has certainly tapped into the darker aspects of religious occultism and supernatural forays, and how those beliefs can shape young minds, to give us a beautiful work of Christian horror.

Keagan's mother is a religious fanatic. She misses no opportunity to let her teenage boy know he is a doomed sinner on his way to Hell. She extolls the virtues of communion, and believes that the only thing that can save her child's soul is for him to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. Keagan is also a collector of oddities, and after witnessing the murder of his father he manages to discreetly save some chunks of his daddy's flesh.

Faith, an apt name for this pious believer, is struggling from the death of her mother while learning to cope with her own body's transformation into womanhood. She can hear the screams of the dead, and each month, riding out on a flow of blood, are the gnashing torments of the lives that could have been. Like Keagan's fleshy souvenir of his father, what Faith does with her used sanitary napkins is her own secret.

Body of Christ is a deeply fucked-up work, and, needless to say, I loved it! Matthews imbues the entirety of this short novella with a sense of creeping dread, and plenty of wonderfully ill descriptions. He captures the horror central to the root of Christian mythology, and the insidious ways the fervent faithful's blind beliefs undermines and twists one's love for their own children, or sets child against parent, in scarily recognizable ways. While this is a dark work to be sure, Matthews injects a few moments of much appreciated levity along the way, such as during Keagan's first communion when the boy briefly wonders what part of Jesus is in his mouth.

For as dark and pitch-blackly humorous as it is, Body of Christ carries with it, too, moments of sweet compassion and glimmers of hope. You just gotta have faith.



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