What do you think?
Rate this book
Machete Mama
Penny Chambers is best known as the star of the long running martial arts series called Machete Mama. Since the death of her husband, she has left the action hero life behind to be a single parent of two teenage girls. Living in complete solitude, she has tried her best to provide a peaceful life for her family.
After she learns that her aunt has passed away, she returns to her hometown to settle the estate. But instead of the same town she grew up in, she comes back to a small mountain Hell overrun with crime, drugs, and human trafficking. Penny wants to sell her aunt’s cabin and go back home as soon as possible.
But when the bad guys come after her and her daughters, Penny is forced to become Machete Mama once again, but this time for real. Because something from her past is also in town and has been waiting for the chance to kill Machete Mama once and for all.
After she learns that her aunt has passed away, she returns to her hometown to settle the estate. But instead of the same town she grew up in, she comes back to a small mountain Hell overrun with crime, drugs, and human trafficking. Penny wants to sell her aunt’s cabin and go back home as soon as possible.
But when the bad guys come after her and her daughters, Penny is forced to become Machete Mama once again, but this time for real. Because something from her past is also in town and has been waiting for the chance to kill Machete Mama once and for all.
- GenresHorror
243 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 28, 2025
7 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Kristopher Rufty
69 books242 followersKristopher Rufty lives in North Carolina with his three children and pets. He’s written over twenty novels, including ALL WILL DIE, THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD, DESOLATION, THE LURKERS and PILLOWFACE. When he’s not spending time with his family or writing, he’s obsessing over gardening and growing food.
His short story DARLA'S PROBLEM was included in the Splatterpunk Publications anthology FIGHTING BACK, which won the Splatterpunk award for best anthology. THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD was nominated for a Splatterpunk award.
He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more about Kristopher Rufty, please visit: www.kristopherrufty.com
His short story DARLA'S PROBLEM was included in the Splatterpunk Publications anthology FIGHTING BACK, which won the Splatterpunk award for best anthology. THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD was nominated for a Splatterpunk award.
He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more about Kristopher Rufty, please visit: www.kristopherrufty.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 24, 2026
Kristopher Rufty put a good deal of effort into this one. Fans of books like Chainsaw Hooker by Judith Sonnet of movies like Kill Bill will soak this up. Penny, our lead, was a lot of fun and stole the show. There is a really dominant amount of gritty material in here from rape to bloodshed and plenty of nasty dialogue. Almost too much, but the sole focus here, being a nasty revenge story, could carry it for the most part. Maybe just a little bit of a deeper dive with Penny, in place of some of the excesssive violence, would have served the overall plot a bit better, but that may just be a personal preference. I’d recommend only those with a strong stomach check this out, but for anyone who enjoys Rufty’s other works will be fine here.
May 28, 2025
“Machete Mama” by Kristopher Rufty , fast paced story, featuring Penny Chambers, a former TV action hero turned widowed single mother. Haunted by her husband's death, Penny stays strong for her two daughters. When intruders threaten their home one night, she transforms into Machete Mama to protect her family.
Rufty builds the story with enough action and intrigue to hook the reader until the last scene, which is nonstop action. There is plenty of blood oozing, chainsaws and machete hitting each other and organs being thrown around to grip the readers attention until the very end. Machete Mama embodies feminine rage and what a cornered woman will do to protect her family.
Rufty’s story is packed with action and intrigue, culminating in a spectacular showdown full of gore and action. The portrayal of Machete Mama's fierce determination and expert machete skills is riveting.
Rufty builds the story with enough action and intrigue to hook the reader until the last scene, which is nonstop action. There is plenty of blood oozing, chainsaws and machete hitting each other and organs being thrown around to grip the readers attention until the very end. Machete Mama embodies feminine rage and what a cornered woman will do to protect her family.
Rufty’s story is packed with action and intrigue, culminating in a spectacular showdown full of gore and action. The portrayal of Machete Mama's fierce determination and expert machete skills is riveting.
March 11, 2025
Powerhouse!!
Don't cross a Mama, and especially a Mama with Machetes!
This Mama has a past that's crashing into her present while she is dealing with grief, raising two daughters, and returning to the small town that she had left behind, with people she knew were no good.
This story has Non stop action from the beginning, martial arts and movie stunts, familial types, identity chasing, Machetes (!), wittiness, exploding blood and brains, and so much Heart !
Kristopher Rufty does an Amazing job portraying a Mama with two sides of her heart switching on and off as needed; a Mama set on vengeance and protecting her own, and a story line that grabs you, drags you thru hell, and dumps you at the next forgotten and ab**sed rest stop.
This is Extreme Horror due to content and graphics - this is one of those books I'll read again and again🖤
Don't cross a Mama, and especially a Mama with Machetes!
This Mama has a past that's crashing into her present while she is dealing with grief, raising two daughters, and returning to the small town that she had left behind, with people she knew were no good.
This story has Non stop action from the beginning, martial arts and movie stunts, familial types, identity chasing, Machetes (!), wittiness, exploding blood and brains, and so much Heart !
Kristopher Rufty does an Amazing job portraying a Mama with two sides of her heart switching on and off as needed; a Mama set on vengeance and protecting her own, and a story line that grabs you, drags you thru hell, and dumps you at the next forgotten and ab**sed rest stop.
This is Extreme Horror due to content and graphics - this is one of those books I'll read again and again🖤
April 16, 2025
Would anybody read a book that was written like a martial arts flick that came out in the early 90s?
2 1/2 stars. I must confess to being more than a little disheartened that Kristopher Rufty's "Machete Mama" did not really register very well with me. The reasons for this are manyfold (not manifold) and, well, the basis of my review. I mean, duh, right? Smack me over the head, do terrible things to my bound and gagged body, and stab me with various sharp objects, making new holes or using the ones I've already got. All of which happen in abundance in this short book, so consider that weird aside your trigger warning, m'kay? It gets nasty, trust me on that.
She was a flawed character, complicated, and riddled with guilt.
No, first of all, this is not my first Rufty Rodeo (I will be tm'ing that later so don't get any ideas). A few months back during one of my nigh famous self-inflicted read-a-thons, this one involving all-things cryptid, I picked up a copy of "Bigfoot Beach"… and was summarily godsmacked that despite its somewhat (!) silly (!!!) title, that it was actually a very well-written and -executed book filled with danger, thrills, and more than a modicum of tragedy. It wound up being one of the highlights from the 12 books I picked out for the aforementioned a-thon-thingie, noting I even promoted it heavily to my super secret "book club" slash "grovelling fan-club social media page" (hi D.M.!), um, group. It was that much fun!
You have to be Machete Mama now. You can’t be…Mom.
And in the interest of continuing to push and promote independent writer types from the Old North State (go Wolfpack!), I was pleased to see that there was another title, namely "Machete Mama" that fit into my latest 12-pack of selections (patience, please, theme to be announced when I'm done!). However, unlike BB, MM was not nearly as well-executed nor really close in terms of being a good, well-rounded story. No, that's not really the case. It did seem to me to be a strong hommage (I like the French spelling better!) to those deliciously tacky martial arts films that you managed to catch after the soft-core skin-flicks were over. This was back in the old days, kids, when HBO didn't yet rule the airwaves (was it Showtime?) and most often our brains were well-altered by various substances that made these kung-phooie flicks such a thrill!
I brought her here to become…whatever she is now.
I mean, I even remember one such Hong Kong Klassik (hint: not a Jackie Chan nor Michelle Yeoh offer!) where the hero chop-chopper (who remarkably had appeared earlier or perhaps later in the same film as a bad guy with a big ol' fake moustache and a wig) defeated his undefeatable and immortal (ha!) nemesis by crushing his genitalia in his bare hands. All of which of course was shown in slow-mo with much screaming and shaking of wigs (the nemesis having also played a few other roles) while raw egg oozed through our hero's clutches to simulate, um, whatever is in mens 'nads. Now granted there are some truly nasty scenes in this one especially when "Mama" takes over things, but you'd need much better special effects to bring these particular moments to life. Hm, what could we use to make it look like we were strangling a man with his own intestines? A string of really cheap sausages?
This is my law now. My judgement. My sentencing. And my execution.
Sadly though, the hommagination (I know it's not a word, get over it!) did not work nearly as well as it could or should have. Penny - the alter-ego of MM naturally - went way too fast (even more so than going through soft butter) through way too few bad guys in the way too anti-climatic pivotal conclusion. As such, what had been built up to be a fair (only just) but understandable revengeful climax wound up being rushed, far too obvious, and really kind of lazy in many ways. Plus, once Rufty started relying far too much on the "ancient Chinese secrets" (yes, yes, I know that's a Calgon commercial from the old days, cut me some slack!) to explain Penny's miraculous healing from not only her battles but her horrendous sexual torture at the hands (and more) of the dirty local Sheriff and his posse, well, it felt even sillier than those movies I mentioned earlier.
No way were these assholes trained in anything other than beer and fart jokes.
The real kicker (ha! Martial arts pun!) for me though was that the editing in "Machete Mama" was really bad. I'm not even sure where to start. I mean, is the older daughter's name Ashely or Ashley? And speaking of Ashely/Ashley, how did she take the stairs three at a time going to save, well, Ashley and her sister Anna? But thank the ancient ones for Penny's friend Misty (who talked to herself way too much: "Thank you, Misty," Misty said in a high-pitched voice.), who found the comatose Penny on her porch the night before. But Penny did explain at least "everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours" even though:
"How long have I been here?" asked Penny.
Misty took a deep breath. "Four days."
It was at this point I was hoping that the Yoda-esque spirit of Alex would show up and explain that time has no meaning anyway and I should just chill the fuck out. But that stuff drives me nuts, especially when you don't even check the names (don't get me started on the other bits). There was a fairly good story in here - noting I didn't even mention how preposterous it was that ol' buddy namely ultra-forgiving Misty also had some pretty Kick Ass (good film!) moves herself because of, you know, fandom - but it just felt far, far too rushed. Even the villain, Vanessa Crowe alias Brenda Brown alias Lady Striker, had so much deliciously nasty potential of which we barely caught a glimpse. And I say that without giving away any spoilers namely that we realize pretty quickly that she was nuttier than a porta-potty at a peanut festival and nastier than, um, well, an incredibly nasty thing (damn iNternet, where did you get the suggestions for that idiom?).
Why won’t you die?
So, sorry, our score is now 1:1 with "Bigfoot Beach Blanket Bingo" being a far better read than "Mama, I Chopped Up Everyone in Hick County, NC!" To each their own I guess. I see from other reviews that I'm the dissenting opinion here but anyway. We'll see eventually how my third Rufty selection works out. Until then (lips moving in totally random patterns) remember:
"The drive within you is dormant. You need to get up, wake it up. And fight."
And now we bow.
2 1/2 stars. I must confess to being more than a little disheartened that Kristopher Rufty's "Machete Mama" did not really register very well with me. The reasons for this are manyfold (not manifold) and, well, the basis of my review. I mean, duh, right? Smack me over the head, do terrible things to my bound and gagged body, and stab me with various sharp objects, making new holes or using the ones I've already got. All of which happen in abundance in this short book, so consider that weird aside your trigger warning, m'kay? It gets nasty, trust me on that.
She was a flawed character, complicated, and riddled with guilt.
No, first of all, this is not my first Rufty Rodeo (I will be tm'ing that later so don't get any ideas). A few months back during one of my nigh famous self-inflicted read-a-thons, this one involving all-things cryptid, I picked up a copy of "Bigfoot Beach"… and was summarily godsmacked that despite its somewhat (!) silly (!!!) title, that it was actually a very well-written and -executed book filled with danger, thrills, and more than a modicum of tragedy. It wound up being one of the highlights from the 12 books I picked out for the aforementioned a-thon-thingie, noting I even promoted it heavily to my super secret "book club" slash "grovelling fan-club social media page" (hi D.M.!), um, group. It was that much fun!
You have to be Machete Mama now. You can’t be…Mom.
And in the interest of continuing to push and promote independent writer types from the Old North State (go Wolfpack!), I was pleased to see that there was another title, namely "Machete Mama" that fit into my latest 12-pack of selections (patience, please, theme to be announced when I'm done!). However, unlike BB, MM was not nearly as well-executed nor really close in terms of being a good, well-rounded story. No, that's not really the case. It did seem to me to be a strong hommage (I like the French spelling better!) to those deliciously tacky martial arts films that you managed to catch after the soft-core skin-flicks were over. This was back in the old days, kids, when HBO didn't yet rule the airwaves (was it Showtime?) and most often our brains were well-altered by various substances that made these kung-phooie flicks such a thrill!
I brought her here to become…whatever she is now.
I mean, I even remember one such Hong Kong Klassik (hint: not a Jackie Chan nor Michelle Yeoh offer!) where the hero chop-chopper (who remarkably had appeared earlier or perhaps later in the same film as a bad guy with a big ol' fake moustache and a wig) defeated his undefeatable and immortal (ha!) nemesis by crushing his genitalia in his bare hands. All of which of course was shown in slow-mo with much screaming and shaking of wigs (the nemesis having also played a few other roles) while raw egg oozed through our hero's clutches to simulate, um, whatever is in mens 'nads. Now granted there are some truly nasty scenes in this one especially when "Mama" takes over things, but you'd need much better special effects to bring these particular moments to life. Hm, what could we use to make it look like we were strangling a man with his own intestines? A string of really cheap sausages?
This is my law now. My judgement. My sentencing. And my execution.
Sadly though, the hommagination (I know it's not a word, get over it!) did not work nearly as well as it could or should have. Penny - the alter-ego of MM naturally - went way too fast (even more so than going through soft butter) through way too few bad guys in the way too anti-climatic pivotal conclusion. As such, what had been built up to be a fair (only just) but understandable revengeful climax wound up being rushed, far too obvious, and really kind of lazy in many ways. Plus, once Rufty started relying far too much on the "ancient Chinese secrets" (yes, yes, I know that's a Calgon commercial from the old days, cut me some slack!) to explain Penny's miraculous healing from not only her battles but her horrendous sexual torture at the hands (and more) of the dirty local Sheriff and his posse, well, it felt even sillier than those movies I mentioned earlier.
No way were these assholes trained in anything other than beer and fart jokes.
The real kicker (ha! Martial arts pun!) for me though was that the editing in "Machete Mama" was really bad. I'm not even sure where to start. I mean, is the older daughter's name Ashely or Ashley? And speaking of Ashely/Ashley, how did she take the stairs three at a time going to save, well, Ashley and her sister Anna? But thank the ancient ones for Penny's friend Misty (who talked to herself way too much: "Thank you, Misty," Misty said in a high-pitched voice.), who found the comatose Penny on her porch the night before. But Penny did explain at least "everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours" even though:
"How long have I been here?" asked Penny.
Misty took a deep breath. "Four days."
It was at this point I was hoping that the Yoda-esque spirit of Alex would show up and explain that time has no meaning anyway and I should just chill the fuck out. But that stuff drives me nuts, especially when you don't even check the names (don't get me started on the other bits). There was a fairly good story in here - noting I didn't even mention how preposterous it was that ol' buddy namely ultra-forgiving Misty also had some pretty Kick Ass (good film!) moves herself because of, you know, fandom - but it just felt far, far too rushed. Even the villain, Vanessa Crowe alias Brenda Brown alias Lady Striker, had so much deliciously nasty potential of which we barely caught a glimpse. And I say that without giving away any spoilers namely that we realize pretty quickly that she was nuttier than a porta-potty at a peanut festival and nastier than, um, well, an incredibly nasty thing (damn iNternet, where did you get the suggestions for that idiom?).
Why won’t you die?
So, sorry, our score is now 1:1 with "Bigfoot Beach Blanket Bingo" being a far better read than "Mama, I Chopped Up Everyone in Hick County, NC!" To each their own I guess. I see from other reviews that I'm the dissenting opinion here but anyway. We'll see eventually how my third Rufty selection works out. Until then (lips moving in totally random patterns) remember:
"The drive within you is dormant. You need to get up, wake it up. And fight."
And now we bow.
September 28, 2025
4.5 stars
Thanks to the author for gifting me an audiobook of Machete Mama in exchange for an honest review.
Machete Mama was violent and full of satisfying revenge! I had a fun time listening to this one. The villains were vile and repulsive, which made the violence and revenge against them all the more entertaining. Our FMC Penny is a force to be reckoned with, especially once the horrible men of her past come for her daughters.
Just a bit of a trigger warning, this is an extreme horror novel, so there is a lot of violence and gore, and there is also sexual assault of minors.
If you're a fan of the movies Kill Bill and Peppermint, or the book Talia by Daniel J. Volpe, then you'll definitely enjoy Machete Mama!
Thanks to the author for gifting me an audiobook of Machete Mama in exchange for an honest review.
Machete Mama was violent and full of satisfying revenge! I had a fun time listening to this one. The villains were vile and repulsive, which made the violence and revenge against them all the more entertaining. Our FMC Penny is a force to be reckoned with, especially once the horrible men of her past come for her daughters.
Just a bit of a trigger warning, this is an extreme horror novel, so there is a lot of violence and gore, and there is also sexual assault of minors.
If you're a fan of the movies Kill Bill and Peppermint, or the book Talia by Daniel J. Volpe, then you'll definitely enjoy Machete Mama!
April 12, 2025
Excellent as always fifty is an amazing storyteller
This book takes off and never slows down the.action is quick brutal and continuous. The suspense just builds and builds and your left guessing the entire time. The final showdown is spectacular and the fights leading up to it are intense with great.death.sequences. overall a great action movie style horror book with superb storytelling. I love Kristopher rufty he never dissapoints.
This book takes off and never slows down the.action is quick brutal and continuous. The suspense just builds and builds and your left guessing the entire time. The final showdown is spectacular and the fights leading up to it are intense with great.death.sequences. overall a great action movie style horror book with superb storytelling. I love Kristopher rufty he never dissapoints.
January 19, 2026
I loved this action-packed, pulpy revenge story! Rufty usually writes horror, and I primarily read horror, but his two recent non-horror books (this and Stump Juice) might be my two favorite books of his!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews