Carniepunk: The Sweeter the Juice

by Mark Henry

Author of the Amanda Feral series Mark Henry lends his brilliantly twisted imagination to the gripping Carniepunk anthology in this creepy zombie short story.

When the zombie apocalypse overtakes New York City, a trip to Coney Island is the most frightening thing of all. A gruesome tale of transformation, Ferris wheels, and transsexuals.

Genres: Audiobook, Horror, Short Stories, Zombies, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2014

About the author

MARK HENRY traded a career as a counselor to scar minds with his fiction. In stories clogged with sentient zombies, impotent sex demons, transsexual werewolves and ghostly goth girls, he irreverently processes traumatic issues brought on by premature exposure to horror movies, an unwholesome fetish for polyester and/or witnessing adult cocktail parties in the swingin' 70s. A developmental history further muddied by surviving earthquakes, typhoons, and two volcanic eruptions. He somehow continues to live and breathe in the oft maligned, yet not nearly as soggy as you’d think, Pacific Northwest, with his wife and four furry monsters that think they’re children and have a complete disregard for carpet.

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I knew this was going to be transphobic I wouldn't pick it up. Not sure I want to give other carniepunk novellas a try. But it's all by different authors so might not all be trash, think I've enjoyed some of them I've read before but wouldn't recommend reading this

[Chloe A-L · Rating 1 out of 5]

holy transmisogyny, batman! this is a pretty terrible story. the author is largely incomprehensible, HORRIFICALLY transphobic and transmisogynist, and just generally comes off douchey. the ideas in the story are actually pretty interesting, I just wish that they had popped into a cute trans girls head instead of this horrible mans. god. he's just... skeevy and rude and horrible and obviously thinks he's writing about the "dark twisted and funny underworld" when he's just writing about people.

[Rachel Kolar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am absolutely gobsmacked that something this transphobic was published this recently. The trans protagonist describes her friend with the t-slur, for Pete's sake. A character who was unable to finish transitioning has the street name "Neuter," which no one ever questions and everyone treats like a punchline. And that's barely scratching the surface. Transphobia usually goes right over my head, so if a story is so transphobic that I can barely finish it? That's BAD.

[Sanacrow · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's one star only because I can't give it zero. An almost coherent zombie story buried under amazing quantities of transphobia and transmisogyny, as well as views of mental illness that are archaic, wrongheaded, and horribly f_cked up.

Don't read unless you like torturing yourself.

[izzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Utter transphobic garbage. It’s a shame someone let this into an otherwise fun and interesting anthology. The “about the authors” section says he is (was?) a psychotherapist for children and adolescents and that’s utterly terrifying.

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting concept, how it is to be a trans woman in a post zombie apocalypse world. However, the author decides to throw in serious mental illness to the mix in an effort to both disgust and... I don't even know what else. Just disgust. It is pitiful and sad and it started feeling like it was written by a 12 year old boy trying to make his sister puke. I couldn't stop reading out of the same instinct that makes you slow down next to a car crash, morbid fascination. Still, if it hadn't be so short I wouldn't have persevered. But hey, it's part of a horror anthology, so maybe to some folk this will be right up their alley. It just wasn't up mine.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

This deserves zero stars and is hands-down the worst story in the Carniepunk anthology. In fact, I don't even know how it made it into the anthology considering that it basically has NOTHING to do with carnivals. Sure, there's the half-assed "carnival" float thingy midway through the story & the apocalyptic carnival setting at the very end, but this story is neither about a carnival nor features it as a central plot point as every other story in the anthology does (and should, since that's literally the theme of the anthology). On the contrary, the carnival aspect of this story has no importance whatsoever—the final meeting could have easily taken place underwater, in outer space, in a castle, etc, for all the setting mattered! It's like the author just wrote whatever the fuck he wanted and then remembered, "Oh yeah, I'm writing this for that Carniepunk book~" so then he tossed in a carnival for the last few pages.

What it's actually about is horrific transphobia, the zombie apocalypse, drug addiction, and mental illness, but it can't decide what the fuck it wants to be, and it makes NO fucking sense. Spare your eyes & brain cells and DO NOT read this, because it goes absolutely nowhere. The ending makes no sense, half the story makes no sense, and you're basically left wondering, "Why the fuck am I even reading this?!" Naturally, after I finished reading the story, I wondered what in the world I was supposed to glean from it. What was the point/message/plot??? That being transgender sucks??? I felt like the author was mocking the trans community the entire time I was reading this story, but I wasn't quite sure if it's normal for trans individuals to be so self-deprecating or if this author is just a transphobic asshole because he's not part of the community himself. After coming here and seeing the other reviews for this story, the answer is quite clear. So yeah, I just hated everything about this story. The utter lack of plot, the stupid concept, the raging transphobia, the irritating tone & narrative style, the excessive descriptions of decay & filth... that's literally what this story is. Trash. The author spends so much time describing rotting flesh & putrid filth that it's oddly fitting because this story is indeed a steaming pile of shit. Makes you wonder if the author was self-aware when he was writing this... and still wrote it anyway because he's an ass and likes making his readers suffer.

[Yolanda Sfetsos · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMFG.

I have to start with this: all the bad things the other reviewers mentioned here are right.

This is a terrible story. Not only because of the obvious transphobia, but also because it's a really shitty story. It's all over the place. It makes no sense. It's not even about a CARNIVAL. Like, at all. If the author was trying to be funny and witty, that's even worse.

I hated it. And actually can't understand how such a gross short story made it into a high-quality anthology featuring a great collection of stories. Except for this one, of course.

Total disappointment.

[Cas ♛ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think this one was as good as some of the others I've read in carniepunk. Why? Well, it's just confusing. From the start, I was confused, and it wasn't very well explained. A few pages from the end, I kind of got the book, and I enjoyed it, but still some things weren't clear. Not the best book, but still a good book.

[Cyndi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't actually like this story. Tried to put too much into a short story, so the thread was lost a lot.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was confusing and more horror than fantasy.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing