From the Bookshelf of Splatterpunk…

Port Luck

Timothy King

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: This is our Group Read for June 2025.
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Group Reads

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What Members Thought

Jun 01, 2025 Pisces51 rated it it was amazing

PORT LUCK [2025] By Timothy King
My Review 5.0 Stars

This new release by horror author Timothy King was one of the two designated Group Reads for the month of June Splatterpunk Horror Book Club. The novel was proof-positive that King’s debut book “Seven Rabbits” released in the spring last year [2024] was no fluke, no “happy accident”. His first book was a hard-hitting brutal vigilante justice story that bled originality, had perfect pacing, excellent plotting, quality character development and st PORT LUCK [2025] By Timothy King
My Review 5.0 Stars

This new release by horror author Timothy King was one of the two designated Group Reads for the month of June Splatterpunk Horror Book Club. The novel was proof-positive that King’s debut book “Seven Rabbits” released in the spring last year [2024] was no fluke, no “happy accident”. His first book was a hard-hitting brutal vigilante justice story that bled originality, had perfect pacing, excellent plotting, quality character development and stark realism. The newcomer ups the ante with his sophomore performance and offers readers the backdrop of a bleak isolated Alaskan town that regurgitates a monster from the town’s past history to tear it asunder all over again.

The second you read the first sentence your feet sink into the frigid snow that covers the small town of Port Luck. The atmosphere of fear and impending doom settles around your shoulders and the literal below zero cold of the weather is matched only by the proverbial chill that clamps around your heart. You are hooked immediately and pulled in by the fast paced violent and blood-soaked story line.

Around eighty years ago the town was a thriving community in the wild landscape of frigid Alaska. But violent death came like a thief in the night and when the snow settled the cold ground was littered with dead and mutilated bodies of the townspeople. Father Time has seen another eighty years come and go with the little town of Port Luck once again alive and thriving. The story begins right out of the gate with an unknown horror tearing apart three innocent hikers seeking refuge from a snowstorm in the mouth of a cave. They hear a noise, and one walks further into the cave to investigate.

“The hairs on the back of Ben’s neck stood at attention and his blood ran cold. Something soared through the air from around the corner and crashed into the wall at his side. In the darkness of the cave, he could only make out a round object on the ground near his feet. Hesitantly, he bent over to examine it. His fingers brushed against hair, and a warm, wet substance clung to his hand. When he rolled it over, Alex’s lifeless eyes stared back at him. His face was stretched into a look of terror…”

In town, Sheriff Johnny Myers and his Deputy Brian Williams are called out into the frigid cold to investigate the mangled and mutilated remains of two bodies left as detritus of red carnage in the snow. The two lawmen who are also friends are unaware of the challenge that awaits them. The horror tale shifts down into first gear and takes off like a remorseless killing machine across the white snow-covered landscape of the town and its surrounding land. The body count rises every time you take a deep breath or so it seems. The killings are gory, bloody, bodies literally ripped apart, limbs and heads recovered distances away from the kill sites. The citizens of the town are being horribly murdered while the cops try to find out the nature of how they are being slaughtered and by who or what.

The sheriff sends an experienced big game hunter who calls the creature an “Amarok” (Werewolf), and he believes he is intelligent enough and good enough with his rifle to kill the beast. But as the body count continues to rise, and when the men sight the creature and behold its massive size and its immunity to the multiple blasts from their artillery, plans shift from attack to freeze in place and send for help. The pace is relentless, and the reader compulsively rides the wave of adrenaline as one plan after the other falls at the feet of the invincible murderous monster.

Eventually the police try to hoard the remaining townsfolk into church and to then transport them to the nearest city in a bus. The scene is like a hellscape, and the men are desperate to save the women and children, other civilians who are still alive. The tension is so tight when the men begin their escape from town with their innocent human cargo the reader feels like a brick of lead has found residence in the pit of their stomach.

The stark realism of the writing and the vivid description of the violent slaughtering of the human victims is at once chilling and shocking. The penultimate conclusion does not attempt to be anything other than honest and real. The Epilogue 10 Years Later offers a kind of closure which still leaves you shellshocked from reading the novel.

TIMOTHY KING BRINGS HIS SECOND FIVE-STAR READ TO HIS WAITING FANS

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Jun 01, 2025 Alan rated it it was amazing

Splatterpunk Group Read for June as selected by Pisces. I don't often throw five stars about as I am a bit stingy with them. But this one is well worthy of a five star review. I love the premise of being hunted in the snowy forests and mountains by some unknown horror. I found that really good with "The Ritual" by Adam Nevill. This book is a throwback to good old fashioned splatter horror of years gone, no messing about just a straight up survival horror. It's bloody, has a great cast of charact ...more

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Jun 25, 2025 Micaylah rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. MASSIVE SPOILERS IN REVIEW! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

3.5 ⭐️s (Rounded up for Goodreads.)

The first half of this novel was actually pretty good. It was addicting, and I didn't want to put it down. But then the second half hit, and although it wasn't bad—it was decent—there were more typos and mistakes, (There were still typos in the first half.) and just plain annoying crap happening. The ending was unsatisfying and annoying.
That agent guy was stupid and kind of far-fetched. I was fine with Johnny going ...more

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Jul 11, 2025 Cherise Isabella rated it really liked it

Shelves: creature-features, folklore

4.5 ⭐️ rounded down for Goodreads.

“There’s something in the woods.”

I devoured this book. I couldn't put it down and was immediately drawn into the carnage. The book opens with the evisceration of three people...yes. Not a moment of reprieve even in the beginning. Little did I know, that was just a sample of what was to come.

This book terrified me. It unnerved me, and I was deeply disturbed. The setting, the isolation, and the atmospheric tone of the book, all this combined with this unkno ...more

5 likes · Like · see review