Cheng Bogdani’s Reviews > Transcendental Mutilation > Status Update

"Last Time At Thanksgiving" Ahh, the zombie apocalypse. First person style. The characterization felt all over the place; the narrative was clear, but it had that problem that Stephen King books have - why are we spending so much time on characters that hardly move the story forward? Three stars.

"Temple of Amduscias" I do love a good "oops we stumbled into a gate into Hell story". I'd like to more about the MC's motivations though. Four stars.

"Orificially Compromised" - Interesting premise I bought into, but the supporting world building doesn't really stand up well to scrutiny. Three stars.

"Down There" - I love a good Spirit of the Forest story, and this one delivers. I'd like to see this expanded into an entire novel length story. 5 stars.

"Divine Red" - It's like the myth of Tristan and Isolde, but filtered through a late-stage capitalist post industrial version of Dante's Hell. I felt a little of the The Famous Scene from Blade, too.

I think the story resolved too quickly, I would have liked to see the MC get gl uolt up before the sacrifice.

"Threesome" - technically fine, definitely a huge step above some unedited self published Kindle fodder, but ultimately just a predictable rehashed trope. The sex and violence needs to be more specific. Three stars.

Story #1 "The Corpsefucker Blues" is everything I hoped it would be, even the completely unsurprising twist. 5 stars, no notes.

Horror Aficionados April 2024 group read