Sex and Gore - Sick B*stards - A Novel of Extreme Horror

A one-dollar-value novella which takes a pretty cool theme and makes a bit of pig's ear out of it with underdeveloped nuances on most key dimensions. I enjoyed SB for what it is: an easy read with no impediments to whipping onto the next page wondering what would happen next. Other than that, SB comes over as a hastily-constructed creative writing exercise developed on a stream-of-consciousness basis. The beginning and ending are high-points, it sags mostly in the middle as if Author Shaw's calls to his muse went to voice-mail around that time.

Pros:
1. Promising core idea.
2. Sex scenes - not bad.
3. Fast read with no claggy bits or anything to over-tax the casual reader's intellect.

Cons:
1. Execution in most respects. There's minimalist, then there's SB.
2. Repeating verbatim earlier passages is either a deliberate attempt to be too creative for the author's shirt or sloppy editing or merely a cynical way of bulking up to fit a word budget. Like what the heck?
3. Sex scenes got repetitive and didn't push my erotic envelope.

Three stars = a Satisfactory/Average read. Don't over-invest and you'll be fine.

Well, I must say this book surprised me. Yeah, there was some horror, sex, and violence. Big deal. It says so right on the cover.

I thought I had it figured out as I was reading it. I thought it was a zombie story being told from the point of view of the zombies who didn't know they were zombies. I thought that was an interesting concept, although I wasn't sure zombies could do some of the things written about in the book.

Then I got to the last 20% or so of the book and was totally thrown off my high horse. I was completely wrong and the author's actual story was much more inventive, disturbing, and sinister than I ever imagined. The ending was even kind of sad as one of the characters discovered a terrible truth about himself and the others. There are some things you can never put behind you.

I couldn't decide whether to rate this story 4 or 5 stars. The story itself is 5 stars, but I was thinking I would rate it a 4 because of the aforementioned horror, sex, and violence, but really, those things are results of the actual story being told, so in the grand scheme of things, they belong there. So--a 5 from me.

Definitely some sick stuff but not Edward lee level. Good story though a bit predictable. Makes an interesting societal commentary. I went in expecting more hence the average rating but it's worth a read.

Matt Shaw is an incredible author. If you read this book, don't stop, read the whole trilogy. Yes, it is sick and disturbing, but I can't express enough that you have to read Sicker Bastards and Sickest Bastards to really understand the whole story.

The book was very interesting. It was not the typical world coming to an end, but a twist. I was also looking for a little bit more gore and less sex. I also feel the ending could have been different

Not the best choice in this genre. Strange story. Incomprehensible picture, expressionless dialogues, all in some raw. You not getting that pleasure which is expected. In general it's readable but not what I would recommend to some one. It could be better and I hope next writings will be more exciting.

I was intrigued by the concept and reviews. It didn't live up to either for me. I'm probably a little desensitized, so the shock value wasn't that great. The storyline itself isn't particularly original. Definitely won't be getting any of Shaw's other books in this line. I do however, think I could get into this kind of story if it has bit better execution.

This was very extreme and graphic, I kept wondering if I should be reading this or if there was something wrong with me for enjoying it because it was so disturbing at times. I really enjoyed it though.