REVIEW: As I was Cutting and Other Nastiness | L.V. Rautenbaumgrabner

Author: L.V. Rautenbaumgrabner
Title: As I was Cutting and Other Nastiness
Publisher: New Pulp Press
Genre: Bizarro / Horror / Crime Fiction / Indie
ISBN: 978-0-9815579-6-0
Length: 180 pgs
Format: Paperback ARC

This book of nastiness is split into two sections. Part One being Murderers with several, cadaverous, blood curdling stories of blood and guts aimed to shock and please those of us who are hardened fans of the macabre and bizarro fiction, of which I am. Part Two is named Lunatics and starts on page 79. Although, murderers could well be lunatics! These tales are also bizarre, hair-raising and quite unnerving at times; with nightmarish, weird lunatic characters who made it a fun read. All have that certain horror-movie appeal, and are complete, clever stories written in different styles. Each have a proper beginning, middle and satisfying, shocking and bizarre end. This might sound obvious, but there's an art to telling short stories, and not everyone does it right. My favourite stories to name but a few are - Melba's Opium, Fathers and Sons: A Tradition, Eyeing My Ceasar, The Ears Have It, Little Timmy's Last Heist, Henry's Venom, An Anvil Chorus Followed by An Equine Aria, and Blaps Mortisaga.

Rautenbaumgrabner writes the bizarro and horrific with a certain intellectual flair. This is not a book for the fainthearted, and I'm sure the author will love me forever when I warn you what he writes is sometimes not only sick and frightening but downright offensive - almost too much at times - it made me cringe in places but in a scary good way. Besides, with a title of As I was Cutting and Other Nastiness, what else do you expect? But one must remember this is fiction, and although the author must indeed have a twisted mind it's the characters' thoughts and feelings he is portraying, and not that of the author - I hope! In many ways I thought the author was taking the mickey out of all the evils in the world, yet his stories also gave me a sense that underneath the facade of that nice neighbourhood you think you know so well, there could be a sicko hiding a lot of dark secrets beyond that shut door - just waiting to pounce. This nastiness, and it is nasty, shows the author's ability to drag us kicking and screaming into his dark fantasies, which, along with a great sense of humour dotted throughout, are nerve tingling vignettes of gruesome fun. Each story is very different and I never really knew where the author was going to lead until the final resolutions were revealed. I'm pleased to have read this, and hope that those of you who are brave enough to enter Rautenbaumgrabner's world will enjoy this ghastly, ominous book as much as I did. Now, excuse me, I'm off to get a stiff drink to settle my stomach.

I'm adding this read to the Indie Book Reading Challenge 2010, the 100+ Challenge 2010, and my own Bizarro Read and Review Perpetual Challenge! Actually, these may all need a little updating...

Sassy
:)

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