Dead Inside (Iconoclastic Horrotica)

 

This read is one I often see people who are just dipping their toe into extreme horror tend to pick up. I think the slower pace helps them to get into the groove, let’s them understand the kind of thing they may see, and that dead people fucking and baby eating is the tip of the iceberg for this genre. This is by no means my favorite horrorotica that I’ve read recently, and my lowest scoring for a little while. I thought the plot was great, the ideas were brilliant, but I do find it took itself way too seriously. As someone who reads these books like any other person would read a romance novel, I can kind of see the funny and ironic side in the edginess of the main character. Whether it’s on purpose or not, his physical description, his nonchalant personality and inability to “like other people and relate to them” kind of plays into the favor of this book. And just to add to that, he also fucks dead ladies.

 

When he meets Helen, who he catches eating babies, and he gets close, in an emo psycho sort of “I don’t hate you but I tolerate you” sort of way, it’s clear that his very extreme edgelord ways are there to kind of make Helen seem like the lesser of two evils. Yes, she eats dead babies, and yes he fucks dead ladies, and they talk about it all the time, but her outlook on life and what they find themselves doing is very different. I actually really enjoyed this, and I could look past Mr. Edgelord’s cringe personality for this connection between them. The small plot twist towards the end was not expected, and after the horrific acts which got them into that situation, I think this unhinged Helen even more. The end scene is explosive and very “them” in that cliché poetic edgy way you expect, where Edgar Allen Poe is mentioned and there is blood and guts everywhere, whilst the main character feels next to nothing about what he sees. Though I did see the very last page coming, it was still fun to see how it would be incorporated, and it was done really well. This is gross, visceral and full of nasty. How it manages to reach so many extreme horror virgin hands I’m unsure. Dead Inside is definitely one that would either leave a reader wanting to dive deep into the extreme world, or nope the fuck out!!

 

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Written by Arianne, Sovereign Deity of the Damned

Dead Inside (2020)
Chandler Morrison
Death’s Head Press
Cover Art: Daniella Batsheva
4 / 5