AudiobookReviewer

ABR's full Sick Bastards audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

The only reason I wanted to listen to this is “Extreme Horror” boasted in the title. I have been off listening to science fiction and thrillers and have gotten away from one of my favorite genres.

Um… Holy crap… Whew… Sick B*stards: A Novel of Extreme Horror, Sex and Gore is by far the most brutally disgusting, sexually explicit, gut wrenching, nauseating, guilty pleasure I have ever heard. The title is not joking around and this is not for the faint of heart.

Brief synopsis. A family of four wake up with no memories of the past. They appear to be alone, the only ones in the city. Quickly they run out of the surplus of food and supplies. They have to venture out and discover they are not alone at all. Soon the others they find end up, literally, on the dinner table. Gagged and screaming while the family eats their fill.

If that wasn’t enough. Father is sleeping with mother, father is sleeping with daughter, mother is sleeping with son, son is sleeping with sister. In the most graphic hard-core ways. So mush so that my skin would start to crawl, I would look over my shoulder at work to see if anyone else could hear the incestual escapades. I do not like erotica and I didn’t like all of the sexual content, however if you can, somehow, push that aside. There is a terrific horror story here.

All of that aside this is a story a young man coming of age, in more ways that one, and discovering what is truly important. Truth or happiness. Family or solitude.

Have you been looking for a story that will horrify you in almost ever was imaginable? Well, look no further. This might even make me think twice before listening to another audiobook by Shaw. I say that now, but who am I kidding.

I was thinking to myself while listening to this one. Takes place in the United Kingdom, why not pick a British accent? Well, because that would have stunk. It wouldn’t have given Sick B*stards the raw brutality that a rough Scottish brogue can bring to the table. And if that is what you are looking for then Chris Barnes is who you want for your audiobook.

Even though there wasn’t really a rhythm to this story Barnes was able to bring it regardless. Somehow he was able to keep his wits about him while telling this deranged and twisted tale. I have said this before and I will say it again, Barnes does not have the best characterizations. Yet somehow he is able to breath a life into horror stories like I can imagine no other doing. Yes, he is on my short list of go to narrators.

Audiobook provided for review by the narrator.