Synopsis:
Joey has a very unique paraphilia that has ruined his health, destroyed his once handsome looks, and made him an outcast, a pariah. Now, this horrifying fetish threatens his very life, placing him in the hands of a profoundly disturbed and angry woman with a serious grudge.
From the twisted imagination of Wrath James White comes a tale of extreme horror, extreme violence, and revenge taken well beyond the extreme.
Review:
I love extreme horror, perhaps a love I don’t share enough on here, and if there’s one author responsible for handing me the skeleton key to that grisly door, and ushering me on through it, it’s probably Wrath James White. A few years ago, I read “Skinzz,” which remains one of the most depraved and violent pieces of literature I’ve read, but beneath the torrents of blood and bodily fluids, were rich character ARCs, high quality writing, and a brilliant, compelling plot. For those with steel-lined stomachs, I recommend it. It’s a book that showed me extreme horror is more than just a cavalcade of leaking intestines and extensive erotica (although there’s an abundance of both). With Skinzz being nearly a decade old now, I was excited to pick up a 2024 release, and I can confirm, “The Bug Collector,” is not for the faint of heart, stomach or bladder.
We follow Joey, whose life has been overtaken by a strange fetish. We all have our interests. A few years ago I accumulated an ungodly amount of funko pops, I have an extensive collection of sunglasses (I wear the same 3 pairs every Summer), hey, I currently have a few hundred books lying on my bedroom floor because they won’t fit on my shelf. Well, our main character is not in the business of collecting stamps, hoarding records, or trading baseball cards..
A “bug collector,” who takes pleasure in catching as many STDs as possible, Joey is quite literally rotting away, having opted for dark alleyways and mouldy cardboard boxes as opposed to his cushy house (with up to date payments!) A rather unfortunate predicament anyway, things get even grislier when Tina, a prostitute who unwittingly caught various diseases from our sorry excuse for a main character, decides it’s time to exact her revenge… an extreme horror fan herself, she knows just how to do it.
From the very first scene (which brought to mind the notorious page 44 from Aron Beauregard’s “Playground,”) this novella is grim. I (clearly like to live life on the edge, and) have read the notorious extreme horror books the internet likes to harp on about… “No One Rides For Free,” “Cows,” “Woom,” the lot. I found this one challenged me more- it is quite simply disgusting. Outrageously depraved, arguably sacrilegious, and teeming with pestilence and disease, my jaw was dropped, my gag reflex was challenged, and my pearls were clutched… tightly, for the hour and fifteen I spent reading this one.
A deep dive into the effects of destructive habits, Joey’s bizarre quest to “catch ‘em all,” reflects how our vices ruin us, and those around us. His bizarre pursuit of STDs is obviously harmful to his health, and he is aware it will be the death of him, in fact that is his intention (and would frankly, be no great loss). Tragically, the rules of biology and common sense seem to dictate that in order to acquire new diseases, you have to spread your own- enter Tina. Ultimately, it seems Wrath James White is demonstrating that in regard to issues such as addiction, often we are not the only ones who pay the price.
In this case we also learn what happens when you play dangerous games, particularly when someone rewrites the rulebook. Joey is quite happy to throw away the comfortable life and prosperous career he’s made for himself, with reckless abandon, ruining his own life, and the lives of others. Tina, who certainly has her reasons for playing the femme fatale, and one hell of a grand finale lined up, demonstrates that there is a cost to carelessness.
HORROR, with a capital H,O,R,R,O and R, if relentless dread, nausea and stomach turns sounds like your idea of a nice, relaxing read, then “The Bug Collector,” may tickle your twisted fancy. On a serious note, if you’re looking to dip your toes into some extreme horror, I promise you, this is not the novella to wade into. If you’re gutsy enough, and ready to cannonball into the septic tank of gore, grime and utter grotesqueness that is “The Bug Collector,” you should pick this up, provided you remember PPE, and to wash your hands before and after, lest you never feel clean again.
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