Murder Stories for your Brain Piece by Kevin Strange is a collection of short stories about death, murder, giant dicks, and the insides of buttholes.
The first story, Ass Worship, took a ridiculously silly concept and managed to make it somewhat sad by approaching it with a level of seriousness in it’s characters. It was about poor little creatures called The Glutoids that live inside of woman’s asshole, constantly being smashed by shits or drowning in suppository goo. It was more funny and entertaining than anything else, but the ending was pretty bleak. I kinda felt bad for little Filipo, which just made me find it humorous again when I really thought about what had just happened. I think its a testament to how well it was done that I didn’t even really see the silliness of this bit until after the fact, I was just worried for the little guy that tried so hard to make a better life for his people.
I Killed Jessica, Again was an unlikely partnership story. Two enemies having to work together for their mutual benefit. Lots of impressive imagery in this one. It managed to tell a story that could have easily been novella length in just a handful of pages. It was very entertaining and at times pretty tense. It also had some really memorable characters, Jason in particular. While a flag waving, gun toting redneck is not a character I’d typically enjoy, I felt he was what really made this story as good as it was.
An Otherwise Ordinary Kind of Life was a short crazy mess of a mind fuck. Its one of those stories that layers twist over twist until you have no idea whats going on anymore. If Cronenberg had smoked crack while making eXistenZ, it might have turned out something like this.
Sleep Now, Sinner, once again, took a ridiculous concept and made it serious by approaching it with sincerity. Kevin seems to be pretty good at doing that. Much like the first story did with sadness, this one did with tension. Until I finished it and remembered that it was all brought on by a giant queef, which made it funny again. This was another really short one so there’s not much to say besides how well it created such vivid images in so few words.
Ms. Dumb Ass and her Friend Fucking Von Stupid Shit was another twisty mind fuck one, but even sillier than An Otherwise Ordinary Kind of Life. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected. And it had an awesome bit of ultra-violence at the beginning that was extremely creative. While this wasn’t one of my favorite stories of the collection as a whole, that opening scene was definitely one of my favorite single moments in the book. Would love to see this animated Superjail style.
Loch Ness Lay was gross. Like fucked up hentai level gross. You can probably tell by the title what the story was about. I won’t spoil anything specific. This was actually one of my favorites of the collection in a way just because it actually made me scrunch up my face a couple times. And again, the description here was extremely well done. For better or worse, I could vividly picture everything that was going on.
Inside an Asshole was easily the best of the bunch, so it was appropriate that he saved it for last. An unforgettable barrage of nastiness. Just about any horrible thing that exists, happens in this story. Richie G is one of the sickest bastards I’ve ever read about. Usually when you go as excessively far as this story does, it becomes lame and boring after a while. This one never does, he gradually ups the ante and presents the horrible memories and events in such a way that it never became cheesy. I took this shit very seriously, and it even left me feeling a bit sick. As someone who grew up on ultra-violent films since childhood, disturbing me is no easy feat, but this one managed to do it a little bit. It also packed a fair bit of emotion amongst it nastiness as well. And it finished up with a pretty satisfying conclusion. Not only was this my favorite story in Murder Stories for your Brain Piece, its one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. If you’re one thats always looking for something that really pushes it with completely relentless atrocities, I recommend this more than any Splatterpunk novel.
Overall, Murder Stories for your Brain Piece is easily one of the best anthologies I’ve read and I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks they can handle it. I look forward to reading more from Mr. Strange’s fucked imagination.