A review by twilliamson
Killer Be Killed by William Sterling
4.0
Killer Be Killed is described by William Sterling as his take on the camp slasher, and I believe the operative word in that description to have two meanings: it is slasher horror set in a summer camp, but it is also a story that gleefully wears its gleeful exaggerations and schlock concept like a medal. It's a novel with unambiguous ambition to be extraordinarily violent, with explosions of gore and tentacles and chainsaws.
The plot might be straightforward, but that's fitting for a novel that is mirroring familiar summer slashers. Boone, a single father, drops off Athena at her summer camp just before the camp's counselors turn on the campers in order to initiate a violent ritual to summon Shevra, an otherwordly demon. Things take a turn for the worst, and that's when the book gets gnarly.
But what the book undersells is its emotional core: it is about the lengths a father would go to in order to protect the memory of his daughter. Parenthood, in both good iterations and bad, is a central theme in Killer Be Killed, such that the book acts more and more as a commentary on cycles of love and loss, hope and abandon, nurture and scorn, appreciation and contempt. Boone, the book's central paternal figure, is a stark contrast to Shevra, the book's central anti-maternal figure, and much of the emotional fireworks in the story revolve around their unlikely encounter after an interrupted cult ritual.
Make no mistake about Killer Be Killed: it is as bloody and gory as these slashers come, full of an insane amount of violence that takes unadulterated joy in the transgression. The bloody murder is exactly what makes the book so fun to read, and Sterling's quick clip through his summer camp massacre keeps the book from feeling overlong. But the emotional core of the book remains a central and critical component to what makes the story worth telling, and part of what makes the book entirely worth reading.
As Sterling's contribution to camp horror (in both senses of the word), it's a slam dunk, demonstrating Sterling's comprehension of the tropes of this kind of horror. Killer Be Killed is popcorn-worthy reading, with a lot of action, a surprising sentimentality, and enough blood and guts to make any special-effects studio's eyes water.
I'll gladly take s'more.
The plot might be straightforward, but that's fitting for a novel that is mirroring familiar summer slashers. Boone, a single father, drops off Athena at her summer camp just before the camp's counselors turn on the campers in order to initiate a violent ritual to summon Shevra, an otherwordly demon. Things take a turn for the worst, and that's when the book gets gnarly.
But what the book undersells is its emotional core: it is about the lengths a father would go to in order to protect the memory of his daughter. Parenthood, in both good iterations and bad, is a central theme in Killer Be Killed, such that the book acts more and more as a commentary on cycles of love and loss, hope and abandon, nurture and scorn, appreciation and contempt. Boone, the book's central paternal figure, is a stark contrast to Shevra, the book's central anti-maternal figure, and much of the emotional fireworks in the story revolve around their unlikely encounter after an interrupted cult ritual.
Make no mistake about Killer Be Killed: it is as bloody and gory as these slashers come, full of an insane amount of violence that takes unadulterated joy in the transgression. The bloody murder is exactly what makes the book so fun to read, and Sterling's quick clip through his summer camp massacre keeps the book from feeling overlong. But the emotional core of the book remains a central and critical component to what makes the story worth telling, and part of what makes the book entirely worth reading.
As Sterling's contribution to camp horror (in both senses of the word), it's a slam dunk, demonstrating Sterling's comprehension of the tropes of this kind of horror. Killer Be Killed is popcorn-worthy reading, with a lot of action, a surprising sentimentality, and enough blood and guts to make any special-effects studio's eyes water.
I'll gladly take s'more.