PRODUCER NIKOLAS VS MAKE A MONSTER

This time, Nik gets a lesson in nature vs. nurture from Rob Nelson, to find out if the author can truly Make a Monster.

Adrian and Kendra are a match made in Hell.

Adrian’s dark past left him with a twisted imagination that takes him deep into the forest where he does unspeakable things.

Kendra is new to town. She has a dark secret of her own and an unhealthy obsession with a boy she hasn’t even met yet.

Until Adrian met Kendra, he had his deviant urges under control. The she comes to him for help, his capacity for violence goes beyond anything either of them could have imagined.

Title: Made a Monster

Author: Rob Nelson

Genre: Splatterpunk

Pages: 238

Format: Paperback / eBook / Audiobook

Do you have triggers?

If the answer to that question is affirmative, then I don’t feel like I’m going out on much of a limb by suggesting that this book will pull those triggers with a strange sort of manic glee. This is not to say that it’s gratuitous or that the book is the product of the sort of edge lord mentality that delights in triggering potential readers solely for the sake of doing so. There’s a story here, and an interesting one. Nelson’s novel seems to address the belief that monsters—like villains—are not born, they are made.

If you’ve ever found yourself searching for an extreme example of what’s meant by the phrase, “hurt people hurt people,” Rob Nelson’s Made a Monster is an excellent choice. The protagonists of this story are products of their respective environments, both of which are toxic and cruel to a heartbreakingly extreme level. It’s all too easy for many people to assume the sort of abuse Adrian and Kendra experienced is purely the product of fiction, and I hate to dispel that illusion for those who’ve been fortunate enough to reach adulthood without certain knowledge that these kinds of households do exist, and in greater numbers than all but the most cynical are inclined to accept.

This is the book for you—if you enjoyed the movies Heathers and Dinner for Schmucks, but you think they’d both be better if the screenplays had been rewritten by Ed Lee before he decided that they’d work better as a single manuscript, so he wove them together in the most perversely violent manner possible.

The depictions of abuse are unpleasant, the sexually-charged violence and aberrant behavior from the protagonists are certainly a bit on the far-fetched side of things, and the burgeoning love story you think you’re reading is going to take you on one hell of a roller coaster ride—but you don’t pick this book up because it’s a down-to-earth, happy-go-lucky romantic romp. You pick up a book like this because you enjoy thrill rides like  Kalifornia, Natural Born Killers, or 68 Kill.

I mentioned earlier that this book isn’t gratuitous, and I meant that. It’s worth noting that I might define the word differently. When I say it’s not gratuitous, that’s meant in the sense that none of the horrible things that take place on these pages are there for any purpose beyond telling the story Nelson set out to tell. Sure, he might be crossing a line or two along the way—where good taste is concerned—but that only deepens the impact.

And believe me…this one has one hell of an impact.

Nikolas P. Robinson is an avid consumer of books, movies, and television, especially where horror, science fiction, and fantasy are concerned. When he isn’t consuming media, he’s creating it as an author, photographer, videographer, and news producer in Portland, Oregon.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing, nor do the views or opinions of Crystal Lake necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or its staff. Thank you for understanding.