Ray Garton sure knows how to get a reader’s attention. The prologue to BESTIAL involves an overweight girl in a trailer park who decides to let a mentally disabled black youth take her virginity. Somewhere in the course of the intercourse, the boy is … replaced. By a werewolf.
Luckily, Garton knows how to keep your attention, too. After all, the halfway point has a baby werewolf snacking on a man’s nether regions, and just wait, dear reader, for another character going a little — make that a lot — too far with his fingers as he bathes his elderly mother. Yes, sir, that unmistakable Garton touch, if you’ll pardon the pun, is back.
The novel is a sequel to last year’s howlingly good RAVENOUS, but also kinda his vampire tale NIGHT LIFE, which itself was a sequel to LIVE GIRLS. Vampires aren’t the name of the game here, but the freelance investigators hired by horror writer Martin Burgess in NIGHT LIFE are back for BESTIAL, now sent to the small town of Big Rock, Calif., where the curse of the werewolf is transmitted solely via nooky. Practically all the authorities of Big Rock have turned, and are inclined to use all their power to keep it that way.
One unwitting pawn is Bob, a serial masturbator with one friend in life, and who lives with his Adventist mother and grandmother, both of whom he cares for, even if they don’t exactly care for him. He’s got an eye on a rather voluptuous hussy at church, until he learns she’s, um … a little hairier than humans would like. That doesn’t stop the inevitable forced sex at the werewolf-run house of worship, as someone bangs out “Born to Be Wild” on the organ for accompaniment.
Over-the-top? You betcha! And Garton being Garton, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Despite a few too many characters to keep track of — some with a few too many details on the ol’ backstories — his novels and short stories are pure pleasure. For his devotion to delivering serious horror without taking the horror too seriously, he’s one of the most reliable brand names in modern fright fiction. —Rod Lott
“‘Now take your pants off,’ Penny said. Byron stood and dropped his pants as she stretched out and spread her legs. ‘Now you lay down between my legs, Byron.’ ‘Tween your legs?’ He thought about that a moment, giggled, then got down on top of her. Penny reached over her fat middle and grabbed his cock, which was already erect — it seemed to be most of the time — and put it in her. An explosion of breath came from her lungs. She whispered, ‘Okay, Byron, in and out. In and out. Fuck me.’ ‘Fuck you?’ he laughed. ‘Momma says that’s a dirty word an’ I shouldn’t never say—’ ‘Just do it.’”
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• LIVE GIRLS by Ray Garton
• THE LOVELIEST DEAD by Ray Garton
• NIGHT LIFE by Ray Garton
• RAVENOUS by Ray Garton
• SERPENT GIRL by Ray Garton
• SLIVERS OF BONE by Ray Garton
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Loved BEASTIAL. Attention grabbing and fast paced, can’t ask much more from a horror novel.
Can vampires live on the blood of vegetarians?