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mxsallybend's review
4.0
Cameron Pierce's Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island is probably the most immediately accessible of the Bizarro books I've read to date, and also the easiest to enjoy. It's a very straightforward contemporary tale, told in a linear fashion, by a comfortably reliable third-person narrator. Actually, if you ignore the sexually mutilated corpse in the closet of the pirates' boat, the first half of the story is pretty standard horror fiction. With coeds on a stolen boat, depraved (if somewhat inept) pirates, sharks in the water, and a tropical paradise that you know must be too-good-to-be-true, it reminded me in many ways of Richard Laymon's Island.
Of course, when it goes off the rails into the extreme darkness of the Bizarro world, it does so quickly and without reservation. Like any truly great slasher story, where the dirty sinners must be punished, it all begins to go wrong with a bout of drunken, illicit sex, preceded by some rather bloody foreplay. Afterwards, Oscar heads down to the beach to take a leak, where he is promptly ambushed by (you guessed it) one of the gargoyle girls. A monstrous blob of writhing flesh, with as many tooth-filled sexual orifices as bugged-out eyes, she rapes the young man in more ways than one, at both ends, and all at once. The moment she's done, however, she transforms into an Amazonian beauty who looks as though she just walked off the set of a glossy porno movie.
From there, it all descends into a hell of sexual slavery, inhuman depravity, and very human cruelty. You know it's not going to end well, but Pierce offers up some truly inspired scenes of punishment and revenge that are guaranteed to make your toes curl and your stomach churn. Rectal dynamite plays a significant role - not once, but twice! - and the sharks make a final cameo appearance before Pierce pushes the story completely over the edge, giving Oscar the kind of happy ending that only the most brutally perverse could ever appreciate.
Twisted, warped, and just wrong on so many levels, it's also a story that is one hell of a lot of guilty fun.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
Of course, when it goes off the rails into the extreme darkness of the Bizarro world, it does so quickly and without reservation. Like any truly great slasher story, where the dirty sinners must be punished, it all begins to go wrong with a bout of drunken, illicit sex, preceded by some rather bloody foreplay. Afterwards, Oscar heads down to the beach to take a leak, where he is promptly ambushed by (you guessed it) one of the gargoyle girls. A monstrous blob of writhing flesh, with as many tooth-filled sexual orifices as bugged-out eyes, she rapes the young man in more ways than one, at both ends, and all at once. The moment she's done, however, she transforms into an Amazonian beauty who looks as though she just walked off the set of a glossy porno movie.
From there, it all descends into a hell of sexual slavery, inhuman depravity, and very human cruelty. You know it's not going to end well, but Pierce offers up some truly inspired scenes of punishment and revenge that are guaranteed to make your toes curl and your stomach churn. Rectal dynamite plays a significant role - not once, but twice! - and the sharks make a final cameo appearance before Pierce pushes the story completely over the edge, giving Oscar the kind of happy ending that only the most brutally perverse could ever appreciate.
Twisted, warped, and just wrong on so many levels, it's also a story that is one hell of a lot of guilty fun.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
bmacenlightened's review
4.0
I enjoyed this, it was fast, breakneck almost throughout most of it. The characters were kinda shallow, but it suited the novel. Beasts were interesting, and disgusting and honestly I knew what I was in for so it was entertaining. Good stuff for sure.
sheldonnylander's review
3.0
Cameron Pierce is a sick puppy. Having read some of Pierce's previous work, I knew was to expect in terms of the violence, gore, and sexy stuff, an expectation that I did not have the advantage of when I read Ass Goblins of Auschwitz. In addition, his short story in Christmas on Crack should have cleared this up. Which made Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island a bit unexpected. Hold on. I'll explain in a moment.
The story starts with four college students on break in the Caribbean in a boat being chased by pirates. After their boat is damaged and they managed to commandeer the pirates' boat, the four students and one of the pirates wind up on a mysterious deserted island...or so they think. You know things are ominous when Oscar, the main character in the novel, tries to identify their position by the stars but can't recognize any constellations.
The writing overall is very good. It's very descriptive, both in scenes and action, and there's a dark humor, too. I couldn't help but laugh a bit when Oscar accidentally injures Allen. Or I'm just sick, and reading too much Bizarro fiction. Either way, it works in a sadistic way.
The first half of the book felt...normal. Way too normal. And tame, primarily focused on the pirate attack and then being stranded on the island and the relationships between the characters. This is what was so unexpected. Maybe this was Pierce's goal, to lull the reader with a false sense of security and a change of style from his previous work. But the book is really divided into two parts, or could have even been written by two different authors. This first half is quite tame compared to most of the other stuff I've read by Cameron Pierce. It doesn't feel like a Bizarro novel. The gargoyle girls of the title don't even appear until around the halfway point.
Unfortunately, this is also where the book's central problem comes in. The book changes gears way too fast. There's little to no ramping up of the action or weirdness. Instead, Pierce smacks the reader in the face suddenly with what I have come to expect from him, reminding you that you are indeed reading a Cameron Pierce novel. It's a bit like sailing relatively gentle seas with the occasional rolling wave, then getting hit by a tidal wave out of nowhere. This inconsistency becomes this book's biggest failing, at least for this reviewer, as the dramatic change in tone pulled me off the page and reminded me that I was reading a book and not there with the characters. But I think what makes it so jarring is that what felt like the novel's real story is way too short, and that there was potential for a lot more development of the gargoyle girls and the society on the island. They're just sort of there. It felt less than undercooked, even half-finished.
It's a decent book (in terms of quality, not morals), but unfortunately it doesn't achieve greatness with this reviewer. The tone and style change too quickly, and it takes half the novel before the real action that you would expect from the title to even start. As such, Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island by Cameron Pierce earns three bottle of pirate rum out of five.
The story starts with four college students on break in the Caribbean in a boat being chased by pirates. After their boat is damaged and they managed to commandeer the pirates' boat, the four students and one of the pirates wind up on a mysterious deserted island...or so they think. You know things are ominous when Oscar, the main character in the novel, tries to identify their position by the stars but can't recognize any constellations.
The writing overall is very good. It's very descriptive, both in scenes and action, and there's a dark humor, too. I couldn't help but laugh a bit when Oscar accidentally injures Allen. Or I'm just sick, and reading too much Bizarro fiction. Either way, it works in a sadistic way.
The first half of the book felt...normal. Way too normal. And tame, primarily focused on the pirate attack and then being stranded on the island and the relationships between the characters. This is what was so unexpected. Maybe this was Pierce's goal, to lull the reader with a false sense of security and a change of style from his previous work. But the book is really divided into two parts, or could have even been written by two different authors. This first half is quite tame compared to most of the other stuff I've read by Cameron Pierce. It doesn't feel like a Bizarro novel. The gargoyle girls of the title don't even appear until around the halfway point.
Unfortunately, this is also where the book's central problem comes in. The book changes gears way too fast. There's little to no ramping up of the action or weirdness. Instead, Pierce smacks the reader in the face suddenly with what I have come to expect from him, reminding you that you are indeed reading a Cameron Pierce novel. It's a bit like sailing relatively gentle seas with the occasional rolling wave, then getting hit by a tidal wave out of nowhere. This inconsistency becomes this book's biggest failing, at least for this reviewer, as the dramatic change in tone pulled me off the page and reminded me that I was reading a book and not there with the characters. But I think what makes it so jarring is that what felt like the novel's real story is way too short, and that there was potential for a lot more development of the gargoyle girls and the society on the island. They're just sort of there. It felt less than undercooked, even half-finished.
It's a decent book (in terms of quality, not morals), but unfortunately it doesn't achieve greatness with this reviewer. The tone and style change too quickly, and it takes half the novel before the real action that you would expect from the title to even start. As such, Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island by Cameron Pierce earns three bottle of pirate rum out of five.
azeryk's review
3.0
Before getting this book I had yet to read anything from Cameron Pierce but in the pursuit of find more good authors I was willing to give him a go. Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island is his 7th bizarro fiction novel and is the latest released so far.[return][return]The story starts off more like a regular horror story where four teens end up being stranded on an island with lots of rum after they get attacked by pirates. But around half way through the bizarro starts to kick in when they discover what is on the other side of the island. I don't want to ruin any surprises and say what happens but this is where you get assaulted by the sex, blood and violence within the story.[return][return]So overall this is an entertaining book which can be read in one or two sittings by a young author who has the potential for many great books ahead of him. So if your open minded about your horror stories then you will enjoy this book.
adubrow's review
1.0
I'm totally a lightweight when it comes to gross, disgusting things. As a result most of this book made me nauseous. I liked Pierce's writing style initially, and I had some idea of what I was in for considering the summary and cover, but not enough of an idea by any stretch of the imagination.
Personally I would just not recommend this title to anyone, but I'm sure it will appeal to fans of a more extreme bizarro than I tend to gravitate towards.
Personally I would just not recommend this title to anyone, but I'm sure it will appeal to fans of a more extreme bizarro than I tend to gravitate towards.
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