This is precisely what you would expect it to be. It's a gross, gory romp; long enough to get all the graphic details, too short to have an impact. Perfect for horror movie fans.

I very likely would've gotten more out of it had I seen more classic horror movies ...but I don't like horror movies. I'm still feeling out horror literature, but I'd lump this in with films. In fact, I think it'd make a better film. The story gains nothing from being a book, and the visuals sometimes trip over vocabulary. There's no character insight or plot development that we can't get through visuals or dialogue. When a character is angry or scared or injured, we don't feel it with them – we just see what it looks like. There's the story on the page and nothing more.

It's written quite well. The gross scenes are revolting, the tense scenes are breathtaking, the death scenes are upsetting. The saving grace for my reading was the romance sideplot. It's not gaudy or overwritten or shoehorned, and offers a safe landing place amid constant tension. I'm always frustrated when characters have to face hard things completely alone, and the romance angle provided a nice vehicle/tool for the overall character arc.

There's nothing wrong with this book. It is exactly what it claims to be.