I have never read a Bryan Smith novel until reading Merciless, but WOW. This was nothing short of a ★★★★★ star read. What an absolutely insane, violent book. I will slap this one down on the table immediately if someone asks me for an extreme horror rec.

This book was messy— in a good way. Bloody, violent, depraved, and psychotic. It didn’t take Smith much time to take me down the rabbit hole of what would become of Grant and Lindsey’s little “honeymoon adventure.” A beautiful cabin somewhere in the mountains becomes a slaughterhouse straight out of a horror film. A lot of people are ravaged in really sick ways.

The torture scenes are definitely intense, being that I found myself stopping a couple of times. They’re also quite drawn out. The drawn out aspect didn’t bother me much, I actually thought it was an appealing aspect of the story. Rushing a torture scene wouldn’t be very torturous, now would it? Smith does just fine with vividness, too… don’t worry, there will never be a time where you can’t see the violence and gore play out in your mind.

I was thoroughly engaged with Merciless even though it was a simple read that took place in a single setting. There’s not much world/character-building here, so if that’s what you’re looking for, this probably isn’t the book for you. I do appreciate that there was just enough here for me to see a storyline behind all the depravity and sickness, though. That’s always a plus, and ticks off the box that the author is more than just a gore whore, but a solid writer as well. Extreme horror writers always have to prove themselves, so I’m always rooting.

I definitely don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I’ll wrap it up by saying if you’re into extreme horror, you’ll absolutely be into this bad boy. It’s a ruthless one. I’m glad I picked it up to read for spooky book month, and it’s closed out my reading for October. I will definitely be looking into other titles by Bryan Smith.

Also, I was rooting for you Jorge!!!!! WTF man.