Walls of Torture had potential, but it desperately needed another round (or several) of proofreading before publication. The timeline was inconsistent in places, grammar errors were frequent, and the writing overall felt unpolished. It was hard to stay immersed in the story when the basic mechanics of writing were overlooked.

That was a lot in such a short book. I thought it was very enticing and kept my attention. Was not expecting all the twists n turns especially pracillas letter. Wrapped up pretty well. Enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Redman for the advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I've gone down the middle with 3 stars because was this the best book I've ever read? No. But was it an entertaining read? Yes.

There were points I found the dialogue a little hard to follow and I didn't quite *get* the whole thing, but I enjoyed reading it and thought it was a quick read.

⤷ 𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖

𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦
✍︎ 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘯

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝘼𝙍𝘾.

This interesting one follows a married couple wherein the wife decides she wants to start murdering people, catches the husband up in it, and things just spiral out of control from there. Toxicity is the name of this game. Content warning for graphic sexual depiction and gore/violence.

⭐️ ⭐️ / 5

Full disclosure, had to cut my reading short around 55% and changed my original generous 3 stars to 2. I hate it because the author was a delight to converse with and I know how hard it is to put your work out there. The writing style wasn’t for me as it felt a bit empty and the structure was off. The gore content and smut (?) was also beyond what I typically enjoy in my books. I’m not a splatterpunk kind of gal and this isn’t that, but I’m not even sure what a safe label would be to call this one so that’s the closest genre my brain can come up with. The premise was interesting and the idea was good. It kept me engaged for a time but just not something I felt inclined to continue. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stomach the content or get past the disjointed dialogue. But just because this wasn’t for me doesn’t mean it won’t be for you!

I encourage anyone who finds the premise interesting to give it a whirl as it’s available on NetGalley. This wasn’t for me but there are multiple reviews to the contrary so clearly there is an audience for this!

I believe it is best if I just say that I was the wrong audience for this book and leave it at that. My mistake entirely.

Regardless, I am always grateful for the opportunity. So thank you RDS Publishing | Uncomfortably Dark Horror.

.25/5

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my god .... actually the worst thing I've finished reading this year. Just complete nonsense with some of the worst smut and murder I have ever read. The characters make zero sense and whenever they speak it's like they're all having separate conversations. At one point the main characters actually say "unalive" and "we're cooked". ENOUGH! GOD PLEASE ENOUGH FREE ME FROM THIS HELL! I spent an hour on this and it felt like 10 hours.

Ugh ... just no.

This book is just not good.

It has moments where it feels like the author hit their stride and actually had some decent prose and story telling abilities, but then it quickly derails and becomes a mess of inconsistancies and nonsense.

It felt like the author wanted this book to be shocking to the reader so badly, that they just tried too hard and lost the plot.

It's not for me, and I'm not sure it's for anyone other than the writer themselves.

I think "john redman" has some good ideas, but the execution just wasn't there for me.

Let’s be honest—this one caught my eye while scrolling through NetGalley, and I clicked purely because the cover art intrigued me. The synopsis? Even more so. I had to see what was going on in this wild sounding story.

The novella turned out to be super short, which worked well here. The chapters were snappy, the pacing quick, and the plot moved at full speed into total chaos. While the writing wasn’t exactly my favorite style, it was surprisingly entertaining—and honestly, kind of hilarious? I know it’s labeled horror, but it definitely gave off strong satirical or dark humor vibes too.

Priscilla and Gabe's relationship is nothing if not toxic—completely messed up in a way that’s disturbing, yet weirdly funny. Their dynamic had me going back and forth between "what did I just read?" and "okay, that was kind of brilliant." It honestly felt like a chaotic, blood splashed fever dream that spiraled deeper into madness with each page.

Not much more to say except that it was a wild ride from start to finish. I'd definitely be curious to check out more from this author.

- 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘯 | 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (𝘐𝘉𝘗𝘈), 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴' 𝘛𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦-𝘈𝘙𝘊. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.💐ᡣ𐭩

This book was so good. It was the most craziest book that I have read in a while that couple the female character and the male character Ludacris insane. They both need help lol but this was a great read I will recommend

Whoa! What a gory, quick read. Walls of Torture is about a married couple, Priscilla and Gabe, and a series of murders that take place. Their relationship is toxic, but exciting at the same time. There is a psychological power play between Priscilla and Gabe. I really enjoyed the pacing of the story. It was easy to read and it kept me hooked. I could not put it down and wanted to see what happened next. I recommend it if you enjoy twisty dark novellas filled with violence and spicy scenes.

Well, this novella of horrifying marital dysfunction is dark and darkly humorous at times and it makes the couple from War Of The Roses look like a happy family!

It's about a married couple and one night the wife has a dream where she and her husband brutally torture and kill a man in their basement. And she's really into it.

She's never gotten along with her sister in law and casually tells her husband that she's murdered his sister and the body is in the trunk of her car. It is. He retaliates by kidnapping and murdering her mother in the basement while he forces her to watch.

But their relationship is twisted. He's like a horny puppy dog and she uses her sexuality to coerce him into killing more people together. He takes to it more than she likes and things are going to get out of control in a spree of violence and bloodshed.

This is a brutally dark novella but also has enough pitch black humor to keep it entertaining and engaging. It's one of those books you didn't know you wanted to read but will definitely stick with you once you do. I highly recommend it.