This book is unhinged in the best possible way. Casamassina drags you through a fever dream with the moral compass snapped in half, mixing dark humor with “oh my god did that just happen?” moments. Chaotic, sharp, and smarter than it pretends to be.
Huge thank you for the e-ARC!

Imaginative and unique! This certainly went directions I never saw coming! Gory, kinda scary, often surprising, sometimes funny, and quite the eclectic team of heros. You will find yourself saying "what?"and rereading sections, it is just that out there.

If you asked me where this plot was going, I would have been wrong. If I was starting to get an idea, something would happen, and I'd be back at square one!
This book just kept getting weirder as things started happening. It takes a lot to gross me out, but there were several moments that I gagged. I did a double take when a character I thought didn't really matter suddenly mattered a lot. And somehow, in the epilog section, I was shocked again by something out of left field showed up.
I wasn't sure if I truly cared for Mason as the main character, but he grew on me just as everyone else did. I also was a little sad that the ending was as clean as it was. I really wanted to be some kind of consequence for all the bad the characters went through. However, the last epilog made me ok with its clean bow.
I'll be thinking about this book for a while simply due to the twists that punched you in the brain.

I am in absolutely awe with how the book ended, my jaw literally hit the floor! The way the story begans, definitely has no indication of how it will end. You will be taken on an absolutely fever dream of a ride! I was laughing, I was gasping, I was on the edge of my seat! I would love to read a sequel!

*I was given this ARC in exchange for an honest review *

Degenerate is a mind bending, satirical journey through a horror tinged Silicon Valley. It's perfect for fans of Dark Matter by Black Crouch, Dead Money by Jason Kerr and The Matrix. I really enjoyed this unique take on a thriller in Silicon Valley, and how Casamassina blended horror elements into somewhat speculative fiction.

Come to figure out what's wrong with Mason's vision, stay for the quippy remarks and very lovable cast of characters.

This was unhinged in the best way possible. I was surprised many, many times. There were parts I had to reread because I was so blindsided by the events. It is quite gross at times so that’s something to be aware of. This book is not for the faint of heart. Even through the twisty events, the plot was still good and the characters were fun to read. I’ve never read from Casamassina before, but I will look into his previous works. This is a book I will be thinking of for quite some time. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Matt Casamassina for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.

I love Lovecraftian horror, so this was right up my alley! I also felt a special affinity for the main character, as I deal with trigeminal neuralgia that often feels like someone stabbing a hot poker in my eye. I just wish mine came with special powers.

Think Stranger Things only with DB Cooper, a former Navy Seal, and a couple of best friends just trying to live their lives. A unique blend of horror, mystery and sci-fi. The characters are loveable, something that is very difficult to pull off in a novel like this. How often can a book scare you, make you laugh and even bring a tear to your eye? This one can do all of that along with a captivating story that will make you want to keep turning pages. To quote directly from the book "I guess times flies when you be chillin' with shadow monsters and looking for serial killers and stuff." You'll be flipping pages right up to the out of this world ending. I heard this book was a mix of Stephen King, Blake Crouch and Chuck Wendig and I could not agree more. If you like any of those authors, this book is for you!

Going in to Matt Casamassina’s Degenerate I had no idea what to expect…and even halfway through I wasn’t sure where the story was going…but dang what a ride. I’m not even going to attempt to give a story summary for this one, as I’m sure I’d end up rambling incoherently. Instead I will merely say this that is a wild mashup of genres culminating in a singular experience that stayed with me even after I hit the end. If you are looking for some wildly original you need to give this one a try. I’ve already picked up Dead Weight, another of Matt’s books, and only hope it’s at least half as good as Degenerate. Thanks so much to the author and publisher for allowing me access to an ARC.

Degenerate is a satirical rollercoaster of cosmic horror with a wild superhero twist. Much like a comic book this story hits the gas on page one and never lets up. It's violent, gory, and relentlessly paced, expertly balancing high-stakes action with dark, cynical laughs.

Degenerate
By Matt Casamassina

Mason is having eye pain that leads to hallucinations and fainting. When he comes to crazy things have happened. Children have gone missing. Copper, a man who should have been dead for many years, has shown up to help Mason and his friends solve the mystery of what is happening to and around him.
This book is an absolute mind fuck. One of the craziest books I have ever read and I loved it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the he opportunity to read this book early in return for my honest review.

Mason is a stressed-out copywriter in San Mateo with anxiety, vision problems, and a life that’s very much spiraling. Doctors say it’s stress. Reality says… maybe not. Soon he’s seeing shadows take shape, reality starts glitching, and things go fully off the rails—like his boss literally shoving termination papers up his butt (yes, that happens), or an entire police station collectively forgetting he’s a murder suspect. Toss in his ride-or-die, foul-mouthed bestie Cassy, his conspiracy-obsessed friend Rudy, and a very real guy named DB Cooper who Mason catches spying on him (because of course), and suddenly he’s knee-deep in something much bigger, darker, and weirder than burnout.

This book is an absolute fever dream in the best way. It starts off feeling like cosmic horror, veers into murder mystery territory, and then fully faceplants into wild sci-fi insanity with simulations, asteroids, and good old tentacle-y nightmare fuel. I genuinely never knew where it was going next, and that unpredictability was half the fun. It’s chaotic, unhinged, funny, and bizarrely thoughtful—one of those reads where you just shrug and go, sure, why not, and let it take you wherever it wants. Weird, entertaining, and delightfully degenerate.