100 pages, Erasorhead Press
Review by Hereward L.M. Proops
How
far is too far? That's a question that Cameron Pierce has clearly never asked
himself. I didn't know what I was letting myself in for when I bought “GargoyleGirls of Spider Island”. To be honest, it was the title that grabbed my
attention. I was expecting something goofy and trashy but I was taken aback by
this little novella.
What
starts as a relatively trashy story of a group of wealthy, beautiful American
students getting stranded on a tropical island quickly descends into an utterly
depraved gross-out orgy of epic proportions. Nothing (and I mean nothing) is
sacred in this book. The gargoyle girls of the title are the native inhabitants
of the island. Tall, busty, tanned beauties, they are also capable of morphing
into fleshy, grotesque, tentacled monstrosities dripping with slime and covered
in hungry vaginas...with teeth. The gargoyle girls are into rape in a big way.
They keep a harem of inbred male slaves to satisfy their voracious appetites
and when they come across the stranded college kids, they do what comes
(un)naturally to them. Asses are fisted, nipples are bitten off, whole limbs
are devoured by the slavering fanged vaginas. Pus, blood and faeces all feature
heavily and are sprayed about in stomach-churning quantities. There's one
particular scene where a man is set upon by two of the creatures and is
literally f*cked in half. There's stuff going on in this book that would make
the Marquis de Sade blush. In all honesty, there are more than a few scenes I
wish I could un-read because they are now seared into my memory and I don't
think I'll be forgetting them in a hurry.
And
then, two thirds of the way through the book (yes, I actually finished it),
amongst all the bodily fluids and raw flesh being penetrated six ways from
Sunday, it dawned on me. This isn't a book so much as an elaborate, long-winded
joke like “The Aristocrats”. It is so over-the-top and blatantly obscene that
it is impossible to take it seriously. It isn't a particularly well-written
story and even some of the truly revolting descriptions of depraved acts lack
the polish and artfulness one would expect to see in a genuine horror novel.
No, it is unfair to judge “Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island” the same way we
would approach a horror novel. Any trace of plot and characterisation vanishes
fairly early on, as though Pierce doesn't need to concern himself with such inconveniences
when there are c*cks to be snapped in half and vagina-faced babies to be shat
out.
It
takes a lot to shock me. I'm a very liberal person and I wouldn't consider
myself to be easily offended. Did this book shock me? Yes. Am I offended? A
little bit, but given that this seems to be Pierce's sole intention in writing
the story, it makes sense that I was left feeling that way. Job done, Mr.
Pierce.
I
won't be buying another one of Cameron Pierce's books in a hurry (even if
Amazon is now recommending that I download his highly acclaimed “Ass Goblins of
Auschwitz”). It wasn't a good piece of writing and whilst it made me laugh out
loud on several occasions, I am well aware that this book will appal far more
people than it will entertain. Still, there's bound to be some folks out there
who will find this little book worth a giggle or two. And there has to be some
merit in a novel where, at the end of the story, the heroine proudly announces
that she has an “ass cl*t”. More tea, Vicar?
Hereward
L.M. Proops
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