"Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island" Book Review

Item: Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island
Rating: 4
Author: Administrator

Written by Gabino Iglesias

Published by Eraserhead Press

Gargoyle Girls Of Spider Island 01

Written by Cameron Pierce
2011, 83 pages, Fiction
Released on December 16th, 2011

Review:

Cameron Pierce's Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island has drawn comparisons to some of the biggest names in horror. While it's true that you can hear echoes of H.P. Lovecraft and Brian Keene in this tome, the best thing about Gargoyle Girls is that it's entirely a Pierce book. This means the prose is sharp and intelligent, the twists are wild and come at you fast, there's plenty of humor and the story will be over before you want it to be. As with every book I've read by this Wonderland Book Award-winning author, the first page managed to hook me in and my attention was ensnared until the last word.

Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island tells the story of four college seniors that take to the sea in search of good times. With graduation looming, Oscar, Allen, Jane and Colette are looking forward to a weekend full of booze, sex and tropical joy. Instead of fun in the sun, the youngsters run into a couple of pirates. In the ensuing battle, the four seniors not just witness a shark attack, but also subdue a pirate and take over the enemy's ship after their own vessel sinks. With the tied swashbuckler in tow, the friends wake up the morning after the attack and find themselves on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. With a seemingly endless supply of rum and delicious fish filets courtesy of the buccaneers and a beautiful, pristine beach all to themselves, the stranded foursome are sure their amazing weekend is finally about to begin. However, things will not go their way. The island is inhabited by gorgeous dark-skinned women that make Playboy centerfolds look like minced meat. Looks can be deceiving and the beautiful natives turn into sex-crazed full of bad intentions and covered in toothy vaginas. What follows is as fast and intense as a tropical hurricane: monster rapes, rolling heads, beatings, menstrual blood, dynamite and a fight for survival that includes more explosives shoved into rectums than any other book out there.

Part gory horror story, part love story, part island adventure story and all bizarro, Gargoyle Girls is yet another Pierce book that helps redefine what bizarre fiction can be. The author is a man of extremes, but he somehow manages to balance his extremes out. The story is as horrific as it's sexy, as gory as it's humorous and as weird as it's classic. For fans of horror, tensions run high, dismemberment and blood abound and evil monsters unlike any other come out at night. For fans of bizarro, the characters offer a hilarious critique of white rich kids, there's a vagina-headed baby and the ending is an epic and strange love story that could only come from the talented/twisted mind of Pierce.

Monsters, adventure and absurdity collide wonderfully in this deranged tale, just don't be surprised if you read it in one sitting and then find yourself purchasing more of Pierce's work. If you like your horror on the weird side, Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island is a must-read.