Book Review: The Bleed by Stephen S. Schreffler

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“There can be no apex as long as there is abyss.”

📚

It’s 1995, and best friends, bandmates, and social outcasts Barry and Lich are doing what they can with what little they have in their small northern Michigan hometown of Grafting. Both come from broken families, live on the wrong side of the tracks, and regularly serve as punching bags for the high school jocks. But they have each other; their stoner metal duo band, Wolf Harp; weekly Dungeons & Dragons games with their friend and dungeon master, Sammy; escape via Barry’s van, the Wolfmobile; and delicious Donner's Cherry Pies and Sunny Delight to keep them going. Things are rough, but they’re getting by — until an earthquake hits, a mysterious organization infiltrates the area, other-dimensional creatures unleash murderous wrath, and the evidence points to them. Can the unlikeliest of heroes evade arrest, prove their innocence, figure out what’s happening, and save Grafting before otherworldly evil wipes it off the map?

An expansion of the phenomenal Human Monsters anthology inclusion “Barry & Lich,” The Bleed is a brutal, fast-paced horror/sci-fi meld oozing ’90s nostalgia, ruthless violence, devastating ruin, and gnarly gore balanced by deeply tender, darkly funny moments. Think Men in Black, Stranger Things, and Frost Bite vibes, yet a wholly unique creation set in a cozy, endearing setting stacked with flawed, vulnerable, fully-fleshed characters whose harrowing struggles feel agonizing and devastating.

Interspersing historical “strange phenomena” incident reports with present-day carnage, the narrative weaves a reality-shattering nightmare with peak danger and sky-high stakes. It’s a fantastically cinematic account of earthquakes, sinkholes, and Bleeds; histories, memories, and traumas; anomalies, theories, and realities; intentions, decisions, and actions; experiments, extractions, and allies; assessors, monsters, and doppelgängers; and secrets, circumstances, and truths. Rife with heart-rending deaths and soul-splitting actualities topped with eye-catching cover art, The Bleed is high-octane horror with intense heart, the haunting prelude of which is brought to life in episode 25 of the Dark Matter Magazine podcast, which includes the original story and an author interview (highly recommended!).

Thank you to Dark Matter INK for providing an e-ARC of this thrilling new release (happy pub day!) for review consideration. It’s a tense and gripping novel sure to captivate a wide range of readers.

🖤Amanda

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