FEATURED CREATURE: Von and Greg
"Think you're hardcore? Think again. If you've handled everything Edward Lee, Wrath James White, and Bryan Smith have thrown at you, then put on your rubber parka, spread some plastic across the floor, and get ready for Ryan Harding, the unsung master of hardcore horror. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Harding's work is like an acid bath, and pain has never been so sweet."
- Brian Keene
Going in with that praise (and a rave introduction from Splatter King Edward Lee that includes lines like "Harding’s work will...turn you into a tramp. It will transfigure you into an object for use–a receptacle for all the animus, loathe, and maleficence the human mind has generated, a drain-can for the filth of all the abominations of the earth, and then? It will knock you up. I feel confident that you will be provocatively moved by this book."), one would think GENITAL GRINDER would practically hark the second coming of splatterpunk. Yet one would be dissapointed upon finishing the collection of seven stories; there are a few gems, but they are squandered amongst their unworthy surroundings.
The main problem with the collection isn't that author Ryan Harding cannot write, it's that he fills half the book with two of the most inane characters ever put to page: Von and Greg. Featured in "Damaged Goods" (the opener), "Genital Grinder: A Snuff Film in 5 Acts" and "Genital Grinder II: Dis-Membered", the two characters are sick--and not in that good ol' fashioned Ed Lee way. Not even a Keene or Ketchum way--they're just plain out stupid. The characters read like throw-aways from a better Ed Lee novel; with terrible dialogue and "adventures" that lose their taste and rapidly become repetitive, every story featuring the duo becomes lost in a sea of the most pointless bile ever upchucked. Every tale with the two were written for specific gross-out contests (the World Horror Con Annual Gross-Out Contest for the first two, an online one for the sequel), and I would normally excuse them seeing their simplified intentions, yet Harding makes it point to say that they were expanded/updated in the story notes. Maybe he could have expanded some more character development, and less pointless shock?
But I know, I know--by now many horror fans would be thinking "Oh no, he just doesn't get it. Well, here are my credentials: Ed Lee's Extreme Lovecraft novels, The Bighead, his collections, other assorted novellas by him...most of Ketchum's work (including The Woman and The Girl Next Door)...a ton of Laymon works (including his collection, Madman Stan & Others)...a ton of Keene works (including his Lee tribute Urban Gothic and the Laymon tribute Castaways)...and a ton of other "extreme" genre work ranging from the Hot Blood series to the recent Necro Files anthology. The Von and Greg stories simply don't work for one reason: the characters. Harding, in his quest for gore-martyrdom, spends so much of these stories filling them with gross-outs, he ignores the lead men and leaves the reader bored. (Lee on the other hand, makes you care about/relate to his people before throwing them down the sewer.)
"So", you say, "what about the other four stories?"
One is bad, one tries but falls flat, one is good, and one is...fantastic. The latter, "Development" is Harding's tribute (literally, it was included in the Richard Laymon tribute collection In Laymon's Terms) to the late horror maestro, and, simply put, Harding is an excellent Laymon chameleon. He can't imitate Lee, but he sure as hell can Laymon--everything about the story felt like his writing, right down to the satisfying twist. The characters, the atmosphere, the shock--all brilliantly done. I'd love to see more Laymon-like writing from Harding; the collection is worth the price just to read this. Really, really well-done.
"Emissary" is another good one. Not great like "Development", but good--the twist in this one is predicatable, but it's also tinged with a Laymon-like flair for shock. It works, and it's still fun to see the story progress. "Sharing Needles" on the other hand is the polar opposite--a mess of a story that's both confusing and mediocre. Its "twist" is forgettable, and the journal format annoys rather than serves. Skip it. The last story is "Final Indications", and it's Harding's attempt to blend smart thoughts into extreme horror. Lee and Ketchum can do it great, but injecting commentary and philosophy into horror takes plenty of maturity from the writer--and Harding just doesn't have it all yet. The story falls apart by the end, but does start out strong. It's basically the stage Harding, as a writer is currently at: he can write and he has plenty of talent, he just needs to hone it. With some more practice and follow-ups Harding could come to be a genuine extreme horror writer capable of a great collection--Genital Grinder just isn't it.
The debut collection certainly has a couple bright spots, but too often Harding succumbs to mere gross-outs. Still, the signposts for a great horror writer are all there: Harding just needs to follow them.
GRADE: C-
READ: "Develpment", "Emmisionary"
Review By Vicente Garcia
No comments