I Will Rot Without You by Danger Slater
Fungasm Press (February 8, 2016)
143 pages
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
I Will Rot Without You is not a book I would have sought out on my own. I’ve never read anything by the author, other than some of the reviews he’s written on Goodreads. I’ve never read anything from the small press responsible for its publication, although I have read a number of short stories from John Skipp, the owner of Fungasm Press.
I Will Rot Without You was sent to Cemetery Dance for review and when I saw it on the list of books offered this month, I recognized the name from Goodreads and thought this might be interesting. I love it when I’m right.
Before I get into the heart of the review, let me hit on what kept me from being over-the-top in love with this book. Because it is written entirely in the first person, there were numerous moments when I wondered whether I was reading what amounted to grammatical errors on the part of the writer or if the errors were due to the character’s lack of education. Lines like “and then the dreams ends” and “it feels like signal” drove me to distraction. There were too many to ignore.
Aside from the minor irritation mentioned above, I really enjoyed Danger Slater’s writing style. It’s gonzo or bizarro writing with a bit of beautiful prose mixed in. At times it’s surreal and totally off-the-wall, yet the underlying story is charming. It’s so much more than in-your-face splatterpunk. It truly defies description.
Ernie Cotard is having one helluva bad day. Before I got to the bottom of page one, my skin was crawling. God, I hate cockroaches. I hate mold, too. Both figure heavily in the telling of this story. The book is filled with a cast of colorful characters, including a neighbor of Ernie’s who has his long-dead wife still sitting at the kitchen table.
The body of this woman sits at the kitchen table. Her hair is ash gray, long and frazzled. Yellow fingernails curl from the ends of her hands and her teeth are protruding out of her face as the slow decomposition she had obviously experienced softened and squashed her deformed skull. Mummified, desiccated skin–equal parts purple and brown–pruned and completely depleted of all moisture. She is full of holes which the roaches climb in and out of, almost as if she were just another wall for them to burrow.
I Will Rot Without You is at times humorous, at times touching, but mostly utterly disgusting. And bloody, let’s not leave out bloody. There are literally buckets of blood. If you are in the mood for something different, something which will likely leave you shaking your head, this is that book.
Not scheduled for publication until February 8, 2016, from Fungasm Press, I Will Rot Without You is one to add to your watch list.
Recommended for the truly adventurous reader.
