Just a Bite by Boris Bacic
Butterdragons Publishing (March 22, 2022)
230 pages; $12.99 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Boris Bacic is a horror author who has written more than ten novels, including collections of short horror stories. He’s been writing stories for years, ranging from genres like horror, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, suspense, etc. He’s been praised widely as an author who constructs compelling narratives and plots that will keep you at the edge of your seat. His stories regularly find their way among the top posts on Nosleep and he’s had dozens of his stories narrated by famous Creepypasta YouTube narrators. His newest novel is Just a Bite, a medical horror novel that’s a quick read and will interest fans of body horror.
Just a Bite opens with Phillip summoned to a laboratory, where Dr. Curtis meets him. Phillip is not used to being summoned in the middle of his sleep, so he knows this must be urgent. Still, Dr. Curtis’s secrecy is maddening, and Phillip is frustrated until he sees a petri dish of PT-104, a man-made parasite that necrotizes the host and feeds on its flesh until it dies, but not before moving to another host.
Elsewhere, Melanie is on a date with Darren, which seems to go quite well until she’s bitten by a stray dog. She doesn’t think much of it until the wound starts wriggling with maggot-like creatures. Suddenly, she’s starting to act strange, as though her body isn’t her own. Will somebody be able to help Melanie before it’s too late, or will her body rot and die in front of her while she slowly goes mad, dripping maggots that infect everyone around her?
Just a Bite tells an interesting tale that combines elements of mystery, body horror, and medical horror. All the elements are there for a solid, engaging narrative, but they lack the emotional depth that some readers might seek in reading. To be sure, Bacic is not setting out to write a Nobel Prize-winning novel chock full of literary merit and layered meaning, but there are times when the prose seems a bit sloppy or clichéd. However, the language and the writing isn’t the point of this book; they are just tools used to propel the characters through the narrative, and if readers suspend their imagination and enter knowing that this is not a profound or deeply resonant book, they should have fun and enjoy themselves.
Just a Bite is an amusing novel, especially if readers don’t take it too seriously. Bacic has written the equivalent of a B-horror film, but there are no pretenses about what it is or why it was written. Bacic has set out to tell an engaging medical horror tale with intriguing mystery and gruesome body images and has succeeded in that task. Especially in the wake of the COVID pandemic, medical horror like Just a Bite takes on an interesting social twist that will capture and engage readers. This is a short read, and one that’s both engaging but not so over-the-top as to be cheesy or unbelievable, and horror fans who are willing to let a little sloppy writing or underdeveloped characterization slide for the sake of an entertaining tale will surely not be disappointed.
