I must admit I am easily sold on any story, whether in print or on the screen which captures the spirit of the Halloween season.
This is something author Hailey Puper manages within the first few pages of the brutal and thoroughly entertaining Benny Rose: The Cannibal King.
Here Piper manages to construct, what feels like a fresh horror villain with an embedded mythology which feels structured and engrossing.
Our titular villain is the boogeyman of a small town who is alleged to eat children on Halloween night, in a town that has long disowned the spooky season. Sadly, for some teens in town, the legend of Benny Rose is true and he’s not messing around.
When we say he is the Cannibal King, he is literally this, eviscerating and munching down his victims until they are just a fading memory.
At a brisk shade of 160 pages, Benny Rose is a fast-paced and intense read which packs a lot of story into its pages and never hits any lulls.
This is the first novel I have read from Hailey Piper, but on this evidence, I will definitely be checking out more.
Benny Rose: The Cannibal King by Hailey Piper is available now in various book formats.
Bloody Flicks 