Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Human-Shaped Fiends (Splatter Western Book 11)

Cover art is amazing, the book itself... not so much.

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2021

I was intrigued by the idea of melding a western with that of the author's meta interludes, but the end result is quite slothful. The meta element doesn't actually affect the western plot, nor does the western plot affect the meta element...

As far as the western portion goes, it's passably written but completely void of surprises (Morrison also seems to enjoy repeating the same terms/phrases quite often--within a page, one expression is used 8 times) It's an extremely standard story told in a poorly structured way. There's so little in the way of development that nothing carries weight and it just comes off like a string of cliches buffered by some grisly displays of cruelty (so for peeps that just want the "splatter" you won't leave empty handed). Not to mention, the lack of any detail to anything occurring also creates holes and a great lack of logic.

The book is short, but it's really padded with the self-indulgent interludes in which a version of Morrison complains about not being able to write the western while having pretentious conversations with LA elitist types, talking highly of himself and having sex with women. I was waiting for these "interludes" to become involved; amount to something bigger--but they're ultimately just cringe... the discussion he has with a pal about what one might consider offensive terminology is especially eye-rolling.

I'm not sure what Morrison was trying to accomplish. This is easily the worst of the Splatter Westerns I've read in this series because he didn't seem to care at all--and then padded an underdeveloped story complaining about how he really doesn't care about much of anything. I'm curious as to what Death's Head Press thought when this was turned in. It's like he's trying to play a character in an unmade Bret Easton Ellis project. Either way, I'm not sure what all this praise is for (plants?). Anyone can write shock, it's real easy. But it takes talent to weave a narrative that not only contains shock, but also has power, ingenuity and passion behind it. But that cover art is still killer.

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Gina B.

Chandler is sex. 🙌

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2021

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“Man’s always just a little nudge away from chaos”⠀
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HUMAN SHAPED FIENDS ⠀
by Chandler Morrison ⠀
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📍Set in 1854 Los Angeles, California. ⠀
🕶Teenage outlaws on a killing spree. ⠀
👮‍♂️A hot sheriff with some secrets ⠀
☠️Addiction and toxic relationships⠀
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I was so nervous to read this one. I haven’t cared to pick up a splatter western, until I heard that Chandler was throwing his hat in the ring. If you’ve read Chandler you know his brand (😂) and I knew I’d be along for the ride. ⠀
And horrified. ⠀
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He did not disappoint. ⠀
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I laughed at the slang, and was kinda distracted. I basically read it like I was watching Gunsmoke. The scenes were vivid and checked all the western boxes: a saloon fight, racism, sexism, good vs evil, murder (RIP horse)⠀
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There’s several trigger warnings, I won’t list them because if you are triggered at all about anything, you probably shouldn’t read this. I definitely squirmed on a few scenes. He wrote all the characters so well, I was cheering for some and others I was wishing a Chandler death on them.⠀
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Also, SPOILER, he did author interludes which I loved. Reading his struggle to write a western and what his fans would think and how to keep on brand was very entertaining. I wouldn’t expect anything less. And he really took getting into character seriously (or did he? I have a hard time knowing what was real😆 ie: Britney dance). ⠀
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The ending line had me do a quick google translate and my instant reaction to reading the translation from Spanish to English was FKKK YES!!! I love his endings and this one was fantastic! ⠀
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If you like westerns and being uncomfortable, add this to your list 🙌⠀
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It’s Chandler, bitch. ⠀

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Travis Davis

Let’s Give The Fans What They Want!

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2021

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First off, full disclosure. I am a huge Chandler Morrison fan, I have been since I got introduced to him by Jeff Burke after the Bizzaro-Con and Deadite fiasco over a rather spicy reading and reenactment of an especially repellent sequence in the deliciously depraved book Dead Inside ( You know the one )

Anyways, so it’s not going to be a shock that I give this a five star rating, I’ve gobbled up everything this transgressive genius has put out like a certain Doctor eats dead fetuses….I’m insatiable for his brand.

What we have inside the pages of this book are two stories. First is the splatter western that Chandler is desperately trying to get done for DHP.

It’s a dark story about a lot of things, but most importantly it’s about Los Angeles and the role it plays in the evil that men do. It’s filled to the brim with actual Human Shaped Fiends that rape, torture, kill, drink heavily and partake in drugs.

It’s about love and what it does to a person. It’s about the sheer senselessness of human nature and how black the hearts of men truly are. All in all a very enjoyable smorgasbord of guts, grue and tasty depravity of the highest order.

Now here’s where things get mighty interesting.

Interludes are peppered throughout of the “real Chandler” going through the motions of his vapid existence. We have our hero struggling to try and surpass what he feels he has become, the Dead Inside guy.

He is even mocked and belittled by the skeleton from the cover of the damned book telling him that is all he will ever be.

We read on and see that Chandler is stuck in this endless cycle of giving his fans ( all ten) what they want or expect from a new Chandler Morrison novel, AKA his brand.

The poor guy is pigeonholed and there isn’t a way to break from these literary restraints, self imposed or otherwise.

We follow him throughout as he has discussions with his friend and fellow writer and constant Twitter banterer Autumn Christian.

Follow him as he is mistaken for another writer friend and given a rather painful hand job, and basically wonders what all of this has to do with his western. It’s hysterical stuff in every way possible.

It’s a writer at the top of his game having fun at the audience’s expense and I love him for it! It’s like the AC/DC
Song, “ If You Want Blood, (You’ve Got It!) you also get rape, necrophilia, baby eating, incest, lots of smoking and all of the other Grand Guignol that we the fans love him for and his critics absolutely loathe.

It all ends in a very horrific way as only Chandler can do as he winks at us and says, “here’s what you came for, this is what you think I am!!!”

This is easily the most impressive Splatter Western book yet. I can’t recommend this any higher , if any of my incoherent babbling made any sense to you then run, don’t walk and buy this amazingly brash and scathingly hysterical transgressive masterpiece.

5 out of 5 partially eaten dead babies!

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Banana Man

Bravo! Mr. Morrison

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2021

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Anyone who tells you that they've read a better splatter western than this, is lying. Because if there is such a thing as a splatter western, and you were going to try to pick just one to read, then Mr. Morrison has clearly demonstrated that he is the reigning king 👑 of the splatter western.

Everything about Human Shaped Fiends is masterfully done. It has just the right amount of gooey-rapey-splattering, without going full on psycho-mode like the notorious Dead Inside. Also this one has interludes that come after some of the more hardcore splattering, so it gives you as the reader a chance to catch your breath. Which I found to be a refreshingly clever touch. Bravo! Mr. Morrison.

The cover art is strikingly beautiful, and I'm sure will become Mr. Morrison's new favorite poster to talk to in his collection of book cover art posters. Oh wait. Actually he doesn't talk to them, rather the posters talk to him, especially that pretentious Dead Inside one. . . It keeps messing with his head, and if I were Mr. Morrison, I'd tear it off my wall and burn it. By the way Mr. Morrison you shouldn't listen to your posters, because they're not always right. Just write whatever makes you happy, and don't worry about trying to live up to some imaginary brand. Because when you think about it, if people aren't fans of the true stuff that you have in your heart to write, then were they ever really your fans in the first place? Or were they merely fans of the splatter?

But I digress. The story is brilliant. It's really two separate stories. The main one is a paint by the numbers splatter western. The other is pure Californication, but staring Chandler Morrison instead of David Duchovny.

By far the best scene in the book is a case of mistaken identity during one of the meta-interludes. That one had me seriously obnoxiously laughing my head off. . . to the point that all the imaginary people around me, were just staring at me like what's wrong with Banana Man? I just looked at em' back, and then I told em' it's Chandler bitch.

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Paul Preston

Satirical horror but real horror

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2021

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Chandler Morrison is his own brand. Certain boxes need to be checked off in order to count as a true Chandler Morrison book. He made sure all of those boxes were checked multiple times in this story even though you just know he had a hard time writing it. He basically comes out and tells you that writing a western was difficult, but in my opinion it was just as amazing as John Wayne Comunale, I mean Chandler Morrison is.
Full of wonderfully detestable characters and political correctness you will be enamored with Chandler‘s sensitivity and by his creative ways to kill, and torture. This is a Splatter Western after all and it practically splatters all over your face while you read it. You will want to shower off when you finish.

“People got a way of losin’ sight of their values when they catch the scent of blood in the air. Man’s always just a little nudge away from chaos.”

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Rayne Havok

Cuckoo for cocoa puffs

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2021

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This mother effer... I am right on the edge of saying this is my favorite from Chandler and it's blowing my mind.

I pride myself on being a reader, but a damn finicky reader I am, I won't read anything set before like 1980, for one, because it's just not interesting, the world before my birth (joking, but seriously). So to give a western even a chance, it had to come from this man.

I didn't read the blurb, I didn't have to, I saw the name and picked it up instantly, I also noticed his portrait on the cover and only laughed because of-freaking-course Chandler Morrison wants to be on his own cover, I've seen enough of his (real or faked) ego to not question such things.

Anyway, brilliant as always, I wouldn't change a thing, and honestly, I'm like a huge fan of whatever he writes. I will read it because the words are perfect.

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Timothy

Well... that's different.

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2022

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"Hey Tim," I say to myself as I light a cigarette. "We're going to review 'Human-Shaped Fiends' by Chandler Morrison. We need to go meta."

"Well Self," I reply to myself as it would be rude of me to not answer. "Why do we need to… are you smoking? You don't smoke."

"Well currently, I'm a meta-parody of myself, and I think it would be funnier if I was a chain smoking review who…"

"We're not doing that. That's not meta. This joke is becoming less meta and more of like signs of insanity."

"Trust me, that works for this review too."

"What am I'm I getting into with this book?"

"Trust me, even if I explained, you still would have no idea… but it's going to be fun."

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Human-Shaped Fiends is the 11th in Death's Head Press's Splatter Western series (all stand alone novels, so fear not if you want to start here or with any of the others) and it proves beyond a doubt how many more directions they can take this series. These books have been consistently entertaining since the first, and while I have not read all eleven, I've read a decent amount and there have only been one misfire for me, so I think that says a lot about the consistency of these books. Now, personally the first one (The Magpie Coffin) was the best of the books and has been a tough act to follow up. While I've enjoyed pretty much everything, nothing has really competed with that first one… until now. This one is easily my favorite of the lineup that I've read. I'd also say it's the most clever.

The plot seems fairly straight forward at first. A young band of teenagers start a killing spree and a sheriff is supposed to track them down. Sound like a fairly straight forward western scenario… then the book cuts to the author Chandler Morrison discussing how he has no clue how to write a western in his own style. Maybe he should go meta? Maybe he should cut to himself trying to write the book and the struggles of being the guy who wrote Dead Inside (often cited as one of the most disgusting books ever written and has become something of a dare in some areas of the horror community) and how he feels like he has to cross off everything that he expects his fans want. This book is not going to be an artistic statement… it's a product!

In doing this he has created one of the most fascinating books. He tells the readers the sections with him are a parody of himself and people he knows. He talks about going full "Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation meta" and proceeds to have a blast with it. One of my favorite moments is when he asks one of his friends what she thinks of the manuscript thus far. Her response:

"I don't like that you made me a smoker in your book," Autumn says, hitting her cigarette. "I've never been a smoker."

But everyone smokes in a Morrison novel, so even on the meta-side it's needed. At one point one of his friends asks him about how he's going to write this horror novel. He tells them it won't be horror, but satire. "I'm contracted to write a Western with lots of blood, a high body count, and some supernatural elements. Nothing says it has to be horror." There lies the genius of this one. He does all of those things he's required to do. The body count is high, the violence is gruesome and yes, there's more than a hint of the supernatural… it's horror… but it's really more of a comedy. A comedy about what we the readers expect from this series, and him as an author, and how one can conform to that without actually doing what is expected.

It's a bold move. It's fun move… it's honestly one of the funniest damn books I've read in years with scenes that had me genuinely laughing out loud. Admittedly this is not a book for everyone. Some will be turned off by his meta self insert comedy… but this one gets my highest recommendation to anyone who can stomach the violence and gore… but even if the author says there's no reason for it, I assure you there is. A rare 5/5 stars.

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stevenduaneallisonjunior

The legend rides again...

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2021

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Chandler Morrison loves this book (not as much as **************), but I don't want to steal Chandler's lines.

Great meta horror western.

Also the sequel to Blood Meridian perhaps?

Anyways, read this entertaining and delightfully disgusting tale.

Highly recommend.

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