Headless by Scott Cole
Headless by Scott Cole is a dystopian sci-fi novella. Published by Grindhouse Press on March 5, 2024, this novella weighs in at 139 pages and is touted as “splatterpunk meets cosmic horror.”
What a wild ride! When I first looked at this book, I found the cover to be extremely intriguing. The galactic swirl where a head once sat had me curious about what would happen in this fast-paced novella. I jumped in, with only a brief idea of what was going to happen. I love doing that. I ended up being entertained throughout the entirety of the book.
This story follows three strangers who end up banding together for survival against being killed (or assimilated) by the Headless. They face insurmountable obstacles as they try to escape the oddities happening in their city. Unfortunately, the Headless phenomenon is global.
Cole does a wonderful job keeping this story rolling at a fast clip. He writes the story in short chapters, bringing the action and chaos to a head (no pun intended) in most of them. He then intersperses chapters describing what’s happening through the guise of newscasts, interviews, and even commentary from the aliens invading Earth. It’s a great mix of information and points of view that kept me turning pages and engaged the whole time.
The story starts out with a “bang” - literally. There are some mature scenes in this book as well as gory and grotesque. They were done tastefully and will give most readers a visceral reaction - one of the things I always enjoy! I appreciated Cole’s ability to take characters to the brink both mentally and physically. I’d be curious to know what other readers think of the grocery story scene!
One of the things I also enjoyed was how Cole took basic scenarios we have all experienced and ramped them up about twenty notches to produce chaotic and devastating results. You can feel the fear and need to escape as you follow along with Linzy, Carter, and Joanna.
I found this novella to have a strong horror scenes as well as a slight tinge of humor at times. When the world is being overtaken by Headless, it’s a nice touch to also be able to enjoy some dark humor.
I’ve not read a ton of splatterpunk books, but Headless definitely makes me want to check out some more. If you enjoy gore, action, science fiction, and dystopian themes, this is a great book to grab!
Need more Scott Cole?
Get to know Scott Cole:
Scott Cole is the author of Headless, Crazytimes, Triple Axe, and SuperGhost, as well as two collections of short fiction, Departures and Slices. He is also an artist and graphic designer. He lives in Philadelphia.
***Taken from Scott Cole’s website
Get to know Grindhouse Press:
Grindhouse Press was founded in 2010. We are a small press with the goal to publish 10 – 12 books a year with an emphasis on horror, extreme horror, transgressive fiction, sleaze, exploitation, dark humor, and general weirdness with a dark theme. If you are interested in submitting to Grindhouse please check our submissions page. If you are interested in our books please search for our titles wherever books, ebooks, and audio books are sold.
***Taken from the Grindhouse Press website
