[BOOK REVIEW] VIOLENT VIXENS: AN HOMAGE TO GRINDHOUSE HORROR, EDITED BY ARIC SUNDQUIST

Kiste’s voice is simply genius here, evoking amusement, heartbreak, and suspense with sardonic quips as the author parodies family board games

Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror, edited by Aric Sundquist
Dark Peninsula Press

BOOK REVIEW BY REBECCA ROWLAND 

With lines like “The chainsaw felt more right in her hands than food or water” (“The Saw House” by Shannon Brady), grindhouse-themed Violent Vixens promises its readers a rollicking fun ride, and sure enough, it is. In this newest release from editor Aric Sundquist, fifteen authors point their sniper scopes directly at the feminist exploitation horror wave and inject it with new life in high octane stories that range from paranormal to science fiction.

Having read multiple works from Scotty Milder in the past, I knew the first entry in the pack, “The Whole Price of Blood,” would be a shotgun blast, and the author did not disappoint. What begins as a seemingly traditional revenge-porn set up—Abigail, a victims’ advocate, listens to the statement of a sexual assault survivor under the sterile lights of a hospital room—shifts quickly into overdrive, casting some iconic imagery from apocalyptic folklore in a new, and more sinister, role. Milder is at fighting weight here, crafting a new breed of heroine as the tale tumbles gleefully into creature splattergore. As is true for many of the storylines in Vixens, there is room for a sequel, but I’d love to see the author expand this one into a full-length screenplay.

Continuing the bloodfest are exceptional entries from Rob E. Boley and Matt Neil Hill. Boley’s “What the Bone Says” takes the prize as the most ghastly of all of Vixen’s storylines: a woman survives unspeakable torture only to transform into a primal monster of her own, a femur from another victim her only confidant. In Hill’s “The Parts that Hurt Me the Most,” the last of a foursome of renegades maneuvers through a bus station carrying a suitcase full of body parts. How she arrived there with her gruesome cargo beats any desperado on the lam tale I can recall.

If supernatural horror is your preference, two Vixen standouts are Adrian Ludens’ “Animate Objects” and Paul Magnan’s “The Course of One’s Life on Fire.” The women in prison trope saturated grindhouse movies of the early 70s. In Ludens’ tale, when a new inmate corners Debra into explaining why she is housed in a cell all by herself, she’s not prepared for the story she hears. It’s one of Debra’s life before incarceration, where seemingly innocuous objects dart about the room on their own accord. Ludens’ pacing is whipsmart methodical, endearing the seemingly innocent Debra to the reader until the very last act. If you’ve ever wondered what little Charlie McGee’s life might have been like as Stephen King’s pyrokinetic wunderkind negotiated adulthood—or what happens when a housewife’s patience comes to a violent end—Paul Magnan offers an insider’s peek. The resulting story is a vision board for anyone who has haggled with an endlessly annoying neighbor. You’ll be using the tale as a mantra to keep from strangling that person who cut you off in traffic.

There is something for every horror aficionado in Vixens, even a taste of bizarro fiction. In “Finger Lickin’ Bad” by Nik Patrick, Kim is new to country living, a farm town transplant from San Francisco. When she visits the local feed store and chick hatchery, she quickly learns that toppling those who perch at the pinnacle of the food chain can be a nightmarish (and delightfully absurdist) experience. Bonus points to Patrick for a fun exchange about 1950s screen sirens at the end.
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My hands-down favorite of the collection is Gwendolyn Kiste’s “Sister Glitter Blood” for two reasons. First, in lieu of the traditional narrative format, Kiste presents the story as a board game tutorial, a set of instructions to twin sisters on how to play the nefarious Sister Glitter Blood (complete with the registered trademark symbol), including sections titled Equipment, Rules of Play, and The Winner. Second, Kiste’s voice is simply genius here, evoking amusement, heartbreak, and suspense with sardonic quips as the author parodies family board games and parental apathy in lines like “You want to believe you’ll both get away, but sometimes, you’re not so sure.” “Sister” is an allegory both on siblings whose parental influence ping-pongs between addiction-shaded neglect and abuse and on the ghosts of childhood damage that haunt us as adults. Or maybe it’s just a kick ass tale of two girls messing with an occult-themed plaything. Either way, it’s worth buying the collection for this tale alone.
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The ladies of Violent Vixens aren’t the tongue-in-cheek gals of femsploitation films of yesteryear; they aren’t your parents’ femme fatales. They are juggernauts of vengeance and survival, delivering delicious destruction and leaving few survivors in their wake, and you won’t be able to put them down.

​Content alert:
​Sexual assault, Animal abuse/injury. Neither is depicted graphically.

Purchase a copy from Dark Peninsula Press

Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror 

Fifteen tales of Grindhouse action and horror!

Featuring stories by: Gwendolyn Kiste, Rob E. Boley, Sarah Read, Scotty Milder, Sophie Leah, Paul Magnan, S.K. Campbell, Matt Neil Hill, Adrian Ludens, Mark Wheaton, Buck Weiss, S.R. Miller, Nik Patrick, Shannon Brady, Jaap Boekestein. Compiled and edited by Aric Sundquist. Cover artwork by Mikio Murakami.

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