Tackling The To-Do Pile - 'Anthology Of Splatterpunk', 'Her Story' & 'Tales Of The Neon Sea'

Making my way through the To-Read pile is a task and a half. It feels never-ending, mainly because I can't stop seeing new exciting books and adding them to the wobbly stack that lives between my bed and my desk. The stack of games is similar, with an alphabetically sorted catalogue on Steam that stretches to the point where scrolling through takes an age, and the pile of preowned things I haven't got to yet feels impenetrable. And then there's the watchlist of classics and oddball arty films and quirky horror and it is a LOT.

Tackling the mountains I've made myself has been fun. I've happened upon some really good stuff. So today, we're looking at Hellbound Books 'Anthology Of Splatterpunk', the 2015 Sam Barlow game 'Her Story' and the 2019 detective adventure 'Tales of the Neon Sea'.

HellBound Books' Anthology of Splatterpunk certainly takes the cake for the most gruesome book cover I've ever seen. Holding it is surreal.

'Anthology of Splatterpunk' is a collection of short stories that range from second-person revenge tales to Old Western shoot-ups that at first glance look like they have very little connective tissue. What is 'splatterpunk' anyway?

Well, the splatter is obvious from the cover.

Blood-soaked mattresses, rusty knives and flesh-hungry beasts fill the pages. Lots of the stories have a kind of off-putting sexuality to them; Continuing Education by NJ Gallegos is especially brutal, putting the reader into the thoughts of a serial predator who kills his victims. But the 'PUNK' part of the genre title is a little harder to see until you look closer. The stories are filled with a lot of rage. Gallegos' short sees the rapist being captured and slowly tortured for his crimes. He is made to feel as helpless as his victims. Looking between the others in the collection there are abusive husbands, racist bigots, homophobes - politics is everywhere. But these people are often the big end goal; they appear untouchable and terrifying and are brought down in a cathartic, if excessive, shower of blood and bits.

So I suppose it is 'punk', in a sense. A real volatile rebelliousness that threatens to kill the powerful and those who prey on the powerless. But unlike other punk, this is not about rebellion really. It is about bloody, painful revenge.

Some of the stories, like the queasy Victim by Julian Grant might even go too far. We get a stretching sympathy for our protagonist despite his racism and his dangerous radicalisation that has been pushed on him online. Him becoming the target of the slasher even goes some way to justifying his hatred of foreign people in the context of the narrative. And the eager, gleeful use of slurs feels unkind.

Snuffed: Fifty Shades of F****d Up by James H Longmore is the story that spawned the awful artwork on the cover. And I think it makes a good mission statement for the whole collection. Our protagonist at first appears likeable and then the reader recoils from that assumption as we find out about his perverted sexual appetite and what it is that he is looking for. As we find out about how he has manipulated and twisted a younger girl into someone he can influence it becomes clear what is going to happen. He will make his own snuff film, using the scalpel under his pillow. But then the tables are turned. He is ridiculed and emasculated and his desires are turned against him as he sees the snuff film he has been obsessing over turned real. He doesn't lift a finger, but his partner knows what he wants and she is already dead. He loses his mind, is arrested and dies alone and reviled. Splatterpunk is hate, yes, but it is hate directed at the hateful. And it has it's place. I enjoyed it, if that's the right word. The writing is good, especially Longmore, Gallegos, Phil Williams, DW Milton and Scotty Milder. And the stories are as nausea inducing as they are engrossing.

Her Story is quite a leap away from all that blood. Here we delve into an ancient computer system where one word has been searched into a database of interview clips. 'MURDER'.

Every clip, ranging from a little under two minutes to a little over two seconds, shows the same woman giving answers to detectives across a few different interviews. Searching the database and uncovering more clips makes up the entirety of the game, but players will get more information to search with. When she mentions that her husband, Simon, is the victim of the murder, we can search for Simon to get heaps more information. And every clip lets us in a little more.

I suppose I should avoid spoilers, because I do really recommend Her Story. It's a really unique storytelling method that lends itself to real investigative work. Playing it, I was only a few clips in when I started to make notes. A drawn timeline followed, and I spent a while marking each clip with new tags to make them easier to sift through. The rickety rig makes things tense, too, with a silhouette seen when the screen is on the fritz where the player should be. At first it's unnerving. Then it's just normal.

Her Story is an interesting narrative that is made infinitely cooler by its medium.

Tales Of The Neon Sea is cyberpunky, with pixel-art and anime inspired visuals and a noir coating that makes for something light and chewy. A point and click detective story, the game is relatively short and simple with only a few tricky puzzle sections. The main character, Rex, is assisted by his hyper-intelligent and dangerously cute sidekick - a cat named William who players get a few chances to play as too. Scanning crime scenes for visual clues, temperature clues and other forensic analysis is a highlight, while the blocks of lore and text unlocked for extra exploration feel a little clunky and detached from the story.

Rex is hunting a criminal. The one that got away, years ago. While this feels a little cliched, the political plot that courses under the game and runs parallel to the schemes of the murderer make for something that is slick and well-polished. Rex has an attitude and a drinking problem and is easy to smirk at. The adorable cat crew that can be amassed by the end adds some painfully cheery charm. While it feels a little bit bite-sized, Tales of the Neon Sea is well worth a try.

And that's that. The book was pretty great, the games were good too. More things leave the pile as more get added on.

But, I've been at the cinema recently. Furiosa, Inside Out 2. Some great things out at the moment.

If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comment below or message me and make sure to go follow me on Twitter or Instagram through my About page!

Thanks again for reading! Until next time.