Porn

It's difficult to write a review like this without spoilers, but I'll try my best.

And you know what they say? Any type of publicity is good publicity!

Porn isn't a good book because the content is too far-fetched. I wrote a story when I was 10 years old about it all being a crazy dream... How old is Matt Shaw then? It had me in disbelief by the end.

Am I supposed to believe that core plotlines are just figments of my imagination? Did I take LSD and magically make it all up? 👀

Back to Basics. The main character is in financial debt and continues to pile unhappiness and pressure on herself. So she gets into porn.

I was hoping for a sordid descent into depravity. A story about making it big in the porn industry, enjoying the coke and expensive drinks, fame, popularity, wealthy mansions and amazing shooting locations, yachts, followed by the inevitable slump when the money dries up and no one wants to book you any more. Perhaps time to get some payback? Bitter, used up, afraid and vulnerable.

This is a short story about a woman who gets into the extreme glamour industry, spends a month enjoying it, gets mistreated badly one evening and goes on her vengeful spree. It has potential. That potential is totally wasted.

What's the message in Porn? Men treat women like scum? Women rise up and refuse to take it anymore? No. They continue to be treated like scum. If this is supposed to be a chick revenge flick, it's some weird misogynistic diatribe instead. Who is the target audience for this book? Can someone comment and explain what I'm missing?

Pick your tools and modes of dismemberment. Throw all logic into a blender and hit max.

It's badly written. Lazy sentences, churned out too quickly with the aim of shocking readers over and above quality content, with all sorts of grammatical mistakes and other errors:

"Tom looked down at smiled wider."

The weirdest use of an 'at' preposition I've seen in a while. Poor editing and sloppy seconds.

I keep on reading these books in search of something groundbreaking and shocking. I found Jack Ketchum and Cormac McCarthy. Stephen King isn't scary exactly but is an amazing storyteller. I enjoy Kristopher Triana and Ryan C. Thomas has some interesting things to say... the list keeps on growing.

But Matt Shaw (at least here) isn't very good or thrilling at all. Fortunately, this book is short, fast-paced, straightforward, packed with gory action and doesn't bog you down with complicated plots or character development. It's shotgun reading and a quick blast of blood and semen. It can be tossed aside.

The more you try to be shocking the quicker readers get desensitized, and if the writing quality isn't there either, they tune out and turn off. It did excite my ire enough to write about it, so there is that.

The most curious thing about Porn is it not being erotic or stimulating. Look at the title. I didn't feel a single twitch in my nether regions during this book. Maybe that's the point - too brutal to be sexy, but isn't that also a massively wasted opportunity? The chance to create something tender and sensual to arouse sexual interest and then smack it out of the park later on with brutality?

I don't think Matt Shaw is a skilled writer. There is little tension. Characters are one-dimensional, boring and dislikeable. If you want faceless splatterpunk or torture porn this could be ideal and I'm sure this isn't one of his best efforts.

I want to be shocked and pummeled senseless and will give Matt Shaw another chance because I'm confident he has it in him. It's throwaway splatter pulp after all for a certain mindset. Discard the intellectual sentiments and wade through a plethora of filth.

And where's the humour, wit and sarcasm? I read horror for the thrills, obviously, to also feel revulsion and disgust, other times to laugh out loud at silly moments like a naughty schoolboy who really shouldn't be that entertained. Porn takes itself seriously. Why?

Onto the next Matt Shaw book (I bought a stack for pennies), which will hopefully be better than this two measly stars. One star is reserved for DNF - it's the same thing.