Kristin's Bookshelf

Snake Bight
By Robert King II
⭐⭐⭐⭐

A huge thank you to the author for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This may sound ridiculous, but my favorite part of this book was actually the afterword. I’m a Michigan girl, a huge horror movie fan, and a wrestling devotee who regularly attends WWE events whenever they roll through Vegas. I’ve been to multiple WrestleManias, SummerSlams, Royal Rumbles, and the occasional Monday Night Raw, so hearing about the inspiration behind these characters really hit for me. I genuinely think the book pays tribute to the legacies of Windham “Bray Wyatt” Rotunda and Jon “Luke Harper” Huber in a really heartfelt way.

For me, the prologue, Act 2, and Act 3 were the strongest parts of the novel, while Act 1 didn’t fully pull me in. That said, I honestly think part of that was my own fault. I listened to the beginning using text-to-speech while cleaning, and wow… text-to-speech really is the dollar store version of an audiobook. No emotion, no atmosphere, just vibesless narration flattening everything out. Once I switched to actually reading it myself, the story landed much better.

And this story is absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way.

You’ve got a cult leader creating a new species while claiming he’s going to save the world from corrupt politicians. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), Abin happens to be in Florida… where corruption and questionable elected officials are hardly in short supply.

By the beginning of Act 2, things really start moving. You keep reading not because this is trying to be some deeply literary masterpiece, but because it becomes impossible not to ask yourself: What the hell is happening in Snake Bight?

It’s fast, chaotic, weird, and genuinely entertaining.

I’d absolutely recommend this to readers who love over-the-top horror that feels like it should star Ian Ziering in a direct-to-DVD creature feature.

What I could do without: Use of the R-word. It doesn’t add anything to the book. It’s just an offensive term.