Book Review: The Next Time You See Me I'll Probably Be Dead

When I first started hearing about C.V. Hunt, I wasn't sure their writing was for me. Don't get me wrong, I knew their books would be good. Plenty of rave reviews convinced me of that. Still, their stuff sounded a bit more explicit than I was, at that time, ready to handle. That being said, I dived into Murder House a few months ago and loved it. So when I saw this collection, I jumped at a chance to read it and bought it for myself as a Christmas present. That was an excellent decision on my part, because I loved this one just as much, if not more, than Murder House.

There's a lot of body horror in here, which isn't always my cup of tea, but Hunt makes the grotesque fascinating. Whether people are becoming one with outdated technology, having their body invaded by eels, or being sucked into a giant vagina (yeah, you read that right), Hunt grounds all the bizarre in solid reality, investing the reader in the character's predicaments and making you completely believe in and care about what is happening to them.

My favorite story was probably "The Mailbox," even though it featured some animal death, which I'm not a big fan of. A boy and his mother move into a new house following a divorce and are warned not to use the "cursed" mailbox. This story is both suspenseful and heartbreaking, and I could not tear myself away from it.

This is a must read for Hunt fans and an excellent book to start out with if you haven't taken the plunge into their highly unique and incredibly visceral work yet.