From the Bookshelf of Splatterpunk…

Psychic Teenage Bloodbath

Carl John Lee

Start date: May 1, 2024

Finish date: May 31, 2024

Discussion: Group Reads

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What Members Thought

May 12, 2024 Pisces51 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2024

PSYCHIC TEENAGE BLOODBATH [2022] By Carl John Lee
My Review 4.5 Stars

This short novel designated by Amazon as “Occult Horror” was published by Carl John Lee in the Fall of 2022 and has not enjoyed the readership and exposure it deserves in my opinion. However, it was gratifying to see that on Goodreads over 3000 members want to read it. Personally, I was not familiar with Carl John Lee albeit I have heard his name before. This was the first novel I have read by Lee. It was the designated Group R PSYCHIC TEENAGE BLOODBATH [2022] By Carl John Lee
My Review 4.5 Stars

This short novel designated by Amazon as “Occult Horror” was published by Carl John Lee in the Fall of 2022 and has not enjoyed the readership and exposure it deserves in my opinion. However, it was gratifying to see that on Goodreads over 3000 members want to read it. Personally, I was not familiar with Carl John Lee albeit I have heard his name before. This was the first novel I have read by Lee. It was the designated Group Read for one of my favorite book clubs for the month of May. There is a terrific Foreword by the Splatterpunk Queen Judith Sonnet. Her admiration for Lee oozes off the pages. I could relate to her words of praise after reading the excellent selection of extreme horror that is “Psychic Teenage Bloodbath”.

I found it interesting that the first 25% of the novel reads like a tender, well written YA lesbian love story extolling the angst of girls loving girls in the bigoted high schools of America in 1978. It is the night of the Prom and Charlie ingeniously arranges for the love of her life, Susan, to accompany her to the roof where they could have privacy and dance together while watching the stars and hearing the music from below.

The happiest moment of both their young lives is callously ruined when they are accidentally spotted through the skylight from below on the main floor of the stadium. The story is emotionally touching and infuriating to the reader when Charlie leaves Susan unattended to go downstairs and get them punch, but is intercepted by the freaky Mr. Carradine. The time gap allowed a quartet of mean-spirited bullies to assault and humiliate Susan where she waited for Charlie, the girl she loved to return. The group berated, humiliated, and ultimately assaulted Susan which led to her plummeting from the roof of the schoolhouse. Susan was grievously injured and put in an irreversible coma, and the reader grieves along with our protagonist young Charlie, who has lost her first love to the cruelty and bias of her schoolmates.

The reader knows going in that psychic phenomena will play a major role in the remainder of the novel. It has been 11 months and attending classes at the high school have been horrendous for Charlie. The bigotry and the cruelty are manifested on a day-to-day basis and she is praying for the last day of her Senior Year to finally show on the calendar. She dutifully visits the comatose Susan, talks to her and reads to her. Then one day fate throws her a welcome curve ball. Charlie meets a transfer student who was physically injured by her fellow students and whose parents have transferred her to Charlie’s High School to finish out the year to get her High School Diploma. They become friends and then the physical attraction between them cannot be denied.

It starts insidiously but then like a snowball rolling down a hill, shortly the psychic energy of the comatose Susan will be bringing Hell when she manifests her powers. The extreme horror is exactly that, and underlying the vengeful spirit of Susan, Charlie tries to just make it to graduation. She is “in love” with the new girl at this point, and the new girl does not believe that the comatose ex-girlfriend is responsible for the extreme violence and chaos…until she does.

I honestly thought that this novel was out of this world. The latter part of the book was incessant psychic warfare at warp speed. That is the only reason I deducted half a point. I loved the narrative once it slowed and levelled out toward the finish. I loved the twist at the end.

I also read the afterword by the author Carl John Lee. He sounds colorful. The novel I just read was originally supposed to be a screen script for a horror movie (which explains the frantic chaos of blood and bodily fluids splashing in every direction at the end of the novel).

EXCITING EXAMPLE OF SPLATTERPUNK THAT WAS ORIGINALLY DESTINED FOR THE BIG SCREEN

May 8th, 2024 – May 12th, 2024
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May 24, 2024 Dawn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well I ended up finding myself wanting to read this at night, when I’m all cozy in bed and wanting that dark fairytale to put me to sleep, so I think I must have liked it. It did remind me more of a gruesome graphic novel (without the pictures of course) but the writing is so very graphic so I don’t think I missed anything lol.

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