From the Bookshelf of Splatterpunk…

The Old Lady

Kristopher Triana

Start date: October 1, 2024

Finish date: October 31, 2024

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: This is the October 2024 Group Read.
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What Members Thought

Feb 25, 2024 Pisces51 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2024

Please note that this is a re-posted review and not a re-read 2024. I am putting it up because it was the Splatterpunk Book Club selection for this month. The members voted for an outstanding entry by one of my favorites in the new voices in extreme horror. I thought I was going to be able to re-read this one with the club, but I do not believe I will make it.

THE OLD LADY [2024] By Kristopher Triana
My Review 5.0 Out Of 5 Stars

This was just released, and I had to have it. No one needs inquire how Please note that this is a re-posted review and not a re-read 2024. I am putting it up because it was the Splatterpunk Book Club selection for this month. The members voted for an outstanding entry by one of my favorites in the new voices in extreme horror. I thought I was going to be able to re-read this one with the club, but I do not believe I will make it.

THE OLD LADY [2024] By Kristopher Triana
My Review 5.0 Out Of 5 Stars

This was just released, and I had to have it. No one needs inquire how I feel about Triana I guess. This novel is a departure from “Going to See the River Man,” “Along the River of Flesh,” “The Prettiest Girl in The Grave”, and others that come to mind. But when you think about it Triana has already distinguished himself as a genre-bender before this novel. “A Fine Evening in Hell” and “The Devil Cried” are crime fiction with the second one more organized crime.

I gotta say it. I LOVED this book. It meets the definition of “unputdownable.” Tracey, a weathered woman in her fifties with a criminal record is returning to the remote cabin she grew up in, partly because her father died and she inherited it. Her deceased father had also warned the realtor that Tracey was the only person who could enter the house safely due to armed booby traps.

The author creates an incredibly damaged but sympathetic character in Tracey. She had escaped from the cabin once and never looked back. Her father was a traumatized veteran of the Vietnam War and had been tortured by the Vietnamese. Her emotionally disturbed father had subjected her to rigorous survival training under horrible and brutal conditions believing that it was in his daughter’s best interests. He had tortured her and trained her like she was going to be grabbed by the Vietnamese by nightfall. Tracy finally escaped the living hell in the remote cabin and her father’s domination, but she suffered from PTSD and soon was involved with drugs, promiscuity, and the criminal element.

Meanwhile a teenager named Alicia and her two friends were hiking through the forest and became lost in the snow. The kids stumble across a compound run by extremists, and unfortunately see too much to be allowed to leave. Alicia manages to escape into the wilderness and in her search for help comes across the secluded cabin in the woods. Tracey has no more than taken a look around the place when the panicked teenager starts banging on her door. This immediately launches the traumatized Tracey into combat mode. Her inner demons awaken and are screaming. Despite Tracey’s severe PTSD she is a deadly adversary. Alicia finds that she has an ally in Tracey, a protector to help her and her friends.

The snowstorm continues to hammer down and Alicia knows that men from the extremist camp will follow her tracks and hunt her. But soon enough, Alicia will be questioning if her new champion is a Helluva lot more dangerous and deadly than the men inhabiting the compound she escaped.

This is riveting action throughout the book. Tracey is a character of Triana’s that I will never forget. My heart bled for her at the same time she was annihilating the so called extremist bad actors. The most memorable scene in the book was when Tracey disarmed voluntarily to protect the innocents. She was undergoing torture by a female member of the extremists that specialized in torture and sex trafficking little girls. Wow!

The author delivered a realistic if not predictable climax to the novel. Sometimes I hate when that happens. I cannot believe I am saying that because I just reviewed another book that had a fairy tale ending and I criticized it. You might think I cannot be pleased. Smile. That is not so, though. This book is absolutely fantastic, realistic ending and all.

KICK #$% NEW SURVIVALIST HORROR FROM TRIANA ...more

50 likes · Like · see review

Oct 26, 2024 Charlene (Char)🍁☕️📚 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A One Woman Army

This book was selected for my October read and this was my second time reading from this author. This book is a perfect read for an ominous and spooky scenery. It’s about teenagers who wanted to have a nice weekend being one with nature in the woods and enjoying the weather but little did they know this was the beginning of the end. They stumble upon something they should not have which starts the unfortunate the events that take place. Tracey a woman that is returning home to a ...more

14 likes · Like · see review