From the Bookshelf of Splatterpunk…

Motel Styx

Michelle von Eschen,

Jonathan Butcher

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: April 30, 2025

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: This is our Group Read for April 2025.
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What Members Thought

Nov 28, 2024 Pisces51 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2024

SPLATTERPUNK GROUP BOOK READ FOR APRIL 2025 REVIEW REPOSTED

MOTEL STYX [2024] By Michelle von Eschen and Jonathan Butcher
My Review 5 Stars

“Motel Styx” by the “extreme horror” power couple of Butcher and Eschen was the Group Book Read by popular choice. EGW sponsors a contest each month with a draw, and I won! The book was an absolute winner too! Superb choice for the monthly group read.

Let’s face it. Writers of horror and dark fiction have gotten a lot of mileage out of the aberration of necroph SPLATTERPUNK GROUP BOOK READ FOR APRIL 2025 REVIEW REPOSTED

MOTEL STYX [2024] By Michelle von Eschen and Jonathan Butcher
My Review 5 Stars

“Motel Styx” by the “extreme horror” power couple of Butcher and Eschen was the Group Book Read by popular choice. EGW sponsors a contest each month with a draw, and I won! The book was an absolute winner too! Superb choice for the monthly group read.

Let’s face it. Writers of horror and dark fiction have gotten a lot of mileage out of the aberration of necrophilia. Having said that, my hat goes off to both of these talented extreme horror authors for throwing a fast pitch into the topic which resulted in a refreshing creative new angle for a very ancient “no, no”. Style points for giving the topic a makeover in this original work, and also a nifty apropos title “Hotel Styx”.

It is impossible to divorce the mythology of the Greeks from the term “Styx” (shuddering or hate) since we all remember the river Styx in the underworld that separates the living from the dead. The Styx was also guarded by Cerberus, a three-headed dog. One Cerberus was not enough, and I had two of them guarding our Halloween Display this year. They were scary and gorgeous.

The originality in the title of the novel (and BTW the Cover Art was as colorful as it was original), is not the only time the two authors dip into the jar of originality. There were catchy bumper stickers spotted, signs and plaques, call outs to extreme horror novels we all know and love, and more unique intermittent “Ratings” for the motel. Individual tales of specific customers for the night and the story of their stay at the motel. There were just enough black humor touches to prevent the implication of loving dark humor so thoroughly the pair got a little tacky with the trimmings.

The gist of the story is that a man named Ellis learned that his spouse had died from grievous injuries and her dead body had been found in the bathtub. She had already been picked up for delivery to Motel Styx. Ellis was not a wealthy man; thus, he made some weighty financial sacrifices to ideally beat her to her destination and pose as a wealthy client. The owner of the establishment Merl tries to run a tight ship and maintain a certain decorum backed up by rules for the “guests” to follow. Security Guard Chris maintains order when discipline is needed for any of the “guests” to recall the ground rules. The book suggests to me that there was a lot of thought put into the making of Motel Styx, its features, its rooms, and its available activities for the “guests” to engage with the corpses.

Lastly, the plight of Ellis and his increasing desperation to find his dead wife Emelye before she is defiled by one of the customers of the motel is absolutely frantic as the novel progresses. There are certain pertinent facts he finds out from an employee of the hotel, but “facts” could be lies for all he knows. The tense and escalating build up to Ellis finding his dear wife Emelye is executed to perfection. I had a premonition about Ellis and his search for wifey dearest. That said, I underestimated just how damn good that Jonathan Butcher and his co-author Michelle von Eschen are when it comes to pulling out all the stops and throwing all the extreme horror at you that you can handle.

Hats off to both of them. I must say if this one does not deserve 5 Stars, which one does? I LOVED it. I was expecting the ending, so I was not surprised by the revelations. But I was stunned at how terrific an ending could be contrived to squeeze every drop of blood and every sinew of tissue, in short just a perfect gorefest ending for the perfect guest.

A big thanks to the EGW Book Club and the colorful funny Ian who is really special. He is a really stellar Moderator.

SENSATIONAL STORY FROM THE TEAM OF ESCHEN AND BUTCHER. LOVED IT. ...more

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Jul 12, 2024 Final✘Girl✘Magick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-star-reads

10 out of 10 skulls 💀 That was a wild, fun ride! I loved this book. 🖤 I devoured it in 2 days and did not want to put it down. There's actually a plot to this and isn't gruesome just for shock purposes. I mean, maybe it is a liiiiiiittle but there was an actual story line here is what I'm saying. There was a twist and secrets revealed through out. And it had such a happy ending. 🙃 Complete Satisfaction.

The Sinners 🤘
The Sins 🤘
The Depravity 🤘

And really, the authors went easy on us. They could hav ...more

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Aug 19, 2024 Mark Woods rated it it was amazing

The ultimate in late check-ins…

Shortly after she commits suicide, Ellis discovers his wife has made the decision to donate her body - but not to science. Oh no. To the Motel Styx instead - a unique motel, a discrete motel, and a place where people with ‘certain tendencies’ shall we say, can go to have carnal relations with the deceased.
Unable to let her go, and still grieving from his loss, Ellis decides to go after her and reclaim her body, but as she already gave consent for her body to be use The ultimate in late check-ins…

Shortly after she commits suicide, Ellis discovers his wife has made the decision to donate her body - but not to science. Oh no. To the Motel Styx instead - a unique motel, a discrete motel, and a place where people with ‘certain tendencies’ shall we say, can go to have carnal relations with the deceased.
Unable to let her go, and still grieving from his loss, Ellis decides to go after her and reclaim her body, but as she already gave consent for her body to be used, to do so he is going to have to go undercover.
As a guest…
This book is about as dark as it gets - dealing, as it does, with one of the last taboos in society, but giving the whole concept a very different spin and injecting it with new life as it were. It is obvious husband and wife team, Jonathon and Michelle, have given a lot of thought to this book - from the ‘fake’ website the book links you to advertising the Motel’s services, to the presence of this same book on the book shelves of the fictional motel - and it certainly pays off with an intriguing story that hooks you from the very beginning, and refuses to let you go, a bit like the main character who similarly cannot let go of his late wife.
There is so much about this book that I genuinely enjoyed that I simply do not have time to go into in this review without potential spoilers, but needless to say this is right up there with some of my favourite reads so far this year, and comes highly recommended!
As Extreme horror goes, this is probably a lot tamer than a lot of the other books out there right now, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t stand up on its own merits and here, both author’s prove that when it comes to horror, sometimes you don’t need to push people to their absolute limits, you just need to be able to tell a good story whilst still lightly nudging the boundaries of good taste just over the edge of what most ordinary, decent, normal people might consider acceptable.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would - and I certainly will be checking out more in the future by both these authors! ...more

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Feb 13, 2025 LJ🥀👻 rated it it was amazing

5 stars because that ending was 🤌🏻💋
Bloody. Gory. F*cked up in so many ways. But I read this whole book in one sitting. Check the triggers before diving into it. If you don’t have any, I recommend this 100%!!!

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Dec 16, 2024 Andreanna Q rated it really liked it

Wow. I’m glad I’m curious enough to read as this is my first read of necrophilia based / theme book, and it does not disappoint!

I gotta say, the idea of necromancy definitely aren’t in my cup for real, can’t help but to feel gross of the idea, yet I don’t mind reading about it (I have just watched several movies which included the abuse of the dead bodies tho yet not straight out necro like this), and this is a really good one for such exploration. The writing is good, make me felt like I’m in ...more

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Jun 16, 2024 Ren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2025-boh-indie-book-brawl, extreme-horror-faves

“Best Beds! Best Bodies!”
Welcome to the Motel Styx! The world’s premium necrotel, located in Texas in the Chihuahuan Desert, caters to necrophiles of alll…tastes.
Now when I say tastes I most certainly don’t mean cannibalism - that’s a ridiculous notion!

Ellis is a sonofa***** who refuses to accept his wife’s last wishes to donate her remains to the Motel Styx. He goes undercover to recover her body, reminding us to not ask questions we reeeeally don’t want the answers to…
This is a fantastic spec ...more

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