Rekt

Gonzalez (Land Shark) delivers a deeply cynical splatterpunk exploration of the numbing effects of digital violence. Sammy Dominguez is a teenager when he first encounters the grimy underbelly of the internet via online forums full of gory urban legends. He copes with his unstable home life by writing and sharing stories about a creepypasta monster known as “Wax Man,” a creature that stalks sad children and mummifies them in wax when they cry. At 26, following the death of his girlfriend and the deletion of his stories from the forum, he’s on the verge of killing himself when a forum user named Haruspx invites him to visit a mysterious dark website full of deepfake snuff films. There, Sammy discovers a video of the car accident that killed his girlfriend. He becomes obsessed with watching and rewatching the video—and uncovering who made it. Gonzalez strives to shock with crude jokes and depictions of extreme violence (including against an infant), but balances the novel’s baser instincts with crisp storytelling and a well-shaded cast that readers will want to follow through the complex and propulsive plot. The intense ugliness of the subject matter and dark sense of humor won’t be for everyone, but extreme horror fans who grew up on the internet will find plenty to hold their attention. (Mar.)