Customer Reviews

Snuff

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The only explanation i find to the high-rated reviews from Amazon customers to this novel, is that all those reviews are from friends or relatives of the authors. I wanted to take a taste of the so-called "splatterpunk" genre, so i picked Snuff along with Off-Season (from Jack Ketchum) and Survivor (from J. F. Gonzalez). Snuff is, by a long shot, the weakest of the three (Off-Season is a GREAT novel, and Survivor, despite an implausible plot, is good entertainment). Snuff is only a gratuitous exercise in extremity without any plot or character development. And without three dimensional characters to worry for, the reader (this is me) is not immersed into the action, he distances from it. So in the end, all the gore and ultraviolence in the book (and there is plenty of it) is seen only as a formula. You read about tortures, mutilations, rapes and so on, and you simply are not affected by it; there is no suspense, no sense of dread, no nothing. As i said, this is because neither the torturers nor the victims are characters with any depth, but only one-dimensional carton-cuts full of cliché. The violence in Snuff is like the violence in a horror videogame, or in a Rambo movie, or even in some South Park episodes ("¡Oh, look, they killed Kenny!"): you can recognize that it is extreme, but you don't feel disturbed at all. So in essence, and due to the authors painful effort to disgust and shock the reader page after page, Snuff can only be seen as a colossal failure. Also, the style of writing lefts much to be desired, being nothing more than an amateurish carbon copy of what Brett Easton Ellis did brilliantly in American Psycho (in fact, Patrick Bateman, the killer from American Psycho, is even cited once in Snuff; at least the authors are honest enough to admit who they are ripping from). And last, but not least, the plot has some serious holes, and relies heavily on a bunch of coincidences so weird, so bizarre, so hard to swallow, that they are absolutely laughable. To sum up, stay away from Snuff. Not because it is extreme literature, but because it is extremely crappy literature.

I had some misgivings before buying this book. I kept those in mind as I began reading it. It's just a bad book. It's poorly written, VERY poorly edited and it rips off so many different books and films that it isn't even funny. As far as the gore goes, it gets messy, but it seems like the authors read "American Psycho" too many times. Even the gore is poorly written. Just a bad book all the way around. If you're looking for a horror novel, this isn't it. If you're looking for gore for the sake of gore, they didn't even get that right.

This book was as horrifying as I expected it to be. Other than that, there isn't much to it. The character development was basically non-existent. The story itself was predictable and served as a weak net to support the ongoing gore and brutality of the book. If you want to read a book for shock value, I recommend it. If you want a good story, I would skip it. Unfortunately the thing that stands out the most to me were the misspelled words littered throughout.

judging by the reviews i read i expected a well detailed tale of brutal sexual sadism. I should have known better when some are referring to the fact that this book "lives up to the best of Ketchum". that is not much of standard when one seeks detail. the ususal disappointment of a detail here and there but for the most part glossed over viloence. if i know what i know now i would never have bought it.

After reading the 1st 10 pages of this book, I realized i've been ripped off! My advise to fellow amazon customers, DON'T BUY A BOOK BASED ON IT'S STAR RATINGS! these so called "authors" might be as well jokers! This stuff looks like it's been written by two 14 year old highschoolers. They are really trying to sound "educated" with phrases like "drooling pavlov dogs", "crusading monks at the city of beziers","ennui", and other high fallutin' $#!^!!! These jokers who masquerade as authors probably wrote all those nice reviews themselves to prop up their $#!tty book.

We all lead a normal, sheltered life. Half the time, we all leave the roost without experiencing anything traumatic. But what if something in your past changed you, and not for the good? What if something from your childhood made you want to horrifically abuse, brutally rape and then violently murder people?

Our story is SNUFF, a story of perversion, torture and terror from Eric Enck, a renowned small press author who`s developed a somewhat-cult-like following, and Adam Huber, a newspaper writer (SNUFF being his first `professional' venture into fiction writing.)

What is SNUFF about?

We meet our main character, Jack, right at the beginning of the story, and it isn't long after that we're introduced to his twisted sexual desires. See, Jack's the kind of guy who wants to meet a pretty girl, get her in bed, and get off. But he's also the kind of guy who wants to commit brutal acts of torture, most of the time including sodomy, bloodletting and bondage (and for a fair note, this is when Jack ISN'T being creative.)

Our second character, Mikey, is an amateur pornographer. He films people having sex. Cool, right? Well, he's about to become more than an `amateur' when Jack steps into the picture, and not in a good way either.

The nature behind SNUFF of that is brutal torture, but it's also a very real happening. Snuff, films where people are raped and murdered, is very real, and happens all over the world. Enck and Huber take you into a world we don't normally see, and we're taken there in a no-bars, in-your-face way. The sexually-perverse encounters are real, and the torture will make you squirm.

But see, the thing about SNUFF's characters is that they're real. Jack is hurting people because he believes they should be hurt, because, having dealt with a childhood of abuse himself, he's tampered to feel this way. Nothing gets in his path, and nothing will stop him. And Mikey's pornography fuels his way of lifestyle, keeping him alive. Everything about SNUFF is believable, right down to the individual scenarios outside of the torture (dealing with 'clients,' certain reactions from some of the clients, abductions and robberies.)

Now, there's a few things that bother me though. The interior layout sometimes isn't in exact format. There are paragraphs that aren't indented, letters that are left out in bizarre rearranging of text, sentences that appear to have tabs in-between words. There were also a number of grammatical mistakes that weren't picked up by SNUFF's editor (and obviously should have been.) I won't put Enck and Huber at fault though, because they can't control design and editing production unless they're directly involved in it. My book also received a bad tear up the spine (which was most likely from shipping, and which I plan on getting a new book from said shipper.) I don't know if it was the binding or the shipping, but I'm guessing the shipping. I was also concerned about SNUFF's length. I felt there was a lot of uncovered back story that could and should have been utilized more. (Jack's back story was what made his twisted character even more believable; I wanted to see more of it.)

So, what did I think of SNUFF as a book?

Having not read any of Enck's or Huber's work, I wasn't sure what to expect. I did, however, expect something violent, and violent was what I got. I visible cringed and started to get squeamish (which rarely happens.) and a few times I had to stop and reread a sentence (particularly one about being sodomized by a coat hanger and a knife.) I LITERALLY stopped, saw the scenario in my head, then had to wait a moment before I started to read again.

I highly commend SNUFF. It's real, it's raw, and it's something you could talk about. I wouldn't have written since a long review if there wasn't a story to talk about, and if you want a twisted story and something good to read, SNUFF is definitely a good choice.

Jack Sanders is a washed-up actor, with an extremely messed up view of the world, and humanity. Jack likes to hurt women. Brutally. The book opens with a car crash from which Sanders crawls away from, but not before pulling the broken teenager from her car and raping her. His best friend Mickey is a film-school dropout, and makes low budget BDSM garage-porn for deviant websites.

Jack and Mikey begin to make "snuff" films in Jack's basement. ("Snuff" meaning they kill the girl in real life on the film) In-between the explicit scenes of their "work", the book contains flashbacks to Jack's horrible childhood in a foster home. He killed his foster mother, but felt very little compared to the death of his beloved 15-year-old dog Strada.

But one contract, from a man named Bill Corwin, goes terribly wrong when, as they were requested to perform a snuff film on a girl who looks like his daughter, they accidentally capture and kill his real daughter, Jenny, leaving to the suicide of Corwin's wife Marilyn. Now Corwin is out to exact his revenge.

Despite the extremely graphic violence of the book, I found it was intelligently written, and Enck & Huber could not have painted more ruthless, obsessed, and nauseatingly repellant characters. The characters are somewhat shallow, but that's rather what I would expect from a remorseless serial killer. At 167 pages, its just the right length for a little night-time gore fest.

VIOLENCE WARNING: I read a lot of horror, but feel obligated to put up a quick warning about the extremity of the violence contained in this book. There's violence again pregnant women, suggested violence against children, exceptionally graphic $exual violence against women, and scenes of horror from Jack's abuse as a child. You have to be a hard-core horror fan to read this novel. Enjoy!

I have read this book four times. When I was filming my recent commercial for "World of Warcraft" I had this book nearby. I understand that the character Jack Sanders is loosely based on Jack Sanders from Alaska. He is currently writing and performing folk music. He is the creative genius for such cult music favorites as "Boo Boo the Caribou", "Navy Days", and "Have you ever hugged a mountain?". Next to my movie "The Octagon" and "Invasion USA" I cant think of a better way to fill the void of a rainy day.

I just recently read this and I gotta say it wasn't the greatest story I've ever read or the worst. I have an interest in the whole mythcial "snuff film" so I was eager to read it when I first came across this on here. The beginning was kind of hard to follow and the there were numerous editing mistakes. The violence was told well and I did like how it worked out in the end. I didnt like all the major and I mean MAJOR coincidences in the book but maybe that was the point and it was lost on me somewhere. If your a fan of violent and graphic horror then you may enjoy this otherwise dont bother.

I have read SNUFF. Let me say this...it is as brutal as you have all heard that it is. It's harsh, it's gory, it's sick and very twisted. But...the main thing that I think everyone should look at and think about is one simple thing. If you strip away all of the blood, all of the gore and sick acts that happen in this book when one man decides to take his fantasies down a dark and insane path of pain and suffering, do you still have a story here? The answer is yes. Eric Enck and Adam Huber have written a tale that shows no matter how many pretend monsters horror writers may write about, the one monster called 'man' will always be the one to fear the most. Is this book for everyone? No...of course not. But if you dare decide to try to see what a madman's mind could be like, then please read this book. You will be entertained and sickened at the same time. I admire both Eric and Adam for having the guts to want to take people on this little insane ride called SNUFF. I for one wish them the best of luck with it.