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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful step forward in Rage's career, October 30, 2009
This review is from: You Morbid Westphal (Paperback)
To be honest, Steven Rage's first book, "Pilate: A Brutal Bible Tale", only half-worked for me. There was certainly a compelling tale to be told but you had to cut through the style to get there. I accept that I may be in the minority here but that was my initial reaction. After the "adjustment period", if you want to call it that, Pilate really opened up and revealed a wealth on nearly realised potential. Rage was tantilisingly close to writing a great book.
Flash forward a few years and an unsuspecting literary world is handed Rage's next book, You Morbid Westphal. Set in a hospital, the title of the book is derived from the three main characters. Born fully formed from a rather unpleasant orifice is Morbid. His game is to stalk the hospital wings and violently (very violently!) dispatching helpless patients. Next we have Westphal. He works nights at the hospital trying to support, what some my call, a rather dysfunctional family. With Morbid reeking havoc in this very unfortunate hospital, the one thing Westphal doesn't need is to be blamed for Morbid's actions. It would do his job no good. The "You" in this book's title literally refers to "you". You are a dying patient who wants to die as peacefully as possible. There are elements at work that want to prevent this from occurring.
From the description above, you could be forgiven for assuming this is going to be a rather confusing story. I'll allay your fears right from start and assure you that Rage waves this tale brilliantly. The details of the story are lucid and feverishly entertaining. The hyper violence is contextualised in such a way as to avoid gratuitousness. The book is brief, clocking in at just under 140 pages, which gives You Morbid Westphal and element of frenzy. In this format everything works. It's hard to imagine the tone sustaining over a longer period.
You Morbid Westphal is very highly recommended and a real treat for anyone who enjoys their fiction warped to breaking point and smeared in blood. Rage has applied all the lessons he learned with Pilate and written that great book!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Attention All Film Makers! (And Non-Film Makers, Too!), March 7, 2010
This review is from: You Morbid Westphal (Paperback)
I urge all film makers to collaborate with Reverend Steven Rage and make this book (and all of his books - written and unwritten - for that matter) into the greatest horror flick(s) that mankind has ever witnessed! When I read this book, I couldn't help but see in my mind's eye the strong visualizations and all of the big screen special effects potentials and possibilities (hint hint movie makers) that Reverend Rage perfectly delivers to us in You Morbid Westphal. I am confident that, with the help of the sheer brilliance and utter uniqueness that is the mind of Reverend Steven Rage, the whole of the horror film, bizarro communities, and many more people outside of these genres would be blown away and turned on their ears by any films made which involve Reverend Rage's creative construction and are based upon the writings of this honest, hard working, genius, and saint of a man! For all of you who may be reading my review and are not film makers, I am not going to waste your time by repeating the plot description of You Morbid Westphal, since it's repeated several times on this page already. I'll just give you my humble opinion of it. Firstly, don't let the shortness of pages fool you. There is more mind blowing action packed into this gem of a book than I've read in many books that are longer in pages! Reverend Rage's characters (true to this author's form) are highly inventive and uniquely interesting. I honestly found it extremely difficult to put this book down! I am going to read it again several more times in the future, it's just that amazing! I absolutely LOVE how the good Reverend Rage brilliantly manipulates the concept of time in his books! (In this book, and in his Brutal Bible Tales books equally as well!) It is my opinion that the few people in a couple of the reviews that I've read for any given Reverend Steven Rage book, who stated that they got confused by this author's twisted time concepts, should try to slow down and re-read his books. (Everyone should re-read his books, actually. I know that I will!) If you pay close attention to every word that Reverend Rage writes, you will understand what is happening in his books without any problems. Also, this author writes in such a way that you can discover something that you missed when you read it the first time (or other times after) before! This is another reason why I am so hopelessly addicted to the works of Reverend Rage and the reason why I recommend the re-reading of his books so much. As usual, I strongly recommend that the readers of this review who are unfamiliar with this author's writing style and background should search "Reverend Steven Rage" here on amazon.com or even google him. Read his reviews, read his own product descriptions, and definitely take the time to learn about his real life background. Do your homework on the good Reverend Steven Rage, and I know that you will find that he is more than worthy of our support and your research time!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Unholy Trinity, December 29, 2009
This review is from: You Morbid Westphal (Paperback)
You live your final days lying in a hospital bed, unable to move or take of yourself while gritting through constant pain waiting for the madness to end. Unfortunately, your heinous deeds during life are coming full circle and sweet death continues to be stayed by the demons that torture you keeping you just this side of the living. One such demon, Morbid, spawned from you through some unholy means dispatches other hospital patients in gruesome fashion. Meanwhile, a male nurse named Westphal makes his way through life looking to make just enough money to score his next drug buy and take care of his ghost stepfather and pet unborn fetus. This is harbor hospital, and this is the end of your life.
Rage's sophomore novel You Morbid Westphal takes place in the harbor similar to his first novel PILATE: A Brutal Bible Tale. All of the graphic, disturbing and gruesome imagery Rage demonstrated his prowess at in the first book return in this offering. However, in this chapter, these elements seem a less gratuitous, a little more muted, and more securely woven into the fabric of a very disturbing tale. This novel is not for the faint of heart and is extreme in all ways imaginable - really, I'm not kidding. None-the-less, Rage is incredibly creative and talented. It's hard to fathom what hell might be like - unspeakable pain and agony - perhaps. But I think Rage paints a picture that drives home the concept of a living hell one must suffer due to their heinous choices in life. If the real thing is anything like this, one can only hope and pray for redemption and salvation.
Rage parallels some biblical themes once again, though in an unholy bizarro fashion and throws in a twist at the end reminiscent of the 1987 movie Angel Heart [Blu-ray] starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. For those who enjoyed Pilate - you will find an even better book in Westphal.
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