Matt Shaw

Maybe I have a cold soul, but I did anticipate something totally effed up, in a different way. Maybe it’s there, and I’m becoming one of the sick & twizted myself?
You decide.
I loved the characters, and thinking that a kidnapper (fresh from a stint on the inside) is a ‘likeable kind of guy’ might say something about me that I’m not ready to face just yet. The napped kid is a smart little dude, not once annoying – as kids can tend to be. (Remember Lewis? Yeah.)
As usual, there were show more a couple lines that made me chuckle out loud, again… that says something about me ‘just ain’t right’. I can’t share the funny without giving you more information than you need right now. I went in almost blindly, and I’m hoping you will, too. show less

Roe V. Wade is NOT a political book. It is Matt Shaw's idea of a possible future based on current trends. When Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022 the idea that life begins at conception or near conception as well as the push to block contraceptives is paving the way towards a future that may look like the one depicted in this book. The cost of living has soared, and jobs are scarce.

Civil rights have fallen by the wayside as more and more of the things we count as permanent and irrevocable show more have been cut down. Segregation, Gay Rights, Women's Rights, all of these things are gone. The only thing that has any rights are the unborn children, but their rights come at the cost of the women who bear them.

It doesn't specify the year or exact location, but it's assumed to be in the US and a possible near-ish future.

Roe V. Wade opens on a scene showing Cate Hart, she is heavily sedated and living "her best life" (I say with irony), she is bound to a bed in an institutional room with other women, all sedated and bound to beds carefully monitored to make sure that the unborn children that they have been gestating are "kept healthy". All their bodily needs taken care of through tubes, they are constantly sedated and for the most part have nothing to do but wait until they are taken to the delivery room.

In this future, women showing any little sign of hesitancy or found "breaking the rules" are drug kicking and screaming to this institution that the outside world knows as a "birthing center" where hesitant mothers are taken and "pampered" until the day they give birth. No one asks what happens to the mothers and children afterwords, but it's not given thought. However, because this place which is subsidized by the government and makes it's employees sign NDA's no one ever talks.

This book looks upon the life of Cate and her husband Jack, who have just discovered that even after Jack's vasectomy, Cate became pregnant. They find out on Christmas and it wasn't a present either of them wanted. Cate's previous pregnancy was a very hard one and she was told she shouldn't have any more children. Work is very hard and the cost of living has soared out of control. However, because of the laws Cate and Jack must put a brave face on and make sure everyone believes that this is a wanted child. We follow the path that brought Cate to the "Birthing Center" where we first see her.

Then there is Claud who is a brand new worker at this institute which has many different rooms and wings, his job is to simply push the various gurneys with women from one area to another. It's the first week of his new job, of which he was grateful to get because jobs are very scarce in the future. Claud is finding out quickly that there are things he sees at his new job that don't sit well with him, but because he has signed an NDA and is grateful for the work, he sucks it up. He comes home to his young wife Lauren, whom he met in high school and married out of college.

Claud and Lauren hope to earn enough to buy a home and raise a family. Each day Claud becomes more and more distant as he has to choke more and more of his unease and disgust about his word down. When Lauren finds out that she is pregnant she is happy and hopeful, while Claud is secretly horrified because of the things he has seen but cannot speak of while at work.

This book scared the fuck out of me. It paints a future that I want no part of and can still see happening if things go the way they are. It isn't about pro-life, or pro-choice, it's about how far will we allow the rights of women be stripped away for the rights of an unborn child. How many other rights will be stripped away from other groups once the US gets used to the loss of reproductive rights, what rights of privacy will we become accustomed to losing?

Matt Shaw is a great horror writer, his books are thought provoking and gruesome. He often writes from multiple non-connected character's POV and has had many unique storylines. I highly recommend his work if you are interested in horror and aren't too squeamish.

However, this particular book is his take on how the future is looking. It isn't pretty. show less

Matt Shaw is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors in this genre. This book is filled with so much "normal setting" and dark humor that I often forgot that it would eventually pack that visceral punch to the gut that is a part of the genre.

The story is so engaging that there isn't a dull scene. I wasn't skimming past pages of torture porn, or just going along for the ride. The first half of the book insists on reader participation. While this is going on, we are given a critique on show more today's money obsessed/ morally ambiguous culture that shows what goes on in the minds of ordinary people who are pitted against each other to win "life altering money" if they only offer the lowest bid on the amount they would accept to perform 10 different tasks ranging from simply stomach turning to prison-worthy acts of violence.

Taking place in England, the book falls between a “Would You Rather" and "Fear Factor" but all in all it totally reminds me of the horror genre-bending film, "Cabin in the Woods". We see both sides of the “story” where the contestants are not just there for the "game", but unknowing participants being filmed for a Pay-Per-View channel whose subscribers are demanding the horror and revulsion when the "winner" is chosen and they are forced to perform the tasks. The book opens up with two office workers who start their “average” day getting ready for the next round of contestants/victims. One guy has been there for 8 years and is training the new hire to take over his position as he is leaving for greener pastures.

The first half of the book is the set up where we learn about the characters, and how they process the questions and assign a dollar amount to increasingly abhorrent tasks. They are bidding against each other to be the lowest, and in return they get the money. Many of them tend to gloss over the fact that they WILL have to perform the tasks they bid on and won, collecting the money or not, the tasks will be done. They rationalize it all by thinking that they couldn’t possibly be asked to do exactly what they think is being asked, because most of it is illegal. Some lull themselves into thinking that the whole thing is a dare, and each is bound and determined to come out the “winner”.

The first part of the book is told in God’s View where we are in the mind of every character at any point, including the two office drones running the game. Thereby giving us the thought processes and perspectives of characters who are hiding their motivations and choices from the others.
The second part of the book is the punch. This is where the “winner” must perform the 10 tasks they bid on. No going back, and no quitting. We are given the first person POV of the winner. It doesn’t go as they had hoped it would.

All in all, I totally recommend this book to readers who are looking for something different, fun, very dark, sick and twisted, but nothing that will leave a stain on their soul or needing a mind bleach. show less

So yeah, this one was a disappointment for me. Mostly because after reading the 1st book I was excited to continue a solid creepy story and get some answers. There were some decent scenes, normal asylum stuff with padded rooms, long corridors with flickering lights, etc. A scary ghost kid is always appreciated so thumbs up for that.

But it felt like Matt Shaw got to the end and was like "Fuck it, I don't know." And I was left feeling like I wasted my time. It's OK though, I'm not breaking up show more with Matt Shaw books and I'm sure the next one will be great. show less