This game has no winners and only one survivor...
Chase Harrow's parents have vanished without a trace, thrusting her and her brother into a dangerous quest to find out what happened to them. But when the trail leads Chase to the strange town of Crucible, Missouri, what she discovers may destroy her very soul.
Trapped in the horrors of the Nightmare Game, Chase must decide whether defeating the monsters who captured her parents is worth becoming a monster herself...
The Nightmare Game: Slayers is a perfect read for fans of slasher movies, LitRPG lovers looking for a shot of bloody horror, and fans of terrifying roleplaying games of all types. If you've been looking for Ready Player One meets Friday the 13th, this is the book for you!
This book contains some scenes of graphic violence that may not be suitable for all readers.
My Opinion: 326 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Reader warning: The fights in this novel are super gory and graphic.
Chase, the main character (MC), takes her wheelchair bound brother on a road trip to find her missing parents. Their only lead is a creepy game manual someone sent them in the mail with the name of a town that can’t be found on any map. Yet, the MC someone finds it anyways. Once she gets there she finds she’s trapped in a horror movie-esque murder game and has access to RPG mechanics that let her get stronger the more she murders.
The first 38% of the novel is all setup. To me, even though there’s not a single graphic murder, it’s the creepiest part of the novel. It sets up a Purge vibe that almost made me put the novel down. I’m just not into the kind of horror movies that have normal people hurting or torturing each other.
Thankfully, I forced myself to continue and found a horror RPG story more akin to fantasy horror of Nightmare on Elm Street, which I’m fine with.
The game mechanics in the story are solid. For certain kills, the MC as a Slayer can take their victims soul energy and use it to get new powers, upgrade the damage of their chosen weapon/mask, or increase their own stats. Different kinds of monstrous enemies give different amounts of soul energy. Also, using any power or special ability up finite resources that when used up entirely lead to negative consequences, including death.
However, you don’t get to see any of these game mechanics until about the 39% mark so you have to get through all the setup before you get to the over the top gory violence and RPG stuff. And boy is the violence gory. If you like Troma style horror movies then you’ll appreciate the type of violence and fights in this novel.
Most of the rest of the novel is just combat scene after combat scene leading up to the inevitable conflict with the shadowy instigators behind the horror murder game. The end doesn’t really make sense and the epilogue sure as heck doesn’t make sense but then again the reasoning behind most horror movies don’t either.
I’m not a fan of horror movies but I can appreciate how the author incorporates them into this story. However, if you don’t like horror movies or graphic gory violence, please don’t read this, you might vomit.
Score: 7 out of 10