We’ve all seen the social media posts asking authors which of their works is their favorite, or which hasn’t gotten the attention they’d hoped. I make notes to read those books so that I might later shine a light on those authors. It takes courage to come from a place of vulnerability and admit publicly that something you created and love didn’t get much attention. So I make my little notes, add it to my little lists, and eventually I read the books. Today, that is Beast of Burden, by Judith Sonnet. You may know Sonnet from her more extreme (and more popular) titles No One Rides For Free or For the Sake of. Or maybe you know her from of the many short story anthologies in which she’s been featured. Maybe you just recognize her from one of the horror or splatterpunk groups on Facebook. I know I can identify her posts by the pictures before I’ve read her name. She is a staple in the community, whether you’ve read her or not.

So when I saw Sonnet’s response on the latest post asking authors to bare their souls, I grabbed it on KU and started reading it before bed. This morning I impulse bought the audiobook. Did you know that Audible companion pricing applies to your KU borrows? If you didn’t, you’re welcome. So let’s start with the audiobook. Sometimes indie horror audiobooks suffer in quality, whether it’s due to a novice narrator or less than professional sound quality. This is not the case with this audiobook, which should be a surprise to no one considering that it was produced by Joe Hempel’s audio production company, Fright Night Audio. Brad Grusnick’s narration is great. I particularly liked his beast voice.

This story follows a group of guys who are a few years out of high school and not quite ready to adult yet. They spend their days trying to make it big with their black metal band Geriatric Genocide. One of them decides that a photoshoot is what they need to push their next self produced album. The guys are on board, despite their mood being soured by their bassist’s departure from the band. Around half of the novella is background information on each character and explores their relationships with one another. It’s got this coming of age slowburn feel to it in the beginning, but really starts to take off when we meet Leonard. Poor sweet Leonard.

While there is gore and brutality, Beast of Burden is not the unrelenting gorefest for which Sonnet is known. It is complex and tugs at the heart strings in a way I didn’t expect. I absolutely understand why this is a favorite of hers. If you haven’t read Sonnet because you know she writes extreme horror and splatterpunk and you’re not into that, give Beast of Burden a shot.