Patrick C. Harrison III, PC3 from here on, has been on my radar for a while. He is probably best known for his more popular titles, 100% Match and Grandpappy. Or maybe even his volume in the Splatter Western series, A Savage Breed. I own all of these, impulse bought due to rave reviews in the splatter community. I received an Audible ARC of The Dark Side of Hell from Fright Night Audio, so that’s where my PC3 journey began.

I will start by saying that this is splatterpunk. As such, you can expect it to be loaded with vivid and graphic descriptions of gratuitous violence and vile, disgusting, and otherwise objectionable characters and situations. Don’t listen to this while you’re having dinner because you just might lose your appetite. You’ll understand when you get to the dinner scene.

This story begins with a family trip to a crappy haunted house called The Dark Side of Hell. None of the family really wants to be there, but the patriarch (Jim) is determined to spend some quality time with his wife and kids. On their way out, the old man running the place gives them tickets to return on Halloween. Jim accepts the tickets with no intention of ever returning. Their experience is completely underwhelming and they are happy to put this place in the rear view. However, the family soon finds they have no choice in the matter. One by one, they are kidnapped and brought back to The Dark Side of Hell. Each kidnapping is preceded by bloodshed. Jim’s affair partner is murdered. The old neighbor lady bites the bullet on the way to Mona (the mother). And the mission to extract Julian and Mamie from their school looks like a high casualty school shooting. The family returns to the haunted house battered and bloodied, but their injuries and humiliation are nothing compared to what Jack’s family has in store for them.

Let’s talk about the narration for a moment. Shrader Thomas is a new voice to me. I really enjoyed his performance. I appreciate narrators who can bring these levels of depravity to life without overdoing it. My only super minor nitpick is the way he pronounced Unbortion (unabortion). Otherwise solid narration.

This was a good read. It’s brutal and disgusting. It’s not your usual haunted house story in that there are no ghosts and all the violence is committed by humans, but it isn’t a humans are the real monsters story either. There is a supernatural element that plays its part in the background. Sure, there are some parts I didn’t love (wtf was that ending?!), and you don’t find yourself rooting for any of the characters except for maybe the daughter (until that ending anyway), but overall I liked it. I especially enjoyed the nods to his author friends in the form of naming characters after their books. Made my tbr just a little longer. If you like splatter and don’t mind if the story isn’t super fleshed out, you’ll love The Dark Side of Hell. Add this to your Halloween reading list.