by Lee Allen Howard
Armed with
electric hair trimmers and a military fighting knife,
Russell accepts his dark commission.
Russell Pisarek
is twenty-six years old and still wets the bed. He grew up different from other
young men because his vicious mother punished him for wetting by shaving his
head. When he confided this to his girlfriend Tina, she betrayed him by
advertising his problem to all their high school classmates. He took out his
frustration by skinning neighborhood cats.
Now Russell
fantasizes about finding just the right woman—so he can shave her bald. He
struggles to overcome his dark tendencies, but when his sister discovers he’s
wetting again, she puts him in dire straits.
During this time
of stress, the mythical Piss Fairy appears in his dreams, and Russell is driven
to satisfy his twisted desires with an innocent coworker, who also needs a new
roommate.
Before signing up for
a review, readthe trigger warning here (https://leeallenhoward.com/the-bedwetter-trigger-warning/).
“Highly
disturbing and electric.” —US Review of Books
“A brutal,
dark, compulsive read… stark, powerful, and satisfying.” —Online Book Club
“A compelling
tale of simmering madness that’s often harrowing.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Lee Allen
Howard’s The Bedwetter is an inventive psychological horror novel with a
voice that’s as stylish as it is dark.” —Dustin LaValley, author of The
Deceived
“Grotesque,
bizarre, and uniquely written, The Bedwetter will shake you and scare
the piss out of you.” —Stephanie M. Wytovich, Bram Stoker Award-nominated
author of Hysteria: A Collection of Madness
My Review
What can I say about The Bedwetter? Would it come across as weird, strange, and/or disturbing to say I liked it? 'Cause I did, but at the same time, I was horrified by it, and occasionally annoyed by Russell. This book is definitely not for those with weak stomachs or those who may be a bit faint of heart. There is a trigger warning on the author's website, and I would advise any horror fan who may be considering this book to read that first, just in case. The trigger warning mentions being in the same vein as Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, and as someone who has read that book (my first Ketchum novel) and has seen the movie version, I can say without a doubt that I think The Bedwetter definitely pushes the same envelope, only in a slightly different way. Whereas TGND filled me with seething rage and heartbreaking sadness, The Bedwetter filled me with a sick, strange amusement at times (does that make me a weirdo?) while also making me wonder if perhaps Russell shouldn't just seek some serious help and work through his issues instead (although I'm not sure if anyone could even help him). There were moments where he honestly seemed to feel bad, and he had moments of compassion towards his nephew, so I didn't view him as a complete psychopath. Yet.
The book starts off in a very shocking way (ha!), and from there, it's just a spiral into madness. You, the reader, are sucked into the black hole that is Russell's mind, and once you're in there, there's no escaping. Until the very end of the book, that is.
Definitely a dark, disturbing, messed-up read.
4 stars.
Lee
Allen Howard Bio
Lee Allen Howard’s
dark fiction spans the genres of horror, supernatural crime, and psychological
thrillers. Howard earned a BA in English from Indiana University of
Pennsylvania and an MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.
He’s been a professional writer in the software industry since 1985. Besides
editing fiction, Lee blogs about his fiction writing at https://leeallenhoward.com. Howard is the
founder and editor at Dark Cloud Press, which has published the horror and dark
crime anthologies Thou Shalt Not... and Tales of Blood and Squalor.
He resides in western New York with a lot of books.
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