The California Butcher by Stephen Rhoades

The California Butcher Reviews

• 
  Steven

  Weird, twisted, and pretty groovy.
• 
  Horror Reads

  This novel is a creepfest. It combines psychological horror and brutally gruesome scenes that will leave you feeling like you've been through an emotional wringer. I mean that in a good way of course.
  
  This is about a man (a high school teacher) who blames himself for the loss of his daughter. He's distraught and mentally damaged from the accident and he feels as if his wife and teen son is pulling away from him.
  
  He discovers a website that caters to some very twisted perverse fantasies and finds himself enamored by these desires. Mainly, the website is a sounding board for those who are into kidnapping, torture, and cannibalism. Pretty soon, with the help of a new neighbour, he tries to make his fantasies a reality.
  
  But there's also one particular student of his who believes she's in love with him, he with her, and she's a complete psychopath. Her murderous fantasies have gone unchecked for a long time. And then there's the titular character, the California Butcher. A serial killer who hasn't been caught for years and moves from place to place killing at random. But this butcher has help and all of these characters are going to be entangled in each other in very violent, bloody, and horrifying ways as the story progresses.
  
  I love a horror book that has a lot of layers. This isn't about just one character but many and each gets their own arc during the novel. Your feelings towards certain characters will change as time goes on. The protagonist/antagonist relationships are blurred and takes you in directions you would have never thought of or expected. That makes this book tense and engaging as you're never sure what's going to happen next with any of them.
  
  This one is fantastic, multilayered, and gruesome and will give you the chills. I highly recommend it.
  
  I received an ARC of this book with no consideration. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.