Toxic Love (RedLine)

By: Kristopher Triana, Blood Bound Books

Narrated by: Chuck Brugee

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Warning: This book contains hazardous material. Handle with extreme caution. Exposure to its contents can cause severe damage to one’s health.

When you’re 45, getting divorced, and disillusioned from years of soul-sucking work in corporate America, there isn’t much to look forward to. With his personal life just as deep in the dumps as his professional life, Mike Ashbrook figures a janitorial job would be somehow fitting, but what he finds is a different kind of clean-up service.

Now Mike is wrist-deep in human waste. As a crime-scene cleaner, when the police are done, his job is just beginning. His biggest problem now, besides wiping up blood, guts, and other nastiness, is his new coworker, Sage. She’s young, beautiful, and the only other employee who doesn’t quit after a week. She may also be totally insane. Sage is not just an enigma - she’s toxic.

©2019 Kristopher Triana (P)2021 Kristopher Triana

What the…..

I just finished and don’t even know what to write. It was vile and disturbing but really contained a great story… Triana strikes again. Now excuse me while I clear my head…

Toxic Love

A divorcee with two daughters finds himself out of work and desperate for employment answers a help wanted add for crime scene clean up. A very disturbing job with some very graphic extreme scenes but things are just getting started in this very extreme horror story that will make even the most extreme horror fans cringe. Sometimes love becomes toxic.

Extreme, Exciting, Engrossing

Within the space of two novels, Triana has become one of my new favorite authors. I am very much enjoying his books. However, TOXIC LOVE is probably not the place to start with him. Go for THE RUIN SEASON instead. The reason is that this book is extremely and incredibly graphic. Seriously. Most people will hate and be disgusted by this book within the first chapter. There is a lot of sex and blood and dead bodies and more. This is not the book for most people. The cover blurb "Jesus! And I thought I was sick." by Edward Lee really does sum it up. If you don't know Edward Lee (Splatterpunk J.F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award recipient), look him up and then consider his blurb. Let me give a short summary of the start of the book to illustrate.

Mike Ashbrook works for a cleaning agency that cleans and sanitizes crime scenes after the bodies are removed. He gets a new partner Sage who is a gorgeous blonde and who, we quickly find out, gets turned on by blood. Sage's sexual kink of blood started with her first boyfriend who was a cutter. Before we know it, Mike and Sage are moving from one extreme depravity to another.

My short description might sum up the basics but it doesn't truly do the story justice. There really is a story within the book; it's not torture-porn or just a gross-out. Mike is going through a divorce and life changes and the attraction of younger woman helps him to rediscover himself. The degree and amount of change is not what he expects but how many of us in real life expect the changes that fate throws us. The unexpected layoff or car accident or death. Or even in today's world, global pandemic. Adjusting and dealing with changes and coming out of it with a better sense of identity or stability is what we all try to do. And fiction takes those changes to the extreme. And in this case, the very extreme. I'm not sure what type of book Triana will provide me next but I am looking forward to it.

Sick and twisted, LOVED IT!

Well that was one hell of wild ride, and I loved every minute of it. A demented and disturbing "love" story that had be hooked from the start, until the very end.

Good listen

Another cool tale from Kristopher Triana. Not as intense as Full Brutal, but a good listen

Well that was a Turn of Events

Saying the "holy shit*" escalated quickly is beyond an understatement. The name of this book says it all. The author does a great job getting the reader to cheer on the main character whose life has fallen apart. And when it picks up with the help of a just demented somewhat ally, you root for him. Because he's just a poor unfortunate baby bird that head plunged out of the tree. Other than feeling bad for the main, the reader is pulled into the gore and sexual depravity one sad sack experience at a time. growing more comfortable with it along with the main character. Mr. Triana saves no unpleasantries in his descriptions. You are disgusted and yet you turn the page/continue listening. By the end, the reader is comfortable and is dying for more blood and guts on Aisle One.

Toxic Love

There is some really sick stuff happening in this book. Mike turned into a depraved person when he meets a young woman half his age. This is extreme horror that is dark and erotic. Chuck Brugee did a very good job with the narration. I received this free copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Look closer…

It is not the gore and explicit material that bothers me. I expected it. What bothers me about this title is the main character “Mike”. I could not get anything out of this title on account of “Mike”. MY impression is that this book was written from the female perspective of what a male persona finds enticing. The author uses the “right” descriptions and such, but something about it feels overdone and fraudulent. Yes, I am now questioning whether the author does indeed have a ‘Y’ sex chromosome. “Mike” talks TOO much at times when a male would opt to say as little as possible. And there was no convincing me that a 45 year old man does not know his character. I skipped through chapters about “Mike”’s backstory because they were totally irrelevant to our main concern. There ought to be significant difference between a 45 year old man and 15 year old teen. Often in this title you can’t tell the emotional difference. That didn’t just bother me, it frankly pissed me off. This whole experience was like listening to some “dude” who you know for certain has never had actual sex brag about how he makes time with the ladies. I even think that the narrator was tripped up near the end giving “mike” an effeminate voice at times. Either do good or do evil but at least be a 45 year old Man about it “Mike” … I just wasn’t even remotely convinced.

I finally gave up on this in chapter 18. I had a Popeye moment “That’s all I’s can stand and I’d can’t stand no more”