Book Review: A Disgusting Supermarket of Death | Author James Harberson III

A Disgusting Supermarket of Death

By James Harberson III

Markosia Enterprises

260 Pages

Shopping List:

1. * 1. Extra Credit: A corrupt prison warden sells crime conventioneers access to a notorious serial killer with murderous results.
2. Easter Eggs for Christmas: A man attempts to conjure a demon by splicing supposedly accursed fragments of family-friendly Christmas movies.
3. The Ice Cream Man: An OCD sufferer’s irrational fear of being suspected of murder sends him on a neighborhood killing spree.
4. Ars Gratia Mortis. A talk show host interviews a performance artist whose medium is euthanasia.
5. Friends in the End: A Catholic priest tasked with exorcising an entity from a suburban home discovers the entity is his best childhood friend.
6. Me, Again: A supermodel recovering from cosmetic surgery in a Swiss clinic is horrified to discover that she has simultaneously wash up dead on a tropical beach.
7. Gertie: Opening day at a museum dedicated to a serial killer’s memory brings unexpected and horrifying revelations about his legacy.
8. The Slice of Life: A cutting club at an elite high school presages an even darker movement brewing among its students.
9. #meatoo: A mortician is implicated in multiple orders while selling rich weirdos access to dead celebrities.
10. Everybody Comes First: A health insurer resorts to insidious tactics to convince a patient to forego cancer treatment.
11. Swatted. SWAT officers start murdering their colleagues and each other shortly after killing a family during a botched raid.
12. A Good Scare: An extreme haunted house patron can’t tell if the murders occurring around him are real or just part of the entertainment.
13. Spring Chickens: A kid searching for his missing friend discovers that residents of the neighboring retirement home are sacrificing orphans to bathe in their blood.
14. Medical Malpractice: A group of healthcare providers arrange a massive care pile-up so that can murder the victims.
15. Ghosts of Who I Never Was: A clone scheduled for termination escapes her captors, not knowing that she harbors a serial killer’s identity and homicidal urges.
16. Due Process: Murder results when three school friends try to rein in a misbehaving classmate by putting him on trial.
17. Dream Job: Producers of a show in which convicted serial killers comment on schlocky horror films and receive a mysterious, untitled film that appears disturbingly real.
18. Chemotherapy: An overeager life coach virtually stalks and abuses her clients to “improve” them.
19. Number Six: While investigating several ghastly murders, a homicide detective kills people he’s supposed to help.
20. Unforbidden Knowledge: A reporter attends an invitation-only screening of a horror film that drives viewers to murder and/or suicide.
21. Team Player: A freshman invited to join America’s winningest high school football team discovers he must enter a blood pact with Satan to do so.
22. Peak Bliss: A man living in endless luxury provided by doting robots finds himself dead to joy and therefore suicidal.

*As of time of article posting, the table of contents printed with the anthology.

Horror readers from all walks of life can at last rejoice upon tearing open the initial pages of A Disgusting Supermarket of Death. The latest release from author James C. Harberson delivers in bloody grandiose fashion, unrelenting until the very final paragraphs. Yet take caution faithful fans, this collection is not for the faint of heart, the weak of spirit or the delicate of digestive tracts. The pages within just may induce copious bouts of insomnia or inspiration. After all, who doesn’t love a collection of carnal mayhem and destruction?

Descriptive, imaginative, and original. Each tale is crafted with vivid prose and executed brutally flawless. I must confess I have arrived a little late to the Harberson onslaught, completely oblivious to the author’s craftsmanship. With a keen eye to butchering character development and steady precision of a veteran executioner in plot escalation, it does not take long to deduce Harberson is the real deal and here to stay.

Concise within the quiver department, the author goes in for the literary kill unapologetically. Surely a sense of disturbia will rise like a body count. The expansion of unnerved collective subconscious will know no bounds. Electricity bills may be on the rise, feigning a darkened night after each reading session. Harberson knows his market audience well and delivers with precious little time and few pages with each tale. It is evident A Disgusting Supermarket of Death will resonate like a branding iron for the imagination among audiences of new readers.

Often humorous, perpetually dark it is apparent Harberson’s graphic novel experience. The panels are more subtle and ambiguous in this media, however. The illustrator, you the reader can unleash the story lines in a plethora of depictions, never faltering on brutality.

Perhaps what is most noteworthy of A Disgusting Supermarket of Death’s presentation, or at least initial perception achieved upon first glance is its return to paper back digest format. I am a huge fan of the paperback appeal and have grown in all honesty weary of the bulky 8 1/2” x 11” books in recent years. The size enables easy travel and accessibility, enjoyable in countless scenarios.

The publishing house Markosia is known mostly for its graphic novel releases. Additional releases can be viewed at Markosia.com.

I highly look forward to keeping an eye on additional forthcoming releases from James C. Harberson III, but for now, you will have to excuse me I’m just putting a list together to do a little more shopping at A Disgusting Supermarket of Death.