[Book Review] Maggots Screaming! by Max Booth III

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Maggots Screaming! by Max Booth III is an amazing body horror tale that centers upon a father and son who make a shocking discovery out in their back garden.

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author per request of an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Maggots Screaming! by Max Booth III

I had to add the book blurb here:

THE FAMILY THAT DECAYS TOGETHER, STAYS TOGETHER.

On a hot summer weekend in San Antonio, Texas, a father and son bond after discovering three impossible corpses buried in their back yard.

Not only was the discovery itself shocking, but everything that happens next just kept getting even more intense! I will leave the rest of the plot for you to unearth for yourself, so no spoilers here!

The pacing of this storyline is perfect. As the young boy tells the tale of what happened over the course of a weekend, it plays out like the reader is sitting in the room where everything happened. Coming in at just under 400 pages, this story will suck you right in!

One of my favorite elements of this novel was the characters. Max portrayed the young boy, who was the main character, so wonderfully. Everything from what he understood and what went over his head, to his humor and how he handled each situation, readers will be right in the same mindset.

The side characters were amazing as well! They were are all so intense in their own ways. It’s like Max took the personality dial for each of them, hit the limit, and then twisted to break it off so the personalities kept going up! 

Another of my favorite elements were the little one liners that were dropped here and there that took the dread up a notch. Max is SO good at doing this! Like this line for example:

“It’s past your bedtime,” Dad said, which was the last time someone ever told me that.

Yikes! How spooky and dread-inducing is that?! Things like this were scattered throughout the story, but they also seemed to be perfectly placed in scenes where I had hope that everything may actually turn out okay.

While there was plenty of dread, body horror, intensity, and all around horror, there’s also a lot of family love and humor! I mean, a scene where three characters are driving to the body farm and bring up Ironic by Alanis Morissette had me cracking up! As did many of the little tifs and arguments the characters had while faced with the things they were trying to wrap their heads around.

This was an all around fun and horrific read! I had a blast!

My Favorite Passages from Maggots Screaming!

Some things aren’t meant to be known. Some things can’t be known, no matter how hard you try to understand them.

It started with a finger.
Poking out of the dirt in Mom’s garden. Like a flower composed of flesh.
Pointing directly at the sun.

Everybody gets mad. Rage is in human DNA just as love and hunger and sadness is. And sometimes rage gets out of control. Sometimes you can’t help it.

“It’s past your bedtime,” Dad said, which was the last time someone ever told me that.

We all have magic inside us and we utilize it every second we are alive. And sometimes, when we’re daed. It’s a subtle magic that we all take for granted until we no longer have it.

“Maggot…therapy?” I said, trying to make sense of the phrase. I imagined one maggot sitting on a comfortable recliner, legs crossed, taking notes while listening to another, depressed maggot cry about its mother while sprawled out on a tiny maggot-sized couch. Surely that couldn’t have been what she was talking about, but what if?

My left arm was missing–chewed off a couple inches below my elbow. Not a single drop of blood poured out. Some of that yellow liquid–the purge fluid–yes, but no blood. Purge fluid and maggots. More maggots than I could possibly count. Tumbling out of my exposed wound like an unstable cheerleader pyramid.

Reality is whatever our individual brains perceive it to be. Sometimes the details line up with others and sometimes they take a different path. In the end, they’re all heading for the same finish like, anyway.

People weren’t supposed to see their own skeletons. That was the deal humans made with life. We lugged around these bones from birth until death and, as a reward, we never had to come face-to-face with the secret truth hidden inside us all.

“Wait,” Candy said, working on finishing her liquor. “I don’t get it. How do you, like, plant another human being, though?”
“With human beans,” I whispered, trying not to laugh and realizing I couldn’t remember how to, anyway. It didn’t matter. No one seemed to hear me–or, if they did, they were choosing to ignore my hilarious joke.

The surgeon never stood a chance. He was still on the stool when their bodies rolled in his direction and sucked him up like dust in a tornado. Within seconds every ounce of blood stored inside him had splattered against the wall.

My Final Thoughts on Maggots Screaming!

Horror fans are going to have such fun experiencing this weekend of events!

I highly recommending checking this one out soon! But if you have any gardening planned, perhaps you should finish that project up first… However, if you see something that looks like a finger, STOP DIGGING. Cover it up and walk away immediately!

Preorder your copy today!