Have you ever picked up a book written by an author with whom you were completely unfamiliar and have it blow your socks off? I'd never read Nate Southard's work before, but Just Like Hell, his new novella from Thunderstorm Books, kicks serious butt. I won't say that I couldn't put it down--I have responsibilities!--but I did pick it up again at every free moment.

Dillon is a popular high school football star with a promising future ahead of him--until his teammates discover that he's been having a secret affair with another boy, Randy. As the novella begins, Dillon has already been crammed into the trunk of a car owned by Kevin, the head football player, next to Randy. Kevin and his two high school henchmen take the shamed lovers to a cabin in the woods owned by Kevin's family. Accusations ensue. Beatings. Torture. And murder. The story inexorably becomes a tale of survival and brutal, calculated revenge.

Reading the above description, one might wonder what sets fiction like this apart from so-called "torture porn" films (a categorization I loathe)like HOSTEL and SAW? For one thing, Southard is a much better storyteller than the creators of those films. His prose is smooth, his pacing note perfect, and his dialogue realistic enough to make the reader believe that the action really would escalate in the manner depicted.

For another, Southard has more on his mind than the filmmakers mentioned above did, despite Eli Roth's claims that the HOSTEL films are a reaction to the U.S. committing torture. For all its violence, blood and fury, Just Like Hell is ultimately a tragic love story. A revenge tale is as only as good as its villains are bad, and Southard's homophobic, fascist jocks are as vile as they come.

Not only am I looking forward to future work by this author, but I expect it to go to the top of my TBR pile. The Limited Edition hardcover is sold out, but be sure to get a copy of the softcover.

I can't end this review without commenting on this book's format. When my copy arrived in the mail I had to chuckle. The book was so small, so... cute. Like a Big Little Book, minus the "Big." Holding it, I felt like the Andre the Giant. I contacted Southard just to make sure this miniature tome wasn't a cost saving measure for ARCs (Advance Reader Copies). Nope, this is the actual size! Apparently Thunderstorm Books has a very specific game plan for their chapbooks. (Text) Just Like Hell runs 96 small pages and Southard approximates the word count at 17,000. As I turned the pages and scrutinized the smaller than usual print, I couldn't decide how I felt about this size. By the time I finished it I had made up my mind: it was really nice to have a book that actually fit in my pants pocket, and I wish I could always find one this size to carry around with me, especially to conventions. Let's see some more!