rekt

A disturbing examination of toxic masculinity and the darkest pits of the Internet, about a young man's algorithmic descent into depravity in a future that's nearly here. "A visionary book that is at once pensive, rollicking, and truly, bone-deep unsettling. Alex Gonzalez's rekt is an absolute stunner." -Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts A disturbing examination of toxic masculinity and the darkest pits of the Internet, about a young man's algorithmic descent into depravity in a future that's nearly here. "A visionary book that is at once pensive, rollicking, and truly, bone-deep unsettling. Alex Gonzalez's rekt is an absolute stunner." -Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts > be me, 26 > about to end it all > feels good, man Once, Sammy Dominguez thought he knew how the world worked. The ugly things in his head-his uncle's pathetic death, his parents' mistrust, the twisted horrors he writes for the Internet-didn't matter, because he and his girl, Ellery, were on track for the good life in this messed-up world. Then a car accident changed everything. Spiraling with grief and guilt, Sammy scrambles for distraction. He finds it in shock-value videos of gore and violence that terrified him as a child. When someone messages him a dark web link to footage of Ellery dying, he watches-first the car crash that killed her, then hundreds of other deaths, even for people still alive. Accidents. Diseases. Suicides. Murders. The host site, chinsky, is sadistic, vicious, impossible. It even seems to read his mind, manipulate his searches. But is chinsky even real? And who is Haruspx, the web handle who led him into this virtual nightmare? As Sammy watches compulsively, the darkness in his mind blooms, driving him down a twisted path to find the roots of chinsky, even if he must become a nightmare himself...

About the Author :
Alex Gonzalez is a WGA screenwriter and horror fiction writer. Born and raised in Florida, he now lives in Brooklyn and is the co-founder of the horror zine You Are Not Alone. His screenplays have been optioned, and a feature of his is in development with Ulladulla Pictures and Extra A Productions (Little Woods, The Giant). He currently teaches horror writing workshops with Catapult.co., and his most recent short story "Die Cuban" was published on the Catapult website. You can find him online at alex-gonzalez.me.

Review :
Praise for rekt “Gonzalez is a talented author who delivers solid character development and sharp writing about grief and guilt, but what sets this novel apart is its unflinching brutality. It's tough to read a book filled with horrific accidents and vicious murders, but Gonzalez makes the price of entry worth it with his sharp assessment of human nature. In Rekt he highlights our gluttony for pain; explores how algorithms can pull people, like a strong underwater current, to terrible places; and shows, unforgettably, how the internet can desensitize us to atrocity." —New York Times Book Review “Alex Gonzalez fearlessly plumbs the depths of our present and future online hell and the result is a visionary book that is at once pensive, rollicking, and truly, bone-deep unsettling. rekt is an absolute stunner.” —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts “The best horror debut in years. As dark as 3 a.m. despair, Alex Gonzalez’s REKT is the depraved, bleeding edge of the genre, combining the intimate, personal dread of Paul Tremblay with the merciless grotesquerie of Eric LaRocca. Like the novel’s main character, you won’t be able to look away.” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and The House of Last Resort “rekt goes past the 'dark web' and into online corners that pose a threat to life and sanity. Oddly enough, it also makes me want to visit these corners. A great exploration of the dangers and seductions of the internet.” —Poppy Z. Brite, author of Exquisite Corpse “There are two versions of you: Before you read Alex Gonzalez’s rekt and after you read it. In fact, this is not a mere book. It’s a fucking experience to survive, to be endured. Like Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Palahniuk’s Haunted, rekt feels like a spiritual successor to those masterpieces with the frightening ability to actually harm the reader—to eviscerate them with such a singular style, such masterful prose, and such utter mercilessness. This is a bleak, vicious, and harrowing examination of grief, internet lore, and one young man’s descent into the depths of depravity. Gonzalez’s debut is one of the most shocking and cold-blooded novels I’ve ever read.” —Eric LaRocca, Bram Stoker Award-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning Author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke “rekt is a nihilistic annihilation of the senses, a David Fincher-directed Faces of Death for the digital age, a novocaine 120 Gigabytes of Sodom by a debut de Sade that leaves the reader uncomfortably numb. This book takes just as much from you as you take from it. Alex Gonzalez left me utterly gutted.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters “Reading rekt was like being thrown down a mineshaft. The brilliant Alex Gonzalez ‘goes there’—over and over again. A terrifying eruption of voyeuristic internet bloodlust into the physical realm.” —Beth Morgan, author of A Touch of Jen “REKT masterfully captures every f*cked up thing undulating in the subconscious, collective dark of the internet. If you’ve ever been that kid digging deeper and deeper to shock yourself into feeling something—read this book, traumatize yourself all over again, it's a great time!” —Em. X Liu, author of The Death I Gave Him