About ‘The Rot’ by Stephen Cooper:
Genre: Horror; Splatter; Related Short Stories
Something sinister is happening in England.
A wave of horrific violence and depravity sweeps the country without warning. A Rot. An evil presence with no boundaries, causing carnage, chaos, and gore, wherever it manifests. An ominous voice, pushing people beyond their limits to commit extreme acts, while dragging their morals and ethics straight to hell.
The Rot feeds off hate, and it’s never been easier to manipulate and use that hatred for its own nefarious purpose. The Rot has a hold on the country; the country just doesn’t know it yet.
Due to the very nature of the story, this book contains extreme horror, disgusting language, and an array of trigger inducing situations. If you are easily offended, then maybe read something else, but if you think the world’s going to hell and want a gruesome vile time reading about it, then welcome to The Rot… You have been warned.
I have also reviewed these other titles by Stephen Cooper:
Not Four Children
This book features twelve stories about twelve unfortunate individuals who fell victim to the rot, a strange sort of sentient virus that briefly takes hold of people to manipulate them into atrocious behavior. At first the voice of the creature is clearly not their own nor has their best interest in mind, but as it sinks deeper into the brain, it convinces its victim that it is in fact aligned with their deep desires.
For the most part, the rot takes core details about a person and twists them into their most perverted form. For example, the politically correct protester who it convinces is at his core racist like his family and for all his trouble deserves to have that beautiful Black woman he saw at the store. It takes the loving young mother beginning to overcome postpartum depression and amplifies those feelings into pure hatred. These feelings cannot be shaken aside and forces them to be acted upon in the most brutal and depraved manner.
However, there are a few cases where the rot surprisingly has found people who are truly as depraved as its whispering. Included in this is a woman who has been blind all her life to whom the rot grants her sight. As the story goes along, the rot’s sentience becomes more obvious. So does it start to voice how it is learning more of its own capabilities along the way, such as giving such gifts.
The rot is accompanied visually by spreading a decaying, deformed look across its victim’s face. Outwardly, this is the only tell-tale sign that the individuals have not simply lost their minds. Once they’ve completed their massacre, the look fades and their senses return. Sadly, none are believed as to what happened. It takes until the end of the book for society to take the presence of such a heinous creature as fact. But is there anything that can be done?
‘The Rot’ is legitimate nightmare fuel. I don’t mean in the sense that I’m going to go to bed and see gross violent things in my sleep (though I might). I mean it this way: Just imagine yourself, who you love, what things you support and even fight for, your lifelong wishes…then imagine some horrid alien creature with the ability to shift you into the exact opposite.
You love babies? Suddenly you’re a mass baby murderer. Your spouse means everything to you? Suddenly you’re so jealous you’re stabbing him in the face for snoring. Civil Rights activist? Nope! You’re now using racial slurs and raping minorities. The worst part of all this is during the event, you believe it’s what you want, what is fair, but directly afterwards, you’re returned to your normal self with not so much as your best friend believing it wasn’t you who did those things.
This book also highlights how underneath harmless, kind demeanors, an evil may be lurking. And not just with those I pointed out as not needing much convincing from the rot. At some points it is unclear whether the rot has manipulated some of these people or if that evil was just a bit deeper down.
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~Sahreth ‘Baphy’ Bowden
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