Book Review: The Razorblades in My Head by Donnie Goodman

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The Razorblades in My Head by Donnie Goodman

Reviewed by: Janine Pipe

The Razorblades in my Head is the debut short story collection from horror buff, Donnie Goodman. I will preface this review by saying that I love Donnie, he’s got heart and he’s got chops. He is a supporter of the community and someone I genuinely enjoy interacting with and trust to beta read my own work.

All that aside, I had been excited to read this collection since Donnie first announced it, having beta read some other shorts for him not in this compilation. 

The first story from the collection that I read separately due to its individual mini-release, was The Old Bay King. That cemented the anticipation. 

As soon as Donnie had an ARC available, I was straight in there and read the entire thing cover to cover including all the notes in just a couple of days.

Here are my thoughts which I will try to keep spoiler free which isn’t always easy as quite a few of these are very short. One spoiler before we start though, I enjoyed every single tale, there were no duds for me. 

The Razorblades in my head – gruesome revenge body horror. Awesome imagery and a great starting point.

Third Grade – 1st person and POV of a child … loved it!!! 

Stargazing – probably the scariest story in the collection as like Mulder, I want to believe …

Gobble, Gobble – a creature feature with the type of outcome I most enjoy!

Magic in the hat – this was one of my favourites despite the fact that Donnie and I will be sharing a TOC for Served Cold which this will appear in later. So much fun and I loved the teen boys. 

It’s no always why – cosmic horror isn’t always my bag as it can be a little confusing for me – simple stories help my wavering attention span. That being said I did enjoy this and with every other story in this book I could easily see it being a longer piece. 

The Stranger in the Squared Circle –this was the sub-genre I didn’t know I needed in my life until I read this – wrestling horror! This story is awesome!!! I used to watch this stuff when I was a kid/young teen and it brought back memories as well as being a great story which left me wanting more of that world.

Toasted – one thing to say about this – I NEED MORE! What happened, when will we find out more, come on now, stop teasing us like this!

Teddy – another great tale with a whole lot of potential and I enjoyed it even more knowing that Brian Keene was an influence as he is a big mentor for me and I adore him. 

A Bloody Heist – this was a lot of fun as after horror, I love crime and thrillers and who doesn’t enjoy the all out action of a heist story? I did see the foreshadowing for the twist but only because it was exactly what I would have done too. Fab. 

Hourglass – I learned after reading this that it was written originally as a short film and I will tell you this much, I cannot wait to see it! 

The Old Bay King – another homage to Keene in my eye and I don’t even know why but it felt like something Tim Meyer might have come up with? And if you know me at all, that is high praise indeed. And for the record, I would have taken it too …

So there we go. A debut collection with the makings of many more stories, whether some of the individual contributions are lengthened or whether there is more to explore within the universe Donnie has created. I guess since I can’t vote for myself, this could also easily win cover of the year so far, Justin T Coons does it again with absolutely amazing artwork you need as a paperback.

5/5.

The Razorblades in My Head is available on Amazon.

 

Bio: Janine Pipe

Trading in a police badge and then classroom, Janine is a full-time Splatterpunk Award-nominated writer, whilst also being a mum, wife and Disney addict. Influenced by the works of King from a young age, she likes to shock readers with violence and scare them with monsters – both mythical and man-made. When she’s not killing people off, she likes to chew the fat with other authors – reviewing books and conducting interviews for her podcast and YouTube channel. You’ll likely find her devouring work by Glenn Rolfe, Hunter Shea and Tim Meyer. Her biggest fan, beta reader, editor and financier is her loving husband. He just wants her to write a story about werewolves that wear shoes on their hands …

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