JaqueJaw is a chilling tale that blends genetic science, backwoods folklore, and psychological unraveling into a brutal and oddly poetic horror story. The novel follows the gruesome rise of a monstrous creature, the Jaquejaw, engineered deep in the woods of New Jersey by a broken, brilliant man named David L. Bardd. With childhood trauma, a twisted fascination with chaos, and unchecked scientific ambition fueling him, Bardd becomes obsessed with creating the ultimate predator. The story unfolds in a fragmented, fever-dream structure, alternating between past and present, visions and reality, offering a tapestry of madness, myth, and gore as Bardd’s beast is unleashed on hikers, townsfolk, and, ultimately, himself.

I liked the writing style. It’s raw, jagged, and often poetic. Hanson’s prose doesn’t play it safe. Sentences dart, stutter, and roar just like the monster they describe. One page feels like a nightmare; the next, a tragic journal entry. There’s a strange beauty in the horror, especially in Bardd’s hallucinations and his descent into isolation and obsession. The Jaquejaw is more than a monster. It’s a metaphor for guilt, trauma, and the madness of unchecked genius. Hanson doesn’t just want to scare you; he wants you to squirm, reflect, and maybe even feel a little sorry for the monster and its maker.

This book is not an easy ride. It’s dense. It veers off into tangents. Characters sometimes feel like sketches pulled from a dream, not fully real, just symbols or shadows in Bardd’s spiraling mind. But somehow, that works. It makes you feel like you’re in a warped fairytale told through the mind of someone unraveling. Still, I found myself wishing for more grounding at times. The horror is vivid and unrelenting, viciously imaginative, but the emotional weight is what lingers. Bardd’s loneliness and the strange tenderness he sometimes shows is the reason why Jaquejaw stuck with me.

JaqueJaw is brutal, weird, and doesn’t hold your hand. But for fans of horror who appreciate raw, unfiltered storytelling and want something with psychological bite beneath the blood and teeth, this book delivers. It’s like Frankenstein meets The Thing with a heavy splash of hallucinogenic dread. If you like your horror loud, sad, and just a little too close to home, then JaqueJaw might just burrow into your brain and stay there.

Pages: 157 | ASIN : B0DW3MSMVW