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4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Now THIS is what I call HORROR! Jul 19, 2007
By Samuel Marks
Sick, twisted, haunting, startling and funny! Unlike any serial-killer story I have ever read before. A true murder-mystery which will keep you guessing who the killer is until its unforgettable climax. I wish there were more stories like this.
It's nice to finally read something that portrays murder the way it really is... ugly and merciless. Violence in movies, music, news and video-games are appealing in order for it to sell and keep us interested. Our entertainment is just a business in which some people, like the novel's main character, take too literally and relate to their own life. This book uses its other elements (such as character development, details, references to pop-culture, and dark-humor) to appeal to us, and at the same time subconsciously turn us off from the violence we originally craved.
This is a story about Randy Mulray, a man in his late twenties who struggles to find acceptance from someone aside from his mentally retarded brother. Randy is mentally forced by an imaginary creature, named Yeval, into viewing gruesome murders carried out by a disguised serial killer known as the Seattle Slayer. Unable to get help from the police, Randy decides to investigate the killing spree on his own. In turn, he finds answers about himself that he's been searching for for over twenty years.
Like so many people who live in our society, entertainment is an outlet for our fears and struggles of reality. "YEVAL" addresses this issue with its main character, whose grip on reality decays as his troubles build which lead him to seek movies and music as an outlet for those problems. We get an extreme, but interesting and possible, example of how violence in our entertainment influences our way of thinking. The mind can be very gullible.
The novel is an overall murder-mystery told in a first-person narrative of an unstable drug-dealer. A lot of things are exaggerated, questionable, and ambiguous, making Randy Mulray another example of literature's classic "unreliable narrator". There are several sub-plots in this story, as well as several moral themes. This novel is an interesting look at the insecurities and ungratefulness of our culture.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Shocking and deep... compared to prime-time TV dramas. Feb 02, 2012
By V.G.
...that is, not at all.
I picked this up after hearing about it a few times on the various /lit/ boards scattered around the tubes. The reviews all raved about how it was supposedly shocking, violent, and deep, and a biting commentary on media portrayals of violence.
Nope. Just... nope.
It's nothing but a creepypasta that drags on for far too long. The violence is slightly worse than what you'd expect to see on CSI or Law & Order, and there's practically no depth at all. The "Yeval" character is hilariously cliché, and the main character is simply the author during a daydream. The pacing is nonsensical, with ridiculous jump-cuts, like two characters driving from a police station to a fake crime-scene without, apparently, a word being spoken during the trip, or even acknowledgement of no words being spoken. I'm surprised he didn't just toss "then they went to the crimescene" in the middle of the sentence. There are countless spelling and grammatical errors, and the author randomly breaks fourth wall with interjections about such topics as his favorite movies. Typical self-published work. I'm fairly certain that the other reviews are from his friends and family.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
this book is cool Jul 21, 2007
By Tony Wolfe
a friend told me that id love this book, so i got a copy and read it. she was right. this book is great. usually it takes a while for me to get into a book, but i got right into this book and finished reading it in 2 days. it tricks you too. it went in a different direction than i assumed and the twists are unpredictable, but it is interesting and satisfying until the end. i dunno much about what the reviewer before me said about its take on violence in entertainment, i guess i see what hes talking about, all i no is that the book kept me interested the whole way. this is one of these books that has many layers, so i look forward to rereading it and finding stuff hidden that i didnt notice before. but if you dont like rereading stuff thats ok, youll still enjoy this book a bunch if you wanna read it just once. aside from a few grammar and punctuation errors i noticed (who am i to talk!), this book is flawless. highly recommended. enjoy!
ps. this book isnt for the squeamish.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Twisted, deep, startling, funny, EXCELLENT debut Jun 04, 2010
By Jacob Dring
First off, "Yeval" is not for the faint of heart. It contains explicit, graphic depictions of murders and rapes and torturings, all of which are very well written. While the book does contain some grammatical errors, they are easily overcome if you're rapt by the story. Which I found it very hard not to be. Quite a page-turner, with a very casual first-person narrative by an often likable and sometimes detestable character. In the end, you'll probably familiarize with him, especially during the last three chapters. What I found most killer (pun intended?) about this novel and its debuting author was not necessarily the story itself, nor the characters per se, but the twists and pensiveness. It's almost like Sixth Sense in that way, but only to an extent; I don't want to hype up the twist-ending so much for potential readers, nor give any spoilers. All I can say is that I hope C.W. Schultz keeps writing novels, that YOU will read this book, and enjoy the terrific ride it yields.
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