Books That Didn't Trip My Trigger - January 2026

Not all the books I've been reading are winners. Here are a couple that sadly fell short of my expectations:

The Devil's Gunt by Gerald Dean Rice

Synopsis:

Hi, I'm Rick. AKA, Beelzebub. AKA, Mephistopheles. AKA, Old Hat. AKA, Mr. Scratch. AKA... AKA... AKA. You may think of me as the Father of Lies, but for the record, I'm also the Daddy of Mammon and Steve. But both of them are b-holes. In fact, all my hellspawn are. So, I got this idea. I wanted to have a kiddo with a human. I had it all lined up for this adult film star to carry my seed, except the demon who shall remain unnamed screwed up and impregnated the wrong person. A male wrong person. And now I'm gonna have to go up there to fix this mistake myself. But, it's going to be a chore. He's got a wife who is pretty savvy, and I think his roommate is a serial killer (Hey, I'm only half omnipotent!). I guarantee you, though, I'm gonna see my junior before this tale is done. If I have to eff every bee in the City of Detroit and Wayne County, my little one will be born - or my name isn't Louis Cyphre, or Sy Tan, or Deb Billings, or Burl Ives... A brilliant new bizarro book to rival the greats, with a foreword by Jimmy Pudge.

My Thoughts:

I'm just going to say that you should NOT pick up this book thinking it's a paranormal romance....because it's not, and I was one of those idiots who failed to read the genre tags and realized far too late I was diving headfirst into a tale of horror. How did I find myself in this predicament? Well, I fell in love with a book in the year of our lord 2025 called Lightbearer by L.C. Davis -- it's a paranormal romance that focuses on an average guy who consents to getting knocked up by a demon named Apollyon in order to save his sister. It's filled with peak humor, a fantastic plot, and is just one big emotional rollercoaster. After riding the highs and emotional lows of that book, I decided I wanted to find something in the same wheelhouse. My stipulations? A couple key elements needed to be met:

1) A man must get impregnated by a devil/demon.

2) There must be humor.

Much research ensued, and I stumbled upon The Devil's Gunt. It checked all the boxes...or so I thought:

1) Does a man get impregnated by a devil/demon? Yes.

2) Is there humor? Yes. (I'm basing this answer entirely off the summary, which gave humor in my humble opinion. Plus, the title is a play on words for cunt, and that just tickles me pink). 

However, in no way, shape, or form did I conclude this was a horror book solely based on the summary. I mean, a man getting pregnant is a normal Friday night for me on AO3. Consequently, I started to read something that was entirely not to my taste. My bad. 

Don't get me wrong, I love horror. However, bizzaro horror is not really something I gravitate toward. Random, weird, and outlandish scenarios slapped together tend to be too erratic for my liking. It's more of a game of "how outlandish can I make this?" and the book just starts to become lackluster and overstimulating. Aside from my lack of interest in this type of genre, we are presented with chapters from various POVs alongside multiple timelines that we jump between, adding to the confusion. Everything compounds to make you feel like you're on a speeding train with no real destination in sight. The Devil's Gunt is also a novella. Rushed pacing tends to be something I come across quite a bit with short stories. Unfortunately, the aforementioned rushed pacing was present here. It's just trying to do too much in a short page count, resulting in a jumbled and confusing story. 

Your Knife, My Heart by K.M. Moronova

Synopsis:

Dark. Deadly. Irresistible.

Cameron Mortem has a problem―he can't stop killing his partners. Officially labeled clinically insane, he's also one of the most lethal assets in the Dark Forces, a brutal underground military operation built on obedience, survival, and silence. But an experimental drug has fractured his control, making him a liability whenever someone else is on the field. As punishment, he's thrown back into the Under Trials―a merciless boot camp designed to break the weak and sharpen the ruthless.

His one directive? Don't kill the new girl.

Emery Maves narrowly escapes a death sentence after her own brutal crimes, only to find herself forced into the same violent world. Assigned to Cameron, she's expected to survive the Trials and her partner's unstable nature. But Emery quickly realizes there's more to Cameron than bloodlust and body counts. Beneath the madness lies a terrifying allure―and a strange, dangerous tenderness.

As the Trials push them to their limits, Emery must navigate the brutal demands of the Dark Forces while resisting the pull of a man who could just as easily kill her as protect her. And Cameron must fight the one urge he's never been able to overcome.

Their bond is intoxicating, chaotic, and born of violence. And if it doesn't destroy them both, it might just save them.

My Thoughts:

Boy, oh boy...this book is...special.  For starters, the characterization is everywhere. Emery is first presented as her family's executioner, uncaring and ruthless - a cold-blooded killer. I'm also pretty sure that early on Emery mentions that she doesn't really care about other people. But then she falls madly in love with our main man Cam...who falls into the aforementioned category of "people." She's a "cold-blooded killer" who is "different" but has all the feels for man...due to forced proximity? The cold-blooded killer isn't cold-blood killer-ing. 

To make matters worse, I feel like this book comes across more YA than adult. The "adult' genre really just rears its head when our 2 love interests have their random sexcapades....in the showers, on the train, in the woods....the list goes on and on. Honestly, they both read far more like teenagers than 20-somethings. How are we not afraid of pregnancy in the dark military underground????

Overall, I am very miffed by the mindset that Cameron's "so dark and tortured and killed all his previous male partners. We'll just give him a woman, who he'll have to protect because women are automatically so tiny and weak. Plus, she can take all his sexual frustration."  That just doesn't do it for me. It's kind of overplayed and way too on the nose for traditional gender roles for me. And don't get me started on the fact that we're told Emery is some badass killer but constantly needs to be saved in every bad predicament she finds herself in? Ugh. I don't know. Just let her be a cool killer. 

Admittedly, I listened to the audiobook for this one, and it was kind of cringy, but I'm sure this book will do it for someone out there. I am just not that person. 🤣