Genuinely heart wrenching. This book is like the car wreck you don't want to look at but cannot help but to steal a glance. I wanted to stop reading so many times but couldn't. It had my stomach in knots and my heart beating rapidly.

2.5 stars As a psychologist, I was interested in this take on the stream of consciousness perspective of an individual on a killing spree. It was an uncomfortable ride. It was immediately clear that Schroeder was a damaged person, done very wrong. What didn’t line up for me were the inconsistencies in deep-rooted character: Schroeder is so childlike (almost seemingly “slow” , yet he can mastermind his varied methods of murder; the switches from pure enjoyment of nature and people (down to saving a ladybug) to no reaction to wreaking bloody violence against someone. I get what the author was going for…this was a “nice guy”, pushed too far and he snapped, but it all just felt too unbelievable for me.

SCHROEDER by Neal Cassidy is a psychological horror novel that published on October 15th. It was 💯 the creepy minimalist cover that caught my attention.

The story follows a man as he bicycles about town one day, committing brutal and heinous acts. It’s all told through his deranged stream of consciousness, explaining to the reader why his victims are on his list.

I enjoyed this one; it’s a deep dive into ‘hurt people, hurt people’.

Written in a dense stream of consciousness were given the perspective inside the mind of Schroeder as he sets out on a city wide killing spree on his bicycle.

Very stylistic, the writing ebbs and flows through mundane musings before escalating rapidly into delectable ultraviolence. The twisted worldview of Schroeder reminded me of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or Rorschach in Watchmen even a little bit of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. We're dealing with a deeply disillusioned man observing the world around him as he goes from stop to stop committing violent gory murder

Once this story got into its groove, it began to flow rapidly. The juxtaposition of ordinary thoughts interlaced with graphic descriptive murder made for an interesting yet unsettling story

Schroeder by Neal Cassidy

Schroeder is a remarkably insightful young man, full of sharp observations and keen understanding. He embraces the present, finding joy in the little things, like the warm smiles and simple greetings from strangers. Each moment is a treasure to him, a reminder of the beauty in everyday connections. The real world, however, never fails to remind him of how terrifying it can be. Due to the bullying he endures every day, Schroeder questions, "Why?"

Neal Cassidy, author of previous work The Final Weekend: A Stoned Tale, pens a tale of extreme horror and turbulence. Embarking on Schroeder's journey through his meticulously crafted chaos is nothing short of an emotional rollercoaster. As he navigates to each destination, the complexity of his thoughts and the weight of his intentions make for a profoundly captivating experience.

Indeed, this book is an emotional rollercoaster and not for the faint of heart. Blood-soaked gore and brutality await, so be prepared. However, within its pages lies something more gripping than a simple tale of the macabre. This serves as an invitation for readers to embrace and appreciate life. A peculiar feeling arose from my depths. How can I like this character? Surely a serial killer is pure evil, end of story! Ultimately, my admission is Schroeder has one me over. Perhaps it is his simple naivety or my empathy for his unenviable circumstances. No matter the circumstances, I firmly stood by Team Schroeder.

The book is extremely long-winded with excessive thought patterns. My belief is this is done intentionally to show how scatterbrained Schroeder becomes. Oceans of thoughts hitting him one at a time, over and over. It was a unique reading experience because it took me inside the cockpit of Schroeder's mind. I felt overwhelmed by the constant questions and thoughts. Honestly, it was brilliant in it's delivery!

As the book neared its end, I finally received the answers to my many questions. I felt a sense of satisfaction, as there was some validation for his actions. I am grateful to Mr. Cassidy for the opportunity to read a disturbing novel that still offered valuable insights. It reminded me to appreciate the beauty of nature, savor the landscapes around us, and embrace the differences in all beings.

I look forward to the author's future work. I give this 4 out of 5 stars! Recommended!

Many thanks to M & S Publishing for the ARC through Netgalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.

Schroeder was an interesting read. I’m not used to reading books that are considered “stream of consciousness” and I’m not sure if it’s a style I’m comfortable with. This follows a narrator who is a serial killer. Some of the scenes are very descriptive and very wordy. It got into long paragraphs about minute details and I started to not care about what was being said. This book is definitely for some people, but more likely for readers who like long meandering narrative. I would still recommend this book, but it wasn’t for me. The ending was well done, but was too little too late for me.

Thank you Netgalley and M&S Publishing for allowing me to read an eARC of this book. The opinion in this review is my own.

Honestly, I was VERY disappointed in this one. the random tangents in the middle of the stream-of-conscience, combined with the constant, repeated, bikeride segment, disconnect from the story in a lot of ways. And the "protag", Schroder, was a lot more "standard serial killer" than I expected, and not in a good way. This really feels more like a splatterpunk than the psychological horror I was looking for, and it didn't go quite far enough to work as a splatterpunk either. 2.5 stars, rounded up. Tysm for the arc.

I’m just gonna start here – this book is wild. Hello! I, as usual, am late to the party when it comes to ARC books. But I’m happy to amend that with my very first ARC read, Schroeder, written by Neal Cassidy. I have been SO looking forward to sharing my thoughts about this book that I almost DNF’d! No shade intended, this turned out to be excellent, but my experience of reading this book went a little something like this…

Sighhhhhh

UGH

ZzZzzZzZzZ

what the FUCK

Hmm, okay, okay…

Oh shit. OH! SHIT!

Sniffle

*cries in horror*

Schroeder is the story of a young man at the end of his rope. Something has broken him and we begin the story unaware of what it was. I’d call this literary fiction with surprise elements of mania and I’ll begin by saying that this is going to be a challenging read for fans of typical horror. The book is written in stream-of-consciousness style as we join Schroeder for a day-long bike ride through town. We are privy to his thoughts on everything from everyday etiquette to childhood memories. Because of this device many of the pages are just a solid block of text from top to bottom that become exhausting on the eyes. Our protagonist also tends to use overly complicated vocabulary that will cause the reader to need to stop and look words up, though I believe there’s a reason for this.

I wanted to present those slight negatives first because I think it’s important for me to explain why I think you shouldn’t let these choices deter you from the story. I’m not gonna lie, some pages are a SLOG. But if you can power through, this turns out to be a fascinating, emotional story. It’s my opinion that Cassidy made these alienating choices on purpose. A quarter of the way into the book I was considering not finishing it, though something nagged at me. I was bored, that was true enough, but I also recognized that there was something not right about this character, something bothersome. When he began committing acts of violence that certainly increased the excitement of the book for a moment, but then we were right back to riding his bike through town.

I sat with this for a while and asked myself why an author would intentionally want to alienate the reader like this and then it dawned on me: I (the reader) am society. I am the society that has let this character down. (Heads up, this is going to get dark.) What do we eventually learn about nearly every 17-25 year old young man who ends up committing a large act of violence like a school shooting? It seems inevitable now that we hear the same story, time after time, of a broken home, a system which made mistakes and didn’t see the signs, and red flags that went completely unnoticed. I, like so many who failed those young men before they became monsters, did not have the patience or care to sit with this young man for the time it would take to hear his story. I was willing to close the book when he became difficult to deal with and simply allow his story to progress on without me. (Almost!) An act which would have left me partially responsible for his future actions.

Powerful stuff right? And so, feeling accused, I continued on with Schroeder, hearing him out while he rode his bike from victim to victim, leaving death and destruction in his wake. And I’ve got to try and balance my thoughts here because on the one hand I want to go a little deeper than my Goodreads review, but on the other I don’t want to give too much away. We do eventually learn the cause that sparked Schroeder’s spree, but more interesting than that to me was the reverse Breaking Bad that Cassidy pulls with this novel.

What do I mean by that? Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, has said in interviews that he really wanted to take an average guy and, over the course of five seasons, turn him into a monster. Cassidy does the opposite by presenting us with a monster early on and slowly molds him into someone we can empathize with, even love. One could say that’s the harder task after what Schroeder spends 3/4 of the book doing.

I won’t give away the ending, but you know it’s a horror story that goes beyond when it leaves you in tears. I’m glad I stuck with him. Schroeder needed somebody to hear his story and understand him. Will it be you?

4/5 stars for a fantastically complicated literary horror read.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an eARC of this horror novel!

Unfortunately, at about 30% I had to DNF the book. The writing style just wasn’t for me. There were a lot of run on sentences, and it made it hard to read. I was left confused on why this man was doing these horrific things. I am not sure if this was going to be answered later on but alas, I will not know

I often wonder when I hear about people who go on killing sprees, what in the world would make a person do such a thing? What kind of mind must you have to just suddenly wake up and decide, “hey, today I feel like killing a bunch of people.” Who does that? His name is Schroeder.

Yes, Schroeder woke up this morning and decided very methodically about how he would go about killing people. His routine was basic. He bathed himself, ate his breakfast, listened to his favorite tunes, and headed for the outdoors with bike in tow and while he pedaled and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the beautiful day that lay ahead, he had a sense of peace come over him. All was right with the world because Schroeder had a plan.

There’s something to be said with how we treat each other as human beings. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own little worlds that we forget there are other living and breathing creatures besides us. One would think it shouldn’t matter what color you are or where you’re from or how much money you have in the bank. At the end of the day, all any of us really want is to be noticed, acknowledged, loved, and respected. Why is that so hard?

Schroeder asked those very questions and when he measured up where his life was at this time compared to where he had once come from, it all boiled down to this exact moment in time. Schroeder had a mission, a map, and a plan on how to chronicle his life’s work. He was going to get noticed come hell or high water. Everybody was going to know Schroeder, especially his victims. What they couldn’t possibly know was just how close to death they really were coming in the wake of Schroeder’s wrath. Oh, but when fate would have them meet, all will be revealed.

Schroeder was a simple person. He didn’t ask for much and what he did ask for he never got. This story demonstrates what happens when you break the human spirit to the point of no return. Does this give any of us the right to do what Schroeder did? That’s not for me to say. Only you can make the determination after you read it.

I absolutely loved this story. I know, my fans think I’m crazy for reading books like this, but I do love my horror stories and especially one that has substance like this. I could relate to Schroeder, as crazy as it sounds. When you journey along with Schroeder, your jaw will hit the floor. I found myself grunting and grasping my invisible pearls. I must warn you, Nerds, this novel is not for the squeamish at heart. If you have a very weak stomach, you most definitely will not be able to handle the gore that you’re going to get. So, reader be warned! But, for my soldiers out there who like a bit of blood and guts and can handle it, you most definitely want to sink your eyes into this one. Hell yeah!

*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.*

Honestly, I expected something completely different before reading this, so that's probably why I didn't like it as much as I hoped.

Nevertheless, I think the concept behind it and how disturbing it was interesting to read about.

Overall, I didn't like the writing style. I found it sometimes hard to follow. Not sure how to describe it to someone who hasn't read it, but it feels a bit too slow and stretched out sometimes. But I think some people might like it nevertheless, just wasn't for me.

I also found that too many things were mentioned or occured a bit too often, like:
music (blasting)
reversed words
some memory/flashback (which often wasn't important)

Also a bit disappointed that this book dispictured Schroeder like a stereotypical serial killer, I expected more honestly.

If you decide to read this book, please look up the content warnings, as it is quite disturbing. Even though I thought it wouldn't trigger me, I found some scenes a bit triggering (the sexual stuff).

Thank you for the advanced reader copy of SCHROEDER by Neal Cassidy.

Started the book: 09. November 2024
Finished the book: 09. November 2024
Wrote the review: 10. November 2024

My thanks to Net Galley and M an S for this arc, but unfortunately I gave up at 47% read. This was a unique and oddly disturbing read to what is going on in the mind of a serial killer. I wish it was explained early why he was the way he was . The story was interesting but the writing style ran on and on and it made it hard to focus.

Wow. This was not an easy read, to say that I ‘enjoyed’ the book makes me seem like a psychopath BUT this book was such a wild ride. To get an insight into a serial killer’s motivations and motives was truly abhorrent but in the worst way? So so so many trigger warnings for this booked it’s an absolute blood bath that is described within an inch of its life. Not one for the faint-hearted but it truly is unique.

I found this quite hard to read, mostly due to the writing style. It was a very clever read but I definitely struggled with it. As a horror fan I thought I was going to love it but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

There are a lot of words I could use to describe this book, to detail the gory deaths captured on the pages. But the word I want to use is compelling. This entire story is written as if we are in schroeder’s innermost thoughts, and the construction of the plot and how information is revealed is masterful. While the content was horrific—I think it’s safe to say that basically all trigger warnings apply—it was presented in a way where, at the end of the book, I’m still left turning the story over in my mind. Definitely recommend.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this title. Opinions are my own.

Neal Cassidy takes us on a macabre tour into the mind of a serial killer. We meet Schroeder, a bullied, hard luck young man who tries all of his life to make sense of a world that is hostile towards him. The first 95% of the book follows Schroeder as he commits a series of incredibly gruesome murders. It isn't until the final few pages that we learn what triggered this trail of horrors. Schroeder has led a sad, miserable life.
I also saw Schroeder as a vehicle through which the author lays bare the many ills in modern society. Schroeder attempts to make sense of not only the reasons for the bullying he is subjected to daily by classmates, fellow employees and even bystanders but also the senselessness of human activity in the larger society. Cassidy attempts to turn his protagonist into a sympathetic character. On some level, this works. Anyone, and I include myself among this group, who was ever bullied or humiliated as a child can find a reason to understand and even sympathize with Schroeder as he performs his horrific deeds.
This is not only a drama/horror novel. It is also a sociological tour de force that examine the human condition. I highly recommend.

Schroeder is a stream-of-consciousness narrative of a man who goes on a revenge killing spree after his mother dies. That’s the entire story, which you don’t understand until the last 10% of the book.

This book is classified as horror, but really it’s just a narrator making generic observations under the guise of being deep by defining these vague concepts with cool sounding words at the beginning of the chapter, along with lots and lots of gore. And that could definitely work for some readers, but it just wasn’t for me. The writing style wasn’t bad, and there were some good quotes and descriptions, but ultimately I gained nothing from this story. Am I supposed to feel empathy for Schroeder? The entire book has just been him flitting around town killing people, who I can presume are bad, sure, but there’s no satisfaction in it. The diary entries at the end don’t really make me feel like his killings are justified. Yeah, those people suck, but I find it unbelievable that EVERY person in the narrator’s life is cartoonishly awful except for a select few. I thought that surely he must be an unreliable narrator, and that after the diary entries we would get another perspective showing that he actually has had sociopathic tendencies his entire life or something, but the book just ends. It’s not that I don’t believe that bullies and abusive fathers exist, it’s that there has been no showing of behavior, no nuance, no other context: only tales and tales of terrible things befalling Schroeder. I kind of felt like laughing at certain points at the end because it was literally just trauma porn. I mean, a high school principal saying multiple times to you and your mother’s face that she’s a whore and deserves to be abused? I guess it could happen?

Some people could certainly enjoy this book, which is why I rounded up to 3 stars, but it was not for me. If you like graphic descriptions of murder and sentences that last 5 pages, then give it a shot. But if you’re expecting a great payoff and reveal, you might be disappointed. It’s definitely more a story of the journey than the destination, but the destination is so subpar and blatantly explained that it kind of ruins the rest of the book.

I admit I had trouble getting into this one as it begins with a stream-of-consciousness dialogue as Schroeder has OCD and rambles on as he begins a killing spree that is shocking in its 'numbness." But later we realize how this young man came to feel this violence was necessary and at the end we empathize with him. It's often hard to read but totally worth it!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I would like to thank NetGalley and M & S Publishing for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on October 15, 2024.

DNF @ 35%

The thing about my beloved horror genre that I always most desire is to be entertained. Horror Books that struggle with themselves or their language, stories with no plots, pointless literary experiments– these are not entertaining to me. Unfortunately, I feel that Schroeder is all of these things and I just couldn't give it any more time than I did.

I don't recommend this book. Even fans of stream of consciousness may notice the unpolished execution of the element.

Partial Reading Notes

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I love how the opening scene is written. A low stakes dog fight, with just a hint of blood to foretell things to come.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I really cannot connect with this super-first person stream of consciousness style of narration. I think it's popular right now, because I keep making this comment on books I read. Stream of consciousness writing is difficult to get right, but when it is, it can be sublime. This text does not handle this technique well, preferring instead to string out lengthy, unreadable sentences the MC is supposedly thinking.

2. "Our community is littered with failed businesses that extinguished green areas— vacant properties with shattered signs and windows in overgrown parking lots— and after fleetingly, comically questioning why so many patches of undisturbed land have to disappear when there’s plenty of available space that’s been abandoned by shut-down establishments, despite my already knowing the answer—money— I’m feeling vaguely comforted by the sight of the familiar, aged cottage ahead that’s been maintained for historic reasons, so I choose not to dwell on our city’s current state any longer because it wouldn’t do any good, anyway." p36 There is no conceivable reason, stylistic or otherwise, why this sentence is so long. Run-ons are hard to read, and hard to understand. They should be used sparingly. But so *many* of the sentences comprising this book are this long or even longer. They're all fighting with each other over space on the pages, and that reads about like you would expect.

3. The publisher calls this a gripping psychological thriller, but Schroeder is neither. I'm 40 pages in, a third of the total length, and nothing that's happened feels as imperative as the dog fight on page 2.

4. The rare little chunks of action keep getting lost in this word salad.

5. There is so much extraneous material in this book, like Mercedes girl with the coffee, who doesn't seem to exist in this story for any real reason. I keep finding material that goes nowhere, and not enough information about the story action. It's so freaking weird. This must be an experimental novel, but I do not get the experiment.

6. DNF @ 35% I threw in the towel when the violent murdering young adult gets invited by two little girls who *do not know them* to join in a game of hopscotch. Hopscotch, that's what I want five minutes after I've revenge murdered somebody!

Rating: DNF @ 35%
Recommend? NoooooOooo
Finished: Oct 30 '24

Thank you to the author Neal Cassidy, publishers M & S Press, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of SCHROEDER. All views are mine.