Free Burn
A Devilish Horror Novel
by Drew Huff
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 4 Mar 2025 | Archive Date 15 Jun 2025
Drew Huff | Dark Matter INK
Description
Triple-Six, a lovestruck loser with a murderous girlfriend, has just one question: Is meeting his girlfriend’s mom supposed to be this f*cking scary?
He’s pretty sure it isn’t, but then again, he’s also pretty sure that his only friend and girlfriend, Mallory Worner, framed him for a murder she committed. Which, really, he should’ve seen coming. Because Mallory’s the daughter of now-deceased pyromaniac serial killer, Lorraine Worner, and Mallory spent her childhood helping Lorraine lure victims and hide cadavers.
Love is crazy. So is Mallory.
Now rotting away in a jail cell with Mallory, Triple-Six’s only chance at freedom and not dying involves helping a shady Australian dude summon an undead serial killer from Hell. Who turns out to be Lorraine Worner. You know, Mallory’s mom. The lady with like thirty victims and ten documentaries made about her.
Triple-Six bargains with Lorraine in order to avoid instant death: Three days of freedom from her Hell-imposed restrictions, during which she can capture and murder him however she likes. If he can survive for three days, she’ll take away his biggest insecurity---a birth defect that gives him malformed, pincer-like hands. And maybe, just maybe, if he can survive Lorraine, and his weird hands become normal...will Mallory finally love him?
But as Lorraine rampages across Texas, hunting Triple-Six and Mallory, Triple-Six’s body begins mutating horrifically, and Hell’s furious wardens come after him for freeing Lorraine. Forced to outwit multiple demons and make bad bargain after bad bargain, all while Lorraine starts getting disturbingly seductive towards him, he's starting to wonder...
What if Lorraine wants to do more than kill him?
CAUTION: This is a work of extreme horror and absurdity that rivals the likes of Chuck Palahnuik and Duncan Ralston. Read the content warnings below!
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Free Burn is a high-octane horror novel that's as full of heart as it is disturbing...This book is everything."
--Steph Nelson, author of bestselling thrillersThe Final Scene and The Threshing Floor
"Jaw-dropping in its uniqueness, stunning in its prose, and captivating in tone, concept, and approach..."
--Candace Nola, author of Bishop and Desperate Wishes
"Drew Huff roars out of the gate with this strong debut, a radical reinvention of the road novel with shades of Katharine Dunn's Geek Love and Joe Hill's Horns."
--Duncan Ralston, splatterpunk author of Doom and Ghostland
Available Editions
EDITION | Ebook |
ISBN | 9781958598955 |
PRICE | US$6.99 (USD) |
PAGES | 368 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Our protagonist Triple-Six, an outcast who has lobster-like pincers for hands, lands in a cell with his crazy girlfriend, Mallory Worner, after she frames him for a murder. While trying to secure a deal, Triple-Six summons Lorraine Worner, Mallory's infamous pyromaniac serial killer mother back from the dead. While hell's wardens are trying to put Lorraine back where she belongs, she is trying to kill Triple-Six after making a bargain with him. Triple-Six gets out of this mess, and receives human hands instead of his pincers, that is if he can survive for three days without Lorraine killing him.
Free burn is without a doubt one of the best books I've read this year. The characters are unique, have their own voice, and despite not being good people, I loved them. The relationship between Triple-Six and Mallory throughout the book had its ups and downs, yet I always cheered for them to get out of this mess. The pacing was fast, but allowed for moments to breath, and develop the characters.
This book won't be for everyone. It's weird, funny, gory, has plenty of graphic content, but it's written with heart. I seriously hope everyone reads the author's notes. Rarely do I believe they add much to the story of the book, but the notes in Free Burn made me shed a tear, and revealed so much about these characters in the book, and how they came alive.
I want to thank the author for writting Free Burn, and will gladly look forward to their next work.
Wow. Just wow. I love wasn’t expecting to love the characters as much as I did. I laughed, cried and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Triple Six, while being a deformed project, was so relatable and lovable. Drew Huff did not miss with this! Not to mention, you’ll get your share of gore.