Well. This is...timely. A story about greed, ego, and toxic masculinity, this was an honest look at the world we're living in. For better or worse.

This is a dark, scary and all too timely book about just how far people will go for greed and entertainment. This book uses social media and the dark web to explore toxic masculinity, violence towards women and misogyny in general. It is not for the faint of heart but it is very good and there is much to learn from the ideas here.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Rekt.
I was drawn in by the premise due to my morbid curiosity about the dark web. However, my reading experience for this book was unusual because I really enjoyed the first 50% but lost interest around the 70% mark and unfortunately started skimming from that point on…(last third of a book is usually the best part).
Reading about Sammy grieving Ellery's death felt authentic and the story about his uncle's death further humanized him (I enjoyed/ appreciated the character development). I was sort of enticed by who / what was behind the videos online of people dying but once Sammy joined Jay and Izzy I really struggled to keep reading. Their time together seemed to drag and I lost interest in how the book was going to end.
The final 10% of the book reminded me of The Sluts by Dennis Cooper in that you have to read a variety of online postings and piece together what it all means... I unfortunately didn't have the capacity to put much thought into it.
I enjoyed the author's writing style and can appreciate the formatting at the end but I couldn't get into this one personally. If you read creepypasta / are chronically online maybe this ones for you??
Overall this book is hard to rate, but I suppose my reasoning for the low rating is quite simple- the book felt too long and it wasn't for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review!

3.5 stars! Rounded up!

The way this kicked off and the first half had in locked in and reading away. There's stuff that's scary but when it involves people online and what we have such easy access to this day in age, it's honestly terrifiyig when you think about it, and also the other things people will consume on the internet and how it influences or changes them.

I loved the start of this and how dark it was. How Sammy went from grief to a spiral that watching certain stuff online to then all hell breaking loose.

The middle and then the end really stopped me from rating this higher because it just became so unrealistic with the sense of how things were panning out with relation to the first half of the book. Like I was reading almost two books. Regardless of this, this is a fantastic dark read and I'm beyond happy to find a new author to keep an eye out for!

The internet is a scary place and this book really dug into that fear for me. It really made me think about my life and what I have on social media. This book was fantastic! I highly recommend!

3.5/5 stars

Alex Gonzalez's Rekt is a great novel that examines the sinister depths of the dark web, and toxic masculinity. It follows the main character, Sammy, as he wanders into the side of the internet that most people hear about in secret, uncovering unsettling mysteries and irreversible consequences. This read contains extremely graphic descriptions of abuse and torture and feels awfully close to real life.

What gives Rekt its impact is the gripping narrative, which vividly captures the isolation and paranoia that come with digging too deep online and Gonzalez uses these themes to fuel a psychological tension that escalates throughout the story. Seeing Sammy's character development, and realizing how deep he has gone and how impossible it is to turn back now, truly left me with shivers down my spine. As intense as this book is, there were a couple of funny and heartfelt moments that were well-placed and memorable which I really appreciated as they added a layer of realism.

Ultimately, Rekt is a cautionary tale about the dark side of the internet and how curiosity can lead to terrifying places if one is not careful. By the end of this book, I found myself uttering the exact words of one of the characters, "I want to not want to be online."

This comes out this spring, and I can highly recommend it when it does. Along with exploring the many paths grief can take, you've got the deeper, darker underside of the internet (think snuff films but crypto and betting gets involved), creepypastas, and a man who, while well intentioned, just keeps making the absolute worst choices possible. Especially a fan of the ephermea at the end of this. Pick this up this spring, and enjoy the descent.

✨REVIEW: 4/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
📹 Rekt by @nahitsjustalex 📹

⌨️synopsis: Once, Sammy Dominguez thought he knew how the world worked. The ugly things in his head—his uncle’s pathetic death, his parents’ mistrust, the twisted horrors he writes for the Internet—didn’t matter, because he and his girl, Ellery, were on track for the good life in this messed-up world.

Then a car accident changed everything.

⌨️my opinion: I don’t usually read these kinds of books… (actually, I’ve never been a huge fan of the stuff that’s out there on the internet🫠) BUT, this one caught my eye because of its cover and well, I don’t regret it.

The story follows Sammy, who recently had a loss and is dealing with grief and the “ghosts” of his past.
His life ends up falling apart when he opens a link on the internet that shows him videos of people’s deaths 🫨 (apparently, there is a huge online group of people who create those videos by betting which way people will die) I know, it's crazy. 🫣

So this story delves into the consequences that the dark web can cause, toxic masculinity, grief, and the internet in general. 🤫

📀Highly recommended if you:

✨Like CreepyPasta.
✨Like the dark web.
✨ If you’ve ever liked Slenderman.

I would like to thank @erewhonbooks and @netgalley for the advanced e-copy. <33

Damn, this book was right up my alley in terms of what scares me. This story will totally be on my mind for a long while. I flew through the book in a day, I had to see how it ended! It was bleak, gory, intense, and scary.

This book definitely does what it sets out to do but I still ended up not enjoying it. I have read other novels that take a similar subject matter but still manage to be fun to me and some way and this is definitely not it.

darkly and ominously interesting internet horror-type vibes feels like a creepypasta work and definitely has that same sort of sensibilties. unique, in one word.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was too much for me. I appreciate the unique plot and the idea of how easily a traumatized person could get sucked into the dark web, but it was too disturbing and felt like much was for shock value. Well-written but not for me and I was let down by the ending.

3 stars, for me, others will likely rate it higher.

Before the car accident Sammy Dominguez thought he had a handle on the world even though things weren’’t pretty - his uncle died a sad, lonely death, his parents didn’t trust him and his dark thoughts came out in the stories he posted online, but he had his girlfriend Ellery and the two of them were going to make it.

And then it was all over.

Spiraling, Sammy is drawn toward some of the darker parts of the Internet. Then someone emails him a video of Ellery dying. He watches that, then hundreds of other deaths, including those of people still alive.

What is this mysterious website and who runs it? Are all of the videos deepfakes? Is anything real?

This was much more gory and disturbing than my normal reads but I don’t know that it quite rises to the level of splatterpunk. Or perhaps it does, not sure. But it’s well-written and will likely find its audience, it just isn’t me.

Rekt by Alex Gonzalez is an internet psychological thriller—honestly, a genre that feels like it’s gearing up for an amazing run over the next few years. The book dives into Sammy’s spiral after losing his girlfriend in a car crash, leading him into the twisted depths of a dark web site where real deaths are watched and bet on. It’s disturbing, raw, and feels almost too close to reality for comfort, especially if you grew up watching things online that you probably shouldn’t have.

Sammy is easily the best part of the story—his downward spiral is morbidly relatable, and being in his head feels like those 3 a.m. moments when your mind takes you to dark places. The tension is real, the violence is visceral, but the story itself, particularly the mystery of the site chinsky, is what kept me going. The pacing felt off at times, and while I loved the concept, the last stretch didn’t quite hit like I wanted it to. Still, it's a wild ride, and if you're into dark internet thrillers, it’s worth checking out.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Hooo this was rough. The concept was interesting, and I think it was explored really well, I just had a hard time getting through it as it was so depressing. Which, all in all, it hit the mark in terms of goal. A depraved look into toxic behaviors, grief and the depths of despair.

Rating 3.5/5

Rekt is such a horrific, mind-bending, and unfortunate story that is so close to reality it’s terrifying. With themes of death, grief, and mental illness, it highlights the bleakness of the internet and the haunting of real life nightmares. I truly never want to read this book again. There is no place scarier than the internet.

For fans of online horror, No Sleep, and creepypasta.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!**

This book is going to stick with me for quite a while… This book is scary for the simple fact that, this is something that could happen. There are probably plenty of people who spend their time online watching and paying for this kind of disturbing material.
You don’t realize how dark and scary the internet or people can be until you come across a book like this. There are real people on the internet scarier than any monster you have ever read about and this book taps into that very well. This book has me looking at my social presence online and wanting to step back…
However, if you grew up on creepypasta and loving spiraling down a horrific rabbit hole then this book is for you! Highly recommend if you want something fresh to read in horror. But be prepared, this book is dark and at times can make you emotional.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book, and I also hated it. This novel delves a lot deeper into grief, depression, longing, and deep emotional depravity in a way I did not expect. I also don’t think I really “got” most of the story. But I could not look away or stop reading; I kept being drawn back in, similar to Sammy not being able to stay away from Chinsky even though he knows it’s not healthy for him.

I recommend this book, but I’d add the disclaimer that you really need to be a decent frame of mind when you start it, because otherwise you might find yourself spiraling alongside Sammy.

I thought that the most frightening thing about this book is that it's something that potentially could really happen. No doubt there are thousands of people who spend nearly all their time online watching this sort of disturbing material.

Sammy, the main character, has had to deal with several tragedies in his life. His way of coping, albeit unhealthily, is by watching videos online of people being tortured and murdered. One day, he opens a mysterious link that sends him on a downward spiral.

While much of his book kept my interest, I do admit I got bogged down in the middle of it. Nearly all of the characters in the book are unlikeable, and I felt that I almost needed a break from it at times. There are some graphic depictions of torture, death, accidents, etc.. There was one description in particular involving a baby that was really hard to read.

Oh yeah, this one is definitely gonna stay with me for a while. As someone who has been deeply entrenched in the internet for at least 18 years, but has largely avoided this gruesome side to it, I was incredibly drawn in by the premise of this book. I think rekt provides such an interesting look into toxic masculinity, grief, and the horrors of the internet (and the desensitization to such horrors). I loved being in Sammy's head, despite how disturbing it was to be there sometimes.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!