2023 Splatterpunk Award Winner for Best Collection and Best Short Story!
An overzealous vigilante, who sees her victims’ auras, finds herself in a very uncomfortable situation. A young woman, injected with a microchip in a futuristic America, develops unusual and grisly cravings. Four high school graduates end up on the menu of a giant, mutant sea creature. Diary entries share shocking and disturbing confessions…but who is the author?
Bridgett Nelson, a fresh new talent in the world of horror, makes her debut with this short fiction collection containing these stories and more! These gory tales of revenge and retribution are sure to terrify and delight readers in equal measure.
Before opening the pages of A BOUQUET OF VISCERA, be sure to take a deep, calming breath. Because these nightmare scenarios, and many others, are lurking under the covers and waiting just for you.
Dark bleatings, my visceral tribe! I might be two years later than I meant to be reviewing this collection but I always get there in the end.
Before I get into reviewing the stories, I have to make special mention of the cover and interior art by Lynne Hansen, because holy heck, it’s spectacular. The above picture doesn’t do how it looks in real life justice at all. This is my favourite ever cover and interior art and it really added something, particularly inside the book, that elevated the feel of the whole collection for me. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
Moving onto the stories!
AURAS
Oof, this one made me cringe at the end, but I loved it. Blaire comes from a family line of people who can see the colourful auras that surround people. This auras are coloured according to crimes that people have committed, and even indicate how frequently and/or severely they commit said crimes. But Blaire doesn’t get this gift for free, because as well as inheriting this special sight, she’s also inherited a duty that goes with it.
It’s a fun story and a great idea. I suppose if I have any nitpicks, it’s just a general pondering about who/what decided to show up crimes as colours, since crimes are decided by society, and different societies have different parameters for what’s considered an offence. However, that really IS a nitpick that didn’t ruin the story for me at all, especially because of the ending.
The super grim, dark ending…
POLITICAL SUICIDE
A woman whose son died because some asshole passed a bill that blocked her kid getting the required treatment is aided by karma when the very same asshole needs a doctor, and she gets him as her patient.
I liked this one but it wasn’t a favourite. I felt it dragged a little bit for the type of story it was, because once I got the hook, it was a bit predictable. A good juicy tale of karmic horror though.
SPORES
A man finds a new species of mushroom that acts more like a parasite than a fungus. His discovery swiftly becomes more regrettable than exciting.
I wished there was a twist on this one, but it was a good body horror story that made me cringe.
INVADER
Really liked this one! A girl is cheated on by her boyfriend and discovers this in the exact same moment that she realises that all of their mutual friends knew but chose not to tell her. Well, she makes a choice too. She could walk away and simply never talk to them again, but what’s the fun in just letting them all get away with it?
This tapped into my fear of what’s in the water, invoked some of my favourite themes, and also gave me a sense that our narrator wasn’t really reliable. It’s not written in first person but we are over this woman’s shoulder the whole time, and I had to wonder if there was a reason her friends seemed so spiteful towards her. There’s absolutely no excusing the cheating, obviously, but her other friends not only don’t tell her, but seem glad to have her out of their group. Either they’re all assholes, which is possible, or she is, which is also possible. It was really fun to think about.
COOKED!
Well.
Well well well. This one is about the POTUS teaming up with someone to microchip the population. Eerie that Bridgett predicted the future so closely here, but that’s a conversation I don’t wish to have right now lest I get derailed. Anyway, for two decades, the public has been at the mercy of constantly varying virus strains, and apparently the microchip is the answer. I liked the story but am sorry to say I was a bit bugged by the writing because there were an abnormally high number of adjectives. For me, it was adjective overkill right from the first page, and it was noticeable to me because Bridgett’s writing is generally tighter, and this story is the only one in the book that has this problem. I say “problem” – it’s just personal preference.
REFLECTIONS
This one felt reminiscent of Dexter, and I loved it for that. I also loved it for its particularly great ending. A serial killer who only kills child abusers is at large, but the law is hot on her trail. One of my Top 3 favourites in the book!
JINX
All the SA trigger warnings. I am sensitive to this but read past the very clear warning anyway, and the story was too upsetting for me. But that is on me because I was thoroughly warned.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
A theatre, murder, mystery, a tale that spans time, what more could you want? A good story to round off the collection.
Overall, I think this is a good read for horror fans, though it was quite a mixed bag for me personally. My personal favourites were Auras, Invader, and Reflections. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, or the incredible cover artist, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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