A book a day: Myke Babylon: Yongüein’s Massacre

Year of publication: 2025

Valuation: Recommended (for weirdos)

How fun it seemed to me Yongüein’s Massacreby Myke Babylon! Ultimately, this short novel is reminiscent of one of those B-series horror movies that I like so much, as it has a gigantic murderer, a gang of young people who will become his victims, hilarious deaths (I think, for example, of the hunter from the third chapter), blood in abundance, gratuitous sex and an open ending that anticipates a sequel. Plus, it’s clear that, as with many cheap genre films, everyone involved (from the writer to the illustrator) had a great time creating it.

It’s about some kids who are gangsters and must face an urban legend from the Sierra de Gredos, a huge monster that sucks the brains of its prey and is willing to use its enormous phallus all the time.

Besides a cheap horror movie, Yongüein’s Massacre It also reminds (a lot) of Edward Lee’s Bighead, a classic of “splatterpunk” literature if there ever was one. Not only in its plot and stylistic approach, in its black humor, in its rural setting or in its villain, but even in the aesthetics of certain scenes or in very specific ideas. And although normally two works of art should not be compared, no matter how much one may have influenced the other, I think that in this case it is justified, because Babylon’s homage is as obvious as it is self-conscious.

So, I would say that Yongüein’s Massacre It is a carbon copy of Bighead which does not reach the level of savagery, gore, eschatology and chaos of the original (although I want to clarify that it does not skimp on any of these sections). But, instead, It is, even if it is excessive and outdated, a much more focused and focused fiction than Lee’s unfortunately improvised novel, which in my opinion is very positive. Be that as it may, I recommend that lovers of hooligan literature, depraved terror and bad taste experience both works, as they are perfectly complementary and each one has particular merits.

I can add little more. Just insist that Yongüein’s Massacre It is (if you like these things, of course) a joy. One that, although it does not have a complex plot or a memorable cast (not that it intends to), knows how to make us have a devilishly entertaining time and give us a few twisted smiles. In addition, it gives us an interesting design and origin for its villain (who retains a suggestive halo of mystery until the end), and exquisitely grotesque deaths. What more can you ask for when you have already swallowed almost all the B-movie horror that cinema has to offer, and are looking for more of the same but in a book?

Ah, I don’t want to end this review without praising the editing of Yongüein’s Massacre. As usual, Colectivo Juan de Madre Presenta gives us an extraordinary cover and a wonderful prologue. From this prologue, by the way, I would not remove even a comma. And in it, Valero #01 highlights the parallels that exist between Bighead y Yongüein’s Massacreat the same time that it vindicates, with very nice rhetoric, the creative act of paying tribute to third parties (even when it is done bordering on plagiarism).

Also from Myke Babylon at ULAD: Here