The Virgin Paperback – April 18, 2020

I read a similar story not to long ago by Matt Shaw called the Game. It was similar because there can only be one winner. Mixed with the new movie The Hunt and add virgin women fighting to keep their virginity. I wanted more. I also loved the bonus material in the basement.

Overall, I like this book. It was the first I read from Wol-Vreiy; I've heard his name hyped around the extreme horror channels for a while but didn't get to reading him until recently. I have more of his books on my TBR, but there are pros and cons to this book.This book is what it sounds like--a game show where a group of virgins have to protect their virginity to win a huge chunk of cash. These girls are not only fighting each other but a group of male "suitors" who are trying to...y'know...The obsession with virginity always bothered me, so that part of the book was disturbing. But this book surprisingly didn't glorify virginity; rather, looked at the fetishization in an honest yet disturbing way. It obviously shows the male obsession with virginity, but how women are even willing to murder each other over it. I feel this is an analogy for the objectification of women and internalized misogyny. This book was also a lot of fun, which helped take out any sexualizing factors.I will first describe what I like. First, Wol-Vreiy is great at writing characters. Excellent characterization is something horror lacks, especially in extreme horror. But Wol-Vreiy writes all contestants in an honest way. He made his female characters absolute bada**es; even the more "mousey" characters are awesome in their own ways. The guys come off like incels, and the owners of the game shows are portrayed as monsters, so the reader roots the girls on.As you can tell from the story, you may think it will get triggering. I'm sure it is for some people, but I read it without getting triggered. Wol-Vreiy knows when to describe excessive violence and when to tone it down, which is rare to find in this genre these days.There are two big issues I have with this story. One, there's a scene in the middle where the contestants find...well, I won't give away spoilers, but something so disturbing but out of context to the book. If you haven't read this book, you'll know which scene I'm talking about when you get to it. The scene is very grotesque, but that's not what bothered me. It was just so randomly squished in the middle of this book, and I was really confused when I read that scene.If anything, I wish Wol-Vreiy wrote another book about the scene. If he did, then that's my mistake since The Virgin is the first book I read from him.Also, there's much "telling" and not "showing" here. I'm not a stickler about "show don't tell" because this writing skill is extremely difficult, and the "rule" is also very flawed. But there were many scenes where the "telling" was obvious, and those scenes could have been written better.Otherwise, I recommend this book, especially to those new to extreme horror. There are disturbing scenes, but this isn't the most brutal book I've read. It's a fun read, and Wol-Vreiy does a good job at keeping you on your toes.

Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Perfect for horror lovers. Trigger warning: rape

I recommend this book highly. I made the mistake of reading The Final Girl first but it really didn't affect the enjoyment of either book. I just wish I had read them in order. Another review said this contains rape scenes but since every contestant willingly signed up to play this "game" I don't think it's rape. But that's just my opinion. There were things I liked about this book and things I didn't. What I liked (above and beyond the entire story itself) are:1) I thought using the name Carrie White was a nice nod to Stephen King. It's not a major episode but I still thought it was clever.2) I also appreciated, especially since the story was about girls losing their virginity in a reality show, the way he worked in a real attempted rape and wrote about the motto of the story being if a girl says no just leave her be; leave it in your pants and go home and take care of it yourself.3) This probably won't mean much to 99.9% of the people reading the book but the reality show takes place in Raynham MA and I like how he worked in the pig farm. My grandparents had a veteran's home in Lakeville, MA for years and there was/is a pig farm that is in the area. When I used to drive down rt 495 you could smell the thing in the warm weather something fierce.4) I at first wished he had used a real author and book, for instance Bryan Smith and the Depraved books, when he wrote why Miriam chose Annette but as I read on I thought working in his book "The Book of Atrocities" was pretty good. Btw...I don't recommend you read Bryan Smith unless you like non-stop gore and torture. He's very over the top.None of those are things that are huge moments in the book and would be reasons to read the book. I just thought they were good additions. The entire story itself is reason enough to read the book.Now for what I didn't like or errors I found:1) In chapter 1 he writes "Central air conditioning had the prep room warm,...". Air conditioning is not used to keep a room warm. It's used when in warm/hot weather to cool off an area.2) Again, in chapter 1 he writes " The only other thing she was wearing was a white digital CLOCK." Who is she? Flavor Flav?? It obviously was supposed to be watch since for the rest of the book it's referred to as a watch.3) And still in chapter 1...He's talking about the character deciding which color lipstick to use and writes "Or a slutty pink?". Pink has never been considered a "slutty" color for lipstick, that would be red.4) It's downright silly to emphasize that the girls are given perfumes to get ready for the game. Did I miss it and smellavision has been invented? It makes no sense. Make up, yes. Perfume, no. The people watching the game can see how the girls look; not how they smell. And the "escorts" really couldn't care less what perfume these girls are wearing.5) In chapter 9 he writes "...found and rushed to hospital." It should be "...rushed to THE hospital."6) In chapter 28 he writes "She'd reply them later.". Should've been " She'd reply TO them later."7) In chapter 29 he writes "...call me Miriam, she replied Teresa." It should be "...call me Miriam, she replied TO Teresa."Not one of those 7 things should deter you from reading the book. Even though they bugged me the book held my attention throughout it. I've only read 2 books and a short story by this author but I'm glad I discovered him...and if you like horror type stories that aren't over the top with gore, I think you'll be happy you discovered him too.

Brilliant concept but the writing needs work. The plot of this book is something I've never seen before but the execution of the book needed more help. A lot of it was cliché and very tropy so if you don't like that sort of thing you won't enjoy this book. But I still think everyone should read this book simply for the plot. After reading it I immeaditly dowloaded The Final Girl to find out about the new show. I like when there are spin offs like this.For a more in depth review check out Year of the Author on YouTube.

The Virgin by Wol-vriey is a story of complex Extreme Horror that slides brazenly into the realm of Splatterpunk. Oh yes, the synopsis blurb is just a tease.Wol-vriey has taken the premise of the game show horror story to new heights off depravity and intricacy. His characters are vivid and entertaining, with colorful backstories that are skillfully revealed over the course of the book.Then there is the shocking storyline twist.You could have knocked me over with a strong exhale when the story took a hard right into another subgenre mix. I cannot say more without spoiling the surprise, but I will say hold on to your mind and your lunch.The Virgin is an exceptionally fun extreme horror read, much like watching a good Rob Zombie or Eli Roth film.Highly recommended for the Extreme Horror crowd.

This was an amazing read. It has everything an extreme horror fan wants blood, gore, brutality and viciousness. On top of all that a great storyline.with fantastic characters. I really enjoyed it. I was gripped from the start, wondering where it was going to go, but very soon knew. It had you rooting for certain characters and then changing your mind. Then feeling physically sick at parts but still excited. It was captivating and had there seeing it all and wanting to read faster. A really great book and now one of my favourites. I'd definitely recommend to anyone not easily offended.