A story centered around the complex dynamics between two estranged brothers from Michigan who reunite after their father's death. Their lives take a darker turn when one of the brothers discovers a strange creature that was vomited from the body of a dead cat. This creature, which eats human pain, provides an initially euphoric relief from suffering, leading to a dangerous cycle of self-harm as the brother seeks more of this relief. The Pain Eater explores deep and often unsettling themes, including addiction, trauma, and the impact of unresolved familial conflict. The creature's presence amplifies the brothers' struggles, causing further damage to their lives and relationships. Muntz's writing is noted for its eerie atmosphere and psychological depth,

Gruesome and detailed. Love the metaphors in this one, but I do think it got lost in the attempt to overdevelop too many characters without successfully wrapping up any of their stories. Looking forward to more from this author though, as his writing is great.

Did not finish. Tried to slog through, but the characters were too unlikable and there was something... strangely crass about the writing that just made it unenjoyable for me.

Personal entertainment value 2/ 5. I didn't enjoy The Pain Eater all that much. There's a cool set-up in the beginning and a rather cool pay-off at the end, but getting from one point A to point B felt like a chore. The few interesting moments peppered throughout couldn't make up for the fact that I simply could not jive with any of the characters, who feel very disconnected from one another, like they don't exist in the same moment even when speaking to one another. There are no real conversations going on, just folks talking at each other. Characters in the same locale monologuing towards each other, with alternating tedious or cliched dialog, and little to no energy. Lending credence to the disconnected vibe. I wanted to DNF it more than once but then I'd hear a peer say something positive, mentioning a solid ending so I kept at it. Look, I didn't care for the Pain Eater, but others do, and that's cool. You might too. Solid, dialog is what I look for most, it's my number one critique, without it you've lost me. Every time. Apologies, Kyle, this one was not for me.

I was super intrigued by the description of The Pain Eater, but I found myself wanting more as I read through. The exploration of grief and pain was well done and I enjoyed the way the brothers were written. The book had a really cool, creepy atmosphere.

I very badly wanted to like this book. I remember when I first got my hands on it, I was literally jumping up and down with joy. I took an 7 month break in the middle.
It's about two brothers, Steven and Michael, trying to figure out what to do after their dad dies. Both are extremely dysfunctional, both internally and within the parameters of their relationship. Michael finds a very sick cat, which spawns this amorphous black thing that Michael decides is going to come live with them. They realize the creature can eat pain, which they happen to have a lot of.
I managed to get through this one, but I'm not glad I did. I tried very hard to see past the angst and general depression of the writing to analyze this and it doesn't go much deeper than surface level. The writing was trying to come off as natural speech, but it just doesn't work in the way Muntz used it. It kept dragging me out of the story, trying to figure out what was being said in certain spots.
If you like a general creature-feature this one is ok. I was expecting more based on the title.

I really loved this cover and this title. Unfortunately, the story did very little for me. Two brothers, a dysfunctional relationship, and horrifying creature that creeps into their lives. Muntz's writing can be a little unnerving at best, but ultimately predictable.

this needed to be a novella.
for a story focused on grief, that aspect was not played up enough for me at all.

I really wanted to love this book, the concept had me so invested. Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. It didn’t capture my attention and I just wish it was written differently.

I didn’t find anything to be scary or even thrilling. The chapters also felt very runny and didn’t connect smoothly.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to.

2.5 rounded up to 3/5.

The Pain Eater is the story of two brothers from Michigan reunited after the death of their father. They’ve never been close, but now they have to live together―and it gets more difficult when one discovers a strange creature, vomited from the body of a dead cat. A creature that eats human pain. It feels good: too good. Soon he wants to hurt himself more, just so the pain can be taken away. But the more the creature becomes a part of his life, the more he damages everything around him. Some wounds are too deep to ever heal.

I still don’t really know what the ‘pain eater’ actually was or where it came from. Nevertheless, I loved the whole unnerving, uncomfortable, nails on a chalkboard, grinding my teeth feeling that Muntz created in his writing at the beginning of the story… there were times when I really felt disgusted and horrified yet couldn’t pry my eyes away from the book as I needed to know what happened next.

However, for me, the story didn’t finish as well as it began… I didn’t believe the ending and throughout the story I became detached and desensitised to the characters’ journeys, so much so that I found that I didn’t really care what happened at the end, which kind of worked out well considering it wasn’t all that great of a finale.

I really wanted to love this book. I loved the story and the themes of grief/loss but I couldn't really get past the writing style. The tone was conversational - in the brothers' voices - but in a way I didn't enjoy. I do think that others would enjoy this though!

Following the death his father, a strange, cat-like creature shows up at Michael’s house that can absorb his pain--both physical and mental. He grows accustomed to the creature and begins to even enjoy the sensation of it relieving his pain, which leads him into a terrible downward spiral of self-harm.

The Pain Eater by Kyle Muntz is a bold allegory about a dysfunctional family and the self-destructive methods people sometimes use to handle trauma and grief.

I’m going to come out and say that the characters are unlikeable, but there’s a flawed earnestness to them that make them feel all the more believable.

However, there were two glaring details that didn’t make logical sense to me and I found immensely distracting.

1) Never once did it occur to Michael to take the cat he was supposedly caring for to vet even though it was extremely sick. Maybe if it was acting semi-feral and he was unable to catch it I would understand.

2) This is something that may be trivial to some, but as a millennial otaku, it really bugged me. It seems like the story takes place around 2009 since PS3s had just recently come out. However, Michael somehow magically rewatches Evangelion over and over again when it was an anime that was notoriously difficult to find (even on less savory sites) or obtain DVD copies of due to licensing issues with Gainax, until 2019.

Nitpicking aside, The Pain Eater is still a delightfully bizarre, gross, and raw examination of grief for readers with a strong stomach.

** spoiler alert ** This was a crazy weird adventure scary and fun and sad

There are elements of masochism
Some adultish situation more like teens acting stupid

Basically a kid finds some weird creature that latches onto him physically and takes away his torment and pain and anger and basically emotions

I got to say just because the cover has a cat on it is why I read it

Eerie, atmospheric and creepy! So much reality in the descriptions of characters, and it pulls you in quickly. This is such a unique novel and I can't wait to read more from the author.

What if there was something that could LITERALLY take all your pain away. Would you let it?

Michael did, and it... got a little out of hand.

An overall okay read. Much of it focuses on a teenager coming to terms with his father's death and his family falling apart, and that could get pretty grating. I enjoyed the monstrous bits though!

Disclaimer: I may be harsh here at points, but I would absolutely recommend this book to a specific group of people. I can definitely see more positives than negatives which is why I get nitpicky- I just care a lot!!

I keep changing my mind about this novel, which also means I keep thinking about it weeks after I finished. I think it has the potential to be hated or loved, and I personally enjoyed it. I liked the "choppy", speech-like style. It did feel a little bit similar for all characters, but I saw this as another sign of the boys hating on each other because they are the same, so it didn't particularly disturb me. It also made for an easy read, which still packed a punch of social commentary without feeling too sappy.

I think the ideas for plot and characters were very strong and fresh. t the same time, I sometimes feelt like I'm reading an early draft. Regarding the plot, it reminded me of a pilot episode: a lot was packed in, but not everything got a chance to be a developed plot point. I think the more personal part, about emotions and relationships, was much stronger than the entire fight episode. I think the author is making some really beautiful points about depression, grief, and this feeling of being lost that is so typical to young adults in small cities. I may be a bit emo, but I was underlining several passages and felt like the characters are very realistic, in their edgy way. Sure, they aren't great people, bit they are just real enough that I as a reader could see myself in them and still think that this isn't how I want to be. I found their relationships very intriguing, and I really liked the parts where the characters tried to understand or analyse their own feelings and family structure. It is quite common to see a kid hating his mom, but I very rarely see novels mention that it is not necessarily a matter of the parent being abusive- sometimes the relationship is just wrong. I really liked how the plot was mainly concentrated to one place- it gave me a bit of a claustrophobic feeling, but also made for a great study of one family, or one homelife.

My biggest issue was with the pacing, and I think it will turn off many potential readers. The beginning was very slow, and I felt like the actual exposition only happened once the characters made it home. As if to make up for it, the ending felt rushed. And I'm not just talking about the last fight sequence, but anything that happened since the mom's visit. In general, I preferred the slower parts of the novel. It is not to say that I was not interested in the action parts, or the fights. They just felt a bit underdeveloped, like an idea for a toy franchise that can be attached to a book about something else. It opens an entire Can of Lore that I would love to know, but didn't get a chance to. [Spoilers] Towards the very end, it is mentioned that the second creature is not Like That, and I saw this as a suggestion that the main characters made it into what it was. I found this so striking and I'm sort of sad that the book just ended right after. I am a fan of open endings in general, but here it didn't feel open as much as abrupt - like the author wanted to leave just enough for a sequel. [/Spoiler]

I loved how the fantastical elements were woven into everyday life of the characters, and the role that cooking played here. Truly one does not know wrath until a late guest makes them overcook steak. Just in general, the plot points around meals and preparing meals were so good as a reflection of the general family struggles! Simple and effective. And then this connected to the creature's theme of eating and devouring whole? Chefs kiss.

As for the horror content. I really like it, and I read some splatterpunk, so I may be a bit biased. I felt like at the beginning the author really tried to hit that road: we start with puke and shit and rotting and its overall just a gross fest. I don't think this novel needs it to be good. I think it can easily appeal to a wider audience, and I personally see it more in to haunted house subgenre than the strict splatter. I know there are no ghosts, but come on, we all know that haunted houses are about grief and isolation. Even for those who live for the gross substances of the human existence, there is a bit of a shift that I don't think comes just from getting used to. The cat dies, and everything calms down. Sure, there is still death and blood and all, but in a normal horror way and not a splatter way. There is one point where I was a bit confused and ended up thinking it's brilliant -we get those beautiful descriptions of organic human food and then absolutely gross descriptions of the creatures' pebbles c: I think it was a good piece of a horror book in general, but shifting between subgenres quite strongly.

If someone needs TWs: [spoilers]
17 and 23 year old have sex. I would not call that part of the novel a rape scene, but technically it is statutory rape. I don't think it was added for shock value because it was not particularly shocking- just the main character being an idiot. But I do understand that it may be disturbing.
There is a serious dose of animal suffering and death, but it is mostly concentrated at the very beginning.
There is self harm, and while it is done with a purpose it is very graphic and I feel needs a warning. It is hinted at in the description of the novel and the general themes and at some point you know where it's going. But may need a warning.
Other than that, gun violence, murder, kids/teens dying, domestic abuse (not graphic but a theme), generally characters being problematic dickheads.

The Pain Eater was so so weird. Two brothers in Michigan lose their dad and one of them finds a creature that takes away pain. But it can be addicting. I wouldn’t say this book was particularly “scary,” though the last 15 pages or so do get crazy as hell. It’s more of a weird, creepy, unsettling slow burn. What I most loved, however, was @kylemuntz01 ‘s description of the familial relationships. The memories of the dad when alive and how he affected all of the other characters was really compelling and relatable. It’s a quick read too-perfect for a weekend!

I wanted to like this novel more than I did. I think it had a lot of interesting ideas and offered a grotesque/weird fiction mirror into thinking about grief, as well as family trauma, masculinity, and adulthood. It didn’t really live up to its own potential in those areas, but it was an intriguing way to explore those topics. I thought the two main characters were well sketched out, capturing the often-indescribable angst and ennui of being a young adult while struggling with various sorts of trauma and grief. I especially felt that their relationships with their mother, which were toxic and mean and really had no basis in anything from her side but instead was their wild inability to regulate their emotions, felt really genuine. I mean, it was an awful and painful relationship, and not particularly fun to read it play out, but it felt genuine. The premise itself was an interesting one. It was unique, and didn’t waste time trying to explain the supernatural, but let us sit with the same unknowing and uneasiness as the characters.

With all of that said, I didn’t find the writing compelling at all. First its worth noting that the titular pain eater doesn’t show up until 1/3 of the way into the book, and before that nothing much happens. Hypothetically it was scene setting and giving us a chance to learn the characters before introducing the wrinkle to their reality, but that could have been done in a chapter. And then once it did come into play, still, not much of anything happened. The book just didn’t feel like it had momentum. This is internally explained by the main character just wanting things to be relaxed and without expectations or demands, but really nothing happens. There are moments of feeling or emotion, and those are then taken away leaving a state of stagnancy and numbness, and rinse and repeat. And that is fine for a character, but not for a novel. I didn’t feel like there was any growth or change from any of the characters, not in any way that was interesting. And the story has this super heavy and interesting metaphor it is exploring, and while I don’t want it to offer any answers I want it to feel like it has at least something to say, other than look at this interesting metaphor for unhealthy relationships with pain, grief, and trauma. Also, just the writing style itself just felt sloppy, like it wanted to be edgy and sleek but it just came off as inexperienced and poorly paced.

The book is a quick read, it is short and doesn’t feel like it stalls, even when not much of anything happens. It is kind of bleak and dark, and does well to set keep that uncomfortable mood. So, if an interesting character study that offers a unique metaphor for thinking about (though not really investigating or exploring in any meaningful way) grief, trauma, and coming to adulthood, maybe give this a read. It has a lot of promise but unfortunately didn’t really live up to that, for me.

I want to thank NetGalley and CLASH Books, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A mixture of horror and dark fantasy..
Do yourself a favor and just dive in. Do not read the synopsis.
We get a little weird too, which is very much appreciated.
Its bleak, but it straddles the line of bizarro at the same time.
Interesting with a lot of metaphors.

Thanks to NetGalley amd the publisher for letting me read this early!

This was an intense ride with unlikable main characters who still made you want to see them win. I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it in the best way! Definitely feel a Stephen King vibe in the writing style and I enjoyed how this ended.

I will say it didn't get 5 stars from me due to the weird fight club style ending as it seemed like it was just thrown in last minute, but I still enjoyed the book!