I might have actually enjoyed this story if I could have gotten past the ill treatment of that poor cat! And how stupid these people seem to be. ( sorry but I'm a cat lover/rescuer, so it's pretty much my life.) Has this author never heard of a vet? I mean, given the characters are written to be kinda shitty people anyway.... But I can read small bits of animal violence if it's like an extremely small bit.( I'm not a prude) but I just couldn't take the graphic descriptions of how they left the poor thing laying there, the girl Halie laughing about it, etc. Etc. Enough is enough. You ask any group of people what's the one thing they may turn away from in horror and you get two answers. Child abuse/ molestation and animal abuse. So when will authors learn, you ain't gonna win no readers that way.
Like I said, might have ended up being a good story. I didn't read past the chick laughing and carrying on at the poor dead cat.

This story is an exploration of human emotions, particularly grief as the two main characters are dealing with the death of their father. The younger son, Michael, distracts himself with anime and video games and seems to just be going through the motions. He comes across something that takes these feelings of loss, apathy, loneliness and replaces them with a good feeling. It asks the question, what would we do to not feel bad anymore? While I appreciated the idea of this book and it was certainly unique, I ended up not really enjoying it. It didn’t quite pull me in and many times I was distracted by the writing and a bit confused at why some things were being talked about that. Overall, I liked the ideas of this story but the execution didn’t grab me and the story fell a bit flat.

Michael and Steven are trying to cope with their father's death.  Then a creature born from a dead cat enters their lives, a creature that feeds on their deepest pains.  Creepy, gruesome, and haunting were the first three words that popped into my mind when I finished this dark tale.  The blending of emotional pain with the macabre is disturbing and effective.  I'm looking forward to reading more of Muntz's works in the future.

The best book I've read in years. The creativity of this novel is exactly what's been missing from fiction since David Foster Wallace. The characters are so believable it reads like nonfiction. And not only did The Pain Eater have one of the absolute best closing scene I can remember, I'll also never forget that opening scene!

I think this book gives a very rich depiction of grief. The imagery alone made me turn the page faster than usual. The only reason that I couldn't give it a whopping 5 stars is because of the characters. Even though I think the main characters were fleshed out well, I can't say that for other characters in the book. That's all I have to say about that.

I liked the ending very much. The ending is something, that I know will be debated over when this book is released to a wider audience. However, I like endings that are a bit unresolved.

Also don't read this book if you have recently lost someone and are having a difficult time with it.

I think the idea this book started with was very good. Unfortunately once it progressed into a pokemon showdown, it was just not my style. I really struggled with how much I disliked every character so, so much. That being said I think the writing and some of the concepts were solid.

Starting off this review, I wanted to note that this is the first book I've ever read by this author. That being said, I was intrigued by this book’s description and cover. The concept is enough to pull someone in and I believe that’s a very good sign of the author knowing what they’re doing when it comes to pulling someone in. However, the book completely falls flat for me.

This book is an iffy situation. The writing has moments where it’s good. Other times… It feels like it drags on too long. And the description of some scenes dragged on a little longer than you wanted them to. Going into description of the character’s backstories and family drama, you could see how much tension there is between them all. On top of the character backstories, I believe none of the characters are likable at all. I personally didn’t resonate with any of them and I normally like to resonate with at least one character in a story.

I personally like a mix of long chapters and short chapters. This book is nothing but short chapters. I feel like short chapters are a little lazy, and don’t fully get the point across.It makes it feel rushed and like no thought has been put through the storyline. Most of the chapters are just a long drag on to me. About half of the story alone is dialogue, which gets insanely boring after a while.

The creature, in my opinion, needed more description. It needed to be touched on a bit more. However, I do actually find the creature entertaining. I feel the author took the premise of Pokemon and some other anime referenced creatures and turned it into a modern horror creature.

The ending to this book was confusing, rushed, and overall not very good. The book itself wasn’t very good in my opinion. I truly believe this author could do better with their writing.

I want to personally thank NetGalley, as well as the author, publisher, and anyone else involved in providing copies, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Reviews will also be submitted to Goodreads.

An interesting concept I wish was executed more tastefully. My biggest gripe with this book is how it unnecessary goes into detail on so many disgusting things. It is one thing, in horror, to describe something scary or chilling however this book, in the first chapter is going on a long detailed description of a character throwing up. It is completely unnecessary and exemplifies how the book is trying to gross you out in a way that feels exploitative.

This is a really unique idea that deserves praise and attention for its originality, as well as combining realistic drama with low fantasy in such an effective manner. Using an extremely dysfunctional group of characters to tell a story about psychological torment, and the destructive ways people deal with it, is an intelligent decision, although some parts of the story do feel repetitive in this regard.

One of the more striking elements of the book is its writing style, and for the majority of my reading time here I couldn't decide how I felt about it. The prose takes on a conversational style, as if, rather than being written, the author was sat beside you relaying the story as it came back to him. In some ways this is compelling, and made the book easy to get through, while also making the characters and their thought processes more apparent, and the story feeling more natural and genuine. Unfortunately it also makes the characters feel very same-y and it eventually started to grate, especially with the overuse of maybes and probablys, as well as plentiful false starts and a general indecisiveness.

The characters and their torment - especially their anger - form the backbone of this really weird story that has effective moments of evocative emotional storytelling. But I'm left feeling that it could have been stronger, could have really pushed further and done something much more powerful, for instance, using the characters' parents, and especially the underused character of their mom, much more prominently. This feels like a particularly prominent issue when considering the more repetitive moments of the book.

All that said, the characters, the authentic depiction of anger and pain, and the sheer weirdness of this story's creativity, made it an extremely enjoyable read. I recommend the book for anyone looking for a stranger sort of fantasy story. But for me, the presentation and some underdeveloped aspects of the story did drag it down towards the end.

[Advanced Reader Copy provided by the author]

Was it creepy? Yes. Disgusting? Check. Did I enjoy reading it? Mostly. The stream-of-consciousness style took some getting used to, and it took me a bit to settle into the story. I think the author portrayed the dysfunction of the family extremely well. I found myself thinking about the story when I wasn't reading it, which doesn't happen often.

I can understand some people's dislike of the novel, but I enjoyed it and would read more from the author.

The Pain Eater is without a doubt, one of the most disgusting (no not in a good way) books I've read. I couldn't even read it straight through, line for line, I skimmed. I wish it had been written better, but the writing was stilted and weird.

I struggled with this book. The writing style was weird and awkward but did improve as the story progressed. I loved the shorter chapters. There’s a good story here but I did not like how it was executed. The characters, I didn’t like a single one of them. Well, maybe the creature. He was pretty cool. Think emotion eating Pokémon or Stitch, and you have the creature. The Pain Eater does have some gruesome disgusting scenes. Along with animal abuse/neglect. The timeline was also confusing at times, jumping from present day to the future to the past back to the present. I must confess that it this wasn’t a Netgalley approval, I would have DNFed.

A fun creature feature, with anime vibes. I liked the uniqueness of the story. The goriness/body horror was pleasantly disturbing. I would've liked the pleasure and pain the characters were feeling to be more descriptive, as well as the origin of the creature. Overall, this was a quick and interesting read.

Not for me.

The premise intrigued me but I was overall disappointed. There's a lot of repetition but it's of mundane phrases that come across more like laziness than a writing device. There's plenty of blunt or gross talk but it's not always relevant to the storyline (shit, needing to shit, balls) so it comes across like it was added for no other reason than to build up the squick factor. The characters were tough to connect to or empathize with, and came across childish.

There were still some really good lines, but I felt like they were buried in filler.

MAJOR TW for statutory rape.

Honestly, that was my only major gripe with this book, but it was so unnecessary that it really detracted from my overall opinion. Granted, is statutory rape ever necessary in media? Methinks not.

But if that one scene is not a dealbreaker with you, I do think you'll find something enjoyable here. Muntz is good at describing these deep feelings of loathing - towards yourself and the whole world - that I think we have all experienced at some point. And the concept is super interesting: a monster-creature-thing that eats your pain, sending you into a quasi-high state of euphoria? That's cool as hell.

Thank you to CRASH books for the review copy (my first ever ARC)!

This was genuinely terrible, with poor pacing, lackluster character development, and nonsensical worldbuilding. The overarching concept is interesting and there are moments of powerful prose, but that's about it.

THE PAIN EATER showcases a depressingly dysfunctional family in dire shades of distress subsequent to the demise of the patriarch [which would seemingly be a relief and a release, but sadly not so]. It also involves a monster which ultimately is quite terrifying.