First published back in June of 2026, UK author Matt Shaw’s novella ‘With Child’ was released in ebook format only, under the author’s signature ‘Black Cover’ series.
Chris Hall woke in a strange room, chained to the wall, lying naked on a bed. The only window in the small room had been crudely boarded up, allowing only the meekest of light to filter in. Looking down at his helpless form stood three women. Two he remembered from before, one he only had a hazy memory of meeting the previous night.
But this was only the start of his ordeal. At first, they’d used drugs to numb the pain of their amateur surgery upon him. Cutting into his flesh before inserting a balloon, nestled between his gut and his internal organs. A clear tube extended from the balloon, exiting his body with a handpump attached to the other end.
All Chris could remember of the night before was being outside the nightclub, following the woman he’d met that night – Katie Martin – back to her car. Thinking they were going to her place. Another girl for him to have his way with.
The other two women in the room he recognised from recent endeavours. Ellis Shepley was one of them. Although, she now looked different than she had. In her eyes, Chris could see she was now nothing but an empty shell. A far cry from the fear and tears from when he’d violently penetrated her.
The other women – Paula Anderson – was a vaguer memory. A chance encounter in a park at night when he’d grasped the opportunity to have some impromptu fun. Before she’d known what was happening, he’d been on her. A swift and brutal attack to satisfy his violent sexual urges.
Chris knew this was now his crimes catching up with him. Despite all the warnings he told his victims of repercussions, somehow these three women had found him. But this was no normal reporting to the authorities. The police were clearly not involved here. These women had taken matters into their own hands.
As he lay there, restrained, naked, and at their mercy, all Chris could think about was how he would relish the opportunity to punish and kill each of them. At least, that was his thoughts before they started their revenge…
Yeah, Matt Shaw knows how to pen an extreme horror story alright! Described as “an extreme horror of revenge”, in one short statement, that’s precisely what this short novella is. A quick-fire escapade into brutal revenge ala ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ (1978) et al.
You’ll note the antagonist of the piece is none other than Chris Hall – yeah, my good self. Ha! This isn’t a case of Shaw taking a swipe at a reviewer. Nah, as you might know, I take delight in appearing (and being murdered) in books. In fact, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that it’s not my first rodeo at appearing in a Matt Shaw offering. To date, the character of Chris Hall has appeared in ‘One Violent Motherf*cker’ (2016), ‘The Suicide Club’ (2021), and ‘Sick B*stards: Everywhere’ (2024). So yeah, here I am again, at the mercy of Shaw’s dark imagination.
So, essentially what we have with this short novella is a textbook slice of torture porn, with a vigilante-style revenge motif, not too far removed from the likes of Mike Duke’s ‘Ashley’s Tale’ (2015) series. Only, with more of a ‘Hostel’ (2005) esque torture setup to the revenge.
Although just a short novella in length, the story is nevertheless split into two distinct parts. The first in a layering between Chris Hall’s violent backstory, detailing his brutal rapes of the two women, and then onto the commencement of the imaginative suffering these three women start subjecting him to.
The second part of the novella, I’ll purposefully leave a bit vague, not to give away any spoilers. What I will say, is it involves the backstory of the third woman – Katie – who’s the instigator of this plot of comeuppance, which leads onto where Shaw takes the resulting torture (and indeed the reasoning for such an elaborately cruel idea).
As regular readers of DLS Reviews might be aware, I’m not one to bother with supposed ‘trigger warnings’. If it’s extreme horror, then you should kinda expect things to be a tad unsettling. However, I will mention that the novel does include some hard-hitting scenes describing child abuse – which I’ll be honest, were quite challenging to read. Shaw handled this well though, upping the bubbling anger you’ll invariably be feeling along with your bloodthirsty need for righteous revenge.
Perhaps the most accomplished part of the novella is with how Shaw deals with the conflicting emotions between the characters. Emotions are obviously red-raw, and no two individuals will likely handle horrific trauma at being violently abused in the same way. So, it’s entirely understandable that the women will experience different sides to the emotional turmoil of the situation. Mentally they’d respond to it, and likely try to handle it differently, despite Katie being the driving force for the plan to enact their joint revenge.
Shaw also quite purposefully includes his view on abortion rights within the story. This again is handled well, returning to the subject matter that formed the premise for his earlier novel ‘Roe V. Wade’ (2022).
As with all of Shaw’s work, ‘With Child’ is much more than just extremity for extremity’s sake. Even with the likes of ‘The Challenge’ (2024), it’s not just about pushing the boundaries and making the reader squirm. There’s often carefully cut slices of social commentary injected into the piece, along with complexities of the human condition that are poked and prodded. All of which are then amplified by the powerfully evocative stress of such a traumatic premise.
The novella works. It’s a ruthless slice of red-raw revenge, that sets about to stoke the fire of anger, before delivering a sense of retaliation against the vile beasts that prey on others. Oh yeah, and for me personally, it’s also a hell of a lot of fun to be executed in such an imaginative way!
The novella runs for a total of 57 pages.
© DLS Reviews
