As you know this blog is primarily about Leonbergers and Leonberger books but sometimes I write a review for a book or story that I find to be exceptional and therefore want to promote. Last Friday I read a horror story called “Dog Meat” by Priscilla Bettis. I wrote an Amazon review on Saturday morning. It was a gruesome and morbid story, like a good horror story should be, and it was a real page turner. Therefore, I would like to promote this book. I bought the paperback version since I prefer that over Kindle. The Dog Meat paperback version currently cost $12.99 on Amazon and is 111 pages. The kindle version cost $3.99 and is 120 pages. It was released October 30, 2022. The paper version is 6 x 0.28 x 9 inches, and the ISBN number is 978-1951840617. The ASIN number for the Kindle Edition is B0B8QG79DK.
Below is my Amazon review of Dog Meat
The monstrosity of not being free to choose
You are not free to choose. Government officials will decide your profession for you based on a placement exam. They know best, what could go wrong? Everyone is equal, there are no castes. Kalb Ward is forced to slaughter dogs, in a cruel manner, to satisfy the customers of a specialty restaurant. He is a sensitive and feeling man who hates having to be cruel to the dogs so much that he often dissociates from his body while doing his job. He attempts to quit his job with gruesome consequences.
His life story is a dramatic, insane and a very dark tale. His situation reminded me of “Bödeln” in the Swedish movie “Bödeln och skökan”, in which a blacksmith is innocently condemned to death for stealing silver but is able to escape execution by becoming the executioner himself. Ward’s luck in life also reminded me of Arthur’s in the movie Joker, but Kalb Ward is not a sociopath.
The Colony, the imagined country where Ward lives, is an authoritarian plan economy, perhaps a totalitarian society. It reminded me of east Asian countries such as North Korea, China, and the southeast Asian countries in the 80’s. The fact that the Colony won five gold medals in the Seul Olympics in 1988, just like China did, is telling.
It is a dark and dystopian story, but with some quite interesting subplots and surprises. It is a real page turner. Once you start reading you have to find out what is going to happen to Ward next. Above all I think it carries some important messages, including the importance of being free to choose. The freedom to choose your own destiny in a society is essential to happiness. Another message is the importance of compassion. People who lack compassion create Hell.
This book is going to stay with me for a while, like both the movies that I mentioned did. It is a dark fantasy but with so much meaning for our real world. I highly recommend this book. Note, I read the paperback version as I tend to prefer that to eBooks.
I can add that I also promoted the book in beer groups that have around 30,000 members.
I highly recommend this book
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Finally, I would like to promote my book about Bronco and Leonbergers. It has a lot of color photos, amusing Leonberger stories, and Leonberger information that has been verified and is also based on personal information.
Below is a list of where you can find the book. Click on the links to go to the respective store. However, if your favorite bookstore is not listed below you can search for it using the ISBN or ASIN numbers.
ISBN number for printed edition: 978-0998084954
ASIN number for the e-book edition: B0B5NN32SR
Leonberger Life 
16 replies on “Dog Meat a Horror Story set in a Society from Hell”
Sounds gruesomely fascinating!
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Yes it was
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What a WONDERFUL surprise! Thank you so much for featuring my book, Thomas! The scary thing about the Colony is that so many events in the book happened to real life family friends, beautiful, compassionate people trapped by horrific governments. (Our friends are now US citizens.)
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It is great to hear that they are now US citizens. It felt very real. I guessed it was based on east Asian dictatorships. Was I right?
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Yep!
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Cool. Thanks.
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This book looks super creepy. The title kind of kept me from reading it, but I’m sure it is very good.
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Yes it is a very good book. If you like horror you will like it.
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I spent time in the Soviet Union, the pre-Russia planned economy where people had no choice because everything was for the good of the group. That alone is horrifying. Adding Priscilla’s additional layer is spine-tingling. Good review, Thomas.
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Thank you Jacqui. You are right. Good for the group often ends up being good for nobody, at least if a bureaucrat decides what’s good for the group. I travelled to the Soviet Union in 1980 and we smuggled unwanted literature and printing press equipment for the underground movement. I was a teenager at the time. Unfortunately we were caught, rounded up, searched, interrogated, etc. I saw it too but didn’t stay very long.
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Good grief that must have been scary! I was there in 1973, with a University group. I’m glad you got out of your issues.
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That sounds interesting. We were Swedish tourists so not to cause diplomatic problems they just held us for an afternoon, interrogated us one by one under gun point, took our stuff, and then let us go. They even let us continue on our tourist trip but we were assigned a guide from KGB who followed us everywhere (we had to accept). Not bad though. She did help us out with sightseeing. However, we had to cancel certain things and watch what we said and who we talked to. She was both helping us and watching us.
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I just wrote my review for this one, Thomas. It was hard to write as there are so many layers and lessons to think about. It was horrific but seemed important too. You did a wonderful job with your review. Congrats to Priscilla.
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Thank you Diane. Yes you are right, there are so many layers and lessons. I am looking forward to reading your review.
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Thanks for this review. I was interested in reading the book, but I didn’t want to read something that was abusive to animals. I will trust your judgment on this!
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There’s only a few sentences about the abuse of the dogs, which you can skip. A lot of the story is about him trying to escape a job he finds immoral and horrifying.
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