Headless by Scott Cole
A Horror Book Review by Mark Walker
In the midst of a heat wave punctuated by frequent rainstorms, people are losing their heads. Literally. Not only that, but their bodies are still walking, and attacking others.And to make matters worse, tiny, translucent, maggot-sized worms are falling from the skies like hail.As uncanny violence threatens to take over the city, Linzy, Carter, and Joanna become fast friends and leave for points unknown, hoping to stay alive, hoping to outrun the Headless.
At just 132 pages, HEADLESS, is a quick read that will keep you entertained for an afternoon. That is, assuming you are up for something that contains a lot of head-severing, grotesque body horror that wouldn’t feel out of place in The Human Centipede and graphic sex with a headless corpse. Cole goes all out from the off in his novella and it is not one for the faint-hearted. However, it also never veers into gratuitous territory, the sex, violence, and gore are befitting of a story that revolves around a mysterious epidemic of exploding heads and curious maggot creatures coming down in the rain.
From a furious opening, Scott Cole pushes his three main characters together in a frantic road trip to try and escape the madness in their home city, only to discover that the insanity follows them, wherever they may turn. Walking corpses attack them at every opportunity, lurking in abandoned shops, creeping out of the shadows, or just stumbling after them in the street. Horror tropes abound in HEADLESS, but Cole uses them to his advantage, the story never slowing or feeling unoriginal. His descriptions are effective and unpleasant, putting the reader in the action and effortlessly turning their stomachs.
We never truly find out what the maggots are or where they have come from, but as the story develops and their intentions become clearer, it doesn’t really matter, what matters is whether the human race can survive?
If you had asked David Cronenberg to write the episode of Doctor WHO where the little Adipose creatures appeared, HEADLESS is probably what you would have got.
I enjoyed HEADLESS and I enjoyed Scott Cole’s style. I haven’t read anything from him before but would be interested in checking his other stuff out. If you fancy a gritty, gory, and sexy afternoons adventure, then HEADLESS could be what you are after.
Headless by Scott Cole

In the midst of a heat wave punctuated by frequent rainstorms, people are losing their heads. Literally. Not only that, but their bodies are still walking, and attacking others.
And to make matters worse, tiny, translucent, maggot-sized worms are falling from the skies like hail.
As uncanny violence threatens to take over the city, Linzy, Carter, and Joanna become fast friends and leave for points unknown, hoping to stay alive, hoping to outrun the Headless.
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Thanks Mark. Who wouldn’t fancy an afternoon of gore and sexiness.? Especially with “doctors” being taken off telly later this year!