By: Keely Messino
The Woman Shrouded in Flies by Nicolas Gray, is sick, disgusting, horrific, uncomfortable, and beautifully depraved.
Please continue reading this review with caution. There are sensitive topics discussed.
When the book opens, the main character, a young boy named Troy, is listening to his parents argue about what, no one is sure, they just like fighting. He lives in Sulphur. Troy was thinking of ending his life because of the stress and anger of his home life. He decides to take a walk in the woods instead and feels safer there for a moment.
The peace and serenity of the woods is then destroyed when he comes across the dead body of a woman whose top has been pulled up, exposing her breasts, and her shorts have been pulled down, exposing her most private areas. Troy is both horrified and aroused by the site, he runs away, back to the safety of the trailer propelled by his flight or fight instinct. Then, the young boy finds himself compelled to masturbate while picturing the woman’s fly-covered corpse and the dried blood trickling from her mouth.
The preteen finds himself disturbed by the dark desires; he does not want to end up like his father. His father has delved into the darkest human desires; raping, murdering, and then violating women’s bodies.
The fiancé of his latest victim patrols the campground looking for her. Her murderer fears being found out before he can power up the RV and make his way to the next campground.
SPOILER WARNING FOR THE NEXT PARAGRAPH
The vengeful spirits of his victims get revenge by suffocating the villain when they surround him with a swarm of flies. They killed him in a murderous rage. The monstrous man becomes engorged with flies, and then dies, choking to death on a swarm of insects.
END OF SPOILERS
This book was compelling, and I liked a lot of the gory images. It did its job making me feel very uncomfortable from the get-go. I was compelled to finish the book to the end, despite feeling disgusted throughout.
The writer does a great job in getting the reader interested in what happens to Troy and how he feels about the crappy life he has been handed. Troy does not want to end up like his father but is raised in a very toxic environment that is shown throughout the entire book.
I was repulsed by the father and all the vile things he did, and I could tell even in minimal interactions that there was something very wrong with this man. The way that he viewed women and the way that he bullied his wife showed through. He would call her deprecating names in basic conversation. One particularly real conversation took place while the family was trying to make breakfast in the RV. There’s also definite signs of domestic violence. Things in the house were broken, and they once had a dog that Troy was particularly attached to, but it ran away. Troy says it was probably better off that way. Knowing that something is desperately wrong at home is pivotal to understanding the book and sympathizing with what could be a budding young serial killer and necrophile.
SPOILER WARNING FOR THE NEXT PARAGRAPH
My complaints are simple. The book ends abruptly. The reader is caught off guard by the fact that the death of Troy’s father comes swiftly, and even though there are bread crumbs connecting his latest rape victim to the eventual death of the villain, the death comes out of left field. Troy’s evil father was in a fight with his wife, and all the sudden he died and was swallowed by flies. The reader can infer that the wife kills him, but it’s never directly stated. I was also left with questions of whether or not the murderer was hallucinating the death scene. The pacing feels rushed causing readers to lose focus.
END OF SPOILERS
The grotesque imagery of the corpses is created beautifully, and the flies and maggots make the reader nauseated throughout. Overall, the book received a seven out of 10 rating by this reader.
Functionally Fictional 
Leave a comment