Tribesmen

This is the first book by Adam Cesare that I’ve read, and it drew me in because of how intriguing the premise is. The author is a well known horror booktuber, and as someone who loves that small niche community, I wanted to read his writing. Tribesmen is an homage to the Italian exploitation films that were popular in the late 70s and early 80s. The story follows a small film crew as they travel to a remote island to film a raunchy cannibal movie directed by a notorious legend in the industry. Mayhem and murder ensues. Immediately I was drawn into the story as this book felt like a blend of X and Cannibal Holocaust. The characters were colourful but at points felt like archetypes rather than people, but the story was pretty average for the concept. I feel like as a novel, this story is a pretty simple riff on cannibal exploitation movies, however if this would be adapted and directed in an interesting way, it could easily surpass the films that the novel is pulling from. Overall, I felt like this was overly simplistic and should have taken more creative risks, however this was an interesting story on its own with a satisfying arc for certain characters. I’m not entirely sold on Adam’s writing and his work as an author, but I do see some more interesting ideas in his other novels that I’m definitely going to look into.