100% Match: Why Goodreads’ 3/5 Overall Score is BS [Review]
I will set the scene for you. I lay awake in bed, staring at the ceiling. The air felt heavy, claustrophobic. The wind howled, buffeting against the outside walls of the house, throttling the eucalyptus tree in the garden with a violent grip. It was a cold and miserable night… and yes, I’m aware I sound like I’m listing every horror movie trope in the book! My perception may have been coloured somewhat because this was the first night in years that I had slept (or at least tried to sleep) alone. My fiancée—my 100% Match—was in hospital, awaiting an operation the next day.
I needed sleep, so I could be there for her properly. I’d seen the titular book on various modern Splatterpunk recommendation lists and figured it would either send me to sleep (ideal), or keep me just engaged enough to stop worrying about my fiancée (also ideal). So I bought both the audiobook and Kindle edition.
About two months later, with my fiancée recovering well from the surgery, I found myself having read the book three times.
You can probably guess—it didn’t send me to sleep. When you return to a book or film again and again, it means you’ve found something special. I think such discoveries are important for readers—especially horror readers. So, here I am to convince you that Patrick C. Harrison III’s 100% Match (2022) is far better than, dare I say, the lacklustre reviews on Goodreads would suggest. I want to convince you that the book deserves at least a four-star review—more fairly, a 4.5.
As always, I’ll begin with a spoiler-free summary of the book, then jump into the actual review.
Plot
The novella follows burger-flipper Bart Bartley on his deranged quest for love—or, as he calls it, his “100% Match.” A neurotic obsessive, Bart views every interaction with a woman as a calculated step toward securing a life partner. His worldview is shaped by a toxic cocktail of online dating advice, insecure-alpha podcasts (think Whatever and Fresh&Fit), and an endless barrage of statistics.
Equal parts quirky and psychotic, Bart fills his days with documentaries, good ol’ fashioned exercise, and the occasional murder.
Review
This book is Splatterpunk through and through, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In true Splatterpunk fashion, the world is already f**ked—but the real horror begins when the evil can no longer be contained. It boils over, leaving behind a stinking, rotten mess.
Bart is clearly deep in the red pill/manosphere pipeline. While the book doesn’t use specific jargon from those communities, his inner voice is steeped in that ideology—brainwashed into seeing every interaction with women as transactional, a means to satisfy his own desires, rather than viewing them as people in their own right.
100% Match isn’t just another shock-horror story designed to gross you out. Yes, it pushes boundaries—sometimes for comedic effect—but it works. The book isn’t trying to be edgy for edginess’s sake; it’s probing something much darker and more unsettling. It’s not mindless violence, as some prudes might claim.
The first time I read it, the ending completely blindsided me. By the third read, it still made me queasy. If you’re looking for a book that will genuinely make you feel something—revulsion, discomfort, fascination—this is it. That said, it was probably the worst thing I could have read while my fiancée was in hospital!
100% Match is a brutal, intelligent entry into the Splatterpunk genre—grotesque, darkly funny, and uncomfortably real. It’s not just gore for gore’s sake; it’s a disturbing character study wrapped in blood-soaked satire.
If you enjoyed this review, make sure to check out our list of the classic books in the Splatterpunk genre, all the way back from the ’90s!
