[BOOK REVIEW] BODY SHOCKS EDITED BY BY ELLEN DATLOW

12/10/2021

BODY SHOCKS EDITED BY BY ELLEN DATLOW - BOOK REVIEW

Some stories definitely shock more than others, swinging wildly from subtle to schlocky without warning, so be wary as you turn each page – or at the very least, have some dry toast and water on hand to keep your belly settled. You're not making it to the end of this book unchanged.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tachyon Publications (19 Oct. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616963603
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616963606

Pun fully intended here – good body horror really gets under your skin. Sometimes it accomplishes this through a slow burn to a shocking reveal, other times the reveal comes early and things gradually get worse. Many of the stories in Body Shocks fall into the former camp, taking their time to set up places, characters and situations before the skin splits and whatever's lurking there decides to push its way out.

This is a whopper of a book, offering 28 stories over 350+ pages, with selections spanning the decades from 1984 onwards. It's fantastically varied, and many of the stories run long, which didn't quite work for me immediately. Quite a lot of the anthologies I've been reading over the past year tend to open with a short sharp shock to set the mood, whereas this one opens with The Traveller's Stay, a story content to take its time in getting to the meat of the matter. Which is fine, there are certainly no issues of quality with this or any of the other stories on offer, but it caught me in an impatient mood, so I had to read it again to fully appreciate it. And that's my main takeaway from this book – it isn't one to be rushed. Taking your time to savour these morsels of horror is far more rewarding than stuffing your guts in one marathon sitting.

Favourites-wise, the clear standouts start with Genevieve Valentine's La beauté sans vertu, a tale both chilling and tragic as it outlines the things models are subjected to for the sake of fashion. There are some fantastic uses of metaphor here, and suitably vivid imagery. Lucy Taylor's Subsumption reads like an offshoot of VanderMeer's Annihilation, with a similar blend of tech-talk and creeping, vegetation-based mutation. Angela Slatter's Cuckoo reminded me a lot of the Denzel Washington supernatural thriller Fallen, involving bodies used as temporary shells by an evil entity, made all the more effective, and terrifying, thanks to its strong character work. And Tananarive Due's The Lake veritably drips with atmosphere all the way through, pulling you close to its lead character through a slow transformation to a chilling, satisfying ending.

In all, this a fine selection, balanced to cover all tastes and types of body horror, from skin crawling to downright dirty. Some stories definitely shock more than others, swinging wildly from subtle to schlocky without warning, so be wary as you turn each page – or at the very least, have some dry toast and water on hand to keep your belly settled. You're not making it to the end of this book unchanged.

Review by Ben Walker

Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror

Bestselling editor Ellen Datlow (Darkness, Lovecraft's Monsters) presents body horror at its most wide-ranging and shocking best. Discover twenty-nine intricate, twisted tales of the human body, soul, and psyche, as told by storytelling legends including Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Kadrey, Seanan McGuire, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nathan Ballingrud, Tananarive Due, Cassandra Khaw, Christopher Fowler, and many more.