BOOK REVIEW: ​THE IMMEASURABLE CORPSE OF NATURE BY CHRISTOPHER SLATSKY

Christopher Slatsky has been a darling of mine since I first read his debut collection, Alectryomancer & Other Weird Tales, a few years ago. The timbre of his weird is a resonating one, and one I was eager to reacquaint myself with when The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature, his newest collection, found its way to my door.

From the very first story it is apparent that Slatsky has upped his game, stacked the deck with seamless melancholy and palpable regret. "Phantom Airfields" follows a devastated father as he searches for his missing son through desolate and possibly haunted locales.  "Engines of the Ocean" takes the concept of grief and longing and adds a gruesomely unsettling layer of salt.  "The Carcass of the Lion" is one of my very favorites of the collection, life long friends cling to one another as the shadow of death looms over one and the other finds her grip on the real and the remembered tenuously frail. This story just bulges with imagery and symbolism. It is astoundingly wonderful.

"Palladium At Night" was originally released as a limited edition chapbook from Dim Shores.  The story of a man and his dog skulking the edges of a government area and experiments in the otherworldly.  "Devil Gonna Catch You In The Corners" is a story of letters, told mostly through correspondence. It grows more and more creepily menacing until reaching its fever pitch. Unforgettable.

"Queer Woman Surgeon" is about a woman dissecting an urban legend that seems to be more fact that fantasy.  The collection wraps up with the titular story. A fantastic and horrific account of a forensic pathologist sent to assess the remains of a suicide nature cult and the somberly surreal nightmare that squeezes her in its grip. This one left me gob smacked.
I didn't touch on every story in the collection, mainly a few of my favorites. I try to pique your interest by vaguely describing the events within without spoiling anything, as this is a meal you don't want spoiled.  Go into it hungry...because that's how the book is waiting for your. Mouth wide and wet, teeth ready and quite famished, indeed.
 
The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature is available from Grimscribe Press.

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