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Body of Christ
After his first Holy Communion, a boy secretly builds his own Jesus out of communion wafers and the flesh of his dead father. On Halloween night, his Jesus shall rise.
After a tragic death, a girl tends to the Cemetery of the Innocents, a memorial to the holocaust of abortion and children killed before their time. On Halloween night, the children shall live, and they need to be fed. The Holy Spirit comes to life in this shocking, transgressive story of Christian Horror
After a tragic death, a girl tends to the Cemetery of the Innocents, a memorial to the holocaust of abortion and children killed before their time. On Halloween night, the children shall live, and they need to be fed. The Holy Spirit comes to life in this shocking, transgressive story of Christian Horror
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 2018
30 people are currently reading
563 people want to read
About the author
Mark Matthews
25 books416 followersMark Matthews is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a licensed professional counselor who has worked in behavioral health for over 20 years. He is the author of On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises, Milk-Blood, and The Hobgoblin of Little Minds. He is also the editor of a trio of 'addiction horror' anthologies including Orphans of Bliss, Lullabies for Suffering and Garden of Fiends. In 2021, he was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. His next novel, To Those Willing to Drown, is expected in May, 2025, followed by the novella, Kali's Web, in August, 2025.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
July 25, 2025
3.5 stars. I was really intrigued by this premise. And I took my time, because I had a feeling that there was going to be a great deal of symbolism and bizarre imagery. And, sure enough, there was a lot of each. Both Keagan and Faith lost a parent due to tragic circumstances. They are both underprivileged and neglected children in different families, with the death of their parents sending them spiraling down a rabbit hole, filled with trauma. And it all revolves around their religion, with extreme views and beliefs clouding their own personal experiences. Thus, making it completely confusing on how they should proceed with processing everything. And there are a ton of unsettling situations on both sides, making you, as the reader, also question if things are actually happening or you’re just seeing PTSD through the eyes of both children. So it’s got some very dark and deep themes and will make your mind bend quite a bit. My biggest critiques revolve around the pacing. I wanted to learn so much more about both Keagan and Faith, but everything whizzed by in a flash. And, just when I felt like I found my footing with everything, the ending abruptly happened. So the book had a lot going for it, but the pacing needed to be slowed down. And, on its brevity, there needed to be a lot more pages here to make it all work as well as it could have. Still an enjoyable experience, but it just needed to be fine-tuned a bit further.
March 29, 2018
Mark Matthews has woven a surreal and dark tale from unraveled psyches. Two children, neighbors, experience shattering losses, each witnessing the death of one of their parents. The resulting trauma takes each child on a psychological and spiritual journey through unimaginable terrain, where the remaining parents are either ice cold or dangerously fanatic. Each child copes through physical manifestations of their pain, creating what they believe to be living retribution. This is not a comfortable read, but its strength is in the imagery that is conveyed through fractured lives and volatile emotions. Powerful.
January 19, 2018
As a genre, horror is as old as mankind. We've been scaring the hell out of each other as a species for as long as we have been a species at all, and plenty of these stories have been influenced by, or act in response to, the religious beliefs of various groups. In fact, The Bible may be one of the most willfully misread genre pieces to ever come along. Here's a book where the supposed good guy drowns the entire world, killing men, women, and children alike, oftentimes in blind anger and jealous rage. There's demons, zombies, talking snakes, crucifixions, murders galore, all sorts of taboo sexual shenanigans, and a cult of believers who pray for, anticipate, and desire the apocalyptic End of Days while practicing ritualistic pseudo-cannibalism en masse. Yeah, The Bible sounds a hell of a lot like a horror story to me, even if it somehow gives a whole lot others some kind of hope. I don't know what Mark Matthews personal beliefs are, but even if he is a religious man he has certainly tapped into the darker aspects of religious occultism and supernatural forays, and how those beliefs can shape young minds, to give us a beautiful work of Christian horror.
Keagan's mother is a religious fanatic. She misses no opportunity to let her teenage boy know he is a doomed sinner on his way to Hell. She extolls the virtues of communion, and believes that the only thing that can save her child's soul is for him to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. Keagan is also a collector of oddities, and after witnessing the murder of his father he manages to discreetly save some chunks of his daddy's flesh.
Faith, an apt name for this pious believer, is struggling from the death of her mother while learning to cope with her own body's transformation into womanhood. She can hear the screams of the dead, and each month, riding out on a flow of blood, are the gnashing torments of the lives that could have been. Like Keagan's fleshy souvenir of his father, what Faith does with her used sanitary napkins is her own secret.
Body of Christ is a deeply fucked-up work, and, needless to say, I loved it! Matthews imbues the entirety of this short novella with a sense of creeping dread, and plenty of wonderfully ill descriptions. He captures the horror central to the root of Christian mythology, and the insidious ways the fervent faithful's blind beliefs undermines and twists one's love for their own children, or sets child against parent, in scarily recognizable ways. While this is a dark work to be sure, Matthews injects a few moments of much appreciated levity along the way, such as during Keagan's first communion when the boy briefly wonders what part of Jesus is in his mouth.
For as dark and pitch-blackly humorous as it is, Body of Christ carries with it, too, moments of sweet compassion and glimmers of hope. You just gotta have faith.
Keagan's mother is a religious fanatic. She misses no opportunity to let her teenage boy know he is a doomed sinner on his way to Hell. She extolls the virtues of communion, and believes that the only thing that can save her child's soul is for him to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. Keagan is also a collector of oddities, and after witnessing the murder of his father he manages to discreetly save some chunks of his daddy's flesh.
Faith, an apt name for this pious believer, is struggling from the death of her mother while learning to cope with her own body's transformation into womanhood. She can hear the screams of the dead, and each month, riding out on a flow of blood, are the gnashing torments of the lives that could have been. Like Keagan's fleshy souvenir of his father, what Faith does with her used sanitary napkins is her own secret.
Body of Christ is a deeply fucked-up work, and, needless to say, I loved it! Matthews imbues the entirety of this short novella with a sense of creeping dread, and plenty of wonderfully ill descriptions. He captures the horror central to the root of Christian mythology, and the insidious ways the fervent faithful's blind beliefs undermines and twists one's love for their own children, or sets child against parent, in scarily recognizable ways. While this is a dark work to be sure, Matthews injects a few moments of much appreciated levity along the way, such as during Keagan's first communion when the boy briefly wonders what part of Jesus is in his mouth.
For as dark and pitch-blackly humorous as it is, Body of Christ carries with it, too, moments of sweet compassion and glimmers of hope. You just gotta have faith.
July 11, 2018
Body of Christ by Mark Matthews is a thought provoking novella. As gruesome and unpleasant as it is, still it paints a vivid picture of two children, and the distress they experience triggered by their dual tragedies and loss.
Faith is a young girl who has to contend with the trauma of what she perceives to be her mother's murder - when hospital staff 'pull the plug' on the terminal woman. Keagan is a boy who also losses a parent, his father's violent demise leaving him at the mercy of a religious-zealot mother - who is crazy enough that her last name could have been Bates.
Faith struggles with the screaming voices in her head, and as her body moves toward adulthood, she begins to collect the souvenirs of her menstrual flow, these remnants of lives which 'could have been' becoming objects to be revered. The boy, too, struggles to deal with his loss, seeking solitude away from his mother's constant rants, he spends time hiding in the closet...with his collection of special things - Keagan likes to feel close to his dead father.
The writing in this was very tight, and the characterization too was excellent, but, be warned, this is a seriously fucked up story that will likely offend anyone with deeply religious views. Reading good fiction elicits a response, and this definitely achieved on that score. However, don't go into this expecting to be uplifted on any level. As well written a tale as this was, it left me feeling drained and depressed...and it'll certainly haunt my thoughts for a while.
Faith is a young girl who has to contend with the trauma of what she perceives to be her mother's murder - when hospital staff 'pull the plug' on the terminal woman. Keagan is a boy who also losses a parent, his father's violent demise leaving him at the mercy of a religious-zealot mother - who is crazy enough that her last name could have been Bates.
Faith struggles with the screaming voices in her head, and as her body moves toward adulthood, she begins to collect the souvenirs of her menstrual flow, these remnants of lives which 'could have been' becoming objects to be revered. The boy, too, struggles to deal with his loss, seeking solitude away from his mother's constant rants, he spends time hiding in the closet...with his collection of special things - Keagan likes to feel close to his dead father.
The writing in this was very tight, and the characterization too was excellent, but, be warned, this is a seriously fucked up story that will likely offend anyone with deeply religious views. Reading good fiction elicits a response, and this definitely achieved on that score. However, don't go into this expecting to be uplifted on any level. As well written a tale as this was, it left me feeling drained and depressed...and it'll certainly haunt my thoughts for a while.
February 18, 2019
Holy crap, that was disturbing.
May 14, 2018
Matthews will pull on your heartstrings and make it disturbing as well. Body of Christ is a quick read that I enjoyed as much as any of his other books. Good stuff.
February 25, 2018
I may have have given this one a pass based on the title, if I hadn’t already been familiar with and enjoyed Mark Matthews work.
I couldn’t resist, however when I was given an opportunity for a review copy of the audiobook from narrator Rick Gregory whose work I have also enjoyed in the past.
Glad I gave it a go because it was good. Really good. And not what I thought it was going to be at all.
I had no idea what to expect from this short tale. Rick nailed the narration as usual and it must have been an interesting one work with because the story was just flat out nuts.
Daddy in a baggie, buried egg napkins, Jesus Jewjewbes and the wafer golem.
How can you resist all that?
Strange and bleak with some heavy dark undercurrents woven throughout and a few pleasant surprises thrown in as well. Very nicely done. A soild 4+ Stars and Highly Recommended.
I couldn’t resist, however when I was given an opportunity for a review copy of the audiobook from narrator Rick Gregory whose work I have also enjoyed in the past.
Glad I gave it a go because it was good. Really good. And not what I thought it was going to be at all.
I had no idea what to expect from this short tale. Rick nailed the narration as usual and it must have been an interesting one work with because the story was just flat out nuts.
Daddy in a baggie, buried egg napkins, Jesus Jewjewbes and the wafer golem.
How can you resist all that?
Strange and bleak with some heavy dark undercurrents woven throughout and a few pleasant surprises thrown in as well. Very nicely done. A soild 4+ Stars and Highly Recommended.
December 3, 2024
Jesus is here and we’re eating him. Menstrual babies rising from gravesites.
It was as a sad look at a girl grappling with the passing of her mother, intertwining that grief into the experience of starting her first period. She mourns not just her mom but the “unborn babies. The eggs that could have been. Which to me, was an interesting take on compartmentalizing something so devastating at a time of development which is hard enough for a girl, we all handle grief in different ways.
Meanwhile, her neighbor is equally going through it, caught between an overzealous religious mother and the trauma of witnessing his dad’s violent death on Halloween.
So yeah I’m kind of torn, I started off loving it and kind of derailed, got a little nutso and idk felt a little silly towards the end
February 21, 2018
Wow, what the hell did I just read? I'm in awe at the audacity of this storytelling, and left in a pall of unease. Body of Christ is sad, morbid, and beautifully ugly.
March 13, 2021
Dang, I really enjoyed this one. A mix of coming-of-age and Christian horror. The story felt original and the author executed it extremely well. Brutal in just the right parts and engaging throughout.
February 25, 2018
Gross and kind of touching
This is a gross little book about two maladjusted kids coping with loss and grief in maladjusted ways. One buries her used feminine napkins in an abortion memorial graveyard. The other clumps his unswallowed communion wafers around a chunk of his dad that came off when the cops shot him. Things come to a head.
As bizarre as the whole thing is, the characterization is really solid. You believe in these kids, feel for them, and understand their motivations. You want things to work out for them, even when you have a sinking feeling that they will not.
Some people will find Body of Christ offensive. My grandma would have called it trash. I thought it was great. My Goodreads friends will probably like it, too.
This is a gross little book about two maladjusted kids coping with loss and grief in maladjusted ways. One buries her used feminine napkins in an abortion memorial graveyard. The other clumps his unswallowed communion wafers around a chunk of his dad that came off when the cops shot him. Things come to a head.
As bizarre as the whole thing is, the characterization is really solid. You believe in these kids, feel for them, and understand their motivations. You want things to work out for them, even when you have a sinking feeling that they will not.
Some people will find Body of Christ offensive. My grandma would have called it trash. I thought it was great. My Goodreads friends will probably like it, too.
February 23, 2018
BODY OF CHRIST by Mark Matthews is a book that defies explanation. If you're expecting a novella that fits neatly into a pre-labeled category, you will not find that here. What you will find is a story full of depth, despair, love, sorrow, and even belief. The two children in this tale are linked only tenuously by the circumstances in their individual lives, yet their loss and belief in something.... more.... eventually brings their paths together.
A spellbinding tale that few authors could pull off with just the right "tone". Mark Matthews has done just that.
Recommended!
A spellbinding tale that few authors could pull off with just the right "tone". Mark Matthews has done just that.
Recommended!
January 17, 2018
Bloody, violent, brilliant.
Keagan and Faith twist every basic trope of Christianity backward and sideways, searching so hard for relief from their pain that their yearnings bear living fruit, and nothing will be the same. While I'd caution particularly devout Christians to possibly avoid this book, I'll be recommending it to a lot of people. Just really well done.
Keagan and Faith twist every basic trope of Christianity backward and sideways, searching so hard for relief from their pain that their yearnings bear living fruit, and nothing will be the same. While I'd caution particularly devout Christians to possibly avoid this book, I'll be recommending it to a lot of people. Just really well done.
October 2, 2020
** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **
“The beauty in twisted darkness
Raped by the light of Christ
We were not born to follow
We don’t need your guiding light”
Raped by the Light of Christ by At the Gates -1993
What the hell did I just read?
I picked this one up some time ago, and like most stuff, it just got buried in my TBR. Finally, arriving at the top of the pile and gasping for air, Mark Matthews ‘Body of Christ’ was opened and I dove in.
I can see this one falling into three reader reaction categories. 1 – YAS! 2 – NO! 3 – BLASPHEMY!!!!!
I fell into category 1, but JFC does Matthews push the envelope here. Fantastic.
We follow two teenagers – a boy and a girl. They live across the street from each other. The boy lives with his mom and dad. His mom is an obese bible thumper, his dad is a broken shell of a man, dealing with crippling back pain. The boy has a safe space – his closet. A little area where he keeps all of his special trinkets in zip lock bags. These range from sentimental (melted snow from a snowman) to a bit disturbing (a dried-up worm with dead ants). But this is his escape.
The girl is dealing with the sudden passing of her mom. Her dad made the decision after an accident to remove her from life support, but as her mom takes her last breaths, the girl can hear her mom yell out to her from somewhere else.
Wracked with guilt, the girl and her dad return home, only for the girl to start her first period, a moment that her mom would’ve helped her with and understand. Instead, she’s left with grief, despair and worry.
I can’t say any more about what transpires specifically, I wanna stay spoiler-free, but let’s just say the first two-thirds of this book are written at a 10/10 on the bonkers scale and the last third hits the 15/10 rating. Just more insanity followed by more depravity.
Matthews has crafted a magnificent messed up gem here, one that hums along at lightning speed. I would have read this in one sitting, easily, if I didn’t have five other books on the go. Instead, a bit of distance and a return over the last few nights really highlighted the depths of disturbing he was creating here.
Well done, Mark. Absolutely one of the most unnerving things I’ve ever read.
“The beauty in twisted darkness
Raped by the light of Christ
We were not born to follow
We don’t need your guiding light”
Raped by the Light of Christ by At the Gates -1993
What the hell did I just read?
I picked this one up some time ago, and like most stuff, it just got buried in my TBR. Finally, arriving at the top of the pile and gasping for air, Mark Matthews ‘Body of Christ’ was opened and I dove in.
I can see this one falling into three reader reaction categories. 1 – YAS! 2 – NO! 3 – BLASPHEMY!!!!!
I fell into category 1, but JFC does Matthews push the envelope here. Fantastic.
We follow two teenagers – a boy and a girl. They live across the street from each other. The boy lives with his mom and dad. His mom is an obese bible thumper, his dad is a broken shell of a man, dealing with crippling back pain. The boy has a safe space – his closet. A little area where he keeps all of his special trinkets in zip lock bags. These range from sentimental (melted snow from a snowman) to a bit disturbing (a dried-up worm with dead ants). But this is his escape.
The girl is dealing with the sudden passing of her mom. Her dad made the decision after an accident to remove her from life support, but as her mom takes her last breaths, the girl can hear her mom yell out to her from somewhere else.
Wracked with guilt, the girl and her dad return home, only for the girl to start her first period, a moment that her mom would’ve helped her with and understand. Instead, she’s left with grief, despair and worry.
I can’t say any more about what transpires specifically, I wanna stay spoiler-free, but let’s just say the first two-thirds of this book are written at a 10/10 on the bonkers scale and the last third hits the 15/10 rating. Just more insanity followed by more depravity.
Matthews has crafted a magnificent messed up gem here, one that hums along at lightning speed. I would have read this in one sitting, easily, if I didn’t have five other books on the go. Instead, a bit of distance and a return over the last few nights really highlighted the depths of disturbing he was creating here.
Well done, Mark. Absolutely one of the most unnerving things I’ve ever read.
January 4, 2018
This remarkable little tale took me by surprise, I confess. I've not read Matthews work before and so went in with zero expectations, but even if they had been high expectations, they would have more than been met. Body of Christ is a quick, horrific little read, packed with emotion and all the pain that comes along with a child losing and longing for a dead parent.
I'll have a full review coming soon but wanted to leave something here to tell you that you really want to read this guy's work. Ketchum has great things to say about him and there's a damn good reason for that. Mark Matthews and Body of Christ are the real deal.
I'll have a full review coming soon but wanted to leave something here to tell you that you really want to read this guy's work. Ketchum has great things to say about him and there's a damn good reason for that. Mark Matthews and Body of Christ are the real deal.
September 15, 2018
As gross as it is sacrilegious, Body of Christ is a novella concerned with the interconnected tales of two neglected suburban pubescents who seek relief from personal loss by participating in perversions of Christian sacrament. While one creates life by fashioning an effigy out of a chunk of his father's rotting flesh and masticated communion wafers, the other tends monthly to a graveyard of buried menstrual pads. Plumbing that point in every young person's life when certain realities cause faith and belief to be questioned, Matthews dredges up more bodily disgust than existential horror for his theme. The prose is unremarkable but committed to its corrupted interpretation of Christian doctrine. Non-essential reading for lapsed Catholics with a taste for the ghastly.
February 25, 2020
.... Very rarely am I at a loss for words but this book made me uncomfortable and I don't even know what to say about it. Like, I need to take a shower and call up Jesus and tell him I'm sorry for reading this. In this book, period blood screams, Jesus is made out of soggy communion wafers, a boy's father commits suicide by cops (the son then saves bits of his torn apart by bullets dad in a ziploc bag for later - yay father flesh!), and .... like there's more but I can't even. This book will make you feel like you just accidentally did crack and rolled around in shit and dirty glass. It's bizarre and not in a good way. It's unique but that don't make it good...
August 9, 2018
Ok... this was super cool and super weird. i really loved it. and the fact that it was so short made it even better. if you're into horror, i definitely suggest it.
January 22, 2019
Wow.
I'm hard-pressed to even review this book because it was so bizarre I'm not even sure where to begin. It's a short novella, perhaps more properly defined as a novelette, but in any case, it's a quick read. It follows two children, Faith and Keegan, both of whom attend their local Catholic Church. Faith's mother is in an accident, brain dead, and her father makes the call to pull the plug. She can hear her mother screaming in her mind to save her, she's still alive, but no one else hears it and no one continues the life-support. Faith soon later begins having her menstrual periods and recalls her mother saying every month when a woman menstruates that it's a baby dying as the egg leaves the woman's body. She begins hearing the wailing cries of her "babies" from her menstrual pads, so she saves them and begins burying them in the cemetery of the innocents at the Church.
Keegan's about to receive First Holy Communion, and his obese mother--who only gets out of bed on Sundays for Mass, but won't receive the Eucharist because she claims she doesn't need it--is looking forward to him receiving the body of Christ. But Keegan's father has had an accident and has terrible back pain and is telling his son he plans to die soon so he doesn't feel the pain anymore. He isn't religious and makes his son promise to never have a child nor to take communion. Keegan does and his dad goes out on Halloween night after calling the police warning them about a man with a gun at their house, and when the cops show up he pulls it out and commits suicide by cop. Keegan collects a few bits of his dad's flesh which was blown off in the event and keeps them in his closet. At first communion, he doesn't swallow the wafer and puts it in his pocket, and so does this every week, placing the body of Christ on the bits of his dad's flesh in the closet, forming the shape of a person eventually.
What follows is bizarre, horrifying, confusing, but utterly terrifying and insane. You can really feel the pain of loss in these kids at losing their respective parents, and you can quickly see (if, like me, you're a Catholic with an understanding of Church teaching) that Keegan's mother's ideas are utterly heretical and sacrilegious, though she is unaware of this.
This book is nuts. It's metaphysical. It's horrifying. And in the end, we just have to assume these things ACTUALLY happened because of the perspectives of both kids seem to verify they did. I wasn't sure at first, but that's what I took away.
Don't look here for sound theology. This isn't that. It's dark religious fiction, and on that level, it works really well. It gets under your skin and stays there, wiggling and writhing just beneath the surface. I feel I'm going to be thinking about this book for some time, and therefore its impact alone earns its five stars. It isn't a perfect book, so don't let my rating fool you. There could have been some more fleshing out of the characters and their motivations, a deeper understanding of their grief and psyche, but on the whole, it works so well as a tale of absolute horror that none of that matters.
This one will stay with you. Prepare your stomach as well, as this BODY OF CHRIST doesn't go down like a cracker, but more like a rotting, squishing chunk of flesh.
Amen.
I'm hard-pressed to even review this book because it was so bizarre I'm not even sure where to begin. It's a short novella, perhaps more properly defined as a novelette, but in any case, it's a quick read. It follows two children, Faith and Keegan, both of whom attend their local Catholic Church. Faith's mother is in an accident, brain dead, and her father makes the call to pull the plug. She can hear her mother screaming in her mind to save her, she's still alive, but no one else hears it and no one continues the life-support. Faith soon later begins having her menstrual periods and recalls her mother saying every month when a woman menstruates that it's a baby dying as the egg leaves the woman's body. She begins hearing the wailing cries of her "babies" from her menstrual pads, so she saves them and begins burying them in the cemetery of the innocents at the Church.
Keegan's about to receive First Holy Communion, and his obese mother--who only gets out of bed on Sundays for Mass, but won't receive the Eucharist because she claims she doesn't need it--is looking forward to him receiving the body of Christ. But Keegan's father has had an accident and has terrible back pain and is telling his son he plans to die soon so he doesn't feel the pain anymore. He isn't religious and makes his son promise to never have a child nor to take communion. Keegan does and his dad goes out on Halloween night after calling the police warning them about a man with a gun at their house, and when the cops show up he pulls it out and commits suicide by cop. Keegan collects a few bits of his dad's flesh which was blown off in the event and keeps them in his closet. At first communion, he doesn't swallow the wafer and puts it in his pocket, and so does this every week, placing the body of Christ on the bits of his dad's flesh in the closet, forming the shape of a person eventually.
What follows is bizarre, horrifying, confusing, but utterly terrifying and insane. You can really feel the pain of loss in these kids at losing their respective parents, and you can quickly see (if, like me, you're a Catholic with an understanding of Church teaching) that Keegan's mother's ideas are utterly heretical and sacrilegious, though she is unaware of this.
This book is nuts. It's metaphysical. It's horrifying. And in the end, we just have to assume these things ACTUALLY happened because of the perspectives of both kids seem to verify they did. I wasn't sure at first, but that's what I took away.
Don't look here for sound theology. This isn't that. It's dark religious fiction, and on that level, it works really well. It gets under your skin and stays there, wiggling and writhing just beneath the surface. I feel I'm going to be thinking about this book for some time, and therefore its impact alone earns its five stars. It isn't a perfect book, so don't let my rating fool you. There could have been some more fleshing out of the characters and their motivations, a deeper understanding of their grief and psyche, but on the whole, it works so well as a tale of absolute horror that none of that matters.
This one will stay with you. Prepare your stomach as well, as this BODY OF CHRIST doesn't go down like a cracker, but more like a rotting, squishing chunk of flesh.
Amen.
March 7, 2018
Good Lord This Is A Crazy Book
4.5 out of 5 stars
Well… where do I start? First and foremost, I did not know that Christian Horror was a sub-genre. And, as terrible as it sounds – the first and only book that comes to mind is the Bible when I hear that name.
Body of Christ tells the story of two young kids who are coming of age after tragedies. Both are raised by religious parents but that is where their similarities stop. The boy’s mom is a devout (and definitely crazy) Christian married to a man who is very hurt. The boy’s dad decides to commit suicide by police shooting. The girl is coming of age without her mother who died of a terminal illness.
This book is messed up on so many levels. Now, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it because I did. But seriously, the content matter of this is so messed up. There is a lot I want to talk about but almost everything feels like a spoiler.
The boy’s mother might be one of the craziest people I’ve ever read about ever. But sadly, my wife works at family court and probably knows of at least one person who is similar. She’s constantly berating her son with “you should have died that night too” and “you’re next” will haunt me for a long time.
The boys collecting of random (and almost always creepy) things is also an incredible cry for help. He needed so much therapy it’s insane. But without help, there wouldn’t be a story!
The girl is also another kind of crazy – one who thinks that the eggs that she bleeds out during her time of the month are real and need protecting. I’m rarely left speechless but that did it.
If you think this is going to be some sort of heartwarming Christian story you couldn’t be further from the truth. But if you like horror books that are super unique and will leave you cringing at almost every scene, check out Body of Christ.
I don’t know if Matthews is a religious person or not since there were scenes that make it obvious he’s been to a Catholic mass before but then – this story lives in such a dark and disturbing place I’m not sure if it’s something that he was mocking or something that he’s taken a lot of time to analyze and come up with from all of the dark stories out of the Bible.
The narration was done by Rick Gregory and I thought he did an awesome job. I don’t know how he got through narrating this but thankfully it was under 2 hours so hopefully, he’s recovered! I thought that Gregory added a nice touch to an already good book.
Final thoughts: what the eff did I just read? I’m definitely going to be thinking about this book for a long time.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Well… where do I start? First and foremost, I did not know that Christian Horror was a sub-genre. And, as terrible as it sounds – the first and only book that comes to mind is the Bible when I hear that name.
Body of Christ tells the story of two young kids who are coming of age after tragedies. Both are raised by religious parents but that is where their similarities stop. The boy’s mom is a devout (and definitely crazy) Christian married to a man who is very hurt. The boy’s dad decides to commit suicide by police shooting. The girl is coming of age without her mother who died of a terminal illness.
This book is messed up on so many levels. Now, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it because I did. But seriously, the content matter of this is so messed up. There is a lot I want to talk about but almost everything feels like a spoiler.
The boy’s mother might be one of the craziest people I’ve ever read about ever. But sadly, my wife works at family court and probably knows of at least one person who is similar. She’s constantly berating her son with “you should have died that night too” and “you’re next” will haunt me for a long time.
The boys collecting of random (and almost always creepy) things is also an incredible cry for help. He needed so much therapy it’s insane. But without help, there wouldn’t be a story!
The girl is also another kind of crazy – one who thinks that the eggs that she bleeds out during her time of the month are real and need protecting. I’m rarely left speechless but that did it.
If you think this is going to be some sort of heartwarming Christian story you couldn’t be further from the truth. But if you like horror books that are super unique and will leave you cringing at almost every scene, check out Body of Christ.
I don’t know if Matthews is a religious person or not since there were scenes that make it obvious he’s been to a Catholic mass before but then – this story lives in such a dark and disturbing place I’m not sure if it’s something that he was mocking or something that he’s taken a lot of time to analyze and come up with from all of the dark stories out of the Bible.
The narration was done by Rick Gregory and I thought he did an awesome job. I don’t know how he got through narrating this but thankfully it was under 2 hours so hopefully, he’s recovered! I thought that Gregory added a nice touch to an already good book.
Final thoughts: what the eff did I just read? I’m definitely going to be thinking about this book for a long time.
March 29, 2018
Holy Communion Horror
Really strange but interesting and entertaining novella. Story is primarily about loss for 2 teens and how they cope or don't cope with it. Story involves a death by accident and pulling life support. A suicide by police, a girls first menstrual cycle, a boys first communion and the life that comes from both. A strange combination of themes that pulls itself together in a entertaining and believable story.
Going back to check other stories by Mark.
Just for full disclosure I obtained this novella through a Goodreads kindle giveaway.
Really strange but interesting and entertaining novella. Story is primarily about loss for 2 teens and how they cope or don't cope with it. Story involves a death by accident and pulling life support. A suicide by police, a girls first menstrual cycle, a boys first communion and the life that comes from both. A strange combination of themes that pulls itself together in a entertaining and believable story.
Going back to check other stories by Mark.
Just for full disclosure I obtained this novella through a Goodreads kindle giveaway.
November 21, 2025
So sad and yet so strange of A tale of neighbors on Halloween night for young Keagen and Faith both losing Family at the young age. Keagen finding comfort in his closet with his findings and Faith coping with her new body changes [ do not want to say to much ] I found this so strange yet so mesmerizing [ A open mine for this one ]
May 5, 2019
Okay. That was weird!
What can I say about this novella? Well, I suppose I can start by saying that it's TOTALLY messed up. And add that reading this felt like being stuck in a really gross, bad dream I couln't wake up from. 😵
So, this story is about two kids suffering through their separate traumas. Traumas that are so serious and so dark, their confused minds twist faith, loss and grief into grotesque monsters slowly consuming them.
It's also a study about the effect strong and pushy religious beliefs can have on young, impressionable minds. How, when kids are forced to listen to the crazy shit their fanatic parents spew, the insanity of it all is capable of warping their minds. To the point of affecting their mental health.
Faith watches her mother wither away on a hospital bed after an accident and is there when the machines are turned off. That's when she starts hearing voices, and when she decides she's not going to let anything else die.
After remembering a ridiculous line her mother told her about menstruation. One that affects her way too deeply.
Keagan watches his injured father wither away and is there when he decides to give up on life. That's when he resorts to spending even more time hidden in his dark closet, and when he decides to use the 'Body of Christ' for a deeper purpose.
After never forgetting he promised his father he wouldn't take the holy communion. A promise that leads to a morbid occurrence a year later.
Yeah, this is quite a disturbing little novella that ventures into some pretty bleak and very surreal territory. It's ghastly and awful, like a raw patch of flesh that's gross because it's infected, and stings like hell.
It's also very well written, moves at a good pace, and deals with some pretty heavy issues. Child abuse, to begin with. I mean, what Keagan's mother says and does to this boy is awful. And Faith's father surrendering to his own grief to the point of pretending his daughter isn't even there is terrible.
And all of this, before I even get to the blasphemous nature of this horrific tale.
I mean, that's what some might consider it to be. Not me, though. I was born a Catholic but am not even remotely religious. I despise the hypocrisy of organised religion and have often found the most devoted fanatics to be the least moral people. So, I personally enjoyed this aspect of the story.
Whatever your belief system, this is quite the disturbing trip. And I reckon it's worth taking.
What can I say about this novella? Well, I suppose I can start by saying that it's TOTALLY messed up. And add that reading this felt like being stuck in a really gross, bad dream I couln't wake up from. 😵
So, this story is about two kids suffering through their separate traumas. Traumas that are so serious and so dark, their confused minds twist faith, loss and grief into grotesque monsters slowly consuming them.
It's also a study about the effect strong and pushy religious beliefs can have on young, impressionable minds. How, when kids are forced to listen to the crazy shit their fanatic parents spew, the insanity of it all is capable of warping their minds. To the point of affecting their mental health.
Faith watches her mother wither away on a hospital bed after an accident and is there when the machines are turned off. That's when she starts hearing voices, and when she decides she's not going to let anything else die.
After remembering a ridiculous line her mother told her about menstruation. One that affects her way too deeply.
Keagan watches his injured father wither away and is there when he decides to give up on life. That's when he resorts to spending even more time hidden in his dark closet, and when he decides to use the 'Body of Christ' for a deeper purpose.
After never forgetting he promised his father he wouldn't take the holy communion. A promise that leads to a morbid occurrence a year later.
Yeah, this is quite a disturbing little novella that ventures into some pretty bleak and very surreal territory. It's ghastly and awful, like a raw patch of flesh that's gross because it's infected, and stings like hell.
It's also very well written, moves at a good pace, and deals with some pretty heavy issues. Child abuse, to begin with. I mean, what Keagan's mother says and does to this boy is awful. And Faith's father surrendering to his own grief to the point of pretending his daughter isn't even there is terrible.
And all of this, before I even get to the blasphemous nature of this horrific tale.
I mean, that's what some might consider it to be. Not me, though. I was born a Catholic but am not even remotely religious. I despise the hypocrisy of organised religion and have often found the most devoted fanatics to be the least moral people. So, I personally enjoyed this aspect of the story.
Whatever your belief system, this is quite the disturbing trip. And I reckon it's worth taking.
July 12, 2018
Full review coming to Cemetery Dance online soon...
January 6, 2019
Body of Christ
By Mark Matthews
Genre - Fiction
Subgenre - Christian Horror/Novella/Fantasy
Pages - 95
Publication Info - Wicked Run Press (January 8, 2018)
Reviewed by - William C. Bitner, Jr. (https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...)
Rating - 📙📙📙📙📙
It seems I’ve started the New Year off with one hell of a read in Body of Christ by Mark Matthews. I must admit I’ve never read anything quite like this before, but I look forward to much more of Mark’s writing if this is even a small measure of what he is capable of. This was not a comfortable read in the least, and I think that’s what made it so intriguing. This is some hardcore in your face sacrilege, or is it a true and honest example of the cult of religion. You will have to decide which after reading this thought provoking, intense and brilliant bit of prose. I’ve always thought Christian Horror or Religious Horror to be a bit of an oxymoron and still stand by that analogy after this read. If you’re looking for something unique, outside the box and entertaining as hell may I suggest you pick up a copy of Body of Christ by Mark Matthews. I look forward to many more hours of reading from this talented wordsmith.
Synopsis (from back cover): After his first Holy Communion, a boy secretly builds his own Jesus out of communion wafers and the flesh of his dad.
On Halloween night, his Jesus shall rise.
After a tragic death, a girl tends to the Cemetery of the Innocents, a memorial to the holocaust of abortion and children killed before their time.
On Halloween night, the children shall live, and they need to be fed.
The Holy Spirit comes to life in this shocking, transgressive story of Christian Horror
About the Author: Mark Matthews is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a licensed professional counselor who has worked in behavioral health for over 20 years. He is the author of On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises, and Milk-Blood, as well as the editor of Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror. Matthews has run 13 marathons, and has two running based books, The Jade Rabbit and Chasing the Dragon. He lives near Detroit with his wife and two daughters.
Other work by Mark Matthews: Chasing the Dragon: Running to Get High, On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux, Milk-Blood, The Damage Done, Stray, The Jade Rabbit, Lily’s Tale: The Milk-Blood Trilogy, and has contributed to Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror, Bad Apples: Halloween Horror: The Complete Collection, Dark Carnival: An Anthology of Horror, and Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror (Bad Apples Halloween Horror).
By Mark Matthews
Genre - Fiction
Subgenre - Christian Horror/Novella/Fantasy
Pages - 95
Publication Info - Wicked Run Press (January 8, 2018)
Reviewed by - William C. Bitner, Jr. (https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...)
Rating - 📙📙📙📙📙
It seems I’ve started the New Year off with one hell of a read in Body of Christ by Mark Matthews. I must admit I’ve never read anything quite like this before, but I look forward to much more of Mark’s writing if this is even a small measure of what he is capable of. This was not a comfortable read in the least, and I think that’s what made it so intriguing. This is some hardcore in your face sacrilege, or is it a true and honest example of the cult of religion. You will have to decide which after reading this thought provoking, intense and brilliant bit of prose. I’ve always thought Christian Horror or Religious Horror to be a bit of an oxymoron and still stand by that analogy after this read. If you’re looking for something unique, outside the box and entertaining as hell may I suggest you pick up a copy of Body of Christ by Mark Matthews. I look forward to many more hours of reading from this talented wordsmith.
Synopsis (from back cover): After his first Holy Communion, a boy secretly builds his own Jesus out of communion wafers and the flesh of his dad.
On Halloween night, his Jesus shall rise.
After a tragic death, a girl tends to the Cemetery of the Innocents, a memorial to the holocaust of abortion and children killed before their time.
On Halloween night, the children shall live, and they need to be fed.
The Holy Spirit comes to life in this shocking, transgressive story of Christian Horror
About the Author: Mark Matthews is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a licensed professional counselor who has worked in behavioral health for over 20 years. He is the author of On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises, and Milk-Blood, as well as the editor of Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror. Matthews has run 13 marathons, and has two running based books, The Jade Rabbit and Chasing the Dragon. He lives near Detroit with his wife and two daughters.
Other work by Mark Matthews: Chasing the Dragon: Running to Get High, On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux, Milk-Blood, The Damage Done, Stray, The Jade Rabbit, Lily’s Tale: The Milk-Blood Trilogy, and has contributed to Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror, Bad Apples: Halloween Horror: The Complete Collection, Dark Carnival: An Anthology of Horror, and Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror (Bad Apples Halloween Horror).
March 3, 2020
What did I just read? Short and bizarre novella that covers so many emotions and taboo topics. In any real conversation, an unspoken rule is to avoid many topics including religion, abortion and depression. The title alone may steer some away since it has religious aspects, but in some areas it’s covered in a horrifying yet comical approach. The main characters, Keagan and Faith, are neighbors that struggle with death of parent, maturing and religious beliefs. Their remaining parent has isolated themselves making the children grieve alone without support. Keagan’s mother is a religious bedridden fanatic while Faith’s father is absent majority of the time. In coping, they each create their own manifestation of their pain and struggle through the unknown as it brings back life. It’s an odd, uncomfortable read.
October 6, 2025
The Stuff of Christian Nightmares
It’s a novella so I don’t want to give too much away, but the story depicts the dark side of religious psychosis on children. It reminds me of something profound my daughter said when only 7 after attending a Christian after-school club: I never want to come here again. It’s a bloody religion, momma! All they talk about is blood!
I’d already been struggling with the incongruities between what I knew was goodness and truth opposed to the hypocrisy witnessed in many church-goers, so this clinched it. As with this novella, from the mouths of babes: yup, these are bloody religions! And what mind games they play on children.
It’s a novella so I don’t want to give too much away, but the story depicts the dark side of religious psychosis on children. It reminds me of something profound my daughter said when only 7 after attending a Christian after-school club: I never want to come here again. It’s a bloody religion, momma! All they talk about is blood!
I’d already been struggling with the incongruities between what I knew was goodness and truth opposed to the hypocrisy witnessed in many church-goers, so this clinched it. As with this novella, from the mouths of babes: yup, these are bloody religions! And what mind games they play on children.
January 13, 2018
Whereas Garden of Fiends allowed me to identify with the terrors of addiction, Body of Christ has introduced me to Christian horror, and I didn't mind the journey nor the destination. This novella is doubtlessly not for the faint of heart—and no matter how much horror literature you've already read—brace yourselves for nightmares after concluding this one.
Read the full review here: http://literaryretreat.com/2018/01/13...
Read the full review here: http://literaryretreat.com/2018/01/13...
November 26, 2025
An exceptionally strange and chilling horror story about childhood trauma and bizarrely fantastical beliefs.
Uniquely original and definitely worth reading for those looking for something truly different!
Uniquely original and definitely worth reading for those looking for something truly different!
June 12, 2018
This was the twisted little tale I was expecting and I wasn’t disappointed. Mark Matthews is the editor and a contributor to the addiction horror anthology Garden of Fiends where I first ran into his work and was impressed with the anthology as a whole.
Keagan, a young boy who recently lost his father violently, has some interesting ideas about the power of the Communion wafer. What started off as a simple fascination with the wafer and it’s transmutative properties turns into a rough plan to raise his father from his final rest. If you’re squeamish about dead human flesh, this will make you squirm!
Meanwhile, young Faith has recently come of an age with her first menstrual cycle. She volunteers in the cemetery looking over all the graves of aborted fetuses and such. Seems like a droll task for a young lady, doesn’t it? I think it’s totally logical that she gets stuck on the idea of all these baby fetus angels and that obviously gets carried over to her monthly egg loss. If you’re squeamish about menstruation, then this will make you squirm.
Eventually, Keagan and Faith get together and what they birth upon the world is more than a little terrifying! Cue evil laughter! Throughout this entire tale I kept imagining the smell. Yep. The smell! Keagan as a little bit of rotting human flesh and Faith has her stored period. Ugh! I can’t recall where this story takes place but I hope it was a low humidity place to keep things as dry (and scent-free) as possible.
All told, it’s a fun twisted little story for your commute or lunch break. I will never look at Communion wafers the same again. 5/5 stars.
I received a free copy of this book.
The Narration: Rick Gregory gave a very good performance on this narration. He has a great voice for young Keagan and blossoming Faith. All his character voices were distinct and he did well with the various emotions in this story. There were no recording issues. 5/5 stars.
Keagan, a young boy who recently lost his father violently, has some interesting ideas about the power of the Communion wafer. What started off as a simple fascination with the wafer and it’s transmutative properties turns into a rough plan to raise his father from his final rest. If you’re squeamish about dead human flesh, this will make you squirm!
Meanwhile, young Faith has recently come of an age with her first menstrual cycle. She volunteers in the cemetery looking over all the graves of aborted fetuses and such. Seems like a droll task for a young lady, doesn’t it? I think it’s totally logical that she gets stuck on the idea of all these baby fetus angels and that obviously gets carried over to her monthly egg loss. If you’re squeamish about menstruation, then this will make you squirm.
Eventually, Keagan and Faith get together and what they birth upon the world is more than a little terrifying! Cue evil laughter! Throughout this entire tale I kept imagining the smell. Yep. The smell! Keagan as a little bit of rotting human flesh and Faith has her stored period. Ugh! I can’t recall where this story takes place but I hope it was a low humidity place to keep things as dry (and scent-free) as possible.
All told, it’s a fun twisted little story for your commute or lunch break. I will never look at Communion wafers the same again. 5/5 stars.
I received a free copy of this book.
The Narration: Rick Gregory gave a very good performance on this narration. He has a great voice for young Keagan and blossoming Faith. All his character voices were distinct and he did well with the various emotions in this story. There were no recording issues. 5/5 stars.
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