The New Flesh: A Literary Tribute to David Cronenberg

by Sam Richard (Editor), Brendan Vidito (Editor), Kathe Koja (Foreword)

Videodrome. Scanners. The Brood. Crash. The Fly. The films of David Cronenberg have haunted and inspired generations. His name has become synonymous with the body horror subgenre and the term "Cronenbergian" has been used to describe the stark, grotesque, and elusive quality of his work. These eighteen stories bring his themes and ideas into the present, throbbing with unnatural life.

A yoga group brings transcendence and bodily transformation. A woman undergoing Gender Confirmation Surgery is subjected to outlandish techniques. A young man discovers the reality-warping potential of a bootleg horror VHS. A mother comes to terms with the monstrous appetites of her newborn child.

Being terrified is just the beginning. Become one with us and take a deep, penetrating dive into the plasma pool...

This is The New Flesh.

With an Introduction by Kathe Koja, and featuring stories by Brian Evenson, Sara Century, C.M. Muller, Leo X. Robertson, Max D. Stanton, Emma Alice Johnson, Cody Goodfellow, Bruno Lombardi, Katy Michelle Quinn, Jack Lothian, Mona Swan LeSueur & Fiona Maeve Geist, Madeleine Swann,  Charles Austin Muir, Ryan Harding, Alex Smith, Gwendolyn Kiste, Brendan Vidito, and Sam Richard.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Science Fiction, Fiction, Weird Fiction

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2019

About the author

Sam Richard is the author of several books including The Still Beating Heart of a Dead God and the award-winning To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows. He has edited ten anthologies, including the cult hits Profane Altars: Weird Sword & Sorcery and The New Flesh, and his short fiction has appeared in over forty publications. Widowed in 2017, he slowly rots in Minneapolis where he runs Weirdpunk Books. You can stalk him @SammyTotep across most socials or at weirdpunkbooks.com

Reviews

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review originally published in SCREAM Magazine issue 59 March/April 2020
Looking for an anthology that promises a wild ride? It doesn’t get any weirder than THE NEW FLESH. A collection of 19 stories written as an homage to director, David Cronenberg, this diverse selection of authors combine voices to assemble a veritable banquet of the bizarre.
Many of the stories teeter on the edge of being grotesque to the point of offense so I would hedge a bet that not every, single, story is going to appeal to one reader. It’s also my opinion that this isn’t a deep literary dive and some of the stories telegraph that they don’t want to be taken too seriously.
There were some that I skipped after a few pages but there were others I got completely lost in. The first story, A BAD PATCH by Brian Evenson is effective storytelling and relies on a compelling story to provide good reader engagement through the protagonist’s growing paranoia (and growing stomach) proving that the body horror sub-genre doesn’t have to lean too hard into shock & gore to be memorable.
In contrast, HEKATI YOGA was utterly perverse and disgusting--to the point where I just couldn’t hang with it anymore for fear of losing my lunch but I reminded myself that this anthology is an ambitious tribute to one of the most visually visceral directors of our time. It makes sense that the authors push hard to get the images off the pages and burned into our minds. Cody Goodfellow’s SEMINAR was one of my favorites, an exploration of techy/corporate/evil organization horror.
Jack Lothian’s story ELK had this whole “found footage” film industry vibe that I enjoyed as well as DESCRAMBLER by C.M.Miller which was about a blank VHS bootleg tape this kid, Max gets from a mysterious person in a van--both of these would have translated to the screen well but maybe seemed a bit gimmicky in story form. My favorite story was from Gwendolyn Kiste, called A New Mother's Guide to Raising an Abomination, if you haven’t read any Kiste, remedy that immediately. This anthology was a fun foray into bizzaro-body horror.




"Looking for an anthology that promises a wild ride? It doesn’t get any weirder than THE NEW FLESH. A collection of 19 stories written as an homage to director, David Cronenberg, this diverse selection of authors combine voices to assemble a veritable banquet of the bizarre."

Review sent to SCREAM Mag!

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a story in this one, it's great, you should read if a fan of horror or Cronenberg or anything grotesque and unwieldy :D

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Cronenberg fan I was so excited to read this anthology and it did not disappoint! I usually find anthologies are quite hit or miss and my individual ratings of the stories differ greatly but this is a really solid collection and all of the stories were at least good if not great.

Some authors took a specific Cronenberg film, such as Videodrome or The Fly, and ran with it whereas others delved into ideas and themes the director is known for such as body horror, man and machine, sex and death.

Some of my favourites were:
Hekati Yoga by Max D. Stanton
Convex by Emma Alice Johnson
Elk: An Oral History of an Abandoned Film (1987) by Jack Lothian
Typhoid Ananya by Madeleine Swann
Limbs by Alex Smith
A New Mother's Guide to Raising an Abomination by Gwendolyn Kiste
Reborn of Ash by Sam Richard

This collection has introduced me to a bunch of new authors I really want to check out more work from. It also has an introduction by the amazing Kathe Koja and some absolutely fantastic artwork too so there are many reasons to love this book. I highly recommend it for fans of Cronenberg, fans of body horror and splatterpunk in general, and any horror fan who is looking for something a bit different.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This is a markedly uneven collection with a few very good stories mired in an expanse of mediocre and even amateurish not-ready-for-primetime sludge.

Body horror is hard to convey in prose without dipping into cliches about exploding heads, dripping fluids and oozing viscera, and only a few writers here seem up to the challenge. Among those few, Brian Evenson provides a rather wry, gently melancholy, restrained take on the general theme in "A Bad Patch"; Max D. Stanton embraces the outrageous for all its worth in his very funny "Hekati Yoga"; Charles Austin Muir's "A Future of Violence" is smart, tight, and the cleverness of the story belies its straight-forward narrative; Gwendolyn Kiste's "A New Mother's Guide to Raising an Abomination" has a fantastic fairy-tale feel that's very welcome after all the noirish gore; finally, Sam Richard's"Reborn of Ash" is heartfelt and moving while being just strange enough to fit in this collection. The rest of the stories are mostly better left unremarked on, as they range from forgettable to god-awful.

A collection probably best recommended to passionate Cronenberg fans rather than your average horror reader.

[Jo Quenell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me forever to get through this book due to a crazed schedule that kept me from reading a lot. But ultimately I'm kinda glad I took the time with this anthology--reading a story or so a day kept it feeling fresh and free from repetition. Every story landed for me, which is rare, especially given that the TOC is on the lengthy side. The standouts (for me) came from Emma Alice Johnson, Katy Michelle Quinn, Cody Goodfellow, Ryan Harding, Gwendolyn Kiste, Bruno Lombardi, and Mona Swan LeSeur & Fiona Maeve Geist, though honestly you can't do wrong with any of these. Perfect for every Cronenberg/body horror fan.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uneven. Most of the pieces emphasize the body horror themes in Cronenberg's films; I think that's hard to realize successfully. Highlights for me: the stories by Brian Evenson, Jack Lothian and Gwendolyn Kiste, and Max Stanton's yoga story was entertaining.

More notes here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Horror Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Bad Patch (by Brian Evenson) – 5/5
Gives off major early Cronenberg movie vibes (think Shivers & Rabid). Loved the unreliable narrator & how his memory issues were not truly revealed until the very end. The monster of the story was also really nasty, and I could really see it as belonging in a Cronenberg movie. This was a great way to start off this anthology.

Red Lips In A Blue Light (by Sara Century) – 5/5
This story of a strange woman (who doesn’t seem to belong to the world around her) comes very close to capturing the feeling of nightmare logic (where events can happen, but never completely make sense). You get small hints here and there in the story, that there’s something not right with the woman’s world. There are no concrete answers as to where or when this story takes place. The author’s work reminds me of Betty Rocksteady, in that she’s really good at capturing overwhelming unease and that sense of being stuck inside a nightmare.

Descrambler (by C.M. Muller) – 3/5
There’s a movie obsessed teen, a sketchy video dealer in a van, and a mysterious and unlabeled VHS tape that induces strange hallucinations. This story felt like it was part of Cronenberg’s Videodrome universe. I could really see the protagonist being a fan of Max Renn’s channel. The ending felt a little disappointing, since the story seemed to hint at something larger happening (which never materialized).

Lackers (by Leo X. Robertson) – 3/5
What if you mixed Tod Browning’s Freaks with some Clive Barker & David Cronenberg inspired body horror? You would get “Lackers”. I think this is a story that could definitely have benefited from a couple extra pages. The end was very good, but it felt abrupt.

Hekati Yoga (by Max D. Stanton) – 5/5
Old college friends reconnecting through the power of yoga. That’s not quite what the real story is, but trust me, this short tale by Max D. Stanton is GOOD. I thought it would be a typical slow burn tale with some typical gross body horror reveal at the end. Once I got to the part where the yoga class did their chant, I knew this was my kind of story.




Convex (by Emma Alice Johnson) – 5/5
A new pair of glasses being marketed to an audience. A strange hallucination of a mutated woman. A transformative virus. This honestly feels like some long-lost deleted sequence that belongs right in Cronenberg’s Videodrome (the main protagonist’s last name is even Convex!). I absolutely loved the sense of dread in this and how far the ending went. Very good use of descriptive language.

Seminar (by Cody Goodfellow) – 2/5
A group of company executives at a strange retreat. There are promises of success through suspicious means. The setup for Seminar is so great. An odd corporate retreat with some body horror mixed in, sounds great! The problem for me were the characters. Almost every single character (including the narrator!) felt like an outline, like they weren’t developed enough.

Emergence (by Bruno Lombardi) – 4/5
A disappeared moon. A black, empty spot in the sky. A nightmarish monster at the end of it all.
This is one of those few stories which manage to capture the mood of a nightmare perfectly. Emergence has everything you’d want in a creepy read. The only let down was the revelation of the monster at the end (it didn’t fit at all with the abstract nature of the apocalypse described by the narrator). Despite that, I’d still recommend this.

Genital Freak (by Katy Michelle Quinn) – 5/5
With a title like that, you know that you’re going to get some serious body horror descriptions. This story does not disappoint in that regard!
This story starts out pretty mild, but definitely goes there at the end. To the more squeamish readers out there, the story gets pretty graphic with bodily descriptions at the end. I loved the main character & her continued inner monologues throughout the story. The story at the very end drops a tiny bit of info (the doctor’s last name), that made me love the story even more.

Elk: An Oral History Of An Abandoned Film 1987 (by Jack Lothian) – 4/5
This story is structed as interview snippets, jumping back and for between half a dozen or so characters. The story is about an abandoned film called Elk, and what happened to everyone involved with the project. This was such an odd little story & I loved it! The ending is ambiguous and open ended, and you never know if what happens to one of the characters will happen to others.


The Taint Is Saintly With Her Welcome (by Mona Swan Lesueur & Fiona Maeve Geist) – 2/5
There were a few scenes that I loved (the surreal gun battle in the hotel room or the humorous scene in the video store), but something just didn’t click with me with the story. I could never 100% tell if the story was actually taking place or what parts the main character (Mirna) was hallucinating or overexaggerating. The ending seems to come out of nowhere, we never find out more about the organization/company/group that is working to ‘liberate’ the flesh of people like Mirna’s. If you’re into surreal narratives with little explanation, then you’ll probably like this story more than me.

Tiphoid Ananya (by Madeleine Swann) – 2/5
Hard to judge this one. The premise is interesting, but the story feels very disjointed. The narrative jumps from scene to scene, and this barely feels connected as one cohesive story. This is another story in this anthology that honestly could have used a few more pages to develop further.

A Future of Violence (by Charles Austin Muir) – 2/5
This was just so disappointing. What started off as an interesting tale of espionage (body horror mixed with shady business deals mixed with an unreliable narrator), became very boring. When Dylan (who is our main point of view through the whole story) is told what the drug he’s been testing truly is, was when I lost interest. Up until that point, the buildup was great. The author was building tension, the narrator was acting more crazier by the page, and I was waiting to see what would happen next. After that revelation, the story just fizzled out. The ending felt anti-climactic.

Orificially Compromised (by Ryan Harding) – 5/5
A bit of Existenz, a bit of Videodrome, a bit of Scanners. I loved this story and it’s blend of corporate espionage and relationship issues. Don’t want to spoil too much, but if you love that moment in Scanners (you know which one!), you’ll love the story’s ending. Plus, this story serves as a good reminder to always read the terms & conditions before proceeding. ;)

Limbs (by Alex Smith) – 5/5
This was so good. The themes of missing limbs & sense of belonging from the “Lackers” story earlier, are present in this. I loved how descriptive the beginning was. As the story went, you got more and more pieces to paint the picture of what was really happening at the compound the main character was in. The ending was so eerie and creepy. I loved it. Have to give the author credit for creating a truly alien creature/monster.


A New Mother’s Guide To Raising An Abomination (by Gwendolyn Kiste) – 2/5
The writing was beautiful & the concept of alien-like children born all over the world is interesting. I liked how the mother character felt alienated & was slowly losing her grip and connection to humanity, the closer she got to her daughter. The story still felt somehow incomplete to me. None of the human characters were fleshed out in any way, and the mother character lacked consistency. Occasionally she felt confused and afraid, and sometimes was written as happy with the strange changes happening around here. This story is also not really body horror at all. Other than the birth scene at the hospital, nothing felt connected to Cronenberg’s work. Maybe this would work if it wasn’t so abstract.


The Human Clay (by Brendan Vidito) – 3/5
What starts out as a story about a heist gone wrong, ends with some pretty explicit body horror. Some very good nightmarish scenarios in this story! What I wish was done a little better was characterization. Other than the main character, no one else felt like a well-developed, rounded character. This story could have used an extra page or two. But the slow build up of tension and unease is still here.

Reborn of Ash (by Sam Richard) – 4/5
Did you love The Brood by Cronenberg? Wished the weird therapy aspect was a larger part of the film? Well, this is the story for you. This was an excellent story about how grief can change a person, both mentally and physically. There were also some very, very good body horror moments (like the reveal of the end goal of the therapy all the characters are undergoing at the institute). Even though I wished it had gorier and/or splatterpunk-y moments, this was a good read. Plus, I loved the fact that even minor characters (like all the patients in the therapy group) got developed.

[Octavio Villalpando · Rating 3 out of 5]

La idea de un tributo literario a David Cronenberg desde luego que es algo que llama la atención, y aunque en varios de los relatos seleccionados se note una cierta pobreza en terminos de forma, lo cierto es que, en lo que se refiere al fondo, se trata de un tributo muy bien logrado. Además, hay que admitirlo, siempre que hablemos de una antología, por simple contraste, algunos relatos van a ser sobresalientes y otros van a aparentar estar de más, así que todo "normal", bueno, todo lo normal que puede ser la cosa cuando hablamos de un mundo Cronenbergiano

La selección pretende, más que erigirse como una muestra de lo más sublime de la literatura moderna, en jugar a experimentar con las ideas de un genio como es Cronenberg, de modo que lo que vemos es una expansión de sus ideas, sobre todo en lo que refiere al concepto de la "Nueva carne", aunque las demás perversiones también son visitadas por varios autores. Hay una cosa que recalcar en el resultado final de la antología, y es que, simplemente por la fuente de origen detrás de las ideas de los relatos incluidos, bien podríamos etiquetarla como dentro de la "Literatura weird", ya que los temas que toca y el modo en que algunos relatos son abordados por sus autores, dan por resultado formas que son interesantes, ya que pueden percibirse como "novedosas" dentro del mundo de la literatura. Desde luego que es algo bastante curioso y muy accidental, pero que dota de mucho más interés a la edición.

Relatos a destacar:
"Lackers" de Leo X. Robertson.
"Hekati yoga", de Max D. Stanton
"Emergence", de Bruno Lombardi
"A new mother's guide to raise an Abomination", de Gwendolyn Kiste

Si son fans de Cronenberg y les sienta bien la literatura "Weird", sin duda deberían buscarlo...

[Betty Loven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disgusting.... I love it

[Rob Saucedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed THE NEW FLESH, a collection of short stories in conversation with the work of David Cronenberg. Goopy, queasily sexual body horror abounds. It definitely hits the sweet spot when it comes to gross. I'll definitely be checking out more stuff from Weirdpunk Books.

[axegrinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introducing The New Flesh – Kathe Koja
Rating: 5/5
Notes: Perfect kind of piece of prose-poetry.

A Bad Patch – Brian Evenson
Rating: 4/5
Notes: Very good, solid story.

Red Lips in a Blue Light – Sara Century
Rating: 3/5
Notes: It's a decent story with a good twist.

Descrambler – C.M. Muller
Rating: 2/5
Notes: It's a Videodrome-like idea, but in the end it doesn't quite make much sense and isn't particularly captivating.

Lackers – Leo X. Robertson
Rating: 4/5
Notes: Delicious and genuinely uncomfortable psychological body horror.

Hekati Yoga – Max D. Stanton
Rating: 5/5
Notes: I loved it, perfect! Probably the best in the book.

Convex – Emma Alice Johnson
Rating: 4/5
Notes: Love how wild and disorienting this was with surreal vibes.

Seminar – Cody Goodfellow
Rating: 4/5
Notes: Much like Scanners, but with a slightly different arc. Slightly oddly written at times, but 4/5 still.

Emergence – Bruno Lombardi
Rating: 5/5
Notes: Body horror/cosmic horror that reminds me of Eteronaut. Perfect.

Genital Freak – Katy Michelle Quinn
Rating: 4/5
Notes: Pretty good, I was torn between 3 or 4, but it's more of 4 by the gut feel.

ELK: An Oral History of an Abandoned Film (1987) – Jack Lothian
Rating: 4/5
Notes: Good body horror, paradocumentary in the Tetsuo: The Iron Man vein.

The Taint Is Saintly With Her Welcome – Mona Swan LeSueur & Fiona Maeve Geist
Rating: 4/5
Notes: I guess maybe not everyone will agree with me on this one. But it's wildly surreal, disorienting, and I just loved it.

Typhoid Ananya – Madeleine Swann
Rating: 3/5
Notes: It's decent, but nothing special.

A Future of Violence – Charles Austin Muir
Rating: 5/5
Notes: This is a wild, unsettling and creepy story about the fitness industry and biotechnology (and likely schizophrenia, too).

Orificially Compromised – Ryan Harding
Rating: 3/5
Notes: Another Videodrome vibes kind of story. It's alright.

Limbs – Alex Smith
Rating: 4/5
Notes: This one is sci-fi/body horror about phantom limbs, pretty good.

A New Mother’s Guide to Raising an Abomination – Gwendolyn Kiste
Rating: 3/5
Notes: This is about parenting a baby, written in second-person perspective. The ending is a bit underwhelming.

The Human Clay – Brendan Vidito
Rating: 2/5
Notes: I found it rather tedious and underwhelming for very, very little payoff, if any. Better to DNF next time.

Reborn of Ash – Sam Richard
Rating: 2/5
Notes: Pacing is off. I think Sam needs to work on his writing. There's too much soggy exposition, and the payoff is quick/rushed and weak. By the end of the story, you're pretty bored, so you literally don't care.


Best pieces: Introduction, Hekati Yoga, A Future of Violence, and Emergence.

Worst pieces: The Human Clay and Reborn of Ash.

[Stijn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Body horror maniacs and weird fiction weirdo's, gather around!

The New Flesh contains stories that each in turn fit perfectly within David Cronenberg's concepts. What struck me most about this collection is that they are marvelously well selected. They are quasi-equal in length, enormously readable, full of variety and overflowing with quality. And although the style and/or narrative structure differs from author to author, they support each other and work toward the same goal.
Such collaboration I have rarely seen in short story collections. Typically there are a subset of stories in there that are less your thing - often just because they are looking for variety. I didn't have that with this collection at all. Each story blew me over again with their grotesqueness and audacity.

Typically when reviewing short story collections, stories are weighed against each other. I just don't want to do this. What I do want to convey are the feelings and images that stuck with me. Things that stick with me are.
I remember the instability. VHS interference. Pieces of body reduced to a meaty knit dripping down white hospital walls. The combination horror and wonder that raises your eyebrows - and an inexplicably dirty feeling that makes you want to grin. The new realization of characters, their mental twists with their equally twisting yogic bodies. Oppressive, immense. How even after reading the last words of each story, you can't get rid of the feeling that pieces of flesh have stuck to you (or are growing in you).

One extra that sets this collection apart are the short biographies at the end. These are less focused on each person's achievements, but talk about how David Cronenberg influenced their style.
'We're all just people,' they seem to want to say. 'We're all just walking meat sacks.'

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any anthology like this is going to be a bit of a mixed bag, but there are some real gems in this collection. Some standouts for me were:

'A Future of Violence.' This felt like Max Barry writing body horror. Excited to read more by Charles Austin Muir. My favorite of the bunch.

'Elk: An Oral History of an Abandoned Film.' I love short stories in documentary format and exploitation film history.

'Limbs' and 'Orificially Compromised' felt the most like actual Cronenberg films.

Well worth the price of admission.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the single most quality-consistent anthology I have ever read. There are some exceptional stories in here, and most of the others are still very good. Highly, highly recommend this to any fans of Cronenberg’s work or weird fiction generally.

[CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK PHD · Rating 4 out of 5]

We need more stuff like this. Weird, ugly, and fascinating are always super welcome but a remarkably hard combination to pin down just right. Stories Hekati Yoga, ELK, and that one written like a diary about people staring at the moon whose title isn't listed anywhere were the best imho.

[William Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cronenberg would be so proud of these stories! Some I loved and some I went....what the heck was that. The cover alone is brilliant.

[Brooke Dekolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those anthologies that starts with one or two great reads (an intro by Kathe Koja and Evenson's story) and then everything else is just . . . bleh.

[Osaka Tides · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome collection. Every story in here in an absolute banger.

[Chris K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up for love.

[Jeremy Espinoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this collection of stories!! So much body-horror, erotica, violence, and technology! A great tribute to Cronenberg. ALL HAIL THE NEW FLESH!!

[Michael Louis Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had pretty high expectations for this anthology, and maybe that was unfair. I absolutely adore David Cronenberg's films, so it was a pretty high bar that was set. In general, this was pretty good but not great. I hoped for great. Some of the stories were great though. Here are my favorites:
A Bad Patch by Brian Evenson. A fun gruesome way to start off this anthology.
Hekati Yoga by Max D. Stanton. I liked this story. It was an engaging Body Horror story. Well done!
Seminar by Cody Goodfellow. My favorite story in the anthology. Cody totally captures the aesthetic of David Cronenberg's work. And it's a fucking trip!
The Taint is Saintly with Her Welcome by Mona Swan Lesueur & Fiona Maeve Geist. This story really rips along with the surreal influences of William S. Burroughs.
A Future of Violence by Charles Austin Muir. A good story. Imagine a superhero origin story told by David Cronenberg.
Orificially Compromised by Ryan Harding. Ryan's work is always great, always disturbing, and guaranteed to make you clutch at your vitals. This story is no exception. After reading this, I may start paying more attention to those User Agreements, nah, fuckit!
The Human Clay by Brendan Vidito. This story seemed to embrace the essence of Clive Barker's work as well as David Cronenberg. Good stuff!

[Yna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compared to The Cursed Bunny, I have a lot of stories that I liked in this book. The Authors of this book are exceptional. I hope I can find more books like this. It's weird but I relate to some of the stories.

[Mckenzie Ragan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5