What do you think?
Rate this book
Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror
Bestselling editor Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft's Monsters) delivers world-class body horror in all its gruesome, psychological, and shocking glory. Discover—if you dare—shockingly twisted tales of the human body that make The Twilight Zone seem like a children's show. In Body Shocks, you will find twenty-nine chilling tales from storytelling masters including Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Kadrey, Seanan McGuire, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Tananarive Due, Cassandra Khaw, Christopher Fowler, and many more.
The most terrifying thing that you can possibly imagine is your own body in the hands of a monster. Or worse, in the hands of another human being.
In these 29 tales of body horror selected by World Horror Grandmaster Ellen Datlow, you'll find the unthinkable, the shocking, and more: a couture designer preparing for an exquisitely grotesque runway show; a vengeful son seeking the parent who bred him as plasma donor; a celebrity-kink brothel that inflicts plastic surgery on sex workers; and organ-harvesting doctors who dissect a living man without anesthetic.
The most terrifying thing that you can possibly imagine is your own body in the hands of a monster. Or worse, in the hands of another human being.
In these 29 tales of body horror selected by World Horror Grandmaster Ellen Datlow, you'll find the unthinkable, the shocking, and more: a couture designer preparing for an exquisitely grotesque runway show; a vengeful son seeking the parent who bred him as plasma donor; a celebrity-kink brothel that inflicts plastic surgery on sex workers; and organ-harvesting doctors who dissect a living man without anesthetic.
409 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 19, 2021
162 people are currently reading
3463 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Datlow
274 books1,874 followersEllen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
November 4, 2021
Review originally published at Tor Nightfire (October 19th, 2021)
https://tornightfire.com/ellen-datlow...
What is body horror? In the introduction to Body Shocks, her newest anthology, Ellen Datlow writes:
“It might be the most disturbing type of horror because it deals with the intimacy of the body’s integrity being breached by intentional mutilation, accidental infestations by parasites, invasion by alien forces, degeneration, transformation, grotesquery, and pain.”
The table of contents boasts twenty-nine violations of the human body told by a diverse array of talented voices in a variety of genres, skillfully curated and edited by Datlow.
Instead of cherry-picking stories from the book, this anthology can be enjoyed cover-to-cover, back-to-back like a favorite record. Every song is a hit single; no skips. Of special interest are the provocative cover artwork and interior illustrations, which add to this whole aesthetic and mood while you read.
Because Body Shocks delivers so epically on its promise to deliver “extreme tales of body horror,” I wanted to give each story a moment in the limelight:
“The Travellers Stay,” Ray Cluley: The perfect way to kick off a body horror anthology. Think of the worst thing you could find in a motel room and then imagine not being able to leave the offending motel because… well, you’ve changed.
“Toother,” Terry Dowling: One of the scariest stories in the whole lot. Dowling manages to squeeze so much into this short piece about the hunt for a serial killer as it tightens the circle around the perpetrator, thanks to a patient at a psychiatric hospital who’s plagued with visions.
“Painlessness,” Kirstyn McDermott: A woman incapable of feeling physical pain sells her body to the highest bidders. This story is so utterly disturbing; it filled my head with myriad fears. How far will some go to fulfill their basic instincts?
“You Go Where It Takes You,” Nathan Ballingrud: One of my favorite stories from Ballingrud’s collection North American Lake Monsters presents one of the most subtle, gruesome killers I’ve ever read about. Preying on the desperation of a worn-out single mother, the stalker in this story makes a startling discovery.
“A Positive,” Kaaron Warren: Parents are meant to love their children unconditionally, providing them with a nurturing and safe environment in which to grow and thrive. “A Positive” imagines a scenario where the child is raised by other means and meant to serve the parents. It’s effective and repulsive.
Apple | Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
“La beauté sans vertu,” Genevieve Valentine: Strong social commentary about the extreme nature of the couture fashion industry, which is its own brand of body horror. The world-building in this story is constructed in a way that feels all too real, with vibrant imagery lingers in the reader’s mind long after.
“Subsumption,” Lucy Taylor: In the aftermath of some serious environmental warfare, a group of people navigate a hostile landscape in order to survive. A woman discovers new, microscopic life forms that exist for the sole purpose of conquering their hosts. This is a story that felt like the beginning of something epic. I wanted more.
“Spar,” Kij Johnson: This story shook me to my core. After I finished reading it, I could not stop thinking about it. A collision in space leaves a woman stranded with an alien life form that will not stop violating her in every orifice. A brutal depiction of an unrelenting hell of having your body assaulted a thousand different ways with no way to escape. Utterly terrifying.
“It Was the Heat,” Pat Cadigan: I enjoyed the way this story began with the protagonist on a business trip, feeling a certain way about the climate in New Orleans as it relates to women being away from home and their domestic partners. A slow burn that ultimately plunges both the main character and the reader into an inferno before the cool-down at the end.
“Atwater,” Cody Goodfellow: Goodfellow flexes those bizarro author wings in this strange tale about a businessman who finds that he can easily lose himself in a place called ATWATER–home to orgies, battles, murder, and any number of other deranged activities committed by the citizens of this mysterious parallel universe. Just one wrong turn and he will leave the natural law and order of earth and descend into the madness of ATWATER.
“The Transfer,” Edward Bryant: A middle-aged housewife begins to question her sanity when her proximity to her husband begins to instigate a transference or shift in her identity. She wonders if she’s losing herself as she starts to resemble someone else. I enjoyed all the subtext and symbolism.
“Welcome to Mengele’s,” Simon Bestwick: You are not ready for this story. Nobody is ready for this story. It’s best to just walk in blind and let Bestwick blindside your sensibilities in the best possible way. I’ll just tease you with this line, “You don’t always want your fantasies to come true.”
“Black Neurology: A Love Story,” Richard Kadrey: This story was also featured in Nightfire’s Come Join Us by the Fire audio anthology, so you can listen to this dark, creepy tale as well as read it. It has one of the best opening lines: “Using my pull with an acquaintance at the city morgue, I convince the attending medical examiner to let me watch your autopsy.”
“Cuckoo,” Angela Slatter: The first line indicates that this story is told from an unflinching, dangerous POV: a being that can cram itself into any “meat suit” so that it can exist undetected. Motivated by a strong sense of justice and vengeance, our main character takes the reader on a journey into ruined lives and the depths of fear.
“Cinereous,” Livia Llewellyn: You can listen to this story on Pseudopod episode 585, which is where I first encountered it. In a building with no name in Paris, 1799, our protagonist, Olympe, is an assistant in training. She works at the base of the guillotine where she collects blood from decapitated bodies, a macabre employment that has catastrophic hazards. I loved all the world-building and backstory Llewellyn manages in just a few pages.
“The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat,” Cassandra Khaw: Add this story to my all-time favorite werewolf tales. Khaw introduces new aspects to legendary lupine lore. The sub-headings within the story are sharp and effective.
“Natural Skin,” Alyssa Wong: Liin goes to great lengths to convince herself (and others) that her beauty is natural in a world where women can easily fake it. The whole idea of “I woke up like this”: instant, effortless perfection and success. Ultimately only one person sees Liin for who she is and this is determined to be a threat. I loved this story!
“The Lake,” Tananarive Due: This was one of my favorite stories from Due’s collection Ghost Summer. It’s about a teacher relocating and having to adapt to her new surroundings and school. Some of her new students are eager to make her feel comfortable and she takes advantage of this gesture by inviting them to swim at the lake behind her house, predatory on the inside and the outside.
“I’m Always Here,” Richard Christian Matheson: This story feels like an urban legend, almost like it could be grounded in some kind of freaky truth ripped from the pages of Nashville newspapers. An unnatural familial bond between a father and his daughter results in a sensational and peculiar partnership between them. This one will give you the cringies.
“The Look,” Christopher Fowler: A young girl is convinced she has that “it” factor, the “look” to catch the eye of the world’s most infamous clothing designer. The girl and her friend devise a plan to show up at the hotel where the designer is staying so that they can cross paths. The result is not exactly what anyone had hoped for. I could have stayed in this story all day.
“The Old Women Who Were Skinned,” Carmen Maria Machado: This is a dark folktale about old witches who manage to attract the king’s attention from behind a wall. In a cruel twist of fate, one sister can look younger, while the other one succumbs to jealousy. The message Machado infuses into the plight of these sisters is a cautionary tale for all of us who find ourselves tempted to give in to societal standards for age, beauty, and sexual desirability.
“Spores,” Seanan McGuire: Don’t read this if you don’t want to have fever dreams about bread mold, fungi, and evil spores! But if that sounds like a fun time to you, by all means, indulge. I enjoyed the relationship between Megan and her wife as they go through a strange event at home concerning some quickly-rotting fruit. As the end draws near and the tension is high, I found myself not wanting this story to end.
“Sweet Subtleties,” Lisa L. Hannett: I believe I first read this story in 2018’s The Five Senses of Horror, edited by Eric Guignard (it’s a great anthology). It’s about a group of people so enraptured with food that they play games of dress-up and adornment, using food, candy, and other edibles. A dark fetish.
“Elegy for a Suicide,” Caitlín R. Kiernan: Bleak and haunting. This is the first time I’ve read any of Kiernan’s work. I’m impressed and in want of more. I love that this story features the real-world phenomenon of ants in the rainforest invaded by a lethal spore (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) which turns them into, functionally, zombie ants. I’ve long hoped for horror writers to take inspiration from this curiosity.
“Skin City,” Gemma Files: A gritty, dark, noir-style story about a woman who prowls the streets in borrowed skin. I was enraptured by this narrative, with the tapes and the seedy underbelly of the cityscape. Gemma Files had me in a tight grip.
“A True Friend,” Brian Evenson: Succinct. Scary. This one gave me goosebumps!
“What I Found in the Shed,” Tom Johnstone: “Sometimes, dead is better” says Jud in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. I thought of this quote often while reading this story about a boy who discovers a machine in the shed and the way his father has been putting it to use. Very unsettling.
“Fabulous Beasts,” Priya Sharma: A brilliant, visceral, and disgusting horror tale about sacrifice, trauma, resilience, love, and loss.
“Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report,” Michael Blumlein: A clinical, detached surgical report describing the live harvesting of body parts for cloning. After finishing, I sat back and wondered why this was the closer–and then I realized that it’s the most realistic note to end on, leaving a lingering bad taste in the reader’s mouth.
https://tornightfire.com/ellen-datlow...
What is body horror? In the introduction to Body Shocks, her newest anthology, Ellen Datlow writes:
“It might be the most disturbing type of horror because it deals with the intimacy of the body’s integrity being breached by intentional mutilation, accidental infestations by parasites, invasion by alien forces, degeneration, transformation, grotesquery, and pain.”
The table of contents boasts twenty-nine violations of the human body told by a diverse array of talented voices in a variety of genres, skillfully curated and edited by Datlow.
Instead of cherry-picking stories from the book, this anthology can be enjoyed cover-to-cover, back-to-back like a favorite record. Every song is a hit single; no skips. Of special interest are the provocative cover artwork and interior illustrations, which add to this whole aesthetic and mood while you read.
Because Body Shocks delivers so epically on its promise to deliver “extreme tales of body horror,” I wanted to give each story a moment in the limelight:
“The Travellers Stay,” Ray Cluley: The perfect way to kick off a body horror anthology. Think of the worst thing you could find in a motel room and then imagine not being able to leave the offending motel because… well, you’ve changed.
“Toother,” Terry Dowling: One of the scariest stories in the whole lot. Dowling manages to squeeze so much into this short piece about the hunt for a serial killer as it tightens the circle around the perpetrator, thanks to a patient at a psychiatric hospital who’s plagued with visions.
“Painlessness,” Kirstyn McDermott: A woman incapable of feeling physical pain sells her body to the highest bidders. This story is so utterly disturbing; it filled my head with myriad fears. How far will some go to fulfill their basic instincts?
“You Go Where It Takes You,” Nathan Ballingrud: One of my favorite stories from Ballingrud’s collection North American Lake Monsters presents one of the most subtle, gruesome killers I’ve ever read about. Preying on the desperation of a worn-out single mother, the stalker in this story makes a startling discovery.
“A Positive,” Kaaron Warren: Parents are meant to love their children unconditionally, providing them with a nurturing and safe environment in which to grow and thrive. “A Positive” imagines a scenario where the child is raised by other means and meant to serve the parents. It’s effective and repulsive.
Apple | Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
“La beauté sans vertu,” Genevieve Valentine: Strong social commentary about the extreme nature of the couture fashion industry, which is its own brand of body horror. The world-building in this story is constructed in a way that feels all too real, with vibrant imagery lingers in the reader’s mind long after.
“Subsumption,” Lucy Taylor: In the aftermath of some serious environmental warfare, a group of people navigate a hostile landscape in order to survive. A woman discovers new, microscopic life forms that exist for the sole purpose of conquering their hosts. This is a story that felt like the beginning of something epic. I wanted more.
“Spar,” Kij Johnson: This story shook me to my core. After I finished reading it, I could not stop thinking about it. A collision in space leaves a woman stranded with an alien life form that will not stop violating her in every orifice. A brutal depiction of an unrelenting hell of having your body assaulted a thousand different ways with no way to escape. Utterly terrifying.
“It Was the Heat,” Pat Cadigan: I enjoyed the way this story began with the protagonist on a business trip, feeling a certain way about the climate in New Orleans as it relates to women being away from home and their domestic partners. A slow burn that ultimately plunges both the main character and the reader into an inferno before the cool-down at the end.
“Atwater,” Cody Goodfellow: Goodfellow flexes those bizarro author wings in this strange tale about a businessman who finds that he can easily lose himself in a place called ATWATER–home to orgies, battles, murder, and any number of other deranged activities committed by the citizens of this mysterious parallel universe. Just one wrong turn and he will leave the natural law and order of earth and descend into the madness of ATWATER.
“The Transfer,” Edward Bryant: A middle-aged housewife begins to question her sanity when her proximity to her husband begins to instigate a transference or shift in her identity. She wonders if she’s losing herself as she starts to resemble someone else. I enjoyed all the subtext and symbolism.
“Welcome to Mengele’s,” Simon Bestwick: You are not ready for this story. Nobody is ready for this story. It’s best to just walk in blind and let Bestwick blindside your sensibilities in the best possible way. I’ll just tease you with this line, “You don’t always want your fantasies to come true.”
“Black Neurology: A Love Story,” Richard Kadrey: This story was also featured in Nightfire’s Come Join Us by the Fire audio anthology, so you can listen to this dark, creepy tale as well as read it. It has one of the best opening lines: “Using my pull with an acquaintance at the city morgue, I convince the attending medical examiner to let me watch your autopsy.”
“Cuckoo,” Angela Slatter: The first line indicates that this story is told from an unflinching, dangerous POV: a being that can cram itself into any “meat suit” so that it can exist undetected. Motivated by a strong sense of justice and vengeance, our main character takes the reader on a journey into ruined lives and the depths of fear.
“Cinereous,” Livia Llewellyn: You can listen to this story on Pseudopod episode 585, which is where I first encountered it. In a building with no name in Paris, 1799, our protagonist, Olympe, is an assistant in training. She works at the base of the guillotine where she collects blood from decapitated bodies, a macabre employment that has catastrophic hazards. I loved all the world-building and backstory Llewellyn manages in just a few pages.
“The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat,” Cassandra Khaw: Add this story to my all-time favorite werewolf tales. Khaw introduces new aspects to legendary lupine lore. The sub-headings within the story are sharp and effective.
“Natural Skin,” Alyssa Wong: Liin goes to great lengths to convince herself (and others) that her beauty is natural in a world where women can easily fake it. The whole idea of “I woke up like this”: instant, effortless perfection and success. Ultimately only one person sees Liin for who she is and this is determined to be a threat. I loved this story!
“The Lake,” Tananarive Due: This was one of my favorite stories from Due’s collection Ghost Summer. It’s about a teacher relocating and having to adapt to her new surroundings and school. Some of her new students are eager to make her feel comfortable and she takes advantage of this gesture by inviting them to swim at the lake behind her house, predatory on the inside and the outside.
“I’m Always Here,” Richard Christian Matheson: This story feels like an urban legend, almost like it could be grounded in some kind of freaky truth ripped from the pages of Nashville newspapers. An unnatural familial bond between a father and his daughter results in a sensational and peculiar partnership between them. This one will give you the cringies.
“The Look,” Christopher Fowler: A young girl is convinced she has that “it” factor, the “look” to catch the eye of the world’s most infamous clothing designer. The girl and her friend devise a plan to show up at the hotel where the designer is staying so that they can cross paths. The result is not exactly what anyone had hoped for. I could have stayed in this story all day.
“The Old Women Who Were Skinned,” Carmen Maria Machado: This is a dark folktale about old witches who manage to attract the king’s attention from behind a wall. In a cruel twist of fate, one sister can look younger, while the other one succumbs to jealousy. The message Machado infuses into the plight of these sisters is a cautionary tale for all of us who find ourselves tempted to give in to societal standards for age, beauty, and sexual desirability.
“Spores,” Seanan McGuire: Don’t read this if you don’t want to have fever dreams about bread mold, fungi, and evil spores! But if that sounds like a fun time to you, by all means, indulge. I enjoyed the relationship between Megan and her wife as they go through a strange event at home concerning some quickly-rotting fruit. As the end draws near and the tension is high, I found myself not wanting this story to end.
“Sweet Subtleties,” Lisa L. Hannett: I believe I first read this story in 2018’s The Five Senses of Horror, edited by Eric Guignard (it’s a great anthology). It’s about a group of people so enraptured with food that they play games of dress-up and adornment, using food, candy, and other edibles. A dark fetish.
“Elegy for a Suicide,” Caitlín R. Kiernan: Bleak and haunting. This is the first time I’ve read any of Kiernan’s work. I’m impressed and in want of more. I love that this story features the real-world phenomenon of ants in the rainforest invaded by a lethal spore (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) which turns them into, functionally, zombie ants. I’ve long hoped for horror writers to take inspiration from this curiosity.
“Skin City,” Gemma Files: A gritty, dark, noir-style story about a woman who prowls the streets in borrowed skin. I was enraptured by this narrative, with the tapes and the seedy underbelly of the cityscape. Gemma Files had me in a tight grip.
“A True Friend,” Brian Evenson: Succinct. Scary. This one gave me goosebumps!
“What I Found in the Shed,” Tom Johnstone: “Sometimes, dead is better” says Jud in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. I thought of this quote often while reading this story about a boy who discovers a machine in the shed and the way his father has been putting it to use. Very unsettling.
“Fabulous Beasts,” Priya Sharma: A brilliant, visceral, and disgusting horror tale about sacrifice, trauma, resilience, love, and loss.
“Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report,” Michael Blumlein: A clinical, detached surgical report describing the live harvesting of body parts for cloning. After finishing, I sat back and wondered why this was the closer–and then I realized that it’s the most realistic note to end on, leaving a lingering bad taste in the reader’s mouth.
August 3, 2021
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
This is a pretty long short story collection, so let's see if reviewing the stories as I read them is more effective than trying to remember all of them after I finish the book.
The Travellers Stay by Ray Cluley- The Metamorphosis if Kafka wasn't all that concerned with what happened to Gregor after he turned into a bug. This was hard to like simply because none of the characters are developed enough to care about.
Toother by Terry Dowling- A doctor and an investigator, assisted by a psychic who hears voices, investigate a series of murders where victims were bitten to death and had their teeth stolen. Super good and creepy. I wanted it to be longer; heck, I want a whole series following these characters.
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott- A young woman finds that her new neighbor has a very unusual way of making money. She lets men pay her to hurt her, because sometimes the only distraction from pain is more pain.
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud- A young single mother working as a waitress meets a man at the diner and takes him home. The man tells her a strange story where he dreamed of a man whose face he never saw, and then he stole that guys car, but not in a dream. He really stole the guy's car, and he finds something terrible in the trunk. Hard to like this one, as it's another story with no likable characters. Very bleak.
A Positive by Kaaron Warren- A man reminisces about why he put his elderly father in a home. Turns out, his parents had him to be a blood donor for his father, and he spent his life being drained of blood to keep his father young. As he grows older and more independent, he starts to enjoy tormenting his father. I mean, that seems like a pretty predictable outcome to me.
La Beauté sans verte by Genevieve Valentine- Due to what is probably just a misprint in my galley, this story is missing. Luckily, I have already read it at Tor.com. It's a lovely little horror story about fashion and beauty standards, and I recommend it.
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor- A couple leave their survival bunker to find the girl's father. They decide to stick to the woods, thinking it will be safer than meeting other people. They are very wrong. Some really well described transformation horror going on here, but this feels more like a fragment than a full story.
Spar by Kij Johnson- This is the most disturbing story so far. A woman who I don't think is ever named survives either an attack or accident on a starship and is picked up by an alien life pod. The alien penetrates all of her orifices and she does the same to the alien, which is completely inhuman and only communicates by fucking her, if what they're doing can even be classified as sex. She doesn't know if the alien knows she's a person, or if the alien is either. This is exactly body horror.
It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan- A working wife and mother goes to a business conference in New Orleans. The heat gets to her, in multiple ways. This didn't really feel like horror to me, maybe because the heat creature is very lightly described. Not bad for an atmospheric character piece.
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow- An ordinary man gets lost one day while driving in L.A. He finds the nightmare town of Atwater, where people can be transformed into living bee hives, and doctors with cages full of shadows instead of heads do terrible experiments. He escapes, at least temporarily, but that means a lot less than you'd think. The descriptions in this one are visceral and terrible. This is very effective horror.
The Transfer by Edward Bryant- A middle aged woman on vacation with her husband thinks back over her life. She's always felt like she reflected people who knew her back to themselves. She becomes more like her partners the longer they are together. People remark how much she and her husband resemble each other. Since her husband is a kind, gentle man, this isn't a problem. But now something horrible has happened to her husband, and her transference abilities might save her life. Whether she survives or not, there's going to be a lot of damage. This is a slow build, and I wanted to see what happened next.
Welcome to Mengele’s by Simon Bestwick- A man is offered something much too good to be true, in this case an impossible sexual fantasy. His low-life buddy takes him to the most exclusive brothel ever, where any fantasy, no matter how weird or depraved can be made reality. The catch of course is that no brothel called Mengele's is going to be safe, sane, and consensual. This one is a little glib, a little shallow, but plenty disturbing.
Black Neurology: A Love Story by Richard Kadrey- The speaker has paid to watch his beloved's autopsy. But his love has very strange anatomy, with parts that are clearly inanimate. This isn't really a proper story. It's mostly just a little horror sketch, a snapshot of weird.
Cuckoo by Angela Slatter- A demon, or perhaps fallen angel, searches for a way to make a child murderer fear them. They start by possessing the dead body of his most recent victim, but when Mr. Timmons expresses no fear at seeing his victim walking around, the demon must resort to more extreme measures. Disturbing.
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn- I love Livia Llewellyn. If you like strong horror with an intense focus on bodies and eroticism you should definitely check out her work. This one follows Olympe, an assistant at a terrifying laboratory in late 18th century France. An experiment gets out of hand, and Olympe is poised to be the carrier for an apocalyptic plague.
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw- This one is a little hard to follow. Best as I can tell, a werewolf's friend asks her not to kill a specific woman who has wronged him, and the werewolf, who seems to really hate humanity in general, decides to ignore him. The plot is a little lacking, but the details are suitably gruesome.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong- In a cyberpunk, body-mod future Toronto, a young woman makes her way to a black market surgeon, to offer her a deal. This is pretty good, if a touch undeveloped. One thing I'm noticing is the ratio of women authors and characters in these stories is quite high. Maybe I should have anticipated that, because certainly women know what's it like to understand the body as a sight of horror and trauma, more so than men.
The Lake by Tananarive Due- A woman takes a teaching position in a small Florida town, and doesn't get the memo that you aren't supposed to swim in the local lakes. She's remarkably sanguine about the transformation that she begins to experience. There's also a bit of weird characterization, where she seems to be sexually interested in her male teenage students, and it's implied that she was friends with Mary Kay Letourneau.
I’m Always Here by Richard Christian Matheson- This is pretty slight. A music journalist follows a country twosome (called Baby and Daddy, yuck), who have undergone a procedure to have Baby surgically attached to Daddy so her body can keep him alive. This one stretches the bonds of believability a little too much for me.
The Look by Christopher Fowler- A young woman and her friend try to arrange a meeting with a fashion designer that they're both obsessed with. This does not go to plan, and they discover that the fashion world has some dark and gruesome secrets. This isn't bad, but the idea seems a little cliché. Yeah, we know the fashion industry is gross, but it doesn't require people having tattoos on their eyeballs and wires threaded through their faces to be gross.
The Old Women Who Were Skinned by Carmen Maria Machado- A weird little fairytale about a pair of elderly sisters and their attempts to become young again.
Spores by Seanan McGuire- A story of genetic engineering gone very wrong. When a woman throws away a bowl of fruit that grew mold unusually quickly, she thinks that some bleach will be enough to get everything clean. She is very wrong. Great characterization in a short story.
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett- I'm strongly reminded of Catherynne Valente's "A Delicate Architecture," which, like this one, features an edible woman made out of candy. I think that story is better, but this one is appropriately visceral.
Elegy For a Suicide by Caitlín R. Kiernan- A young woman and her girlfriend discover a weird, fleshy hole in the ground. The girlfriend puts her arm in it, and pulls out an old straight razor. Soon, she begins to show signs of fungal infection. Is it just me, or is fungus a real go-to when it comes to body horror?
Skin City by Gemma Files- A man receives a tape from an old friend, reminding him of the horrible thing that happened when they were young, and confessing that she needs help. She's become a creature that steals the skins from her victims, and she knows she cannot stop herself. This isn't bad, but I wanted to know more about how the change was triggered.
A True Friend by Brian Evenson- A tiny story featuring Victorian posthumous photography and being buried alive. Creepy, but not much meat on the bone.
What I Found in the Shed by Tom Johnstone- After the death of his baby sister, a kid and his dad find a weird machine in the shed that lets you make living copies of whatever you have a picture of. There is no way for this to work out well.
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma- Probably my favorite story in this collection. It's a story about generational trauma and embracing your nature. With snakes. Beautiful and dark.
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein- This story... I am doing my best to stop worrying this story over and over in my brain because it is deeply, extremely dark and upsetting. So much so that I can't actually recommend it. If you have a particular taste for the gruesome and want to read a graphically described vivisection, this is for you.
This is a really different and unique collection, suitable for those who at the very least don't mind reading about gore and bodily violation. It's an anthology, so not everything is great, but there's a lot of surprisingly sharp and effective writing.
This is a pretty long short story collection, so let's see if reviewing the stories as I read them is more effective than trying to remember all of them after I finish the book.
The Travellers Stay by Ray Cluley- The Metamorphosis if Kafka wasn't all that concerned with what happened to Gregor after he turned into a bug. This was hard to like simply because none of the characters are developed enough to care about.
Toother by Terry Dowling- A doctor and an investigator, assisted by a psychic who hears voices, investigate a series of murders where victims were bitten to death and had their teeth stolen. Super good and creepy. I wanted it to be longer; heck, I want a whole series following these characters.
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott- A young woman finds that her new neighbor has a very unusual way of making money. She lets men pay her to hurt her, because sometimes the only distraction from pain is more pain.
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud- A young single mother working as a waitress meets a man at the diner and takes him home. The man tells her a strange story where he dreamed of a man whose face he never saw, and then he stole that guys car, but not in a dream. He really stole the guy's car, and he finds something terrible in the trunk. Hard to like this one, as it's another story with no likable characters. Very bleak.
A Positive by Kaaron Warren- A man reminisces about why he put his elderly father in a home. Turns out, his parents had him to be a blood donor for his father, and he spent his life being drained of blood to keep his father young. As he grows older and more independent, he starts to enjoy tormenting his father. I mean, that seems like a pretty predictable outcome to me.
La Beauté sans verte by Genevieve Valentine- Due to what is probably just a misprint in my galley, this story is missing. Luckily, I have already read it at Tor.com. It's a lovely little horror story about fashion and beauty standards, and I recommend it.
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor- A couple leave their survival bunker to find the girl's father. They decide to stick to the woods, thinking it will be safer than meeting other people. They are very wrong. Some really well described transformation horror going on here, but this feels more like a fragment than a full story.
Spar by Kij Johnson- This is the most disturbing story so far. A woman who I don't think is ever named survives either an attack or accident on a starship and is picked up by an alien life pod. The alien penetrates all of her orifices and she does the same to the alien, which is completely inhuman and only communicates by fucking her, if what they're doing can even be classified as sex. She doesn't know if the alien knows she's a person, or if the alien is either. This is exactly body horror.
It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan- A working wife and mother goes to a business conference in New Orleans. The heat gets to her, in multiple ways. This didn't really feel like horror to me, maybe because the heat creature is very lightly described. Not bad for an atmospheric character piece.
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow- An ordinary man gets lost one day while driving in L.A. He finds the nightmare town of Atwater, where people can be transformed into living bee hives, and doctors with cages full of shadows instead of heads do terrible experiments. He escapes, at least temporarily, but that means a lot less than you'd think. The descriptions in this one are visceral and terrible. This is very effective horror.
The Transfer by Edward Bryant- A middle aged woman on vacation with her husband thinks back over her life. She's always felt like she reflected people who knew her back to themselves. She becomes more like her partners the longer they are together. People remark how much she and her husband resemble each other. Since her husband is a kind, gentle man, this isn't a problem. But now something horrible has happened to her husband, and her transference abilities might save her life. Whether she survives or not, there's going to be a lot of damage. This is a slow build, and I wanted to see what happened next.
Welcome to Mengele’s by Simon Bestwick- A man is offered something much too good to be true, in this case an impossible sexual fantasy. His low-life buddy takes him to the most exclusive brothel ever, where any fantasy, no matter how weird or depraved can be made reality. The catch of course is that no brothel called Mengele's is going to be safe, sane, and consensual. This one is a little glib, a little shallow, but plenty disturbing.
Black Neurology: A Love Story by Richard Kadrey- The speaker has paid to watch his beloved's autopsy. But his love has very strange anatomy, with parts that are clearly inanimate. This isn't really a proper story. It's mostly just a little horror sketch, a snapshot of weird.
Cuckoo by Angela Slatter- A demon, or perhaps fallen angel, searches for a way to make a child murderer fear them. They start by possessing the dead body of his most recent victim, but when Mr. Timmons expresses no fear at seeing his victim walking around, the demon must resort to more extreme measures. Disturbing.
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn- I love Livia Llewellyn. If you like strong horror with an intense focus on bodies and eroticism you should definitely check out her work. This one follows Olympe, an assistant at a terrifying laboratory in late 18th century France. An experiment gets out of hand, and Olympe is poised to be the carrier for an apocalyptic plague.
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw- This one is a little hard to follow. Best as I can tell, a werewolf's friend asks her not to kill a specific woman who has wronged him, and the werewolf, who seems to really hate humanity in general, decides to ignore him. The plot is a little lacking, but the details are suitably gruesome.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong- In a cyberpunk, body-mod future Toronto, a young woman makes her way to a black market surgeon, to offer her a deal. This is pretty good, if a touch undeveloped. One thing I'm noticing is the ratio of women authors and characters in these stories is quite high. Maybe I should have anticipated that, because certainly women know what's it like to understand the body as a sight of horror and trauma, more so than men.
The Lake by Tananarive Due- A woman takes a teaching position in a small Florida town, and doesn't get the memo that you aren't supposed to swim in the local lakes. She's remarkably sanguine about the transformation that she begins to experience. There's also a bit of weird characterization, where she seems to be sexually interested in her male teenage students, and it's implied that she was friends with Mary Kay Letourneau.
I’m Always Here by Richard Christian Matheson- This is pretty slight. A music journalist follows a country twosome (called Baby and Daddy, yuck), who have undergone a procedure to have Baby surgically attached to Daddy so her body can keep him alive. This one stretches the bonds of believability a little too much for me.
The Look by Christopher Fowler- A young woman and her friend try to arrange a meeting with a fashion designer that they're both obsessed with. This does not go to plan, and they discover that the fashion world has some dark and gruesome secrets. This isn't bad, but the idea seems a little cliché. Yeah, we know the fashion industry is gross, but it doesn't require people having tattoos on their eyeballs and wires threaded through their faces to be gross.
The Old Women Who Were Skinned by Carmen Maria Machado- A weird little fairytale about a pair of elderly sisters and their attempts to become young again.
Spores by Seanan McGuire- A story of genetic engineering gone very wrong. When a woman throws away a bowl of fruit that grew mold unusually quickly, she thinks that some bleach will be enough to get everything clean. She is very wrong. Great characterization in a short story.
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett- I'm strongly reminded of Catherynne Valente's "A Delicate Architecture," which, like this one, features an edible woman made out of candy. I think that story is better, but this one is appropriately visceral.
Elegy For a Suicide by Caitlín R. Kiernan- A young woman and her girlfriend discover a weird, fleshy hole in the ground. The girlfriend puts her arm in it, and pulls out an old straight razor. Soon, she begins to show signs of fungal infection. Is it just me, or is fungus a real go-to when it comes to body horror?
Skin City by Gemma Files- A man receives a tape from an old friend, reminding him of the horrible thing that happened when they were young, and confessing that she needs help. She's become a creature that steals the skins from her victims, and she knows she cannot stop herself. This isn't bad, but I wanted to know more about how the change was triggered.
A True Friend by Brian Evenson- A tiny story featuring Victorian posthumous photography and being buried alive. Creepy, but not much meat on the bone.
What I Found in the Shed by Tom Johnstone- After the death of his baby sister, a kid and his dad find a weird machine in the shed that lets you make living copies of whatever you have a picture of. There is no way for this to work out well.
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma- Probably my favorite story in this collection. It's a story about generational trauma and embracing your nature. With snakes. Beautiful and dark.
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein- This story... I am doing my best to stop worrying this story over and over in my brain because it is deeply, extremely dark and upsetting. So much so that I can't actually recommend it. If you have a particular taste for the gruesome and want to read a graphically described vivisection, this is for you.
This is a really different and unique collection, suitable for those who at the very least don't mind reading about gore and bodily violation. It's an anthology, so not everything is great, but there's a lot of surprisingly sharp and effective writing.
February 28, 2022
Surely Body Shocks is a mixed bag – that is a given for any anthology. But it is also a given that in any Datlow anthology there will be a great deal of exceptional stories and most importantly new authors to discover. Here are the stories which stood out for me and authors I'll be keeping an eye on in the future;
“Painlessness” by Kirstyn McDermott features one of the most remarkable leads I have recently read about; Mara. Not being able to feel physical pain, she offers her body to men who like to inflict pain as a way to earn her bread, but maybe this one time she took more on her plate than she is able to handle. This is an impressing piece of writing that explores appearances and what we deem acceptable and has a nice surprise ending.
Since my mother, my niece and I have the same rare blood type, we sometimes warn each other jokingly not to travel too far for too long just in case any of us needs a blood transfusion. Kaaron Warren’s “A Positive” is the story of a poor boy who was given birth for exactly that reason of being a blood bank for his terminally sick father. I love the way this story goes in the end, starting pure body horror but gradually and recklessly tackling more philosophical questions about life, family ties, what we owe to our parents and how they can be paid back.
I am steadily discovering and greatly savoring the wonderful writings of Pat Cadigan through Datlow anthologies. I don’t know how to exactly describe it but I feel so at home reading her, with her relatable and slightly funny female characters so enjoyable! In “It Was the Heat” we follow a woman who travels to New Orleans for business purposes and ends in a sexual escapade with an interesting partner.
For many years I have been and today I still am waiting for Cody Goodfellow’s literary breakthrough, but nothing ever happens in that regard. It’s a puzzle to me how a writer as talented, smart and original as him isn’t a household name yet, any publishers listening in? And “Atwater” is one of the best stories I’ve read in any anthology to this day. We follow a guy who, each time when he gets lost, ends up in Atwater, an extremely psychedelic, nightmarish-dreamy parallel universe/dreamverse place. Has a surprise ending too.
Carmen Maria Machado does it again in “The Old Women Who Were Skinned”! In this superb modern fairy tale with the gloom and doom of Hans Christian Andersen, Machado asserts her usual feminist touch into body horror. The titular two old sisters learn the hard way that a young skin isn’t everything in life.
“A True Friend” by Brian Evenson is a short, sweet and shocking piece of writing on betrayal, cruelty, control over your body and it is exquisite. But we already know that because everything Evenson writes is.
A little longer than the other stories in this anthology, Priya Sharma’s “Fabulous Beasts” handles body horror in a delicate way, a way especially women authors like McDermott and Tananarive Due also follow here, a way that sees women embracing the transformation and monstrification of their bodies in order to escape patriarchal violence and oppression. Amazing!
The final story of the collection, “Tissue Ablation and Various Regeneration: A Case Report” by practicing doctor and author Michael Blumlein, is a legendary pillar of body horror from 1986 and I’m really glad it has been re-published here where it belongs. The story is written in a highly medical language and describes a surgery. It doesn’t take the reader long to realize the patient is Ronald Reagan and the team of doctors operating on him all bear the names of political activists who in their time have fought on the fronts of left-wing causes; anti-apartheid, anti-colonialism or Marxism. What is the surgery about? That’s for you to discover and it will surely give you a chuckle but also the chills. Chuckle chills if you like.
I have preferred and focused on the milder writings here but among the unmentioned stories there are also some hardcore splatter works, if that’s what you like: in “Welcome to Mengele’s” Simon Bestwick describes a brothel where anything’s allowed and the sex workers can even be surgically modified according to your tastes; Alyssa Wong imagines a world you can sell skin or organs and dreadfully not only your own skin and organs; a country-folk duo who love and depend on each other so much they most literally become inseparable in Matheson's “I’m Always Here”; Nathan Ballingrud and his obsession with severed faces; Kij Johnson telling us about sex with aliens and finally two stories about the fashion industry’s fixation on certain body types and cruel modification possibilities to attain those body types.
The bottom line is that Body Shocks has something for each taste and it is yet another grant anthology by Meister Datlow – definitely recommended for aficionados!
“Painlessness” by Kirstyn McDermott features one of the most remarkable leads I have recently read about; Mara. Not being able to feel physical pain, she offers her body to men who like to inflict pain as a way to earn her bread, but maybe this one time she took more on her plate than she is able to handle. This is an impressing piece of writing that explores appearances and what we deem acceptable and has a nice surprise ending.
Since my mother, my niece and I have the same rare blood type, we sometimes warn each other jokingly not to travel too far for too long just in case any of us needs a blood transfusion. Kaaron Warren’s “A Positive” is the story of a poor boy who was given birth for exactly that reason of being a blood bank for his terminally sick father. I love the way this story goes in the end, starting pure body horror but gradually and recklessly tackling more philosophical questions about life, family ties, what we owe to our parents and how they can be paid back.
I am steadily discovering and greatly savoring the wonderful writings of Pat Cadigan through Datlow anthologies. I don’t know how to exactly describe it but I feel so at home reading her, with her relatable and slightly funny female characters so enjoyable! In “It Was the Heat” we follow a woman who travels to New Orleans for business purposes and ends in a sexual escapade with an interesting partner.
For many years I have been and today I still am waiting for Cody Goodfellow’s literary breakthrough, but nothing ever happens in that regard. It’s a puzzle to me how a writer as talented, smart and original as him isn’t a household name yet, any publishers listening in? And “Atwater” is one of the best stories I’ve read in any anthology to this day. We follow a guy who, each time when he gets lost, ends up in Atwater, an extremely psychedelic, nightmarish-dreamy parallel universe/dreamverse place. Has a surprise ending too.
Carmen Maria Machado does it again in “The Old Women Who Were Skinned”! In this superb modern fairy tale with the gloom and doom of Hans Christian Andersen, Machado asserts her usual feminist touch into body horror. The titular two old sisters learn the hard way that a young skin isn’t everything in life.
“A True Friend” by Brian Evenson is a short, sweet and shocking piece of writing on betrayal, cruelty, control over your body and it is exquisite. But we already know that because everything Evenson writes is.
A little longer than the other stories in this anthology, Priya Sharma’s “Fabulous Beasts” handles body horror in a delicate way, a way especially women authors like McDermott and Tananarive Due also follow here, a way that sees women embracing the transformation and monstrification of their bodies in order to escape patriarchal violence and oppression. Amazing!
The final story of the collection, “Tissue Ablation and Various Regeneration: A Case Report” by practicing doctor and author Michael Blumlein, is a legendary pillar of body horror from 1986 and I’m really glad it has been re-published here where it belongs. The story is written in a highly medical language and describes a surgery. It doesn’t take the reader long to realize the patient is Ronald Reagan and the team of doctors operating on him all bear the names of political activists who in their time have fought on the fronts of left-wing causes; anti-apartheid, anti-colonialism or Marxism. What is the surgery about? That’s for you to discover and it will surely give you a chuckle but also the chills. Chuckle chills if you like.
I have preferred and focused on the milder writings here but among the unmentioned stories there are also some hardcore splatter works, if that’s what you like: in “Welcome to Mengele’s” Simon Bestwick describes a brothel where anything’s allowed and the sex workers can even be surgically modified according to your tastes; Alyssa Wong imagines a world you can sell skin or organs and dreadfully not only your own skin and organs; a country-folk duo who love and depend on each other so much they most literally become inseparable in Matheson's “I’m Always Here”; Nathan Ballingrud and his obsession with severed faces; Kij Johnson telling us about sex with aliens and finally two stories about the fashion industry’s fixation on certain body types and cruel modification possibilities to attain those body types.
The bottom line is that Body Shocks has something for each taste and it is yet another grant anthology by Meister Datlow – definitely recommended for aficionados!
December 6, 2023
We have demonstrated, I believe, the viability of extensive tissue ablation and its value in providing substrate for inductive and variant mitotics. Although it is an arduous undertaking, I believe it holds promise for selected patients in the future.
September 19, 2023
Are you a fan of body horror?
What is body horror?
Body Shock” edited by Ellen Datlow, is a collection of 29 stories that will rattle you to the core.
The introduction defines body horror for the reader.
"It might be the most disturbing type of horror because it deals with the intimacy of the body's integrity being breached by intentional mutilation, accidental infestations by parasites, invasion by alien forces, degeneration, transformation, grotesquery, and pain."
These stories unfold slowly and get more grotesque as the story progresses. It is perfect pacing.
I loved all the stores, which is quite rare for me. These stories unfold slowly, introduce grotesque elements, and end in the most unimaginable ways. They have all left a lasting impression. Two stuck with me.
The collection opens well with The Travelers Stay, by Ray Cluley, a tale that takes finds a "roach motel."
Another one that sticks out is “The Lake” by Tananarive Due, which deals with a professor who swims in troubled waters and begins to undergo a strange metamorphosis.
My TBR list after reading this collection because I added books from several of these authors.
“Body Shocks” is not for the faint of heart. The collection is a must-read for body horror fans
What is body horror?
Body Shock” edited by Ellen Datlow, is a collection of 29 stories that will rattle you to the core.
The introduction defines body horror for the reader.
"It might be the most disturbing type of horror because it deals with the intimacy of the body's integrity being breached by intentional mutilation, accidental infestations by parasites, invasion by alien forces, degeneration, transformation, grotesquery, and pain."
These stories unfold slowly and get more grotesque as the story progresses. It is perfect pacing.
I loved all the stores, which is quite rare for me. These stories unfold slowly, introduce grotesque elements, and end in the most unimaginable ways. They have all left a lasting impression. Two stuck with me.
The collection opens well with The Travelers Stay, by Ray Cluley, a tale that takes finds a "roach motel."
Another one that sticks out is “The Lake” by Tananarive Due, which deals with a professor who swims in troubled waters and begins to undergo a strange metamorphosis.
My TBR list after reading this collection because I added books from several of these authors.
“Body Shocks” is not for the faint of heart. The collection is a must-read for body horror fans
March 4, 2022
The Travellers Stay by Ray Cluley blatantly takes Kafka's The Metamorphosis into a seedy motel and applies it to an entire family, but this story has little depth or charctarization, and certainly none of the philosophical aspects of the novel it is cribbing from. It is a competent but underwhelming tale.
Toother by Terry Dowling is a step up but didn't grip me as much as it might other readers given my distaste for real life "psychic" slueths who are nothing but con-arists and self-deluded perayors of nonsense. I have little patience for stories that prop up the kinds of bullshit narratives that real scammers use to advance themselves. The bones of the story are good, but this one is just not for me.
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott - now this is more like it. What a great fucking story that manages to take a couple turns I didn't quite see coming. It simutaneously reveals something of the truth without providing a full explanation, but also without being excessively coy. I have several ideas of what Mara could be, any of which all fit the description. This one is just the right level of gory and brutal mixed with tightly woven characterization and nuanced interactions. My only complaint is the simplistic outsider portrayal of the goth scene, a portrayal that fails to acknowledge the rich variation of the scene's true nature, or at least the one I was involved in many years ago. I like the reference to the The Cure even if it is for one of their weaker, later albums.
Welcome To Mengele's by Simon Bestwick is exceptionally gruesome. Bestwick does an amazing job of presenting a hellish portrayal of extreme of fantasies fullfilled by coercion and impossibly advanced and torturous surgery.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong impressed me with a twisted look at obsession with beauty and a descent into betrayal.
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett is artsy language play that doesn't really belong in this book at all, at least for my sense of horror. As an exercise in substituting descriptions of nougat, buttercream, and custard in the place of blood, guts, and viscera it is effective and creative.
Caitlin R. Kiernan's lame story did nothing to shift my generally low opinion of her writing.
Fortunately the collection ended on a high note with Tissue Ablation And Variant Regenration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein which perfectly blended surgical and medical jargon with a conecpt around near complete tissue and organ donation. Part of the brilliance of this story is that it's left unclear whether the donor has done this voluntarily and to what degree. The ending of the one actually left me thinking holy shit, there are people I've argued with who would quite possibly support this kind of action.
Overall, another good anthology from the ever-reliable Ellen Datlow.
Toother by Terry Dowling is a step up but didn't grip me as much as it might other readers given my distaste for real life "psychic" slueths who are nothing but con-arists and self-deluded perayors of nonsense. I have little patience for stories that prop up the kinds of bullshit narratives that real scammers use to advance themselves. The bones of the story are good, but this one is just not for me.
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott - now this is more like it. What a great fucking story that manages to take a couple turns I didn't quite see coming. It simutaneously reveals something of the truth without providing a full explanation, but also without being excessively coy. I have several ideas of what Mara could be, any of which all fit the description. This one is just the right level of gory and brutal mixed with tightly woven characterization and nuanced interactions. My only complaint is the simplistic outsider portrayal of the goth scene, a portrayal that fails to acknowledge the rich variation of the scene's true nature, or at least the one I was involved in many years ago. I like the reference to the The Cure even if it is for one of their weaker, later albums.
Welcome To Mengele's by Simon Bestwick is exceptionally gruesome. Bestwick does an amazing job of presenting a hellish portrayal of extreme of fantasies fullfilled by coercion and impossibly advanced and torturous surgery.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong impressed me with a twisted look at obsession with beauty and a descent into betrayal.
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett is artsy language play that doesn't really belong in this book at all, at least for my sense of horror. As an exercise in substituting descriptions of nougat, buttercream, and custard in the place of blood, guts, and viscera it is effective and creative.
Caitlin R. Kiernan's lame story did nothing to shift my generally low opinion of her writing.
Fortunately the collection ended on a high note with Tissue Ablation And Variant Regenration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein which perfectly blended surgical and medical jargon with a conecpt around near complete tissue and organ donation. Part of the brilliance of this story is that it's left unclear whether the donor has done this voluntarily and to what degree. The ending of the one actually left me thinking holy shit, there are people I've argued with who would quite possibly support this kind of action.
Overall, another good anthology from the ever-reliable Ellen Datlow.
October 21, 2024
this took a really long time for me to get through. some stories were so good and others i just didn’t like! which is normal for any short story collection, but i had high expectations for this specific genre. it was okay overall
December 22, 2021
3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Short story collections are always hard to rate. They usually contain some studs, a few duds and a bunch of other stories that are average. “Body Shocks” follows this trend with a few exceptions that ultimately brought up the overall rating. Instead of trying to review the book in its entirety, I’ll point out a few of the stories I highly enjoyed.
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow: a bat-shit crazy mix of silent hill and the evil within video game series. We follow a man who gets lost while driving in L.A and ends up in a secluded section of town where his worst nightmares come to life
The Lake by Tananarive Due: a student/teacher relationship goes awry when the teacher begins to get inhuman cravings
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett: a beautifully haunting story about the price of perfection and the treatment of female beauty told through the lens of a famous chef’s “masterpiece”. I was in awe at the writing in this one, definitely one I’ll come back to in the future
A True Friend by Brian Evenson: Short, shocking and scary as hell. This story is a testament to the power of concise fiction. Evenson is a wordsmith for sure.
Overall this collection was pretty damn good. It grossed me out at times and had me on the verge of tears during others. I wish some of the stories went a bit further but I digress. I would recommend this one to fans of the weird and unexplained.
Short story collections are always hard to rate. They usually contain some studs, a few duds and a bunch of other stories that are average. “Body Shocks” follows this trend with a few exceptions that ultimately brought up the overall rating. Instead of trying to review the book in its entirety, I’ll point out a few of the stories I highly enjoyed.
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow: a bat-shit crazy mix of silent hill and the evil within video game series. We follow a man who gets lost while driving in L.A and ends up in a secluded section of town where his worst nightmares come to life
The Lake by Tananarive Due: a student/teacher relationship goes awry when the teacher begins to get inhuman cravings
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett: a beautifully haunting story about the price of perfection and the treatment of female beauty told through the lens of a famous chef’s “masterpiece”. I was in awe at the writing in this one, definitely one I’ll come back to in the future
A True Friend by Brian Evenson: Short, shocking and scary as hell. This story is a testament to the power of concise fiction. Evenson is a wordsmith for sure.
Overall this collection was pretty damn good. It grossed me out at times and had me on the verge of tears during others. I wish some of the stories went a bit further but I digress. I would recommend this one to fans of the weird and unexplained.
February 8, 2024
3.5 stars?? i think?
so, this was....a hell of a collection? i found it extremely hit or miss in the beginning, but it steadily improved and i really enjoyed the back half of it, although it took me a long time to get through as some of the stories were so nauseating hahaha. even the stories that i didn't enjoy will definitely be sticking with me for a long time and i find myself thinking about them again and again, so i will say it was 100% successful as a horror collection meant to be gruesome. and for all the hit or miss, there is some genuinely fantastic stuff in here! would recommend if you enjoy extreme horror and don't mind sitting through some average stories to get to the gems - would NOT recommend if you are in any way sensitive to gore or sexual assault. one of my major gripes with the collection was how often sexual assault was used as a plot device, often in ways that felt unnecessary or for shock value. possibly understandable in a collection focused on body horror and being disconnected from/having something else take over your body, but it still felt unnecessary to me. overall though i enjoyed it and i found quite a few new authors whose other work i will be exploring, so i would call that a success!
individual ratings:
the travelers stay by ray cluley - 2/5
toother by terry dowling - 4/5
painlessness by kirstyn mcdermott - 3/5
you go where it takes you by nathan ballingrud - 3.5/5
a positive by kaaron warren - 1.5/5
la beaute sans vertu by genevieve valentine - 5/5
subsumption by lucy taylor - 4/5
spar by kij johnson - 5/5
it was the heat by pat cadigan - 3/5
atwater by cody goodfellow - 1/5
the transfer by edward bryant - 3/5
welcome to mengele's by simon bestwick - 4/5
black neurology: a love story by richard kadrey - 3/5
cuckoo by angela slatter - 4/5
cinereous by livia llewellyn - 3/5
the truth that lies under skin and meat by cassandra khaw - 4/5
natural skin by alyssa wong - 5/5
the lake by tananarive due - 4.5/5
i'm always here by richard christian matheson - 3.5/5
the look by christopher fowler - 3/5
the old women who were skinned by carmen maria machado - 3.5/5
spores by seanan mcguire - 4/5
sweet subtleties by lisa l. hannett - 2.5/5
elegy for a suicide by caitlin r. kiernan - 4.5/5
skin city by gemma files - 4/5
a true friend by brian evenson - 5/5
what i found in the shed by tom johnstone - 3/5
fabulous beasts by priya sharma - 4/5
tissue ablation and variant regeneration: a case report by michael blumlein - 5/5
so, this was....a hell of a collection? i found it extremely hit or miss in the beginning, but it steadily improved and i really enjoyed the back half of it, although it took me a long time to get through as some of the stories were so nauseating hahaha. even the stories that i didn't enjoy will definitely be sticking with me for a long time and i find myself thinking about them again and again, so i will say it was 100% successful as a horror collection meant to be gruesome. and for all the hit or miss, there is some genuinely fantastic stuff in here! would recommend if you enjoy extreme horror and don't mind sitting through some average stories to get to the gems - would NOT recommend if you are in any way sensitive to gore or sexual assault. one of my major gripes with the collection was how often sexual assault was used as a plot device, often in ways that felt unnecessary or for shock value. possibly understandable in a collection focused on body horror and being disconnected from/having something else take over your body, but it still felt unnecessary to me. overall though i enjoyed it and i found quite a few new authors whose other work i will be exploring, so i would call that a success!
individual ratings:
the travelers stay by ray cluley - 2/5
toother by terry dowling - 4/5
painlessness by kirstyn mcdermott - 3/5
you go where it takes you by nathan ballingrud - 3.5/5
a positive by kaaron warren - 1.5/5
la beaute sans vertu by genevieve valentine - 5/5
subsumption by lucy taylor - 4/5
spar by kij johnson - 5/5
it was the heat by pat cadigan - 3/5
atwater by cody goodfellow - 1/5
the transfer by edward bryant - 3/5
welcome to mengele's by simon bestwick - 4/5
black neurology: a love story by richard kadrey - 3/5
cuckoo by angela slatter - 4/5
cinereous by livia llewellyn - 3/5
the truth that lies under skin and meat by cassandra khaw - 4/5
natural skin by alyssa wong - 5/5
the lake by tananarive due - 4.5/5
i'm always here by richard christian matheson - 3.5/5
the look by christopher fowler - 3/5
the old women who were skinned by carmen maria machado - 3.5/5
spores by seanan mcguire - 4/5
sweet subtleties by lisa l. hannett - 2.5/5
elegy for a suicide by caitlin r. kiernan - 4.5/5
skin city by gemma files - 4/5
a true friend by brian evenson - 5/5
what i found in the shed by tom johnstone - 3/5
fabulous beasts by priya sharma - 4/5
tissue ablation and variant regeneration: a case report by michael blumlein - 5/5
December 20, 2021
Nice and twisted. Doesn’t shy away from the disgusting.
October 3, 2021
Like most anthologies, you will find some stories are more to your liking than others, but I liked most of the stories, none of the stories were what I’d call extreme, some had a bit of gore, some had more a physiological theme to them.
Each story had a list of awards and sometimes a link for that writer, but I think they would have been better placed at the end of the stories, as there was a few times I ended up going back to the start of the story so I could use the link.
Some of the stand out stories for me were;
A Positive by Kaaron Warren – about greedy people getting what comes to them
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor – a post-apocalyptic story where people are not the real monsters.
Welcome to Mengele’s by Simon Bestwick – about an brothel, where any fantasy can be made reality.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong – is about a black market surgeon, and making deals.
The Lake by Tananarive Due – a slow transformation story.
Spores by Seanan McGuire – Nobody likes mold especially one that you can’t clean away.
*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.*
Each story had a list of awards and sometimes a link for that writer, but I think they would have been better placed at the end of the stories, as there was a few times I ended up going back to the start of the story so I could use the link.
Some of the stand out stories for me were;
A Positive by Kaaron Warren – about greedy people getting what comes to them
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor – a post-apocalyptic story where people are not the real monsters.
Welcome to Mengele’s by Simon Bestwick – about an brothel, where any fantasy can be made reality.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong – is about a black market surgeon, and making deals.
The Lake by Tananarive Due – a slow transformation story.
Spores by Seanan McGuire – Nobody likes mold especially one that you can’t clean away.
*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.*
April 5, 2022
4.5 stars rounded up. A satisfying collection! There are 29 stories here and only a few of them were just okay. That's pretty impressive. I will admit that I couldn't get into the last two specifically, but there were so many great ones here that I would gladly revisit and I've added additional works by some of these authors to my reading list. If you're looking for a variety of body horror from the extreme to the bizarre, and all of it disturbing, this will not disappoint you.
May 24, 2022
3.5 rounded up. As with any short story collection, some were good and some were not so good. But unlike most short story collections the good were very good and the not so good we’re still bearable. This was a really great array into what can be constituted as body horror and really made me think about the subgenre in ways I hadn’t previously. I would definitely recommend this one but only if you have a strong stomach.
November 26, 2025
This collection was neither extreme or full of body horror. I was really attracted to this collection since it was edited by Ellen Datlow, but once I started reading it quickly failed to live up to my expectations. There were only a few stories included that were really good, with most stories being slow, boring, confusing or some combination of all three. Some stories tried too hard to create vivid imagery, others just babbled on too long. Ultimately, this was my least favorite collection I’ve read so far.
August 3, 2025
Body Shocks delivers a satisfying variety of short stories. I enjoyed each story in their own way as they brought a unique layer to this body horror confection. I also enjoyed getting a taste of the writing from authors I haven't had the pleasure of reading yet, leading me to add even more books to my tbr tower. 5/5 full recommended!
October 5, 2023
A vast majority of these were great stories. There were a few I didn’t care much for, and many that honestly ended too abruptly for this whole anthology to have a full five stars.
April 20, 2025
i can take more than that ellen
May 29, 2021
As someone who is generally put off by what many call "torture porn" in film and writing, I found myself surprised by how much I enjoyed body horror stories. Perhaps enjoyment is the wrong word. While there is surely overlap between the two, the creative way that good body horror stories create a disconcerting tension around how we view and expect bodies to be separates it from the lazy technique of showing gratuitous violence (more often against women than not) in order to shallowly upset the viewer. Kameron Hurley's book "The Stars are Legion" and Cronenberg's film "The Fly" both come to mind immediately when I think about body horror that affected me in lasting ways. Both of these are considered to be mainly in the science fiction category, but manage to horrify nonetheless.
When I saw that the anthology, "Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror," edited by Ellen Datlow, was coming out, I figured I should give it a shot. The draw for me were the names of some authors I really enjoy such as Tananarive Due and Carmen Maria Machado on the cover. I went in expecting new stories from these authors, but the entire collection is composed of stories that were previously published elsewhere. As a result, I had already read the ones included. On top of that, for these two authors in particular, the stories chosen are not good representations of or introductions to their talent.
One of the best things about this book is actually its visual design. The cover is not my favorite, but the inside of the book is full of artwork by John Coulthart. The works of his featured within all deal with manipulations of black and white educational anatomical imagery. Part of me wants to cut the pages out of this book and frame them were it not for the stories on the other side. The graphic design in general is also very good and creates a well rounded experience.
The stories, however, on the whole were mostly unimpressive. All anthologies tend to be a mixed bag, but this one leaned more to the side of lower quality stories unfortunately. Some of them have great promise, but are then abruptly cut off. Others just aren't very good. There are a few that really did shine though and they made reading the book worth it.
Of these, I found Seanan McGuire's "Spores," which focuses on a lesbian couple's unsettling experience with something so prevalent around us, to be the best in the book, hands down. I originally thought that McGuire usually wrote young adult novels, which is why I have not read much of her stuff. After this story, I am definitely adding things to my to-read list. Lucy Taylor's "Subsumption," is my second favorite story. If you like things similar to Jeff Vandermeer's work, you'll probably like this story. It's only fault is that it is far too short. It felt like something interesting enough to be a full book or at least a longer story. Kirstyn McDermott's "Painlessness" was pretty interesting, but it did lose me a bit in the ending where it takes an unnecessary turn away from thoughtful examination of the story to torture porn. "Welcome to Mengele's" by Simon Bestwick was intense and worth reading. The two aforementioned stories both deal with themes around sex work in interesting (and horrifying) ways. Gemma Files' "Skin City" was also worth reading, even if it lacked originality in some ways.
This book is huge and has a large quantity of stories so, many things that did not float my boat may still appeal to others. The artwork in this book was a great complement and also stands quite well on its own. It's not the best anthology I have read, but there were still some great moments that made it worth my time.
This was also posted to my blog.
When I saw that the anthology, "Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror," edited by Ellen Datlow, was coming out, I figured I should give it a shot. The draw for me were the names of some authors I really enjoy such as Tananarive Due and Carmen Maria Machado on the cover. I went in expecting new stories from these authors, but the entire collection is composed of stories that were previously published elsewhere. As a result, I had already read the ones included. On top of that, for these two authors in particular, the stories chosen are not good representations of or introductions to their talent.
One of the best things about this book is actually its visual design. The cover is not my favorite, but the inside of the book is full of artwork by John Coulthart. The works of his featured within all deal with manipulations of black and white educational anatomical imagery. Part of me wants to cut the pages out of this book and frame them were it not for the stories on the other side. The graphic design in general is also very good and creates a well rounded experience.
The stories, however, on the whole were mostly unimpressive. All anthologies tend to be a mixed bag, but this one leaned more to the side of lower quality stories unfortunately. Some of them have great promise, but are then abruptly cut off. Others just aren't very good. There are a few that really did shine though and they made reading the book worth it.
Of these, I found Seanan McGuire's "Spores," which focuses on a lesbian couple's unsettling experience with something so prevalent around us, to be the best in the book, hands down. I originally thought that McGuire usually wrote young adult novels, which is why I have not read much of her stuff. After this story, I am definitely adding things to my to-read list. Lucy Taylor's "Subsumption," is my second favorite story. If you like things similar to Jeff Vandermeer's work, you'll probably like this story. It's only fault is that it is far too short. It felt like something interesting enough to be a full book or at least a longer story. Kirstyn McDermott's "Painlessness" was pretty interesting, but it did lose me a bit in the ending where it takes an unnecessary turn away from thoughtful examination of the story to torture porn. "Welcome to Mengele's" by Simon Bestwick was intense and worth reading. The two aforementioned stories both deal with themes around sex work in interesting (and horrifying) ways. Gemma Files' "Skin City" was also worth reading, even if it lacked originality in some ways.
This book is huge and has a large quantity of stories so, many things that did not float my boat may still appeal to others. The artwork in this book was a great complement and also stands quite well on its own. It's not the best anthology I have read, but there were still some great moments that made it worth my time.
This was also posted to my blog.
February 24, 2022
https://openbooksociety.com/article/b...
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Caro
Body Shocks is an anthology of short body horror stories with different levels of gruesome, ranging from serial killers to psychological horror. As the book progresses, the stories become even better. I really liked several of the themes used in the stories, such as motels in the middle of nowhere, couture designers and their models, female metamorphosing into better or worse versions of themselves, friendships gone wrong, experiments on the human body, and much more. In addition, the stories’ lengths and styles make them more interesting depending on the theme.
All in all, very good horror stories I will be rereading and thinking about when I least expect it. A recommendation to any horror aficionado and to those looking for horror authors to follow. Here are some special mentions:
Toother by Terry Dowling – Toother is about a serial killer collector of teeth, and a group of people trying to capture him. One in the group has a special connection with the serial killer through dreams, which he later transcripts and uses as clues to figure out his next victim or any whereabouts. This story was too short for my liking. Although a horror story, it had all the elements of a good mystery with a touch of gore. I liked how the dreams were turned and narrated as transcripts, almost like listening to a radio show. The ending keeps you at the edge of your seat wanting more of the Toother. Definitely a must read.
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott – The beginning of this story can be very relatable to life. Sometimes you just don’t want to get out of bed and go to work. But then we learn of the next door girl’s secret life, and everything seems more interesting. In Painlessness Faith meets Mara, a woman who gives and fulfills other’s fantasies, but sometimes it can get a little too rough, and it becomes too much for the body. Painlessness opens the door to body horror in this anthology with a great start. It was interesting hearing Mara talk about herself, but it was more interesting seeing her through Faith’s eyes. Another story I wouldn’t mind reading more about.
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud – Throughout the anthology there are stories about parents and children, this particular one shows a young mother who didn’t have a chance at life. Her job doesn’t pay much, the child’s father left, and the town she lives in doesn’t have much to offer either. One day a stranger appears, he shows her how he can change his skin and to his surprise, it catches her attention more than being afraid. What she decides to do next, I did not expect. One thing I liked about this story was the child’s perspective of the whole situation, her view of her father and any man approaching her mother. So curious to know more about her perspective.
A Positive by Kaaron Warren – One of my favorite stories in this anthology! A good redemption to the savior sibling, in this case savior son. A couple so in love that they only needed themselves, until one day the husband becomes sick. After seeing every doctor possible, one finally gives them the solution they need, a child that can provide what the father needs in order to be healthy once more and enjoy life with his wife. But eventually time catches up with everyone. More than body horror, this story is pure horror inflicted on the son by parents only caring for themselves. Recommended.
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow – In this story, a man is late for an interview, lost on the highway and makes a wrong turn. What he finds in the middle of LA, no one could have imagined. The only way to describe this story is as a Salvador Dali painting, very surrealistic. You have to read it calmly and with no distractions because of all the creatures and descriptions that later are explained. Unfortunately, I will always think about this story whenever I’m driving.
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn – This story is set in Paris in 1799. Olympe is an assistant in an unnamed building. In this building they conduct experiments on what Olympe and the others call Les enfants sauvages. Olympe is very proud of her position and aspires to be more. She secretly takes notes of the experiments and anything she thinks is important. The outside world has no idea of what Olympe and her coworkers do inside the building. One day, Olympe is tasked to help her teammate with an unusual sauvage, but things get out of control. Another story I wouldn’t mind being a little longer in a 1700’s horror Paris. The horror Gothic/Renaissance aesthetic would be very interesting.
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw – This story is shorter than the others, but very interesting to read. The style is more along the lines of a transcript or telephone conversation between bickering characters. I also liked the descriptions at the beginning of paragraphs that tell you what one of the characters is always doing. I do wish I knew more about the characters’ backstory.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong – This is a story of envy and the price it takes to resemble someone. In this futuristic world there are two types of people: those of Natural Status and those with bodily modifications. Xuemei is playing to be both, but she first has to remove some obstacles in order to become just one. I didn’t expect the twist at the end for this story, definitely chilling.
The Lake by Tananarive Due – “Not supposed to swim in the lake in summer.” This story, like many others in this book, is about women transforming and embracing their animal instincts. Another aspect I liked about this story was the main characters’ journey, she’s alone in a new town, home, and workplace. She has to figure out a new life, which is always terrifying for anyone, but she has to go through an additional transition and transformation.
Spores by Seanan McGuire – Megan works at a bio lab, where her OCD helps her keep everything tidy and clean. One night she sees mold in her home’s kitchen and panics. Why is it growing so fast in a home she keeps super clean? How did it get there and where did it come from? Megan has reasons to panic. Seanan McGuire did it again. She delivered a story that will haunt me anytime I eat fruit. Fairies, mermaids, lost children, and now fruit. Do I want more of this story? Yes. Definitely a must read.
Skin City by Gemma Files – In this story, a girl gains the ability to detach herself from her skin becoming dangerous to those around her. A detail I really liked from this story was characters describing the smell coming from the main girl. Very chilling when you think about what’s under your skin.
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma – Kath and Ami are sisters. They each have daughters. People know them as Kenny’s princesses, but Kathy wants nothing to do with him. Years go by and the sister’s daughters grow. Lola has always taken care of Tallulah, ever since she was a baby. But one day Kenny returns, taking Kathy and Lola away from Ami and Tallulah. What Lola learns next is a beautiful twist on female snake folklore. A wonderful short story, but I wouldn’t mind knowing more about this world and all the girls in it.
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein – the last story in this anthology is one to admire. Beautifully redacted as a medical report, you really don’t expect the ending. And then, the chart at the end gives a description of the results. That’s when you realize what you just read.
Table of Contents:
The Travelers Stay by Ray Cluley
Toother by Terry Dowling
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud
A Positive by Kaaron Warren
La Beauté sans verte by Genevieve Valentine
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor
Spar by Kij Johnson
It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow
The Transfer by Edward Bryant
Welcome to Mengele’s by Simon Bestwick
Black Neurology: A Love Story by Richard Kadrey
Cuckoo by Angela Slatter
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong
The Lake by Tananarive Due
I’m Always Here by Richard Christian Matheson
The Look by Christopher Fowler
The Old Women Who Were Skinned by Carmen Maria Machado
Spores by Seanan McGuire
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett
Elegy For a Suicide by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Skin City by Gemma Files
A True Friend by Brian Evenson
What I Found in the Shed by Tom Johnstone
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein
(Goodreads)
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Caro
Body Shocks is an anthology of short body horror stories with different levels of gruesome, ranging from serial killers to psychological horror. As the book progresses, the stories become even better. I really liked several of the themes used in the stories, such as motels in the middle of nowhere, couture designers and their models, female metamorphosing into better or worse versions of themselves, friendships gone wrong, experiments on the human body, and much more. In addition, the stories’ lengths and styles make them more interesting depending on the theme.
All in all, very good horror stories I will be rereading and thinking about when I least expect it. A recommendation to any horror aficionado and to those looking for horror authors to follow. Here are some special mentions:
Toother by Terry Dowling – Toother is about a serial killer collector of teeth, and a group of people trying to capture him. One in the group has a special connection with the serial killer through dreams, which he later transcripts and uses as clues to figure out his next victim or any whereabouts. This story was too short for my liking. Although a horror story, it had all the elements of a good mystery with a touch of gore. I liked how the dreams were turned and narrated as transcripts, almost like listening to a radio show. The ending keeps you at the edge of your seat wanting more of the Toother. Definitely a must read.
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott – The beginning of this story can be very relatable to life. Sometimes you just don’t want to get out of bed and go to work. But then we learn of the next door girl’s secret life, and everything seems more interesting. In Painlessness Faith meets Mara, a woman who gives and fulfills other’s fantasies, but sometimes it can get a little too rough, and it becomes too much for the body. Painlessness opens the door to body horror in this anthology with a great start. It was interesting hearing Mara talk about herself, but it was more interesting seeing her through Faith’s eyes. Another story I wouldn’t mind reading more about.
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud – Throughout the anthology there are stories about parents and children, this particular one shows a young mother who didn’t have a chance at life. Her job doesn’t pay much, the child’s father left, and the town she lives in doesn’t have much to offer either. One day a stranger appears, he shows her how he can change his skin and to his surprise, it catches her attention more than being afraid. What she decides to do next, I did not expect. One thing I liked about this story was the child’s perspective of the whole situation, her view of her father and any man approaching her mother. So curious to know more about her perspective.
A Positive by Kaaron Warren – One of my favorite stories in this anthology! A good redemption to the savior sibling, in this case savior son. A couple so in love that they only needed themselves, until one day the husband becomes sick. After seeing every doctor possible, one finally gives them the solution they need, a child that can provide what the father needs in order to be healthy once more and enjoy life with his wife. But eventually time catches up with everyone. More than body horror, this story is pure horror inflicted on the son by parents only caring for themselves. Recommended.
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow – In this story, a man is late for an interview, lost on the highway and makes a wrong turn. What he finds in the middle of LA, no one could have imagined. The only way to describe this story is as a Salvador Dali painting, very surrealistic. You have to read it calmly and with no distractions because of all the creatures and descriptions that later are explained. Unfortunately, I will always think about this story whenever I’m driving.
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn – This story is set in Paris in 1799. Olympe is an assistant in an unnamed building. In this building they conduct experiments on what Olympe and the others call Les enfants sauvages. Olympe is very proud of her position and aspires to be more. She secretly takes notes of the experiments and anything she thinks is important. The outside world has no idea of what Olympe and her coworkers do inside the building. One day, Olympe is tasked to help her teammate with an unusual sauvage, but things get out of control. Another story I wouldn’t mind being a little longer in a 1700’s horror Paris. The horror Gothic/Renaissance aesthetic would be very interesting.
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw – This story is shorter than the others, but very interesting to read. The style is more along the lines of a transcript or telephone conversation between bickering characters. I also liked the descriptions at the beginning of paragraphs that tell you what one of the characters is always doing. I do wish I knew more about the characters’ backstory.
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong – This is a story of envy and the price it takes to resemble someone. In this futuristic world there are two types of people: those of Natural Status and those with bodily modifications. Xuemei is playing to be both, but she first has to remove some obstacles in order to become just one. I didn’t expect the twist at the end for this story, definitely chilling.
The Lake by Tananarive Due – “Not supposed to swim in the lake in summer.” This story, like many others in this book, is about women transforming and embracing their animal instincts. Another aspect I liked about this story was the main characters’ journey, she’s alone in a new town, home, and workplace. She has to figure out a new life, which is always terrifying for anyone, but she has to go through an additional transition and transformation.
Spores by Seanan McGuire – Megan works at a bio lab, where her OCD helps her keep everything tidy and clean. One night she sees mold in her home’s kitchen and panics. Why is it growing so fast in a home she keeps super clean? How did it get there and where did it come from? Megan has reasons to panic. Seanan McGuire did it again. She delivered a story that will haunt me anytime I eat fruit. Fairies, mermaids, lost children, and now fruit. Do I want more of this story? Yes. Definitely a must read.
Skin City by Gemma Files – In this story, a girl gains the ability to detach herself from her skin becoming dangerous to those around her. A detail I really liked from this story was characters describing the smell coming from the main girl. Very chilling when you think about what’s under your skin.
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma – Kath and Ami are sisters. They each have daughters. People know them as Kenny’s princesses, but Kathy wants nothing to do with him. Years go by and the sister’s daughters grow. Lola has always taken care of Tallulah, ever since she was a baby. But one day Kenny returns, taking Kathy and Lola away from Ami and Tallulah. What Lola learns next is a beautiful twist on female snake folklore. A wonderful short story, but I wouldn’t mind knowing more about this world and all the girls in it.
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein – the last story in this anthology is one to admire. Beautifully redacted as a medical report, you really don’t expect the ending. And then, the chart at the end gives a description of the results. That’s when you realize what you just read.
Table of Contents:
The Travelers Stay by Ray Cluley
Toother by Terry Dowling
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud
A Positive by Kaaron Warren
La Beauté sans verte by Genevieve Valentine
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor
Spar by Kij Johnson
It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow
The Transfer by Edward Bryant
Welcome to Mengele’s by Simon Bestwick
Black Neurology: A Love Story by Richard Kadrey
Cuckoo by Angela Slatter
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong
The Lake by Tananarive Due
I’m Always Here by Richard Christian Matheson
The Look by Christopher Fowler
The Old Women Who Were Skinned by Carmen Maria Machado
Spores by Seanan McGuire
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L. Hannett
Elegy For a Suicide by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Skin City by Gemma Files
A True Friend by Brian Evenson
What I Found in the Shed by Tom Johnstone
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein
(Goodreads)
March 23, 2023
I have very mixed feelings about this collection, which has everything to do with me and nothing to do with the quality of the writing. Quality of the writing is very good. However, I discovered while reading that body horror, for the most part, is not for me.
I preferred the stories that had to do with unexpected transformation and general weirdness and disliked the stories that relied on sexual violence, revenge porn, and general shittiness of the main characters.
Highlights for me were the following stories:
- Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott - a woman relocates and tries to befriend her next door neighbor, who has a troubling condition. I liked the unsure dynamic between them and the hesitancy of putting yourself out there after escaping from toxic relationships.
- Subsumption by Lucy Taylor - nature fights back after a cataclysmic event. Gave me 10 Cloverfield Lane vibes, but what happens after.
- The Lake by Tananarive Due - a teacher moves into a lakehouse in Florida and no one warns her about the dangers of swimming in the lake. I love stories where local superstitions end up being true, and everyone who lives there just holds on to this knowledge.
- The Old Women who were Skinned by CArmen Maria Machado - creepy fairy tale about two sisters who live in solitude until one day, the king comes calling. It was weird and gruesome and just worked for me.
- Spores by Seanan McGuire - a bio lab tech with extreme OCD realizes that there's something seriously wrong with the mold on the peaches. Seriously, fungus is scary.
The whole point of bingo is to challenge yourself, and I sure did.
I preferred the stories that had to do with unexpected transformation and general weirdness and disliked the stories that relied on sexual violence, revenge porn, and general shittiness of the main characters.
Highlights for me were the following stories:
- Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott - a woman relocates and tries to befriend her next door neighbor, who has a troubling condition. I liked the unsure dynamic between them and the hesitancy of putting yourself out there after escaping from toxic relationships.
- Subsumption by Lucy Taylor - nature fights back after a cataclysmic event. Gave me 10 Cloverfield Lane vibes, but what happens after.
- The Lake by Tananarive Due - a teacher moves into a lakehouse in Florida and no one warns her about the dangers of swimming in the lake. I love stories where local superstitions end up being true, and everyone who lives there just holds on to this knowledge.
- The Old Women who were Skinned by CArmen Maria Machado - creepy fairy tale about two sisters who live in solitude until one day, the king comes calling. It was weird and gruesome and just worked for me.
- Spores by Seanan McGuire - a bio lab tech with extreme OCD realizes that there's something seriously wrong with the mold on the peaches. Seriously, fungus is scary.
The whole point of bingo is to challenge yourself, and I sure did.
September 27, 2025
On average, this comes out at a 6,36/10, so rounded down to 3 stars. Pretty decent for an anthology. I so think that a few stories completely missed the mark, but there were some standouts as well (nr. 12 and 22 especially).
1. The Travellers Stay - Ray Cluley
5/10
Travellers Stay at this motel and turn into cockroaches. The protagonist and his companions are unlikeable, and his reaction to the transformations is quite mellow.
2. Toother - Terry Dowling
6,5/10
Some maniac is extracting people's teeth and a cop, psychiatrist, and patient work together to catch him.
3. Painlessness - Kirstyn McDermott
7/10
Written in an interesting style, this story of a woman who seems impervious to pain drew me in straight away. The best in the bunch so far!
4. You Go Where It Takes You - Nathan Ballingrud
3,5/10
Toni invites a man into her home to have sex with him, only to discover he can change his skin with someone else's. He does, and it's messy. Then Toni abandons her three year old daughter.
I did like the use of words, but I do not like this story one bit.
5. A Positive - Kaaron Warren
6/10
Memorable enough for such a short story, where a man decides to use his son's blood to stay young.
6. La beauté sans vertu - Genevieve Valentine
5,5/10
Models get their arms replaced with those of fourteen year olds because that, apparently, looks good? There's a fashion show where the star vanishes.
7. Subsumption - Lucy Taylor
8/10
Something fell down on earth and now people and plant life are merging. Cool visuals, the first tale in this anthology that made me recoil in horror!
8. Spar - Kij Johnson
6,5/10
A woman is trapped as an alien's sex toy for at least a few months. It's mostly gross, but the ending's interesting.
9. It Was The Heat - Pat Cardigan
5/10
I'm not really sure what happened in the end, but this businesswoman has some sort of obsession with not wearing panties. And she's in New Orleans and it's hot.
10. Atwater - Cody Goodfellow
6/10
Kind of weird, repetitive use of language which seemed unintentional, and too large a focus on genitalia, if you ask me. A man gets lost on the freeway and stumbles into a strange town where people have all sorts of strangely misshapen bodies. Spoiler: it's all in his head.
11. The Transfer - Edward Bryant
6/10
Doris and her husband Jim are attacked and trapped, but Doris can shape shift. Kind of, it's complicated.
12. Welcome to Mengele's - Simon Bestwick
9/10
At Mengele's, you can have sex with anyone you want, alive or dead. Our protagonist has the night of his life, after which he finds out how exactly this place works.
Great little short story, good narrative voice, creepy concept. And true body horror!
13. Black Neurology - A Love Story - Richard Kadrey
6/10
A very short description of some strange autopsy/resurrection ritual.
14. Cuckoo - Angela Slatter
5/10
A man who rapes and murders little girls and collects their left shoes as trophies is visited by a being intent to take him... Somewhere. We never find out, because the man feels no fear and thus cannot be taken. No resolution.
15. Cinereous - Livia Llewellyn
5,5/10
Pretty words without much substance. Olympe works in a weird place, catching blood from those beheaded. One diseased head bites her fingers and seemingly transfers the disease, putting a stop to Olympe's ambitions without her realising it.
16. The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat - Cassandra Khaw
6/10
I'm not entirely sure what happened. The protagonist is a sort of monster/werewolf and she eats someone who wronged her boyfriend(?) even though she promised not to.
17. Natural Skin - Alyssa Wong
7/10
A young woman sneaks out for plastic surgery, and she has quite the deal in mind.
18. The Lake - Tananarive Due
7,5/10
How could she have known she wasn't supposed to go swimming in the lake? LeFleur finds the lake to be addictive, changing her.
Was expecting this to be a bit more grotesque, but there was a nice buildup of tension and the characters were pretty well written for such a short story.
19. I'm Always Here - Richard Christian Matheson
6/10
Two people got fused together and are singing duets. Their interviewer feels sad not to have such a bond with someone.
20. The Look - Christopher Fowler
7,5/10
An exaggerated look on the world of fashion and the lengths models go to for fame. I liked it, but the ending was obviously written by a man (as if a woman in her place would be anything other than horrified).
21. The Old Women Who Were Skinned - Carmen Maria Machado
8/10
The title is a pretty good summary, and the story reads like a modern fairytale. Weird, but kind of cool.
22. Spores - Seanan McGuire
10/10
That was horrifying. Great characters, amazing build-up, and I wish there was more, though it also ends perfectly. If you buy the anthology, this is why.
23. Sweet Subtleties - Lisa L. Hannett
6/10
A woman is made of sweets? And people eat her, partially, but she doesn't seem to mind. Didn't really get this one.
24. Elegy for a Suicide - Caitlín R. Kiernan
4/10
I didn't get it. There's something inside/possessing E, so she wants to kill herself, but she can't. In the end, she's gone?
25. Skin City - Gemma Files
6/10
I couldn't really get into the writing style, and it was mostly just gory. Some lady stealing skin (and wearing it, of course).
26. A True Friend - Brian Evenson
7,5/10
Very short, and very horrifying. What if you're paralysed, but everyone believes you to be dead? A true friend should be able to notice, don't you think?
27. What I Found in the Shed - Tom Johnstone
8,5/10
Yuck. Ew. No. Very uncomfortable, good build-up. This would be perfect as a short film!
28. Fabulous Beasts - Priya Sharma
7/10
I wouldn't call this body horror, as the transformations seem pretty voluntary (except for maybe the first). I could've done with a bit less incest as well, but overall it was a good story.
29. Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report - Michael Blumlein
3/10
I think a sort of vivisection is described, but I couldn't understand about half of the words.
1. The Travellers Stay - Ray Cluley
5/10
Travellers Stay at this motel and turn into cockroaches. The protagonist and his companions are unlikeable, and his reaction to the transformations is quite mellow.
2. Toother - Terry Dowling
6,5/10
Some maniac is extracting people's teeth and a cop, psychiatrist, and patient work together to catch him.
3. Painlessness - Kirstyn McDermott
7/10
Written in an interesting style, this story of a woman who seems impervious to pain drew me in straight away. The best in the bunch so far!
4. You Go Where It Takes You - Nathan Ballingrud
3,5/10
Toni invites a man into her home to have sex with him, only to discover he can change his skin with someone else's. He does, and it's messy. Then Toni abandons her three year old daughter.
I did like the use of words, but I do not like this story one bit.
5. A Positive - Kaaron Warren
6/10
Memorable enough for such a short story, where a man decides to use his son's blood to stay young.
6. La beauté sans vertu - Genevieve Valentine
5,5/10
Models get their arms replaced with those of fourteen year olds because that, apparently, looks good? There's a fashion show where the star vanishes.
7. Subsumption - Lucy Taylor
8/10
Something fell down on earth and now people and plant life are merging. Cool visuals, the first tale in this anthology that made me recoil in horror!
8. Spar - Kij Johnson
6,5/10
A woman is trapped as an alien's sex toy for at least a few months. It's mostly gross, but the ending's interesting.
9. It Was The Heat - Pat Cardigan
5/10
I'm not really sure what happened in the end, but this businesswoman has some sort of obsession with not wearing panties. And she's in New Orleans and it's hot.
10. Atwater - Cody Goodfellow
6/10
Kind of weird, repetitive use of language which seemed unintentional, and too large a focus on genitalia, if you ask me. A man gets lost on the freeway and stumbles into a strange town where people have all sorts of strangely misshapen bodies. Spoiler: it's all in his head.
11. The Transfer - Edward Bryant
6/10
Doris and her husband Jim are attacked and trapped, but Doris can shape shift. Kind of, it's complicated.
12. Welcome to Mengele's - Simon Bestwick
9/10
At Mengele's, you can have sex with anyone you want, alive or dead. Our protagonist has the night of his life, after which he finds out how exactly this place works.
Great little short story, good narrative voice, creepy concept. And true body horror!
13. Black Neurology - A Love Story - Richard Kadrey
6/10
A very short description of some strange autopsy/resurrection ritual.
14. Cuckoo - Angela Slatter
5/10
A man who rapes and murders little girls and collects their left shoes as trophies is visited by a being intent to take him... Somewhere. We never find out, because the man feels no fear and thus cannot be taken. No resolution.
15. Cinereous - Livia Llewellyn
5,5/10
Pretty words without much substance. Olympe works in a weird place, catching blood from those beheaded. One diseased head bites her fingers and seemingly transfers the disease, putting a stop to Olympe's ambitions without her realising it.
16. The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat - Cassandra Khaw
6/10
I'm not entirely sure what happened. The protagonist is a sort of monster/werewolf and she eats someone who wronged her boyfriend(?) even though she promised not to.
17. Natural Skin - Alyssa Wong
7/10
A young woman sneaks out for plastic surgery, and she has quite the deal in mind.
18. The Lake - Tananarive Due
7,5/10
How could she have known she wasn't supposed to go swimming in the lake? LeFleur finds the lake to be addictive, changing her.
Was expecting this to be a bit more grotesque, but there was a nice buildup of tension and the characters were pretty well written for such a short story.
19. I'm Always Here - Richard Christian Matheson
6/10
Two people got fused together and are singing duets. Their interviewer feels sad not to have such a bond with someone.
20. The Look - Christopher Fowler
7,5/10
An exaggerated look on the world of fashion and the lengths models go to for fame. I liked it, but the ending was obviously written by a man (as if a woman in her place would be anything other than horrified).
21. The Old Women Who Were Skinned - Carmen Maria Machado
8/10
The title is a pretty good summary, and the story reads like a modern fairytale. Weird, but kind of cool.
22. Spores - Seanan McGuire
10/10
That was horrifying. Great characters, amazing build-up, and I wish there was more, though it also ends perfectly. If you buy the anthology, this is why.
23. Sweet Subtleties - Lisa L. Hannett
6/10
A woman is made of sweets? And people eat her, partially, but she doesn't seem to mind. Didn't really get this one.
24. Elegy for a Suicide - Caitlín R. Kiernan
4/10
I didn't get it. There's something inside/possessing E, so she wants to kill herself, but she can't. In the end, she's gone?
25. Skin City - Gemma Files
6/10
I couldn't really get into the writing style, and it was mostly just gory. Some lady stealing skin (and wearing it, of course).
26. A True Friend - Brian Evenson
7,5/10
Very short, and very horrifying. What if you're paralysed, but everyone believes you to be dead? A true friend should be able to notice, don't you think?
27. What I Found in the Shed - Tom Johnstone
8,5/10
Yuck. Ew. No. Very uncomfortable, good build-up. This would be perfect as a short film!
28. Fabulous Beasts - Priya Sharma
7/10
I wouldn't call this body horror, as the transformations seem pretty voluntary (except for maybe the first). I could've done with a bit less incest as well, but overall it was a good story.
29. Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report - Michael Blumlein
3/10
I think a sort of vivisection is described, but I couldn't understand about half of the words.
December 11, 2022
29 stories here makes my 222 Short Stories in 2022 reading frenzy arbitrary obsession challenge total, as of today, December 11, a whopping DRUMROLL PLEASE...THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN! And what a wonderful collection to finish this all off with because I love horror and I really love body horror and almost 30 stories devoted to it? Heaven!
Except not, because very few of these actually stirred me the way I expect body horror to, which taught me a lot about what I expect in horror / horror fiction / body horror (less sex, more mutations, active protagonists vs. observers). Some revolting, some disappointing, and these were my faves:
Brian Evenson's "A True Friend" (no surprise there, a fave author of mine)
Kij Johnson's "Spar"
Lucy Taylor's "Subsumption" (I AM VERY SCARED OF TREES)
Livia Llewellyn "Cinerous" because guillotines are disgusting
Cody Goodfellow's "Atwarer" that literally threw everryyyything body horrific at the wall and saw what stuck, bonkers
Except not, because very few of these actually stirred me the way I expect body horror to, which taught me a lot about what I expect in horror / horror fiction / body horror (less sex, more mutations, active protagonists vs. observers). Some revolting, some disappointing, and these were my faves:
Brian Evenson's "A True Friend" (no surprise there, a fave author of mine)
Kij Johnson's "Spar"
Lucy Taylor's "Subsumption" (I AM VERY SCARED OF TREES)
Livia Llewellyn "Cinerous" because guillotines are disgusting
Cody Goodfellow's "Atwarer" that literally threw everryyyything body horrific at the wall and saw what stuck, bonkers
May 18, 2022
The Travellers Stay: 3 stars
Toother: 2 stars
Painlessness: 3 stars
You Go Where it Takes You: 3 stars
A Positive: 3 stars
La Beaute Sans Vertu: skipped/didn't finish
Subsumption: 2 stars
Spar: 3 stars
It Was the Heat: 3 stars
Atwater: 2.5 stars
The Tranfer: 3 stars
Welcome to Mengeles: 3 stars
Black Neurology- A Love Story: 3 stars
Cuckoo: 2.5 stars
Cinereous: skipped/didn't finish
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat: 3 stars
Natural Skin: 3.5 stars
The Lake: 3.5 stars
I'm Always Here: 2 stars
The Look: 2.5 stars
The Old Women Who Were Skinned: 3.5 stars
Spores: 3.5 stars
Sweet Subtleties: 2 stars
Elegy For a Suicide: 2 stars
Skin City: skipped/didn't finish
A True Friend: 2.5 stars
What I Found in the Shed: 3 stars
Fabulous Beasts: 3 stars
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: 3 stars
Toother: 2 stars
Painlessness: 3 stars
You Go Where it Takes You: 3 stars
A Positive: 3 stars
La Beaute Sans Vertu: skipped/didn't finish
Subsumption: 2 stars
Spar: 3 stars
It Was the Heat: 3 stars
Atwater: 2.5 stars
The Tranfer: 3 stars
Welcome to Mengeles: 3 stars
Black Neurology- A Love Story: 3 stars
Cuckoo: 2.5 stars
Cinereous: skipped/didn't finish
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat: 3 stars
Natural Skin: 3.5 stars
The Lake: 3.5 stars
I'm Always Here: 2 stars
The Look: 2.5 stars
The Old Women Who Were Skinned: 3.5 stars
Spores: 3.5 stars
Sweet Subtleties: 2 stars
Elegy For a Suicide: 2 stars
Skin City: skipped/didn't finish
A True Friend: 2.5 stars
What I Found in the Shed: 3 stars
Fabulous Beasts: 3 stars
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: 3 stars
August 12, 2021
Reading for review in Booklist- Star Review in the August SF/F/H spotlight issue: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2021/08/...
From the draft review:
"Multiple award-winner Datlow has worked her way backward, through previously published stories from across the dark fiction landscape, uncovering the breadth of of these horrific tales of the human body being taken over and transformed into something unsettling at best and grotesque at worst, stories that were often hidden under a different designation, but are now proudly displayed in this standard setting anthology."
From the draft review:
"Multiple award-winner Datlow has worked her way backward, through previously published stories from across the dark fiction landscape, uncovering the breadth of of these horrific tales of the human body being taken over and transformed into something unsettling at best and grotesque at worst, stories that were often hidden under a different designation, but are now proudly displayed in this standard setting anthology."
May 5, 2021
Thank you So much Kasey Lansdale from Tachyon Publications for giving me a copy of this book to read and review!!!!! I'm super excited to read this book. I've already started reading the first few pages and man is this book good! I highly recommend picking this book when its released. I finished the book and absolutely loved every bit of it .
March 4, 2024
This was alright. Some great stories but it went on for way too long.
September 23, 2025
Somewhat of a mixed bag but overall I thought these were very good. This sort of physical horror can work really well in short story form because if you spend too long dwelling on it, it starts to lose its edge. I did feel though that this collection highlights the thin line between good edgy horror and schlock. Some of these went too far and just wound up feeling a bit silly, like reddit 2-sentence horror stories that are trying too hard.
The Travellers Stay by Ray Cluley - people stop at a motel and turn into cockroaches. Nice aspect of creepiness but I think I would have liked it better if the main guy got away to live with the horror of the thing. 3/5
Toother by Terry Dowling - serial killer steals people's teeth. Excellent, extremely scary and unsettling and would have read way more of this. 5/5
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott - fallen angel who lets people hurt her. The "doesn't feel pain" concept was interesting but then the whole angel thing at the end kind of threw the story off for me. 4/5
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud - woman meets a guy wearing different skins and abandons her daughter for him. 4/5
A Positive by Kaaron Warren - parents have a kid for blood transfusions. The core of this was strong but the ending crossed over the line into silly. 3/5
La Beaute sans vertu by Genevieve Valentine - models who wear other people's arms. Lots of model stories in here actually, this one I liked. 4/5
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor - post-apocalyptic plants taking people over. 4/5
Spar - woman trapped with an alien blob thing. ???? very strange 1/5
It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan - woman has an affair in New Orleans. Very atmospheric, not really scary but I liked it. 4/5
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow - guy is stuck in dreamscape with horror creatures. I wanted more explanation at the end! 3/5
The Transfer by Edward Bryant - chameleon woman whose husband is killed by a serial killer? Too much going on here, I thought she was going to turn out to be evil so the serial killer was a very random seeming turn in this story. 2/5
Welcome to Mengele's by Simon Bestwick - turning people into celebrities for a brothel. Nice sense of horror but very cliche. 3/5
Black Neurology: A Love Story by Richard Kadrey. A sort of autopsy, very short. Odd story, 2/5
Cuckoo by Angela Slatter - demon trying to torment a sociopathic killer. Disappointing ending, 2/5
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn - post French revolution cutting of kids' heads as some sort of psychological experiment? There was so much going on here and I feel like the French revolution was worked in for the imagery of the guillotine and otherwise sort of made no sense in the story. 3/5
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw - werewolf woman promising not to kill someone and then does it anyway. Kind of vague and hard to follow, 3/5
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong - woman sells her younger sister to a Chinatown surgeon. Super dark, 5/5
The Lake by Tananarive Due - predator teacher turns into a lake monster after she swims in the water. Nice sense of atmosphere, 4/5
I'm Always Here by Richard Christian Matheson - two singers get surgically fused together. Kind of meh, 3/5
The Look by Christopher Fowler - teenager wants to become a model and her friend gets it instead and has to go through forced plastic surgery. Very similar to the arm one from earlier in the collection, 3/5
The Old Women Who Were Skinner by Carmen Maria Machado - fable with king and old women. I liked the style but wanted a stronger ending. 4/5
Spores by Seanan McGuire - mold that grows on people. Horrendous, 5/5
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L Hannett - dead girlfriend recreated in confectionary in a Pygmalion kind of way. Interesting, 4/5
Elegy for a Suicide by Caitlin R Kiernan - girl finds a switchblade in a weird hole and then decays. Weird, 3/5
Skin City by Gemma Files - girl who steals people's skin. Unsettling, 4/5
A True Friend by Brian Evenson - taking a picture before burying a guy alive. Very short and very creepy. 4/5
What I Found in the Shed by Tom Johnstone - machine that makes copies of a baby that died. I didn't really like the writing style but the premise is strong. 3/5
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma - snake girls. Another story with a lot going on but it did come together in the end. 4/5
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein - guy gets dissected alive, extremely gory and chilling. Of all the stories this was the only one I found hard to read. Definitely not for everyone but it did manage to stand out so I have to give 5/5
The Travellers Stay by Ray Cluley - people stop at a motel and turn into cockroaches. Nice aspect of creepiness but I think I would have liked it better if the main guy got away to live with the horror of the thing. 3/5
Toother by Terry Dowling - serial killer steals people's teeth. Excellent, extremely scary and unsettling and would have read way more of this. 5/5
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott - fallen angel who lets people hurt her. The "doesn't feel pain" concept was interesting but then the whole angel thing at the end kind of threw the story off for me. 4/5
You Go Where It Takes You by Nathan Ballingrud - woman meets a guy wearing different skins and abandons her daughter for him. 4/5
A Positive by Kaaron Warren - parents have a kid for blood transfusions. The core of this was strong but the ending crossed over the line into silly. 3/5
La Beaute sans vertu by Genevieve Valentine - models who wear other people's arms. Lots of model stories in here actually, this one I liked. 4/5
Subsumption by Lucy Taylor - post-apocalyptic plants taking people over. 4/5
Spar - woman trapped with an alien blob thing. ???? very strange 1/5
It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan - woman has an affair in New Orleans. Very atmospheric, not really scary but I liked it. 4/5
Atwater by Cody Goodfellow - guy is stuck in dreamscape with horror creatures. I wanted more explanation at the end! 3/5
The Transfer by Edward Bryant - chameleon woman whose husband is killed by a serial killer? Too much going on here, I thought she was going to turn out to be evil so the serial killer was a very random seeming turn in this story. 2/5
Welcome to Mengele's by Simon Bestwick - turning people into celebrities for a brothel. Nice sense of horror but very cliche. 3/5
Black Neurology: A Love Story by Richard Kadrey. A sort of autopsy, very short. Odd story, 2/5
Cuckoo by Angela Slatter - demon trying to torment a sociopathic killer. Disappointing ending, 2/5
Cinereous by Livia Llewellyn - post French revolution cutting of kids' heads as some sort of psychological experiment? There was so much going on here and I feel like the French revolution was worked in for the imagery of the guillotine and otherwise sort of made no sense in the story. 3/5
The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat by Cassandra Khaw - werewolf woman promising not to kill someone and then does it anyway. Kind of vague and hard to follow, 3/5
Natural Skin by Alyssa Wong - woman sells her younger sister to a Chinatown surgeon. Super dark, 5/5
The Lake by Tananarive Due - predator teacher turns into a lake monster after she swims in the water. Nice sense of atmosphere, 4/5
I'm Always Here by Richard Christian Matheson - two singers get surgically fused together. Kind of meh, 3/5
The Look by Christopher Fowler - teenager wants to become a model and her friend gets it instead and has to go through forced plastic surgery. Very similar to the arm one from earlier in the collection, 3/5
The Old Women Who Were Skinner by Carmen Maria Machado - fable with king and old women. I liked the style but wanted a stronger ending. 4/5
Spores by Seanan McGuire - mold that grows on people. Horrendous, 5/5
Sweet Subtleties by Lisa L Hannett - dead girlfriend recreated in confectionary in a Pygmalion kind of way. Interesting, 4/5
Elegy for a Suicide by Caitlin R Kiernan - girl finds a switchblade in a weird hole and then decays. Weird, 3/5
Skin City by Gemma Files - girl who steals people's skin. Unsettling, 4/5
A True Friend by Brian Evenson - taking a picture before burying a guy alive. Very short and very creepy. 4/5
What I Found in the Shed by Tom Johnstone - machine that makes copies of a baby that died. I didn't really like the writing style but the premise is strong. 3/5
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma - snake girls. Another story with a lot going on but it did come together in the end. 4/5
Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report by Michael Blumlein - guy gets dissected alive, extremely gory and chilling. Of all the stories this was the only one I found hard to read. Definitely not for everyone but it did manage to stand out so I have to give 5/5
August 13, 2022
The body is horrific enough even when it’s functioning at its peak. Think too hard about metabolism and you realize we’re just self-consuming machines and slaves of hungry microbiomes inside us. We’re still embarrassed, if not disgusted, by excretion, which is a constant yet unavoidable function.
Thus it’s understandable that the body remains a constant source of fascination—and material—for the horror writer.
Ellen Datlow’s Body Shocks features a bunch of relatively new stories by some of the field’s best practitioners—both new and seasoned—presented for your entertainment and disgust.
The collection opens well, with The Travelers Stay, by Ray Cluley, a tale that takes finds the inherently Kafkaesque in the phrase “roach motel.” The other tale bookending the collection is the longwindedly titled Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration by the late Michael Blumlein. It starts as what seems like a tedious recitation of an operation, and reads about as well as endnotes to an article in a medical journal. And yet, as the “story” progresses, and the horror of the operation’s purpose is revealed, Blumlein’s choice of a seemingly tedious recitation of facts makes the horror all that more terrifying. The banality of evil has never before seemed so initially banal, nor finally proven itself to be so evil.
Most of the better tales in the collection are by the female contributors, though. You don’t have to have read Carrie, Freud, or even a high-school biology book to see why that might be. The female—both through childbirth and menstruation—has to contend with the sight of more blood, and definitely more pain, if the cycle of life is to continue.
The best-written tale is probably The Lake by Tananarive Due, which deals with a professor who literally swims in troubled waters and begins to undergo a strange metamorphosis. It starts with webbing appearing between her toes. You can probably guess where it’s going, but that hardly matters, as its poetic tone and perfect phrasing make it a joy to read. Besides, too many short stories rely on trick endings and irony to achieve their effect. If a story’s good enough, and the writer talented enough, they can tell you exactly where they’re going, go there, and still bowl you over.
Toother by Ray Dowling takes the concept of the resurrection man where no horror writer (to my knowledge) has gone before: the mouth. It’s easily the most disturbing (I accidentally wrote “mouth disturbing,” before striking it out), even if you don’t fear the dentist. Pat Cadigan (who thankfully is still with us) turns in an erotic-yet-restrained-tale of a woman suffering a different kind of hot flash.
There are more than a couple clunkers between the gems, but it would be unseemly to point them out here. Besides that, it would be a waste of time, as this review just contains my opinion (which isn’t worth much). Recommended, for fans of horror and fans of master anthologists, who know how to pick them. Ms. Datlow’s been doing this for decades, and it shows in her discerning eye.
Thus it’s understandable that the body remains a constant source of fascination—and material—for the horror writer.
Ellen Datlow’s Body Shocks features a bunch of relatively new stories by some of the field’s best practitioners—both new and seasoned—presented for your entertainment and disgust.
The collection opens well, with The Travelers Stay, by Ray Cluley, a tale that takes finds the inherently Kafkaesque in the phrase “roach motel.” The other tale bookending the collection is the longwindedly titled Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration by the late Michael Blumlein. It starts as what seems like a tedious recitation of an operation, and reads about as well as endnotes to an article in a medical journal. And yet, as the “story” progresses, and the horror of the operation’s purpose is revealed, Blumlein’s choice of a seemingly tedious recitation of facts makes the horror all that more terrifying. The banality of evil has never before seemed so initially banal, nor finally proven itself to be so evil.
Most of the better tales in the collection are by the female contributors, though. You don’t have to have read Carrie, Freud, or even a high-school biology book to see why that might be. The female—both through childbirth and menstruation—has to contend with the sight of more blood, and definitely more pain, if the cycle of life is to continue.
The best-written tale is probably The Lake by Tananarive Due, which deals with a professor who literally swims in troubled waters and begins to undergo a strange metamorphosis. It starts with webbing appearing between her toes. You can probably guess where it’s going, but that hardly matters, as its poetic tone and perfect phrasing make it a joy to read. Besides, too many short stories rely on trick endings and irony to achieve their effect. If a story’s good enough, and the writer talented enough, they can tell you exactly where they’re going, go there, and still bowl you over.
Toother by Ray Dowling takes the concept of the resurrection man where no horror writer (to my knowledge) has gone before: the mouth. It’s easily the most disturbing (I accidentally wrote “mouth disturbing,” before striking it out), even if you don’t fear the dentist. Pat Cadigan (who thankfully is still with us) turns in an erotic-yet-restrained-tale of a woman suffering a different kind of hot flash.
There are more than a couple clunkers between the gems, but it would be unseemly to point them out here. Besides that, it would be a waste of time, as this review just contains my opinion (which isn’t worth much). Recommended, for fans of horror and fans of master anthologists, who know how to pick them. Ms. Datlow’s been doing this for decades, and it shows in her discerning eye.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews