Have You Read This? Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror

 Body horror plays on humanity’s fear of mortality because the human body is a machine that is very prone to breaking down, whether due to malfunction, disease, or the simple wear and tear of time. Authors such as Nick Cutter and Gwendolyn Kiste have written works that explore body horror, but there are also a lot of great stories that use this kind of horror to generate fear. Ellen Datlow, well-known horror editor, has recently compiled the collection Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror, which has a bevy of stories sure to make the flesh crawl off your body.

Speaking of crawling, if you’re not a fan of cockroaches, you might avoid the insectile insanity of Ray Cluey’s “Travelers Stay,” or check in and rest your antennas awhile. Consider yourself a gourmand? Belly up to the table and taste Lisa L. Hannet’s “Sweet Subtleties,” which is about a woman’s ghost that has become quite a sea of delicacies. Or get some dinner ideas from a werewolf in Cassandra Khaw’s “The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat.” Want to skip dinner and experience a show? Come on down to a special kind of experience of the flesh in Simon Bestwick’s “Welcome to Mengele’s” where any fantasy of the flesh, thanks to the the doctor’s discoveries, is yours for the asking. Just be sure to pay up front, or it will cost more than a pound of flesh.

This collection is practically a must-have for any horror connoisseur or library that wants a sampling of all the different dimensions of body horror. It includes some classic body horror stories like Tananarive Due’s “The Lake” as well as Nathan Ballingrud’s “You Go Where It Takes You.” but it also includes some fresh and original takes on the genre. Body horror is not just flesh melting; it’s flesh stretching, oozing, twisting, and even transforming. There are many different ways body horror can wring terror out of its readers, and this book has at least one story that’s sure to disturb. It might not necessarily live up to the “extreme” title for some, but that’s to the collection’s benefit. The stories contained within are less exploding body parts and more surgically precise, gently opening up the reader to the terrors they offer.