New Arrival: Transmuted by Eve Harms

 

Body horror is a genre that generates fear because the horror is inescapable. To escape many of our anxieties, we could lock our doors, turn off social media, or seal ourselves behind a brick wall, but how can we escape from the fragile meat and water sacks that house our minds? The breakdown of our bodies is inevitable, and a lot of body horror, such as The Fly and its depiction of Seth Brundle’s physical and mental collapse, horrifies the audience as we are forced to ponder such a thing happening to us. This has become the status quo for many body horror tales, but writer Eve Harms offers a very original and uniquely emotional take on body horror with her book Transmuted.

The story follows Isa, a trans woman who finally has finally earned enough money to afford a major surgery she needs, but familial obligations swoop in and drain her bank account. Desperate, IIsa becomes involved with a doctor whose procedures promise radical body transformations. At first, she enjoys what she’s becoming, but soon Isa starts to become something that no longer looks human.

The crux of this book is the Faustian deal Isa makes when she has no other options, a sly bit of social commentary on the state of trans people and how they often deal with a lack of medical resources. The bargain Isa makes allows her to enjoy a life where she begins to feel comfortable in her skin, even getting a new girlfriend. However, when this security is brutally torn away from Isa, readers can feel her pain, especially with Harms’s flair for visceral description as well as her emotional torture from realizing what she’s becoming. The emotional resonance is an excellent anchor for the book, even as it delves into alchemists and Resident Evil style action. This could have led to the book straying from its character-driven plot, but it ultimately proves what I call the Joe Lansdale Effect. Basically, Lansdale, in his story “Bubba Ho-Tep,” has Elvis and a black man who thinks he’s JFK (or he might be JFK dyed black, according to JFK) hunt a mummy in a Texas rest home. The story’s off-the-wall premise works because readers truly empathize with Elvis, a protagonist that realizes his best years are behind him but still has the chance to discover a purpose in his life. In Transmuted, you can buy secret cults and chimeric creatures because Isa is a character with whom the audience can empathize, from how she is regarded by her family to the setbacks she’s dealt, and even when the story cranks up the body horror and fantastical elements, readers will still care about Isa’s journey.