Graphic Content: Stray Dogs by Tony Fleecs and Trish Fortner

 Horror is not just a category; it’s also a spectrum, moving from silly to serious, haunting to gritty.

There are so many subgenres in horror that anyone who likes a good scare is sure to find something to like. Horror also isn’t afraid to go beyond its comfort zone to tell a good story, borrowing from different genres to create something both creepy and original. Praise should go to any work that’s brave enough to incorporate Don Bluth-style animation and anthropomorphic animals. This is the formula for the graphic novel Stray Dogs, and somehow it works.

The story is told mainly through the adorable eyes of Sophie, a small dog who is dealing with a lot of new things, a new owner and several other new dogs that she doesn’t recognize. Sophie is also having trouble remembering her past owner, but as the story progresses, she becomes convinced that something terrible has happened to her previous owner, known as “her Lady,” and she is convinced that the man who has taken her into his home has done something to her. All dogs might go to heaven, but Sophie will do whatever it takes to avoid that fate, especially since the man who now has her may have done terrible things.

One of the big appeals of this book is its seemingly incongruous elements that somehow come together. Tony Fleecs’s story, told through the dogs the man has collected, not only generates actual suspense and stakes with the standard he’s-coming-back-early approach, it also takes advantage of a fallacy of dog memory, which is explained in the book’s prologue. Dogs are more focused on the now, meaning that Sophie doesn’t remember her Lady clearly, and even Sophie’s new four-legged roommates tell her to forget about who she was with. The reader will practically beg Sophie to remember even as she and her new friends try to escape. The story is solid, but Trish Forstner’s artwork makes this work stand out, making it look like a Disney film with a villain very much like Hannibal Lecter. Story and art don’t take away from one another; rather, they combine to create a tale tailor-made for fans of adult animation and true crime. I know that I’m a fan of both as well as of odd combinations.

New Arrival: Mestiza Blood by V. Castro

 

V. Castro is quickly becoming a name to watch in horror. Works such as Goddess of Filth and The Queen of the Cicadas have proved that she not only understands horror but also the importance of creating a brand as an author by using her own experiences. She draws upon her own background to create three-dimensional Chicana women who might feel marginalized by society but who also find ways, through supernatural powers or simple determination, to strike back. In her recent short story collection Mestiza Blood, she introduces the reader to several of these women and their own unique struggles.

Like many great collections, Mestiza Blood has a sampling of several of Castro’s stories. Some are dark fantasy with shades of urban folklore like “The Demon in My Eye,” but they also display Castro’s own unique worldview. Her story “Night of the Living Dead Chola” is a take on the zombie trope that shows both heart and darkness. “Street Fighter” starts with a woman who tries to be a good samaritan but ends up offering help to something more inclined to harm. “Mal de Oja” explores the horrors of prejudice and the ability to get revenge through supernatural means. The book also features two longer works, the paranormal romance body horror thriller “Truck Stop” and “The Final Porn Star,” a delightful take on the Final Girl trope that mixes Hispanic folklore with Evil Dead hi-jinks.

Horror fans, and even those who might not necessarily read horror, might recognize names like Stephen King and Joe Lansdale because they have built up a brand by offering up their own unique visions of horror. V. Castro has the ability to become a brand because she offers up spine-tingling stories seen through the lens of what the book’s subtitle directly calls “the Chicana experience.” She is adept at drawing on her own experiences and, through exploring folklore as well as exploring some more contemporary horrors, create something that is not only something that is truly hers, but something that reflects the horrors of women in a world that needs no supernatural entities to be threatening. Indeed, the supernatural here is an equalizer, even a method of getting vengeance. If these women are conspiring with evil supernatural forces, Castro might argue, they might just be choosing the lesser evil.

 

Coming January 25th, 2022

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.