Zippered Flesh

by | Sep 3, 2012 | Reviews | 0 comments

If director David Cronenberg edited an anthology, this would be that book. The idea here is body horror, where ‘enhancements’, alterations, and mutations to the flesh and bone live. As you can imagine, there are a lot of gross-outs hiding between this book’s covers, so squeamish readers beware. Thankfully, Zippered Flesh offers a lot more than goopy gore, or else things would have gotten very tedious very quickly. Now there were a few disappointing stories here, but that can be said for most collections. That’s the great thing about anthologies, even if you don’t like one or two or the tales, you’re sure to find more that you really dig. For me, the clear winners of this ghastly beauty pageant are below, sharing the spotlight should you dare to get a closer look at the misshapen beauties.

“Bootstrap – The Binds of Lasolastica” by Michael Bailey is a great way to start the book, even if it does tend to get a bit bogged down at times with Star Trek like technobabble. Still, such diversions into hard science/science fiction do not deter from a great story about trying to find a digital answer to the question of immortality. The funny/scary thing is that someone is really looking into doing stuff like this right now.

“Sex Object” by Graham Masterton is one of the most eeewwwww-worthy stories in this book, and considering the rest of the tales here, that’s saying something. This one is about a trophy wife desperate to hang on to her meal ticket hubby, so she goes to the extreme to give him what he thinks he wants in a perfect woman.

If the story above is one of the ickiest, then “Hearing Mildred” by editor/author Wheldon Burge is one of the most charming and funny. It’s a sad yet often cute tale of what happens to an elderly couple when one of the pair dies, and yet the remaining one can still hear the other even after death.

Back to the truly disturbing. “Comfort” by Charles Colyott is about a momma’s boy so deeply devoted that he would give Norman Bates a run for his mommy, er, money.  It’s about a man living with his morbidly obese mother who sacrifices everything for her, and where that inevitably leads.

“Sawbones” by L.L. Soares is about an assassin who gets bored with just killing people the old fashioned way, so he goes to a specialist to get a little body work done so he can liven up his murdering. You know, really enjoy the experience.

There are other warped winners to be found here, but these five were my freaky favorites by far. But with twenty stories to choose from, I’m sure you’ll discover your own deformed darlings in no time. For those with strong stomachs who are looking for something different and weird, Zipper Flesh will scratch that itch for you nicely. You might just have to get some antibiotics afterward.

About Brian Sammons