A Darker Shade of Noir

July 31, 2023
For this chilling anthology, Oates (Extenuating Circumstances) brings together 15 stories exploring body horror through women’s experiences. In Aimee Bender’s “Frank Jones,” an office loner creates a tiny golem from her own shed skin tags that helps maintain the boundaries between herself and her horrified coworkers, while in Joanna Margaret’s “Malena” an art student gives life to her own “parasitic twin.” Margaret Atwood’s “Metempsychosis, or the Journey of the Soul” is concerned with the soul of a slain snail that possesses the brain of a bank employee, creating a snail-human hybrid consciousness that struggles to adapt to modern life. “Dancing” by Tananarive Due, one of the collection’s standouts, follows a woman who, upon the death of the grandmother she’s spent two decades caring for, loses control of her body in fits of unruly dancing. Oates has a broad take on the body horror subgenre, and while some stories use the anthology’s premise to devastating advantage, others don’t quite fit the bill, including “Scarlet Ribbons” by Megan Abbott and “Breathing Exercises” by Raven Leilani. Still, the thematic probe into bodily autonomy makes this a must-read for fans of feminist horror. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc.