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Zippered Flesh 2
So, you loved the first ZIPPERED FLESH anthology? Well, here are yet more tales of body enhancements that have gone horribly wrong! Steroids from Hell. Horrendous piercings. Bizarre brain modifications. Obscene amputations. Facial reconstruction. Self-mutilation. Implants. Chilling tales by some of the best horror and suspense writers today, determined to keep you fearful all night (and skittish during the day).
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2013
About the author
Weldon Burge
41 books64 followersWeldon Burge, a native of Delaware, is the author of the Ezekiel Marrs thriller series published by Smart Rhino Publications. HARVESTER OF SORROW is the first novel in the series. Weldon is also a freelance writer and publisher. His fiction has appeared in many publications, including various magazines and anthologies (Crimeucopia, The Best of the Horror Society 2013, Pellucid Lunacy: An Anthology of Psychological Horror, Ghosts and Demons, just to name a few). His stories have also been adapted for podcast presentation by Drabblecast. He was a frequent writer for Suspense Magazine, often writing author interviews.
In 2012, Weldon and his wife, Cindy, founded Smart Rhino Publications, an indie publishing company focusing primarily on horror and suspense/thriller books. To date, the company has published 17 books, primarily anthologies.
You can sign up to receive his e-letter at https://landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...
In 2012, Weldon and his wife, Cindy, founded Smart Rhino Publications, an indie publishing company focusing primarily on horror and suspense/thriller books. To date, the company has published 17 books, primarily anthologies.
You can sign up to receive his e-letter at https://landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 9, 2013
I read the first Zippered Flesh collection and thought it was okay. In that one, there were twenty stories and I thought half were really good and the other half were okay. This time around, Weldon Burge must have decided to do something different, maybe he called in some favors, because this collection is amazing! There is one great story after another, with very few that miss the mark, if any at all. He was especially smart with the choosing the first few books at the beginning, and those that appear at the end because it opens and ends with a bang, like a great book should. Bryan Hall's The Modern Adonis, Shaun Meeks' Taut and Lisa Manetti's The Hunger Artist really get you in the right mood, while Michael Bailey's Primal Tongue leaves you wanting more.
My favorite stories in the collection would have to be Lisa Manetti's The Hunger Artist, Christian A. Larsen's The Little Things, L.L. Soares' Seed, Michael Bailey's Primal Tongue, but the best of them all in my humble opinion ins Shaun Meeks' Taut. The story he gives is a simple, yet effective story with great pacing, tension and horror to spare.
This book is highly recommended to anyone that loves horror or wants to see redemption for the first collection.
My favorite stories in the collection would have to be Lisa Manetti's The Hunger Artist, Christian A. Larsen's The Little Things, L.L. Soares' Seed, Michael Bailey's Primal Tongue, but the best of them all in my humble opinion ins Shaun Meeks' Taut. The story he gives is a simple, yet effective story with great pacing, tension and horror to spare.
This book is highly recommended to anyone that loves horror or wants to see redemption for the first collection.
April 12, 2013
After reading this book, I am so happy that I was able to include one of my stories in here. This anthology is full of some truly talented writers and some very original stories. Usually when I read an anthology or a collection I hit a story or two that just doesn't appeal to me, or doesn't click and I skim over it. Not so here. I read and enjoyed every single tale woven here. I have some favorites, like Lisa Mannetti's The Hunger Artist, M.L. Roos' After Darque, JM Reinbold's The Future of Flesh, L.L. Soares' Seeds Christian A. Larsen's The Little Things and Kealan Patrick Burke's Underneath. But in all honesty, I would gladly read every story in this one over again. Highly recommend this.
September 15, 2013
Horror literature, like everything else, has changed radically since the boom of 1980s. That’s probably a good thing because if something doesn’t change and evolve, it dies. Perhaps it may be an oversimplification in the wake of things like “Twilight” and the entire “Urban Fantasy” genre to say that most of today’s horror writers are more influenced by Clive Barker and the “Splatter Punk” movement of the late 1980s than by Stephan King, Dan Simmons, Peter Straub, and the like, who tended to be more suggestive than visceral. (Although, back then, if I would have made such a statement about Stephen King I would have been carted off as a loony.)
Today’s hard-core horror fans have mostly embraced the “Slasher” Flicks that many of us so loathed and despised back in the day. Sure, there were a couple of exceptions like Halloween and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre that were pretty good, but formulaic stuff like Friday the 13th, the Saint Vitus Dance Murders and the Saint Swithen’s Day Massacre and their ilk produced waves of nausea in cats like me who were into “the Shining.” It wasn’t just the gore. It was the recurrent themes – not intentionally placed there, I wager, but repeated by rote by formulaic story tellers imitating the last successful model: “Have Sex and Die,” “Only the strong survive,” “If a girl gets uppity and starts doing things on her own, well she’ll get what’s coming to her.” You know the drill. Shortly after the arrival of Barker – who is an enormously talented writer and story teller, don’t get me wrong - the “Splatterpunk” crew showed up and announced that there were no boundaries. Twilight Zone Magazine folded, Stephen King had an accident and (for awhile) lost his groove, and the horror market shrank to an insignificant corner of the market frequented only by the most bloody faithful.
Although I appreciated the talent of individual writers within the movement, I didn’t like “Splatterpunk.” I’ve never cared for violence and gore as an end in itself, and so Clive and the crew weren’t always my (body) bag. I didn’t like the uniformly grim vision of the world offered by a total immersion into a character’s debauchery. I understand that bad things happen to people, things they have no control over, but having “old school” ideas on the purpose of drama and literature, I felt that a story should be ABOUT something -- and not just a dumb show parade of scares, sex and “suspense.” Sometimes the protagonist of the story should be offered a choice so the story doesn’t necessarily HAVE to go down the dark path to the character’s eventual destruction. That way the story means something. The choice should be there, whether the main character sees it or not, chooses it or not, is another issue. Finally, in the late ‘80s and the early ‘90s, I grew bored reading about deviants and sensualists and like a lot of people, stopped reading horror.
But the world changes. A new generation has come along, many of them rabidly, obsessively, against any kind of “message” in the medium who look at literature and film as a kind of drug. They want their fix of fast paced gore and are not interested in some old “hippie” telling them what it all means. (“I think they get all high minded and critical just so we ordinary people can’t enjoy it,” someone said of a recent documentary on Stephen King.) Mix some of these rabid preconceptions about the purpose of literature with the changes in the industry and you have a REAL mess. There are now thousands of people out in the independent frontier writing horror fiction. Some of it is certainly, willfully, obsessively, “life has no meaning and we are all doomed and damned,” dark posturing. Reading it is like listening to post heavy metal groups like “Pantera. No room for characterization or profound intellectual choices there. Just four beats per measure, oh this is dark and nasty and now let’s move onto the next guitar solo.
Actually, those guitar solos were pretty good. RIP, Dimebag.
What we have here, is a collection of mostly independent writers tapping into the darkside, all writing on the Barkeresque theme of “body enhancements gone bad”, surgically, chemically, whatever. It’s also the second of the series, which isn’t a promising start for the newcomer. One initially assumes that all of the good stuff was used up in the first anthology and what we’re stuck with here are bloody, splatter happy, intellectually wonting remainders.
Wrong, wrong, dead wrong, all wrong, and let’s start again.
“Zippered Flesh 2” turns out to be a jaw-droppingly fine collection of stories. I won’t tell you that everyone is a masterpiece. I won’t tell you there aren’t a couple of predictable clinkers and some that go for the gore and debauchery as an end itself. What I will tell you is that overall the writing is of a very high caliber. A glance through the author information at the end of the book reveals a cadre of extremely talented, experienced people. Editor Weldon Burge has done a remarkable job of finding a variety of approaches to what could have been an exercise in blood thirsty tedium.
Highlights include:
“Hunger Artist” by Lisa Monetti – a stand out story about turn of the century, medical quackery, political influence and its ramifications in the present day. This one is disturbing because those particular human monsters were out there, for real, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Piper at the Gates” by W.E. Benton, is a thoroughly modern and gruesome variation on the Lovecraftian “glimpse of another, terrifying dimension” theme. It’s gory and “in your face,” but the characterizations are effective. I would suggest that this is the strongest story in the collection, but comparisons are irrelevant and wrong-headed. This isn’t a beauty pageant where everyone has to wear the same swimsuit.
“Underneath.” By Kealan Patrick Burke is a disturbing story of high school romance gone wrong. I’m not quite sure the twist at the end was properly foreshadowed, but that’s a minor quibble. The horror works on a deep, psychological level because your preconceptions are challenged, as they should be. This one will leave you thinking about it and if you can relate to the nerdy, lonely and emasculated protagonist, it will leave you depressed because of the underlying honesty of the character’s motivations. No Hollywood gloss on the tales in this book. No sir, no ma’am.
“Taut” Shaun Meeks offers a nasty piece of work that successfully blends the past and present tense narrative styles much less confusingly than many others who have tried the gambit. In this particular case the main character has made her choice about life styles sometime in the past and now, even if undeservedly, it catches up with her. (My what a pickle an anxious boyfriend can talk you into!) Chilling and memorable.
“The Sun Snake” by Christine Morgan is Historical Horror, which I found fascinating for its well-researched background. I probably shouldn’t have liked it as much as I did because the central flaw of the story is pretty obvious. It’s what Howard Hawks said about his movie about ancient Egypt, “The Land of the Pharaohs.” “Nobody really knows how the ancient Egyptians talked. We don’t know who they really were.” Same with ancient, South American civilizations, but the story fits the overall theme of the collection, has some gruesome moments and leaves you thinking. Thumbs up and kudos for giving a difficult subject the old college try.
“The Perfect Size” by AP. Sessler; “Knowledge” by Kate Monroe; “We’re All Mad Here” by E.A. Black; “Seeds” by L.L. Soar and “Prosthetics” by Daniel I Russell – a tale that somehow reminds me Arch Obler’s great, old radio program of shockers “Lights Out,” - are all good reading. There’s more. “Perfection” by Doug Blaneslee has a wacky, 1930’s pulp fiction adventure feel to it. Actually, I kind of liked it and wouldn’t mind reading more. I just didn’t know what it was doing in a horror anthology. (Maybe “Masked Vigilante Monthly” passed on it? You never know.)
A couple stories go on way too long (like this review,) as if they were made up on the spot, and there were a couple that just didn’t appeal to me for whatever reason. There’s a reworking, or “slightly different take” on “Pet Semetary,” a possible explanation for the “Zombie Apocalypse,” and “Rapture,” about a fading horror movie star and his writer who descend into surrealistic, Clive Barker style depravity. “Rapture” is actually pretty good for what it is.
Which brings us, finally, to “Affair of the Jade Dragon.” By Rick Hudson.
Other than an installment of abandoned, novel/blog “The Velvet Marauder,” by Dave Campbell, the loathed (but rather likeable) film “Van Helsing,” and the film version of “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” I don’t have any experience with Steampunk. I do not know what the strictures of the form entail other than the obvious, physical sense of style. Frankly, I’m starting to stay away from hip trends, especially anything with “punk” in it.
I believe that “Affair of the Jade Dragon” is a current, horrific leaning, example of Steampunk. It’s an alternate reality rendering of a famous literary hero’s demise. As well written as it is, as clever as it is in it’s variations and use of Steampunk conventions, “The Affair of the Jade Dragon” was essentially about the demise of a hero. The good guys lose. The bad guys win and the overall effect is not unlike the “super heroine demise” fad infesting porno sites a while ago. (I assume that fad passed. I hope it has. I really don’t keep up with these things.) The formula is the same. The hero/heroine, blinded by his/her own arrogance stumbles into something he/she can’t handle and dies a slow, humiliating death.) Watching the main character thrash about helplessly provides the entertainment. To me it’s like watching a snuff film, or rooting for the serial killer in “Silence of the Lambs.” No thanks. There ARE limits.
I thought Gahan Wilson handled the theme much more effectively back in 1967 with “The Power of the Mandarin,” but of course, that story didn’t have the cool Steampunk trappings and Wilson openly mocked himself for taking the story where it went. Although Wilson creates a bit of a Fu Manchu pastiche as the basis of his story, he also acknowledges Sax Rhomer’s world as a separate reality. There are similarities and the effect is the same as “Affair of the Jade Dragon,” but Rhomer’s characters aren’t (probably unintentionally) turned into a death porno experience. “The Power of the Mandarin” ends with a laugh – a sick laugh, but a laugh.
On a primal, emotional level, I found “Affair of the Jade Dragon” repugnant.
Intellectually?
Well, a good story - or anthology of stories - especially in the horror genre, isn’t about affirmation, telling you what you want to hear about right and wrong, good and evil. A good horror story comes up on you from behind, drags you off to an abandoned cellar and forces you to re-evaluate what you think you know. In this respect, “Affair of the Jade Dragon” – like the entire Zippered Flesh 2 Anthology - meets the criteria brilliantly.
So, in spite of a few caveats about individual stories, - and maybe even because of them – I strongly recommend this anthology, especially if you want a good, overall primer of what’s happening in the horror field TODAY. “Zippered Flesh 2” provides you with 22 tales of stimulating and challenging if “wet and messy” reading.
Four Stars.
Today’s hard-core horror fans have mostly embraced the “Slasher” Flicks that many of us so loathed and despised back in the day. Sure, there were a couple of exceptions like Halloween and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre that were pretty good, but formulaic stuff like Friday the 13th, the Saint Vitus Dance Murders and the Saint Swithen’s Day Massacre and their ilk produced waves of nausea in cats like me who were into “the Shining.” It wasn’t just the gore. It was the recurrent themes – not intentionally placed there, I wager, but repeated by rote by formulaic story tellers imitating the last successful model: “Have Sex and Die,” “Only the strong survive,” “If a girl gets uppity and starts doing things on her own, well she’ll get what’s coming to her.” You know the drill. Shortly after the arrival of Barker – who is an enormously talented writer and story teller, don’t get me wrong - the “Splatterpunk” crew showed up and announced that there were no boundaries. Twilight Zone Magazine folded, Stephen King had an accident and (for awhile) lost his groove, and the horror market shrank to an insignificant corner of the market frequented only by the most bloody faithful.
Although I appreciated the talent of individual writers within the movement, I didn’t like “Splatterpunk.” I’ve never cared for violence and gore as an end in itself, and so Clive and the crew weren’t always my (body) bag. I didn’t like the uniformly grim vision of the world offered by a total immersion into a character’s debauchery. I understand that bad things happen to people, things they have no control over, but having “old school” ideas on the purpose of drama and literature, I felt that a story should be ABOUT something -- and not just a dumb show parade of scares, sex and “suspense.” Sometimes the protagonist of the story should be offered a choice so the story doesn’t necessarily HAVE to go down the dark path to the character’s eventual destruction. That way the story means something. The choice should be there, whether the main character sees it or not, chooses it or not, is another issue. Finally, in the late ‘80s and the early ‘90s, I grew bored reading about deviants and sensualists and like a lot of people, stopped reading horror.
But the world changes. A new generation has come along, many of them rabidly, obsessively, against any kind of “message” in the medium who look at literature and film as a kind of drug. They want their fix of fast paced gore and are not interested in some old “hippie” telling them what it all means. (“I think they get all high minded and critical just so we ordinary people can’t enjoy it,” someone said of a recent documentary on Stephen King.) Mix some of these rabid preconceptions about the purpose of literature with the changes in the industry and you have a REAL mess. There are now thousands of people out in the independent frontier writing horror fiction. Some of it is certainly, willfully, obsessively, “life has no meaning and we are all doomed and damned,” dark posturing. Reading it is like listening to post heavy metal groups like “Pantera. No room for characterization or profound intellectual choices there. Just four beats per measure, oh this is dark and nasty and now let’s move onto the next guitar solo.
Actually, those guitar solos were pretty good. RIP, Dimebag.
What we have here, is a collection of mostly independent writers tapping into the darkside, all writing on the Barkeresque theme of “body enhancements gone bad”, surgically, chemically, whatever. It’s also the second of the series, which isn’t a promising start for the newcomer. One initially assumes that all of the good stuff was used up in the first anthology and what we’re stuck with here are bloody, splatter happy, intellectually wonting remainders.
Wrong, wrong, dead wrong, all wrong, and let’s start again.
“Zippered Flesh 2” turns out to be a jaw-droppingly fine collection of stories. I won’t tell you that everyone is a masterpiece. I won’t tell you there aren’t a couple of predictable clinkers and some that go for the gore and debauchery as an end itself. What I will tell you is that overall the writing is of a very high caliber. A glance through the author information at the end of the book reveals a cadre of extremely talented, experienced people. Editor Weldon Burge has done a remarkable job of finding a variety of approaches to what could have been an exercise in blood thirsty tedium.
Highlights include:
“Hunger Artist” by Lisa Monetti – a stand out story about turn of the century, medical quackery, political influence and its ramifications in the present day. This one is disturbing because those particular human monsters were out there, for real, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Piper at the Gates” by W.E. Benton, is a thoroughly modern and gruesome variation on the Lovecraftian “glimpse of another, terrifying dimension” theme. It’s gory and “in your face,” but the characterizations are effective. I would suggest that this is the strongest story in the collection, but comparisons are irrelevant and wrong-headed. This isn’t a beauty pageant where everyone has to wear the same swimsuit.
“Underneath.” By Kealan Patrick Burke is a disturbing story of high school romance gone wrong. I’m not quite sure the twist at the end was properly foreshadowed, but that’s a minor quibble. The horror works on a deep, psychological level because your preconceptions are challenged, as they should be. This one will leave you thinking about it and if you can relate to the nerdy, lonely and emasculated protagonist, it will leave you depressed because of the underlying honesty of the character’s motivations. No Hollywood gloss on the tales in this book. No sir, no ma’am.
“Taut” Shaun Meeks offers a nasty piece of work that successfully blends the past and present tense narrative styles much less confusingly than many others who have tried the gambit. In this particular case the main character has made her choice about life styles sometime in the past and now, even if undeservedly, it catches up with her. (My what a pickle an anxious boyfriend can talk you into!) Chilling and memorable.
“The Sun Snake” by Christine Morgan is Historical Horror, which I found fascinating for its well-researched background. I probably shouldn’t have liked it as much as I did because the central flaw of the story is pretty obvious. It’s what Howard Hawks said about his movie about ancient Egypt, “The Land of the Pharaohs.” “Nobody really knows how the ancient Egyptians talked. We don’t know who they really were.” Same with ancient, South American civilizations, but the story fits the overall theme of the collection, has some gruesome moments and leaves you thinking. Thumbs up and kudos for giving a difficult subject the old college try.
“The Perfect Size” by AP. Sessler; “Knowledge” by Kate Monroe; “We’re All Mad Here” by E.A. Black; “Seeds” by L.L. Soar and “Prosthetics” by Daniel I Russell – a tale that somehow reminds me Arch Obler’s great, old radio program of shockers “Lights Out,” - are all good reading. There’s more. “Perfection” by Doug Blaneslee has a wacky, 1930’s pulp fiction adventure feel to it. Actually, I kind of liked it and wouldn’t mind reading more. I just didn’t know what it was doing in a horror anthology. (Maybe “Masked Vigilante Monthly” passed on it? You never know.)
A couple stories go on way too long (like this review,) as if they were made up on the spot, and there were a couple that just didn’t appeal to me for whatever reason. There’s a reworking, or “slightly different take” on “Pet Semetary,” a possible explanation for the “Zombie Apocalypse,” and “Rapture,” about a fading horror movie star and his writer who descend into surrealistic, Clive Barker style depravity. “Rapture” is actually pretty good for what it is.
Which brings us, finally, to “Affair of the Jade Dragon.” By Rick Hudson.
Other than an installment of abandoned, novel/blog “The Velvet Marauder,” by Dave Campbell, the loathed (but rather likeable) film “Van Helsing,” and the film version of “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” I don’t have any experience with Steampunk. I do not know what the strictures of the form entail other than the obvious, physical sense of style. Frankly, I’m starting to stay away from hip trends, especially anything with “punk” in it.
I believe that “Affair of the Jade Dragon” is a current, horrific leaning, example of Steampunk. It’s an alternate reality rendering of a famous literary hero’s demise. As well written as it is, as clever as it is in it’s variations and use of Steampunk conventions, “The Affair of the Jade Dragon” was essentially about the demise of a hero. The good guys lose. The bad guys win and the overall effect is not unlike the “super heroine demise” fad infesting porno sites a while ago. (I assume that fad passed. I hope it has. I really don’t keep up with these things.) The formula is the same. The hero/heroine, blinded by his/her own arrogance stumbles into something he/she can’t handle and dies a slow, humiliating death.) Watching the main character thrash about helplessly provides the entertainment. To me it’s like watching a snuff film, or rooting for the serial killer in “Silence of the Lambs.” No thanks. There ARE limits.
I thought Gahan Wilson handled the theme much more effectively back in 1967 with “The Power of the Mandarin,” but of course, that story didn’t have the cool Steampunk trappings and Wilson openly mocked himself for taking the story where it went. Although Wilson creates a bit of a Fu Manchu pastiche as the basis of his story, he also acknowledges Sax Rhomer’s world as a separate reality. There are similarities and the effect is the same as “Affair of the Jade Dragon,” but Rhomer’s characters aren’t (probably unintentionally) turned into a death porno experience. “The Power of the Mandarin” ends with a laugh – a sick laugh, but a laugh.
On a primal, emotional level, I found “Affair of the Jade Dragon” repugnant.
Intellectually?
Well, a good story - or anthology of stories - especially in the horror genre, isn’t about affirmation, telling you what you want to hear about right and wrong, good and evil. A good horror story comes up on you from behind, drags you off to an abandoned cellar and forces you to re-evaluate what you think you know. In this respect, “Affair of the Jade Dragon” – like the entire Zippered Flesh 2 Anthology - meets the criteria brilliantly.
So, in spite of a few caveats about individual stories, - and maybe even because of them – I strongly recommend this anthology, especially if you want a good, overall primer of what’s happening in the horror field TODAY. “Zippered Flesh 2” provides you with 22 tales of stimulating and challenging if “wet and messy” reading.
Four Stars.
March 7, 2013
Having enjoyed the first anthology of twisted tales of body enhancement I approached this volume with great anticipation. I can report that is it also a wonderful collection of diverse and gripping tales which for my money surpasses the first. An excellent collection of stories which I heartily recommend.
June 3, 2013
I recently had the pleasure of reading several unique anthologies that have been published by presses new to me. One of these presses is Smart Rhino Publications, a small publishing firm based in Delaware. Although they are small, they have some excellent titles. One of these is ZIPPERED FLESH 2: MORE TALES OF BODY ENHANCEMENTS GONE BAD! This collection of stories almost defies normal classification; within these tales are horrors and wonders that you must read to believe. In short, this is one hell of an anthology!
This is definitely not a collection for the faint of heart! But the talent in this book is very impressive. I have to admit that I have never heard of many of these authors, but I definitely want to check out more of their work. Each author brings a unique perspective to the subject matter, making this collection a must-have for fans of horror and bizarre tales.
And ‘unique’ is an excellent way to describe this book. The stories in ZIPPERED FLESH 2 are not traditional by any means; these are true tales of the original. From piercings to amputations, these stories will definitely stick out in your mind long after you have finished them.
One of my favorite stories in the book is “The Sun-snake” by Christine Morgan. In this tale, an ancient civilization “honors” the winner of a competition by transforming him into the Sun-snake, their embodied god. This is achieved by several gruesome surgeries that bind his legs together. I particularly like this story because of the vivid imagery involved. Morgan does an amazing job of conveying the scene and the images from this one will haunt me for a long time.
ZIPPERED FLESH 2 is a big win for me and is a book that definitely needs to be on your horror bookshelf. It is available now, so give it a look.
This is definitely not a collection for the faint of heart! But the talent in this book is very impressive. I have to admit that I have never heard of many of these authors, but I definitely want to check out more of their work. Each author brings a unique perspective to the subject matter, making this collection a must-have for fans of horror and bizarre tales.
And ‘unique’ is an excellent way to describe this book. The stories in ZIPPERED FLESH 2 are not traditional by any means; these are true tales of the original. From piercings to amputations, these stories will definitely stick out in your mind long after you have finished them.
One of my favorite stories in the book is “The Sun-snake” by Christine Morgan. In this tale, an ancient civilization “honors” the winner of a competition by transforming him into the Sun-snake, their embodied god. This is achieved by several gruesome surgeries that bind his legs together. I particularly like this story because of the vivid imagery involved. Morgan does an amazing job of conveying the scene and the images from this one will haunt me for a long time.
ZIPPERED FLESH 2 is a big win for me and is a book that definitely needs to be on your horror bookshelf. It is available now, so give it a look.
April 19, 2013
After having read Zippered Flesh Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad! my first thought was damn, I wish I was in there. Tale after thought provoking tale of body damage, body modifications, body trauma all for the sake of obscure thought patterns in the brain.
When Zippered Flesh 2 came out, I leaped at the chance to be a part of an extraordinary work. I was lucky to be selected as one of the authors in ZF2 and I was not disappointed to be recognized among such incredible talent as Shaun Meeks TAUT, Carson Buckingham SKIN DEEP, Joanne Reinbold THE FUTURE OF FLESH, E.A. Black WE'RE ALL MAD HERE, Jonathan Templar BABYDADDY, Chris Larson THE LITTLE THINGS and Shaun Jeffrey CLOCKWORK. These were my absolute favourites.
Each story is a treat, not a weak one in the bunch. So very proud to be a part of this fine work.
When Zippered Flesh 2 came out, I leaped at the chance to be a part of an extraordinary work. I was lucky to be selected as one of the authors in ZF2 and I was not disappointed to be recognized among such incredible talent as Shaun Meeks TAUT, Carson Buckingham SKIN DEEP, Joanne Reinbold THE FUTURE OF FLESH, E.A. Black WE'RE ALL MAD HERE, Jonathan Templar BABYDADDY, Chris Larson THE LITTLE THINGS and Shaun Jeffrey CLOCKWORK. These were my absolute favourites.
Each story is a treat, not a weak one in the bunch. So very proud to be a part of this fine work.
November 20, 2013
In Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino and editor Weldon Burge offer stories about alterations to the body, the lengths that people will go to in pursuit of their ideas of perfection, and the terrible changes that they will inflict upon themselves and others. Unlike many small press offerings, it’s a meaty volume, with 22 stories filling nearly 300 pages. It features creepy and appropriate cover art by Shelley Everitt Bergen of Groundfrost Illustration and Design. The print version is nicely formatted and copy-edited, making it a better-than-average product compared to other small publishers.
Thematically, the anthology brings to mind artists such as David Cronenberg, J. G. Ballard, Brian Yuzna, Clive Barker, and Stuart Gordon. Body horror is not new by any stretch, but as science increasingly dispels the supernatural and more people turn away from the spiritual, the body becomes a more important psychological landscape. Threaten my non-existent soul and I will laugh. Threaten my bodily integrity and you have my attention.
At its best, body horror is more than just the shock of the grotesque, a la Tom Six, but tells us about the characters who use the body as a canvas for whatever unique artistic vision or psychopathology drives them. It explores identity and wholeness in ways that other genres do not. How much can your body change before you are a different person altogether? How deeply can you inhabit another’s flesh before you become them. The terrible beauty of body horror is that it doesn’t simply end. When you encounter Jason Voorhees, your suffering is nearly over. The horrors inflicted on the characters of Zippered Flesh 2 can endure for a long and twisted lifetime, which gives them power.
In some ways, the volume is not as shocking or disturbing as I expected, but that may just be me. I’ve worked with self-mutilators professionally and have always been interested in body modification. I still own a copy of Vale & Juno’s RE/Search: Modern Primitives, one of the first publications to really examine the resurgence of body modification as anything more than a passing fad or freak show. However, because the stories are so focused on the embodiment of horror it is easy to allow them to affect you. We all know the pain of needles, dissatisfactions with the image reflected in the mirror, and the betrayals our bodies inflict upon us. These stories capitalize on these basic experiences, often to great effect.
The quality of the writing is fairly consistent throughout, and above-average for a market that pays token rates. The anthology includes a mix of new and established writers, including some award-winners with national profiles. Overall, I think the collection is stronger than Zippered Flesh 1, and readers who enjoyed any of the stories from that volume should be very pleased by the follow-up effort. I would have liked more attention to the psychological in the series; it is the anticipation of the shot, not the sting that hurts. The stronger pieces in the volume let us inside the skin of the characters instead of stopping at the surface. In several, the protagonist is simply the unwilling victim of a Frankenstein-like mad scientist, which makes sense given the theme of the volume, but too many in close proximity lessons the impact of each. Likewise, although vanity is probably the motivation behind most body modification in real life, I would have enjoyed more psychological diversity in the characters. There are so many ways that the body can be manipulated, and for so many reasons. The subject matter means that Zippered Flesh 2 will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Body horror can freak people out in ways that other genres may not; it can be too personal. But if you like your terrors physical, this anthology has a lot to offer, and I hope that Zippered Flesh 3 will follow.
[Originally published on Hellnotes.com]
Thematically, the anthology brings to mind artists such as David Cronenberg, J. G. Ballard, Brian Yuzna, Clive Barker, and Stuart Gordon. Body horror is not new by any stretch, but as science increasingly dispels the supernatural and more people turn away from the spiritual, the body becomes a more important psychological landscape. Threaten my non-existent soul and I will laugh. Threaten my bodily integrity and you have my attention.
At its best, body horror is more than just the shock of the grotesque, a la Tom Six, but tells us about the characters who use the body as a canvas for whatever unique artistic vision or psychopathology drives them. It explores identity and wholeness in ways that other genres do not. How much can your body change before you are a different person altogether? How deeply can you inhabit another’s flesh before you become them. The terrible beauty of body horror is that it doesn’t simply end. When you encounter Jason Voorhees, your suffering is nearly over. The horrors inflicted on the characters of Zippered Flesh 2 can endure for a long and twisted lifetime, which gives them power.
In some ways, the volume is not as shocking or disturbing as I expected, but that may just be me. I’ve worked with self-mutilators professionally and have always been interested in body modification. I still own a copy of Vale & Juno’s RE/Search: Modern Primitives, one of the first publications to really examine the resurgence of body modification as anything more than a passing fad or freak show. However, because the stories are so focused on the embodiment of horror it is easy to allow them to affect you. We all know the pain of needles, dissatisfactions with the image reflected in the mirror, and the betrayals our bodies inflict upon us. These stories capitalize on these basic experiences, often to great effect.
The quality of the writing is fairly consistent throughout, and above-average for a market that pays token rates. The anthology includes a mix of new and established writers, including some award-winners with national profiles. Overall, I think the collection is stronger than Zippered Flesh 1, and readers who enjoyed any of the stories from that volume should be very pleased by the follow-up effort. I would have liked more attention to the psychological in the series; it is the anticipation of the shot, not the sting that hurts. The stronger pieces in the volume let us inside the skin of the characters instead of stopping at the surface. In several, the protagonist is simply the unwilling victim of a Frankenstein-like mad scientist, which makes sense given the theme of the volume, but too many in close proximity lessons the impact of each. Likewise, although vanity is probably the motivation behind most body modification in real life, I would have enjoyed more psychological diversity in the characters. There are so many ways that the body can be manipulated, and for so many reasons. The subject matter means that Zippered Flesh 2 will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Body horror can freak people out in ways that other genres may not; it can be too personal. But if you like your terrors physical, this anthology has a lot to offer, and I hope that Zippered Flesh 3 will follow.
[Originally published on Hellnotes.com]
August 23, 2014
My opinion may be bias since I created the cover art for this amazing anthology. That said... I highly recommend Zippered Flesh 2: Body Enhancements Gone Bad, as well as Zippered Flesh 1. You may want to leave the lights on for this read!!
May 4, 2013
Not every story was a hit, but it was still entertaining and interesting.
January 7, 2014
Again I demonstrate the might of my literary prowess in this collection of short stories all based around the theme of body enhancement. I have often been asked by my readers (well the voices that sing between stations on the radio) to write a story about a steampunk Holmesian adventurer with cybernetic cerebral implants who battles with the nefarious forces of London's underworld, and in this yarn I satisfy their eager demand.
April 12, 2013
Make sure you read the end...
December 24, 2013
Another nice collection of horror stories, with "Taut" being the most impressive and "The Sun-Snake" a close second.
Unfortunately, just about all the rest were just about average, which pulled my rating to a three. Still, many interesting distractions for many lunch breaks :-)
Unfortunately, just about all the rest were just about average, which pulled my rating to a three. Still, many interesting distractions for many lunch breaks :-)
January 22, 2015
A great anthology. Read this last year and recently recommended it to a few friends that I know can handle this type of horror. There are some real gems in here, especially in the first half. This will make your skin crawl.
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