Two years ago, Demi Moore’s The Substance premiered to great acclaim, receiving nominations in multiple award categories by many different film organizations (the Oscars, the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, oh my!). The gruesome body horror caught critics’ and the public’s attention, and not for the first time. One of the most iconic body-horror stories is Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, first published in 1915 and often still required reading. If these tales of the creepy-crawly nature of bodies being transformed, maimed, and altered intrigue you, here are a few recent novels to try.
Secrets are teased out slowly in Olivie Blake’s Girl Dinner. This dark satire follows Sloane, a professor who has just returned to teaching after maternity leave, as well as serving as the new faculty advisor to the most sought-after sorority, known as the House. She’s trying to figure out how to balance these new responsibilities while having it all. Nina is a sophomore pledging to the House, knowing membership ensures power, sisterhood, and perfection. But if Sloane and Nina make it all the way to a seat at the House’s table, how much can they stomach for that level of power?
A Floridian home for pregnant girls in 1970 is the setting for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. The controlling adults running the home treat the girls poorly, isolating and stripping them of their agency. The girls must rely on each other for kindness, support, and friendship. Until one day, a bookmobile Librarian offers them “How to be a Groovy Witch,” a book that seems harmless, even offering a surprisingly effective spell for morning sickness—that is, until the magic turns darker. Author Grady Hendrix has created a novel that is both fun and fast but also shares with readers the price of creating (and destroying) life.
Wilder Girls by Rory Power is a compelling survival tale of a group of students quarantined on a small island off the coast of Maine. A disease has spread throughout the boarding school that encompasses most of the island, killing the adults. The effects of the Tox are different for each student, transforming their bodies (and the flora and fauna) in horrific, animalistic ways. It’s been 18 months, and as scientists’ vague answers to questions about what’s going on and food drop-offs from the mainland become rarer, things are escalating amongst the students. If you enjoyed Lord of the Flies by William Golding, this is the novel for you.
In a fictional European medieval castle that has been under siege for months, things are getting dicey as food stores dwindle in Caitlin Starling’s The Starving Saints. Told from the point of view of three very different protagonists, four saintly-appearing beings, with a bee-based faith, appear just in time to save the inhabitants from starvation. The feasts these saints bring are not what they appear to be and drive everyone to a bloody bacchanalian ending. While our three heroes fight against this bloody madness, they must also fight against the lure of power.
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