S. Gates

3.5 stars

Alonso and Marcella are actually good together and I enjoyed their platonic relationship. Marcella's grandmother is a handful too. Bobby and Grace, as secondary characters, are interesting in their own right, but we don't spend a lot of time with them. Most of the action is in the background, since this story is centered around the relationship that develops, perhaps just a tad too quickly, between Alonso and Marcella. This does not detract from the story.

We get the main story of the cause of Alonso's amnesia through a series of flashbacks and dreams as he starts to heal from the trauma of being someone's puppet for five years. Unfortunately, this part isn't as well developed as it could have been - it's almost like the author wasn't entirely sure where they were going until late in the book. A number of threads from this lack of development are left to dangle in the wind as a result.

Why, for instance, does Alonso, a tech nerd in life, have a reputation for being a good fighter as shown when he takes down a stalker early on in the story? We're not privy to that part of his history. Nor why the Master of Atlanta wanted to control Alonso in the first place. He accuses Alonso of stealing something of his, but again, we're never told just what Alonso stole.

I do think that S. Gate has promise as a writer, and some of the rougher edges of their storytelling will smooth out with time and more practice, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here. I did enjoy the story and the characters very much. In fact, I was really disappointed that the story ended when it did because I wanted more.

There should have been a trigger warning for mentions of past trauma and rape.
Did I mention the reprehensible Leah and Brendon? Alonso's wife, Leah, convinced Brendon to make Alonso into a vampire. Alonso, an asexual who is both repulsed by and uninterested in sex, finds memories surfacing of forced interactions with Leah, much to his horror. Since he was being kept under another's thumb, Leah was more than happy to take advantage of the situation..… (mehr)

There aren't many horror authors who are willing to incorporate LGBT themes and characters in their work. Plenty are willing to pay them lip service or exploit them for a titillation factor, but few can properly develop a story around them that makes their gender or sexuality relevant, yet not the focus.

S. Gates is one of the few who can properly develop such themes, and Bodies Are Disgusting is a fantastic example. As the story starts, our protagonist is trapped in a hospital, with unsettling gaps in his memory, and a spectral strange haunting his waking moments. The horror is both creepy and atmospheric, and the uncertainty surrounding the protagonist only adds to the effect. It's clear before long that Doug is in transition, but it takes a while to understand towards which gender he is transitioning.

Part tormented game and part supernatural horror, this is a story that has elements of Lovecraft, Barker, and even Poppy Z. Brite to it. The narration here is what really makes the tale work, with Gates capitalizing on all of those elements to keep the reader guessing. You're never quite sure of anything about the story, the setting, or even the characters, as the entire world repeatedly shifts and shudders in and out of the shadows. It's something of a challenging read, requiring patience and attention from the reader, but there's nothing wrong with that. As much as we may like a little disposable simply blood-and-guts sometimes, deep, intense, thoughtful horror like Bodies Are Disgusting doesn't come along very often and deserves to be savored.


As published on Bending the Bookshelf… (mehr)