Mangled Meat is a flesh / meat / mind kicking flavored novella
containing three short stories from Edward Lee who is pretty much synonymous with
gut churning literature and believe me, in his hands it can go anywhere and beyond
that as well... that’s why we love him so much right, for his bravery to take
it out there. He reminds me Richard Laymon; one of THE horror’s greatest and
greatly missed since he’s no longer with us.
3 out of 5 skulls
Story #1 - I adore his stuff but that said the first story, The Decortication Technician did nothing for me, I would have omitted it from this book entirely and still had a good read with the rest, it made me curious with nothing really in the end, perhaps a future re-read will give me insight but for now it’s a zero! It was so space-agey that it had no soul and without a soul to tarnish how can it seduce? I love math and science as any deep geek but this was a leftover rain puddle story wise, missed its mark in my opinion. This was about an alien discovery and uncovering its secrets layer by layer, trying to blast through its armored suit, but it was all wait and no honey, an empty tree hole from Lee, boo!
Story #2 - The
Cyesolagniac deals with a guy who is very sharp and clever but has a fetish
for pregnant chicks, he doesn’t mean any harm but his hot evening doesn’t quite
turn out as he thought…The name itself is meant to twist the reader before he /
she even gets to the meat, seriously Lee, you want me to get all hot and
bothered by some Bermuda Triangle spelling bee style here? lol… that’s what
this feels like, but the tale had a snap to it, I was sort of squeamish before
anything even happened since it’s a very delicate topic but the end gave the
guy a kick. Well done, very tricky!
#3 is Room 415 is like Rear Window with heavy smut style, a
guy witnesses a rather weird exchange between a very sexy woman and some men across
from his window and realizes that he has came across something dark and extremely
perverse yet he can’t stand to look away or help for the woman by calling for
help… her well being is 2nd on his mind and way beyond the intense
cloud he’s caught in, a real conscience stirrer for someone bad like the guy
watching who needs a lot of help for what gives him release. Soon he’s caught
up in something that he can’t control and abandon because his pleasure is too
dependent on it.
This was a cool little batch of stories about humans or rather what we are once churned through the word grinder; flesh, meat, protein, electricity with our conscience as it makes the game higher when you mess with it, this wasn’t perfect because the first story was so alien but these are all very well written, I think that’s the beauty of Lee’s work, he is such a craftsman, so clear and immaculate in the delivery, he has a real gift when it comes to writing books and his stuff is pretty bad in a good way :P Not perfect but still a fun read and a nice addition to my horror library.
- Kasia S.
I know this is a bare bottoms post but January has just started, let's see what happens this year, lots of good reads I hope :)
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