Fabulous Bodies
Author: Chuck Tingle
Genre: Horror, Dark Comedy, Queer Fiction
Format: ALC
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 stars)
Synopsis
Poppy Stringer lives a rather unusual double life.
By day, she's a fashion influencer.
By night, she takes on jobs that most people would never even consider; grave robbing, recovering valuables from the dead, and other shady gigs that help keep a roof over her and her daughter's heads.
When she's offered an unbelievable amount of money to steal the body of recently deceased rockstar Eddie Michaels, the job seems too good to refuse.
There's just one problem.
Eddie isn't exactly... dead anymore.
What follows is a blood-soaked, supernatural night full of chaos, carnage, and increasingly bizarre events that send Poppy's simple retrieval mission completely off the rails.
My Thoughts
I have absolutely no idea how to explain this book.
And I mean that as a compliment.
Fabulous Bodies is one of those stories where the less you know going in, the better. The premise is already wonderfully absurd, but once the story gets moving, it somehow becomes even stranger; in the best possible way.
Poppy immediately won me over as a protagonist.
Despite her rather unconventional career choices, she's surprisingly easy to root for. Everything she does ultimately comes from wanting to build a better life for herself and her daughter, which gives the story an emotional anchor amid all the supernatural chaos.
Then there's Eddie.
The moment he enters the story, every trace of normality disappears.
He's loud, flamboyant, unapologetically himself, and completely unpredictable. I genuinely looked forward to every scene he appeared in because I never knew what ridiculous thing he was going to do next.
At several points, I wasn't even sure whether I loved him, found him completely exhausting...
...or both.
Probably both.
The novel blends horror, dark comedy, supernatural elements, and plenty of gore without ever taking itself too seriously. It embraces its own weirdness from the very beginning, and that's exactly why it works.
If you're expecting a traditional horror novel, this probably isn't it.
If you're looking for something delightfully bonkers that fully commits to its bizarre premise, you're in the right place.
My only small criticism is that I actually preferred the first half of the book.
The opening chapters are wonderfully chaotic, constantly throwing new surprises at the reader. As the story moved toward its conclusion and the plot started settling into place, I found myself missing some of that wonderfully unpredictable energy that had hooked me from the beginning.
That said, I still had an absolute blast with it.
One final thing I have to mention is the audiobook.
Having Mara Wilson as the narrator was such a treat. She captured the humor, the absurdity, and the larger-than-life personalities perfectly, making an already entertaining story even more enjoyable to listen to.
Final Thoughts
Fabulous Bodies is weird.
It's gory.
It's funny.
It's heartfelt in unexpected places.
And it's unlike anything else I've read this year.
While I slightly preferred the wildly chaotic first half over the more structured ending, I still had a fantastic time with this wonderfully bizarre supernatural horror.
If you enjoy horror with dark humor, unforgettable characters, queer representation, and stories that proudly embrace the absurd, this is definitely one to check out.
⭐️ 4 stars
ALC Disclaimer
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing the advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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