You Eat What You Are

Sarah Moses’ translation of Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica’s 2017 horror novel was released this year, unleashing it’s nightmarish dystopia on a whole new audience of English speaking readers. The premise is harrowing: in a world in which all animal meat has become poisonous to ingest, humans have become the new livestock of choice. It is a chilling look at how far humanity might go, if only they are given permission. Marcos makes a living processing this “special meat”, all the while trying to focus on numbers, consignments, and processing not on who it really is that he makes his living. Until the day he’s given a “gift”. But the longer he spends with this “live specimen of the finest quality”, the less he is able to see her as just another number and begins to see and treat her like a human being. And with that comes the need to acknowledge the truth of what humanity has become.

A reader forewarned is a reader forearmed, so considered this your warning if you haven’t yet had the chance to read any of his work: Wrath James White is an exceptionally talented horror author. But he is also known for his extremity. Violent (frequently sexually), gory, disturbing, and grim, his books are not for readers who prefer their horror to be a bit less… visceral? But even as someone who doesn’t prefer hard-core horror, I do think that it’s worth reading at least one of his books, if only to appreciate his talent for the profoundly disturbing. Take Succulent Prey, the story of Joseph Miles who, as a child, was abducted and tortured by a cannibalistic serial killer. Joey was his only surviving victim, but now he may be in danger of becoming a monster in his own right. And unless he can find a way to cure himself of the killer growing inside of him, the woman he loves may pay the ultimate price.

I don’t know if you can really have a cannibalism horror list without including at least one example of survival cannibalism, which is a different kind of horrible than the deliberate cannibalism of some of the other titles. The desperation. The terrible necessity, driven to live at any cost. Katsu’s The Hunger takes a historical example of real survival cannibalism and adds a sinister, supernatural twist to an already harrowing event. The Donner Party makes their way into the mountains plagued by disaster and the gut feeling that something terrible is stalking them. When the group becomes stranded in the Sierra Nevadas, struggling to survive the elements, members of the party begin to disappear and fear and suspicion grow.

Manhunt won’t be out until February of next year, so you’ll have to wait a couple of months to get your hands on it. But early murmurings suggest it will be worth waiting for. Just be aware that, like Succulent Prey, Manhunt is not going to be a horror novel for those who prefer their nightmares a little less violently vivid. This is going to be a gorefest of cannibalism, violence, and cruelty. But for all that, the story Felker-Martin is telling is not bereft of humanity, or of softer feelings, like the tendency to band together for safety and to carve out families for ourselves in a world that has rejected us. Beth and Fran are trans women, trying to survive in a decimated future New England, in a world where anyone possessing too high a level of testosterone is doomed to become a cannibalistic monster. They end up banding together with trans man Robbie, and the three pit their survival against a terrifying army of TERFS, and any number of other horrors that the T plague has wrought.