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georgesreads's review
3.0
With only a few books to go in this years reading challenge, I want to finish off with a few extreme horror novellas written by women- before I read some bigger (epic) novels I've wanted to read/ reread for a long time. It's incredibly important to highlight the women in the genre, especially at times like this when our community is under fire.
I have (unbeknownst to me until I clicked Busby's author profile) read a novella by her before, that being "Bits," which is apart of the short sharp shocks collection. It is evident, that Busby specialises in out of the box, grotesque, GOOPY body horror, very much like the writing of Kathe Koja. This is a boundary-pushing explorative horror, that truly IMMERSES the reader (if you know.. you know).
When reading this book, you will find yourself acting as a guinea pig for a series of experiments, donating plasma, taking pills and receiving injections. It's a fever dream, and one you can't escape until the acknowledgments.
Read it in a sitting, enjoyed it for what it was... WISHED there was more.
I have (unbeknownst to me until I clicked Busby's author profile) read a novella by her before, that being "Bits," which is apart of the short sharp shocks collection. It is evident, that Busby specialises in out of the box, grotesque, GOOPY body horror, very much like the writing of Kathe Koja. This is a boundary-pushing explorative horror, that truly IMMERSES the reader (if you know.. you know).
When reading this book, you will find yourself acting as a guinea pig for a series of experiments, donating plasma, taking pills and receiving injections. It's a fever dream, and one you can't escape until the acknowledgments.
Read it in a sitting, enjoyed it for what it was... WISHED there was more.
stitching_ghost's review
4.0
The main character made a pretty sympathetic figure and the story had some not so subtle undertones that I have a particular affinity for so I enjoyed the corporate horror part but I would have liked to get more horror from the body horror aspect if that makes any sense?
twilliamson's review
5.0
Corporate Body is body horror done well--done so well that it feels like the kind of book you hide from strangers. When people ask you what kind of literature you read, you don't admit to something over in the extreme pile; mention horror, and people will talk Stephen King or, sometimes, another big-label author with a catalogue strong enough to sell copy but palatable enough not to offend someone. Body horror doesn't do "palatable." To be palatable is to be uninteresting in body horror.
But there's also two kinds of body horror, in my experience: the kind, like Nick Cutter's The Troop, that exists solely to just fuck up your entire day, and the kind, like Corporate Body, that contains that little bit of punk kick, the kind of stuff that exists to fuck up your day but also pull your attention to an idea outside itself that might get you to push back against the societal constraints that keep you tethered to mediocrity. Body horror, when well-executed, is about transgression, and that's what Corporate Body serves up. It's not enough to be gross-out. You need to be grossed out, yes, but then you need to be asked to think about your bodily autonomy and whether or not we can call ourselves autonomous beings at all.
R.A. Busby has a mean little novella here, one that pushes buttons and cranks dials for gross-out horror (and while it's pretty fuckin' extreme, it's not the worst gross-out I've read) but also asks that we think deeply about our bodies, about our autonomy, about our relationships to power, and about what we put out there into the world. Busby asks meaningful questions in the same lines she really fucks up your day, and that's the whole point of transgressive art.
Sign me up for more.
But there's also two kinds of body horror, in my experience: the kind, like Nick Cutter's The Troop, that exists solely to just fuck up your entire day, and the kind, like Corporate Body, that contains that little bit of punk kick, the kind of stuff that exists to fuck up your day but also pull your attention to an idea outside itself that might get you to push back against the societal constraints that keep you tethered to mediocrity. Body horror, when well-executed, is about transgression, and that's what Corporate Body serves up. It's not enough to be gross-out. You need to be grossed out, yes, but then you need to be asked to think about your bodily autonomy and whether or not we can call ourselves autonomous beings at all.
R.A. Busby has a mean little novella here, one that pushes buttons and cranks dials for gross-out horror (and while it's pretty fuckin' extreme, it's not the worst gross-out I've read) but also asks that we think deeply about our bodies, about our autonomy, about our relationships to power, and about what we put out there into the world. Busby asks meaningful questions in the same lines she really fucks up your day, and that's the whole point of transgressive art.
Sign me up for more.
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