On the Menu: Cannibalistic Horror

Meat is back on the menu, but you’re probably not going to like anything about it. In fact, you might just be turned off of meat entirely for a while after reading this satirical novel in which humans are bred and raised for their “special meat.” Marcos is a worker at a local processing plant who tries not to think too hard about what all that entails. But when he’s gifted a high-quality live specimen for himself, the choices he makes show just how quickly human beings can divorce others from their humanity.

If you know Murata for her quirky novel about the inner life of a woman working at a convenience store, Convenience Store Woman, you’ll probably be as shocked by Earthlings as I first was. Natsuki is a girl who believes she’s an alien. It’s the only explanation she can think of for why she doesn’t seem to fit in with anyone else, the alienation only spurred on by physical, verbal, and sexual abuse from those around her. As an adult, she rekindles her taboo childhood relationship with her cousin, the two searching for answers about themselves in the most shocking and horrifying of ways. Be prepared if you choose to venture into this one: it deals with some truly taboo and alarming subjects, self-cannibalism being one of them.

From the author of The Echo Wife comes a cannibalistic horror graphic novel about the rich eating the poor — and the poor getting their revenge. When a law student joins her boyfriend for a summer back home in the old-money enclave of Crestfall Bluffs, she expects it to be good for their relationship and for her future career. But there are secrets hiding in Crestfall Bluffs, secrets that could ruin the future Joey’s been dreaming of. Will she be able to survive the horrifying truth of how these people sustain themselves and their lifestyle? Or will she have to fight for a chance to stay off-menu?

What’s that? Sayaka Murata once again appearing to explore a bit of unusual cannibalism on this list? You’ve got that right. In this short story collection, humans find utility beyond death through the use of their skin and meat in multiple stories. The ideas, though admittedly horrifying to our modern sensibilities, are presented in a way that doesn’t really feel like horror at all. In fact, the stories almost make you wonder why we do let our bodies go to waste without a second thought.

Food critic Dorothy is an aficionado of both food and sex. She can cook as well as any of the chefs she writes about and travels from New York to Italy to satisfy her insatiable appetite. But she has an appetite for something else that she has long suppressed. Finally, through with denying herself, Dorothy puts an icepick in her lover’s neck, cooking him up with shallots and mushrooms. How she got to this point from her farm-to-table childhood, though, you’ll just have to read for yourself.

A family of 12 siblings who have tried to distance themselves from their “Cannibal-American” heritage is drawn back together for questions both ethical and practical when their mother asks to be eaten on her deathbed. With brothers who are variously vegan, kosher, and dead, how exactly are they meant to go about keeping this request? Seven certainly doesn’t want to, but what a guilty and dutiful son to do? This is definitely one that falls more on the satire side of humorous horror.

The secrets hiding within the walls of High Place are plentiful, but none more pressing for Noemí than the strange affliction that has altered her cousin. This ancient house in the Mexican countryside fills Noemí with feelings of dread and dreams of blood. Only the family’s youngest son seems willing to entertain her concerns. But he, too, is hiding secrets about the family’s past. Will uncovering them be enough to save Noemí’s cousin and herself, or has the rot of this place already subsumed them?

A translator dissatisfied with the work she’s doing writing subtitles for movies learns about a secretive program helping people attain fluency in a new language in just two weeks. The cost is exorbitant, and the methods are top-secret, but Anisa is certain it will change her life. It’s true that the book she translated from German after the program became a hit. But she’s still not satisfied. As she grows closer with people running the organization, she realizes the cost she’s paid for her new language skills is far greater than she ever could’ve imagined.