Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad!
Edited By Weldon Burge
Smart Rhino Press
284 Pages
Review by M.L. Roos

Body modification, body enhancement, scarification; it all conjures up images of steel and metal rods piercing flesh, leaving gaping holes, destroying tissue and turning the human body into a Borg like apparatus. Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad gives you an eye-opening, jaw-dropping view of some pretty gruesome experimentation.

In this dark and twisted collection you will discover why downloading the human memory into a cloud petabyte device might not be such a great idea. In theory, the brain really is a giant hard drive, but all those ones and zeros account for much more than memory alone.

“Comfort” by Charles Colyott and “The Shaping” by Scott Nicholson were profoundly disturbing and intense, rich in imagery soaked madness that will leave you wondering long into the night about love; love of art and love of a parent. And where that very, fine thin line is, when one falls over the edge of genius and into the abyss.

“By Hook” by Elliot Capon and “Whirling Machine Man” by Aaron J. French were both creepy, horrific and torturous in theme, but done in the name of science. And science must prevail.

“Marvin’s Angry Angel” by Jonathan Templar and “Hearing Mildred” by Weldon Burge were both lighter pieces and written so well and were exactly what this dark anthology needed to break up the heaviness.

This is an outstanding anthology, one I will read a few times to catch all the nuances and descriptors these clever writers put together.