Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fabulous Bodies follows Poppy Stringer, a fashion influencer, who also happens to peddle in dead bodies at night. Hey, it’s hard to make a living in this economy. Don’t judge.
Poppy receives a call one night that prompts her to retrieve the body of one of her heroes, recently deceased rockstar and queer icon, Eddie Michaels.
She heads to the Medical Examiner’s office, where she’ll finagle access to his corpse, and then get him out of there. It’s all routine for Poppy. That is, until Eddie wakes up.
What follows is a Supernatural Adventure romp through one bloody night in Palm Springs. Poppy is along for the ride, whether she wants to be or not, and Eddie certainly has some surprises for her.
Fabulous Bodies was fabulously-creative, as I’ve come to expect all Chuck Tingle books to be. It’s an odd story, a bit chaotic and surprisingly thoughtful in its character work. I loved the journey Poppy had emotionally.
She was forced to come to a lot of important realizations about her life and relationships. We love that for her. Personal growth, yayee! All with the backdrop of trying to defeat a murderous and undead former idol of hers; NBD.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Mara Wilson, and I felt like Mara’s voice was perfect as Poppy. It truly felt like I was just listening to her tell this crazy story about one f*ed up night. I would highly recommend that format.
I also liked how wacky and graphic Tingle made this. It’s campy and unhinged, but also written very well. It reminded me in some ways of books such as Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison, and My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie, both of which I enjoyed.
The commentary that Tingle included on fame and influence, were also well done. It’s light, but there, apt social commentary for our times. I appreciate Tingle allowing Readers the space to think for themselves, and in a story this wild, there’s plenty of food for thought.
At this same time though, you can just have fun with. I had a lot of fun listening to it. It’s certainly unpredictable. While I’m not sure how long the details will stick with me, in the moment it was pure entertainment.
Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio for providing me with copies to read and review. I always look forward to Tingle’s newest releases as you never really know what you’re going to get. We love a surprise!