#BookReview ‘Bodies Full Of Burning’ edited by Nicole M.Wolverton

About the book…

Menopause can be hell.

With Bodies Full of Burning, Nicole M. Wolverton has selected 16 stories which show how deadly the change of life can be. From state-sanctioned surgeries to transformative encounters with mythical creatures; strained relationships to fiery vengeance, these tales offer thoughtful insights into a topic rarely viewed through the lens of horror.

Featuring all-new fiction from: Joanna Koch, Marsheila Rockwell, Monique Quintana, Megan M. Davies-Ostrom, Carman Webb, D.A. Jobe, Dr Bunny McFadden, Julie Ann Rees, Victory Witherkeigh, B.J. Thrower and Karen Thrower, E.F. Schraeder, Jennifer D. Adams, Ali Seay, Jude Reid, Shelby Dollar and Max Turner.

Published in paperback and e-book formats by Sliced Up Press, ‘Bodies Full Of Burning’ is a bold take on the process of the peri-menopause, and menopause, and how it affects women. It is an interesting look at how the way women are disregarded, relegated to the effects of their hormones and so on, and packs a lot into its relatively short length of 150 pages.

The symptoms of the menopause are varied and often feel like you are losing your mind. The out of control effects that it can have on your body, and mind, make it a ripe and, as yet, unmined , topic for horror writers. The notion of transformation, change, becoming, are all standard issues for a genre which dwells in the ‘other’.

As with many anthologies, there are hits and misses, stories which just seemed to not quite get to that point, where you would look up their other works. This made those that stood out much more enjoyable, but, as every reading experience is individual to the reader, I am only going to focus on the stories which really spoke to me.

Favourites included- the fantasy story, where the change is seen as a boon, ‘Here There Are Dragons’ by Megan M.Davies-Ostrom

‘Four Acres And A Shovel’ by Carmen Webb, a rallying cry to resourceful nature of women in the face of misogyny.

‘Nobody Warns You’ by D.A Jobe which I found equal parts tragic and darkly funny, but overall terrifying.

Clive Barker-esque body horror, ‘Fifty Four Year Itch’ by Shelby Dollar which takes the word ‘change’ to a terrifying transformation.

‘In Bloom’ by Dr Bunny McFadden , takes the notion of burning and uses it to make an aquatic horror story which flips the narrative of change, consumption, and more than human apetites.

I think, on the balance of things, the stories which spoke most to me were the ones that didn’t centre men. They were ones which viewed the change of life as an opportunity to take control, to see it as freeing, a process which will lead to the third age of womanhood, burning down the body of the younger woman whose value is all about how fertile they are.

They were unapologetically woman cantered, powerful and dynamic-so many women feel the hand of mortality on their shoulder and become, in essence, invisible after the age of 40, their voices and experience less valued than the words of men. Laying blame on everything at the feet of hormones, from tempers to murder, is an easy get out, no one addresses the fundamental underlying differentiation that this is normal, yet it is not talked about.

There is little to no public recognition about how women feel at this time, no infrastructure to support menopausal women in the workplace, or talked about signs of the peri-menopause. And this anthology, published with an international cast of writers, being visible through the US National Menopausal Month  of September and World Menopause Month in October, can only be a good thing. As women’s reproductive rights and self determination over their bodily processes continues to be attacked from all sides, recognition, research and investigations into health inequalities between the sexes needs to be a clarion cry to women and men alike.

About the editor…

Nicole M. Wolverton was raised in the rural hinterlands of Pennsylvania and now lives just outside Philadelphia city limits in a 100-year-old house with her husband and two cats. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as The Molotov Cocktail, Saturday Evening Post, and Jersey Devil Press, as well as in anthologies from Dark Ink Books, Ghost Orchid Press, and others. Her essays have appeared in several pop culture collections from ATB Publishing, and her creative nonfiction is scheduled to appear in collections from The Hungry Ghost Project and Acid Bath Publishing. She is the author of The Trajectory of Dreams (Bitingduck Press) and the editor of the upcoming anthology of menopause-themed short horror fiction, Bodies Full of Burning, from Sliced Up Press. For a full list of publications, please visit www.nicolewolverton.com.

Nicole is represented by Anne Tibbets, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

She adores stinky cheese and ghost stories, and she is an avid traveler who writes about her adventures at Pretty As An Airport. Nicole is also a dragon boat assistant coach and steersperson for a delightful bunch of people who have had cancer and their caregivers as well as a local Judge of Elections.

She is a graduate of Temple University and currently attends University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing a Masters of Liberal Arts with a creative writing focus.