Fabulous Bodies – A Riot and a Gorefest

My only previous experiences with Chuck Tingle have been his Comedic Erotica, most notably My Macaroni and Cheese is a Lesbian Also She is My Lawyer. I left having had fun, but not seriously considering Tingle as a novelist despite knowing he’s unrelentingly queer, was an icon during the Hugo debacle that was Rabid Puppies, and generally seems like an all-around good guy. Turns out, his Horror was delightful and I want to read more by him. Fabulous Bodies isn’t going to hit my favorite books of 2026, but it’s certainly in the top half of the 200-odd stories I’ve tackled this year. A very fun way for me to start America’s obligatory spooky season.

What Worked For Me:
Immediately, I loved Poppy as a character. With only Tingle’s comedy as a reference, I figured an influencer/body thief would be an unserious character. Oh, but she was an immediate surprise. She’s hot, she knows it, and she’s willing to use it. She’s brutally pragmatic, but her ambitions drive her to take risks. She’s trying to build a better life for her daughter, but her drive causes her to miss being her for her daughter’s now, instead of laser-focusing on ensuring her future. Tingle wrapped all this up in an irreverent and self-aware inner-monologue which serves as the storyteller. It sets the entire story up as something smart and snappy, and the narrative voice largely matches with the content really well. Poppy is great, and not quite like any viewpoint character I’ve ever read.

On the horror front, Fabulous bodies struck a really nice balance. It has a lot of body horror, some of which made me distinctly uncomfortable with how graphic and straightforwardly it was presented. However, it came in rapid bursts, with Poppy’s humor turning the story from getting too intense for me. I think this probably won’t appeal to hardcore body horror fans, but Tingle gave us an accessible and high-octane version of it, especially mixed with some really well-written chase scenes. He had a great sense of abruptness, giving enough context to a tense moment for you to understand the ambush or sudden realization. However, he doesn’t explain action for so long that it slows down the story. It created the feeling of a jump-scare without sacrificing pacing. The book felt relentless and frenetic, and once things took off I wasn’t able to put it down. There’s not a ton of existential reflection on the human condition in Fabulous Bodies, but it’s an exhilarating read. Honestly, it feels like the type of tailor made for people like me: people who are open to horror but haven’t read a ton of it.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
I think this story had some strange pacing issues, though I think it was more my reaction to how Tingle paced the story, not that I think the book’s structure was flawed in some obvious and fundamental way. The first half is moderately paced. Definitely not slow, but Tingle puts a lot of time into establishing ‘normal’ for Poppy. That includes developing three major relationships (her daughter, her best friend, her work), giving enough body-snatcher details to be an effective hook, and setting up a distinctive tonal style. Then it pivots into something much bloodier, higher energy, and chaotic. I was engrossed at either end, but the transition felt both too jarring and too smooth, as we shift to the reanimated corpse and his agenda.

Maybe it’s that I felt so many things got lost in between. Poppy’s work as an influencer comes up many times throughout the second half of the story. However, if it weren’t featured in the (very well done) introduction, I’d have entirely forgotten she was a black-market corpse dealer. Each side of this novel worked in isolation, and I think the contrast between them was fun. However, Tingle never quite managed to make the novel feel cohesive as a single entity.

I don’t know. Maybe this is just me writing unnecessary words when I could have just said that I didn’t like the middle section much.

Conclusion: and accessible and high-octane entry in the body horror genre, featuring a body snatcher and influencer on the run

• Characters:  4
• Setting:  2
• Craft:  4
• Themes: 2
• Enjoyment:  4