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Colum proposed a very ambitious Bram Stoker challenge for all you DT readers (you can check that out here), but I have an unrelated warm-up challenge for our Book Club members; we’re reading two books this month! Well, technically one anthology and one novella.
Book Club readers are of course free to read at their own pace (I’m just now wrapping up January’s book!) and since we have two books this month you are welcome to read them in whatever order you wish. So, without further adieu and in no particular order I present to you the March Books of the Month.
When we started the club last April 2012, the inaugural book was Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad! edited by Weldon Burge (Smart Rhino Publications). You can listen to the DT podcast review here, but the short version is I loved it! I think everyone loved it. Zippered Flesh is an excellent collection of wildly diverse stories that was disturbing, entertaining, and sparked interesting discussion among readers, so I was ecstatic when I heard there would be a second installment, Zippered Flesh 2: More Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad!. Some authors from the first collection make a return appearance, for example L.L. Soares and Jezzy Wolfe among others, but there are a number of new contributors joining in the madness as well. Also included in ZF2 is a bite sized morsel of Lisa Mannetti’s next novel The Hunger Artist. As a huge fan of Mannetti’s work, this is one of the stories I most look forward to. Here’s a taste of what readers can expect from ZF2:
From Amazon.com:So, you loved the first ZIPPERED FLESH anthology? Well, here are yet more tales of body enhancements that have gone horribly wrong! Steroids from Hell. Horrendous piercings. Bizarre brain modifications. Obscene amputations. Facial reconstruction. Self-mutilation. Implants. Chilling tales by some of the best horror and suspense writers today, determined to keep you fearful all night (and skittish during the day).
Our other March pick is Jeff Strand’s novella Stalking You Now (DarkFuse). Clocking in at only 57 pages on Kindle, this should easily fit into the month of March. Has this man ever done anything that isn’t entertaining!? I bet even his poops are hilarious… yet sinister. Sorry, I’m getting off track. There’s no doubt this Bram Stoker multi-nominee will give readers a healthy dose of shock and laughter. Here’s a synopsis of Stalking You Now: From Amazon.com:
The reprehensible man sits in the restaurant. Laughing with his friends. Entertaining them with a story about his wretched behavior.He doesn’t know that somebody at another table is watching him. Somebody filled with hatred. Somebody waiting for him to be alone. Somebody with duct tape and a gun.It’s a night for vengeance. And a hell of a lot more.
Dreadful Tales 
What a superb choice!
I hope to redeem myself from the BAD DAY FOR VOODOO Book of the Month that I slept though 😦
Having a Zippered Flesh antho paired with a Jeff Strand novella — man, what gets better than that??
I know! And one of the ZF2 authors just discovered Strand for the first time via our lil’ Book Club. Bonus 🙂