Flesh
Laura Bickle
Genre: YA Horror
Date of Publication: September 19, 2017
ISBN: 9781537857992
ASIN: B074XBJ697
Number of pages: 307
Word Count: 76,573
About the Book:
The dead are easy to talk to. Live people, not so much.
Charlie Sulliven thinks she knows all the secrets of the dead. Raised in a funeral home, she’s the reluctant “Ghoul Girl,” her reputation tied to a disastrous Halloween party. But navigating her life as a high school sophomore is an anxiety-inducing puzzle to her. She haunts the funeral home with her parents, emo older brother, Garth, their pistol-packing Gramma, and the glass-eyeball-devouring dachshund, Lothar.
Chewed human bodies are appearing in her parents’ morgue…and disappearing in the middle of the night. The bodies seem tied to a local legend, Catfish Bob, who has resurfaced in the muddy Milburn river near Charlie’s small town. When one of Charlie’s classmates, Amanda, awakens in the cooler as a flesh-eating ghoul, Charlie must protect her newfound friend and step up to unravel the mystery…and try to avoid becoming lunch meat for the dead.
My Review:
Charolotte “Charlie” Sullivan just wants to be a normal teenager accepted by her peers. Unfortunately, when your family owns the funeral home you also live in and your mother is the coroner, classmates tend to make assumptions, jump to conclusions, and stereotype you. It was so easy to relate to Charlie in the teenager wanting to be accepted aspect. All teens want to be popular, belong, and feel accepted. When bodies start appearing with weird types of damage, and then they start to disappear from the morgue, any slight change of normalcy evaporates. This is especially true when one of the bodies is a girl from school and she awakens in the morgue right in front of Charlie. Is she hallucinating or is there something sinister going on in their town?
I don’t normally read books that focus on zombies or ghouls - they just aren’t my thing. I made an exception because I love Laura Bickle’s writing. She tells great stories that are engaging to the point I’m almost obsessed with the books. I don’t want to adult because I want to finish her books. Flesh is no exception. I was enthralled with Charlie, Garth, Amanda, and Lothar. Charlie is a wonderful character trying to make her way in the world while being an outcast because of the family business and being constantly harassed by a very controlling mother. She’s not a strong character at the beginning and it was fun to watch her kind of toughen up as the story progressed.
The story that’s told in Flesh has horror undertones but isn’t the “scare the daylights out of you” kind of book. The story features creepy events, sinister happenings, and suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I mention these things because I don’t particularly like horror (think Stephen King, whoever thought the Saw movies were a good idea, and Friday the 13th). I do, however, like soft horror (is that even a thing? If not, it is now), which is how I would classify Flesh. Flesh also has moments of joy, the rekindling of old friendships, and the coming together of some unlikely allies to combat the mysterious ghouls with ties to an urban legend by the name of Catfish Bob. I love the balance that the author used. I enjoyed the story, characters, theme, and pacing of Flesh.
I was provided with a copy of this book. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
My Rating:
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