‘Acquired Taste’ – Clay McLeod Chapman (Titan Books)

 


I’m doing my absolute best not to be ‘book tempted’ (especially since my run of overtime came to an end just before Christmas…) but every now and then, I can’t help myself, especially when a certain Womble is doing the tempting ;o)

Like I said before, I really enjoyed ‘Wake Up And Open Your Eyes’, and I’m always partial to a collection of horror short stories, so it didn’t take too much persuading for me to grab myself an ‘Acquired Taste’. I’ve been dipping in and out of the book and polished it off over a lazy Sunday afternoon in the comfy chair. Let me tell you about it…

They're feeding on you too.

A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace, and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one.

From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, Clay McLeod Chapman takes universal fears of parenthood, addiction and political divisions and makes them uniquely his own.

Packed full of humanity, humour and above all, relentless creeping dread, Acquired Taste is a timely descent into the mind of one of modern horror's finest authors.

‘Acquired Taste’ is a particularly apt title as the book really does have something for everyone, ranging to cosmic horror to body horror, ghost stories to at least one story with no ghost but is no less the haunting for it. What this meant for me was that not all the stories hit the mark (and that’s ok, I’m yet to come across a horror anthology where every tale is a hit) but that just makes it all the more likely that should your tastes diverge from mine, there will still be a few tales here work for you.

What I will say though is that overall, ‘Acquired Taste’ is consistently more hit than miss. Even with the stories that didn’t work for me as well, I would still finish them for the intriguing concepts and engaging leads that I really wanted to spend time with. That was more than worth not quite being scared (or grossed out) enough. This is a collection where it’s incredibly easy to keep turning those pages, no question about it.

And when a story hit the mark, it really hit the mark… I love the way that Chapman seems to be able to just take any concept, no matter how innocuous, flip a coin and effortlessly unsettle his reader based on how it lands. Seriously… You fancy a little body horror? ‘Debridement’ and ‘Hermit’ have you covered and you’ll never see it coming, one of these tales will have you wearing ear-plugs to bed (I’m considering it and I don’t even own a…) And an honourable mention must go to ‘Fairy Ring’ as well, definitely worth the read. Fancy a haunting tale? Go straight to ‘Psychic Santa’ for a little ‘Yuletide Sixth Sense’ action but also make sure you spend a little time with ‘Stowaway’ and ‘Stay On The Line’ too. Ghosts can be found in all sorts of places and Chapman takes us to a few spots where you wouldn’t normally expect to find one. And talking about ‘haunting’… The last few lines of ‘Pick of the Litter’ would make Robert Bloch proud.

And if you’re like me and are partial to some cosmic horror, they don’t come a lot better than ‘Pump and Dump’ and ‘Nathan Ballingrud’s Haunting Horror Recs’. Chapman shows us that the ‘doorway to the cosmos’ is to be avoided where possible but you’ll never know when it might open right in front of you...

One of ‘those days’ is looming (may well be in ‘full loom’ by the time you read this) so I’m not going to go through all twenty five stories in ‘Acquired Taste’. What I will say is that Chapman is now officially a horror writer that I will be keeping an eye open for in the future. If you haven’t had the pleasure of being deliciously unsettled by Chapman’s work, pick up ‘Acquired Taste’ right now.

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