Whewwwieee! This is a hell of an introduction to the works of author Jake Bannerman! TRIGGER WARNING AHEAD.
It was my pleasure to get the chance to read Bannerman’s Author Autopsy: a Menu of the Macabre, an anthology piece featuring first chapters from all of his works. Each chapter in Author Autopsy puts you straight into the action, a twisted world of blood, taboo subjects, and the horrors of religion.
Now, I’ve read anthologies before, but this one was special because each chapter — which is actually the first chapter of many of his books — left me on a massive cliff-hanger.
Make no mistake, Bannerman is known to “not sell grammar,” meaning there will be a few mistakes along the way. To me, that doesn’t detract from the work one bit. What may put some people off if the incredible use of highly controversial subject matter; for example, the second story, The Pitchfork Diaries‘ “The Scarecrows Lament” is about a developmentally disabled woman whose father allows perverted old men to watch her kill, dismember, and stitch together a grisly scarecrow of dead penises while joyously raping it. Multiple times. Author Autopsy is not for the faint of heart and barely for the mass adult audience.
But if you can get past that, there’s really something to this collection of stories. Author Autopsy talks about an evil that persists inside of us all. A fetish for the terrifying and vile. A self-proclaimed magical prophet poisons a crowd of worshiping fans at a show. A man is in love with a corpse, and others watch him exploit her. A woman gives birth to a swath of stillborn demon spawn. These are all stories that we have heard tidbits of from, but Bannerman takes them up to level 100. The key word here is “more” — and that’s exactly what we get.
At the same time, we’re only getting the first chapter of these stories. Author Autopsy is an ingenious idea because unlike a normal anthology where the stories are more or less wrapped up each segment, there is obviously still more that needs to be said here. Author Autopsy brings us to the brink and holds us over the edge, teasing and taunting to read the full story in the other books.
Regardless of what the subject matter is, I do think Author Autopsy has something going for it. It’s amazing that we can find so many types of horror out there and that publishing is achievable to the masses and not just by well-known authors. It’s a sure-fire way to get your ideas out there and spark something in a reader. Jake Bannerman is no Stephen King — and that is a good thing. Horror comes in many forms; sometimes it’s light-hearted and spooky like a night of trick-or-treating, but other times it’s agonizing, repulsive, and utterly dreadful. It’s important to have that balance in the genre, and Jake Bannerman has achieved that with his anthology of horrors. Author Autopsy is in a class of its own.
What did you think of Author Autopsy: a Menu of the Macabre? Let us know in the comments!
Find Author Autopsy and other Jake Bannerman works on Amazon.
