For this installment of our weekly book reviews from Booklist, the American Library Association’s nationally distributed book and media review publication, we have Matthew Galloway’s review of “Fabulous Bodies” by Chuck Tingle, first published in the June 2026 issue of Booklist.
Enjoy.
“Fabulous Bodies”
By Chuck Tingle. July 2026. 240p. Tor Nightfire.
While working her side gig as a corpse snatcher, Poppy finally meets her favorite musician, Eddie Michaels—but he’s in a body bag. Still, there’s no room for sadness because this illicit paycheck means Eddie is the last body she needs to steal before she focuses on single motherhood and her influencer career. Besides, she’s always believed the dead are only meat. Eddie proves her wrong. He awakens, mangled, with a rocker voice she literally can’t resist. Forced to drive him from one bloody stop to the next, Poppy fights to understand Eddie’s end goals and free herself. Readers of Tingle’s prior novels (most recently, “Lucky Day,” 2025) know the joyously gory ride they’re embarking on, but newcomers might situate themselves by imagining a combination of two novels that skillfully and creepily play with established horror tropes: T. Kingfisher’s “Wolf Worm” (2026), with its skin-tingling body horror, and Philip Fracassi’s “The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre” (2025), with its bloody camp and humor. A wild ride. —Matthew Galloway
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