Old Firehouse Books suggests some tales on the dark side

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins recommends a weight-loss horror tale, an Icelandic mystery and a Korean underground indictment of capitalism.

From the publisher: Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over 300 pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck — in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight. Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

From Revati, co-owner: “Nothing Tastes As Good” is an outlandish body horror book about weight loss and fatphobia in our culture. Emmet and the people in his life (BFF, boyfriend, sister, stepfather, co-workers) are believable but not always likable so it’s not necessarily an enjoyable read but you can’t put it down.

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From the publisher: An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs – or even bodies – in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of “The Night Guest.”

Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door. When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life.

It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn. The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.

From Mia, bookseller: How far would you go for a stranger? When a black cat shows up at her door, Unnur sees it as a minor annoyance until its troubled owner, Ásta, shows up the next day. Their budding friendship is overshadowed by Ásta’s husband and his abusive behavior. As time passes their friendship is tested and Unnur has to ask herself what she is willing to do for this woman and her cat who have infiltrated her life.

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From the publisher: On an ordinary afternoon, a woman sees her partner murdered in the street. Time freezes. She lifts his body from the pavement, cradles him home, disinfects each inch of skin — and sits down to begin.

As he witnesses his own funeral from beyond, their two voices — living and dead — lament a lifetime of bone-grinding labor in a society that devours everyone whole. But the woman is no longer willing to bow before law, God, or money. In an act of love and rebellion, she transforms his body into her own, entombing him within her flesh so that he may live again.

Raw, furious, and unflinchingly intimate, “Hunger” is the Korean underground phenomenon that indicts capitalism, mourns lost love, and pushes the boundaries of what the body can endure for justice and survival. A psychologically and philosophically thrilling novel, it cuts to the core of how we are consumed by the world — and how we might consume it back.

From Miriam, events coordinator: A young couple who have experienced extreme hardship throughout their entire lives finally meet their match; the endless machine of capitalism. Follow these twin flames as they recount their relationship from start to finish, all while Dam is desperate to preserve Gu’s honor by consuming him, limb by limb.

Type of Story: Review

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