The Forbidden Meat

A Cannibal Compendium - My Friends in Book Community Lent Me Their Voices (including Stephen Graham Jones!)

Let’s talk about it - Cannibalism in literature. My book theme for the month of April is “cannibalism”. I chose a varied collection of the subgenre, and I will list the books below:

• The Lamb by Lucy Rose

• Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History (non-fic) by Bill Schutt

• A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

• The Butcher’s Daughter (ARC - release date May 06,2025)

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

• The Vegetarian by Han King

• American Cannibal anthology - edited by Rebecca Rowland

• Brother by Ania Ahlborn

What I found so fascinating, initially, is the range this subgenre has. We can go from books like The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore, which is fundamentally historical fiction and artfully written to straight up depravity, such as Poppy Z. Brite’s Exquisite Corpse, or The Hunger by Alma Katsu, where the cannibal aspect is born from sheer desperation. All these touch on the subject at hand, each in very different ways and at different levels. While I was reading, I noticed I felt physically ill at times. My stomach churned. Yet, I felt compelled to keep reading. I could not look away. This got me thinking, why? I feeling physically sickened by this topic, but I absolutely cannot stop reading? This got the ball rolling for this particular article, because I also began to wonder what others thought of the very questions I was asking myself.

So, I decided to pose my questions to people in the book community that I respect and adore. I have gathered the cannibalism compendium here, in one place, for you, my dear reader. These are their thoughts and feelings, in their own words:

Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, All the Hearts You Eat, A Light Most Hateful, The Worm and His Kings series, No Gods for Drowning, Cranberry Cove, and other books of dark fiction says “I think its multi-layered. On one level, there’s and innate animalistic terror at being consumed, something most species have to worry about. We might have mostly outgrown this, but our nerves remember lessons learned from being the descendants of prey animals. The other is intimacy and the horror of it, the idea of wanting to possess and join someone else so completely that you have to ingest them, make their cells part of their own. Its an aspect that can be base instinct and a kind of beauty too, and I think those aspects together and contrasted both fascinate us.”

Cassandra Celia, a Maryland based author, who writes gothic, horror, and dark fiction, including The Elric Undoing, Sugarcane and her latest soon-to-be release, House of Harrow had this to say: “Cannibalism fascinates us especially within the horror genre, because it taps into something deeply primal - both our fears and our desire. Beneath the grotesque surface, it often serves as a metaphor for an all-consuming kind of love, an obsession so intense that it devours. In horror, the act of eating someone isn’t just survival or violence - it becomes a symbolic expression of longing, intimacy, and possession taken to its most extreme form. There’s something disturbingly poetic in the idea of wanting someone so badly you need them to be a part of you - literally. The hunger isn’t just physical; its emotional, even spiritual. It reflects a craving to feel something real, something raw, in a world that often feels numb or detached. Cannibalism, as a metaphor, strips away social niceties and dives into that base, desperate need to connect, to consume, and be consumed. So, while cannibalism is taboo, it resonates because it exaggerates desires we all understand: love, obsession, loneliness, the hunger for closeness. Horror just gives us a space to explore those feelings in their most terrifying, honest form.

Author Adam Cesare’s books include Video Night, The Summer Job and Zero Lives Remaining. He is also the author of the Clown in a Cornfield trilogy, which is slated for theatrical release May 09, 2025! How cool is that?? He weighs in: “I’ve got a whole cannibal book, Tribesmen, which has Italian cannibal ghosts! I don’t know quite what it is about cannibalism that attracts. People like eating, people like gore, people have been hungry … its repellant but also relatable.”

Bridget Rose (IG: weirder_the_better) is lover of all things weird, surreal, bizarre and macabre. She is the co-owner and operator of Reel Weird Cult (IG: reelweirdcult) that screens cult classic favorites and weird, obscure finds. Naturally, I had to ask her about this and she says “Is it wrong to say I love reading about cannibalism *because* it’s such a taboo topic? Cannibalism lies in this terrifying pocket of horror that feels like some ancient, primal, unthinkable evil. It’s not just fear of violence, its a violation. That’s what feels scary to me: cannibalism shows how humans can be scarier than any demon or ghost. There’s no monster under your bed. It’s the person down the street doing something unspeakable. That gives me the willies just thinking about it. I also think cannibalism makes a perfect metaphor in horror. It can be anything from capitalism, like Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh, to sexual awakening and desire, like in Julia Ducournau’s film ‘Raw’ (2016). The possibilities are endless. (And not to be crass, but … I’m eating it up.)”

Author Sam Rebelein’s debut novel Edenville was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. His follow-up collection of stories set in the same fictional universe, The Poorly Made and Other Things released February 11, 2025, and is very relevant to what we are exploring here today … so go pick that up. His next novel, Galloway’s Gospel, also set in cursed Renfield county, releases September 16, 2025. He told me: “Horror fiction is the thick glass between us and the large seawater tanks in a darkened aquarium. It allows us to safely gaze upon environments and situations that would likely kill us within moments. The crushing cold pressure of the water, the fanged translucent aliens on the ocean floor - our souls are fascinated by these things. They call to us. Cannibalism is just one facet of this fascination. In the same way I would never want to be attacked by zombies, but I adore playing The Last of Us, I would never want to eat a person. But I would be very curious to see how we taste. What is the texture like? What kinds of seasonings would one use? What is the juiciest part of a human being? I would never want to be in a tank filled with cannibals. But I would gaze through that thick glass … endlessly …”.

Cat Delani, author of the upcoming novella Unclaimed Property, is an avid writer. You can find her contributions in Bookworms Zine, alongside Clay McCleod Chapman and Grady Hendrix, and soon -to-be-published anthology Little Red Flags from Dark Matter Ink. She has this to say: “Cannibalism isn’t JUST a taboo. It merges primal desires with that taboo, meaning it’s applications for deeper exploration are multitude. We see cannibalism for extreme love, for extreme hunger, for extreme need. There is no ‘light’ cannibalism - the act itself carries enough weight to make any usage stand out.”

Author Stephen Graham Jones needs no introduction. His body of work speaks for itself. He is Horror Daddy TM, the “taboo king”, if you will indulge me. His most recent novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a masterclass of horror. No one does it like him. Imagine me losing my mind when he sent me this contribution: “I think cannibalism is so fascinating and compelling because OF the taboo. I think the wrongness is what’s attractive about reading about it. Because, really, it’s just meat, right? I mean, we eat a lot of meat whose provenance we have no idea about, really. Taco Bell. Food trucks. Hot dogs. And that doesn’t seem to much concern us. But when we KNOW (in a story), that’s … it’s thrilling. In its wrongness. And I think a big part of that wrongness, it’s how unsustainable cannibalism is as a practice. How one-shot it is, of necessity. That somehow makes this story feel special.”

Greg Greene (IG: igreggreene) is a champion of the horror community. He is also friends with Dr. Jones because he is just that cool. He has an interview with Stephen linked in his IG bio. Greg is also owner of jadeshirt.com and the original “Jade Daniels” merchandise. He wrote something extra special for y’all: “Your sense of taste starts to erode at age 50. Taste buds shrink, decrease in number. Is that why spicy food is popular with mature diners? Maybe. But I’m guessing folks just want to recapture the rush of fresh experience, like the first time you bit into a cheeseburger topped with ketchup, mustard and pickle when you were seven. At age seven, Sleestaks on Land of the Lost will freeze you to your spot on the couch. The cat-man monster on Wonder Woman is nightmare fuel. The ‘Dragon’s Domain’ episode of Space: 1999 sears you with a white-hot terror. When you’re fifty-four, witches are wearisome, possession is pedestrian. And zombies? Zzzzzzzzz. We turn to the taboo because taboo is spice. We want to taste the world as we tasted it before we turned twelve, when so many experiences were still fresh, and much of the world was wondrous and strange. Fear itself was a physical threat. To be shocked, scandalized; to fear that the simple act of reading might be sacrilege, might endanger your immortal soul… This tastes like being alive. Tonight, I cracked open the Stephen Graham Jones story ‘Love is a Cavity I Can't Stop Touching’ for the first time. It starts:

When I was fourteen, I ate a cooked piece of thigh meat off my girlfriend Sherry Wilkes.

And I have to stop, because I’m fifty-four and for the first time in a long time my mouth is on fire.”

Rachel Harrison, is author of the novels Black Sheep, Cackle, So Thirsty, Such Sharp Teeth and The Return, which nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her upcoming book, Play Nice is one that is highly anticipated and will be released September 09, 2025. The gorgeous queen herself was kind enough to contribute. She said “Cannibalism is the perfect vehicle for exploring consumption. It taps into this universal, caveman anxiety about being consumed, and/or our own urges to consume. There’s an emotional intensity inherently attached to it, which immediately raises the stakes. It’s also monstrous in concept but very much of this world, so the fear isn’t unfounded. It’s real.”

Tony Petro (IG: tonyshorrorcorner) is a fixture of the book horror gang, a constant reader, avid book collector and co-host of the Stephen Graham Jones Club, with Matt Morris, and Reading All That Hill Club, with Cat Delani. He has extensive knowledge of all things horror, especially Stephen King. Naturally, he was included in this compendium and had this to say: “Cannibalism is one of those topics that is taboo, feared and fascinating because it touches on something I think we as people are afraid of. Being in a position where we would have to resort to that. Eating animal meat? Sure, fine, whatever. People?? Nah. Nope. Nuh uh. Fuck that. Its a horrific thing to think about and that’s why the books that touch on it are so … well … consumable. Especially when its situation/survival based. Book like Brother by Ania Ahlborn touch on it very lightly and add that really dark element to an already messed up backwoods family’s weird way of life. Shows like ‘Yellowjackets’ touch on the survival and its that ‘this is what its come to’ point of desperation that really gets into your head. How long would it take you? Would you do it? It’s a gross topic but its also awesome and really fun to think about and read about.”

Matt Morris (IG: matts_books.and.drams) is based in Maine and is a fellow constant reader. Another fixture of the horror community, he has moderated panels at his local Barnes & Noble, co-hosts the Stephen Graham Jones Club with Tony and hosts the Paul Tremblay Club. He is also FINALLY reading Fever House by Keith Rosson after we bullied him for a year. He was another person I absolutely needed to hear from. He says “Horror is the perfect vessel for exploring the dark side of the human condition, those topics deemed taboo or emotions that we don’t often have an outlet for. Reading horror is a subversive act, and what is more subversive than the consumption of another human’s flesh? It is extra fascinating because in some cultures, cannibalism is a normal part of rituals. Hell, even in the metaphorical sense, isn’t the Eucharist a form of cannibalism? Whether it’s for survival in the worst of conditions or served with fava beans and a Chianti, cannibalism will always be a fascinating topic in horror literature and cinema.”

Lastly (but never least) is Brian McAuley, the king of the sickest kills and absolute best puns is the author of Curse of the Reaper and author/creator of the Candy Cain Duology (an iconic queen really). He teaches at ASU and name a cooler professor? The answer is: there is none. It was necessary to get his thoughts about cannibalism and he told me: “I think we all have a morbid fascination with these fragile flesh sacks we call bodies. We identify with our corporeal forms so deeply, so obsessively, but they’re nothing more than temporary vessels for consciousness. Cannibal horror reminds us that once we’re dead with no thoughts left to think, all that remains is meat. So we better make a feast of this life while we still can.”

Will I be revisiting this subgenre next year? You bet I will. There’s a whole lot more I need to “flesh” out. I’d like to give an immense thank you to all my contributors. Without y’all, my little vision would not have been possible. I feel proud to know you and I appreciate all you do.