Marlena Frank, $0.99, ISBN 978-1-955854-31-3
Horror, 2022

Marlena Frank’s A Beautiful Specimen reminds me a bit of those Phantasm movies. I think it’s the whole crystal thing that for some reason has me thinking of dwarfs toiling away in a faraway planet. 

I know, it’s a stretch of a tenuous connection, but the mind can make the strangest detours sometimes.

In this one, the protagonist, just called Alice (not to be confused with that Alice), has an unusual connection with her paramours. She loves them in a way that serves to transform them into her kind, and these new “recruits” will come back to Earth to do what she does. 

The author manages to create a kind of body horror here that is both erotic and disquieting, which is of course the nicest kind. 

I also get a nice insight into the way Alice thinks and feels about her actions. It’s alien, of course, but at the same time, still relatable enough to let me understand and even empathize with what she is doing. 

This is an interesting kind of premise, one that I would love to read more of, but alas, the story is over just as I’m warming up to really get into the whole thing. 

Sigh. I guess that’s the curse of shorter works.

Done inadequately, they make me wonder what the whole point of the story is.

Done well, such as in this instance, and I find myself chomping to read more and feeling left high and dry when the whole thing comes to a close just like that!