Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle
Tor Nightfire (July 7th, 2026)
Reviewed by Adam Allen
Fabulous Bodies is a queer, bizarre, glitter and gore-soaked horror story for fans of CJ Leede, Grady Hendrix, and Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.
I have been a fan of all the books I have read by Chuck Tingle, and maybe just as much of the author’s online presence and persona. He’s a man of mystery, hidden by a pink mask with “Love is Real” emblazoned on it. The titles of his spicy “Tinglers” are legendary, in tune with current events, and hilarious. But something that has always struck me about Tingle is how beautiful his thoughts are at moments that really matter. If you haven’t listened to his episode on the excellent “Sleyhouse Presents” podcast, you should, and if you have, you know exactly what I mean. While he can be very playful, even in his “serious” horror novels, Tingle knows what he’s doing, and he has a clear purpose in his writing.
Which brings us to Tingle’s latest, Fabulous Bodies. It is a rip-roaring chase novel, that takes place mostly within one night. It is funny, gory, scary, shocking, and maybe the most entertaining book you’ll read this year. It’s also the best presentation of Tingle’s message and manifesto to the world: love is real, even if you have to go through hell to realize it.
In Poppy, Tingle has created a fascinating character who, at first, seems a little superficial, maybe a little self-centered even, and over the course of one night, we watch this person grow into one of the strongest and fiercest protectors you’ll ever come across.
When we first meet Poppy, we learn that, on top of her gig as a fashion influencer on social media, she also has a pretty unique side hustle: stealing dead bodies. People will pay good money for real dead bodies, and what they use them for is, unsurprisingly, grotesque, but to Poppy, money is money, and she and her daughter have gotten used to a certain lifestyle that she is determined to maintain, morals be damned.
After an interesting first look at a normal night on this job, we get into the meat of what this story is about; Poppy is given the job of a lifetime, five million dollars to retrieve the body of Eddie Michaels, a sort of American Elton John figure, who was killed walking from a charity brunch by a drunk driver. Ironically, Poppy is an Eddie Michaels superfan, so this one is not just a life-changing payday but personal. Everything is going perfectly. Until she finds out Eddie, apparently, isn’t quite as dead as he most definitely seemed.
From there, the book gets increasingly wild and almost euphoric in the “how is he going to top himself after that one” set pieces that Tingle gleefully jumps from repeatedly. Poppy shows herself to be extremely resilient and refuses to simply do what she’s told, even if Eddie is far more persuasive than your regular undead rock star.
By the end of the novel, Tingle has reached emotional depths that I would have never bet on. There were multiple moments in the climactic scene where I held my breath, and tears welled up in my eyes.
This is such a rich and layered tapestry of horror from an author that truly seems to be getting better and better with every book. Don’t miss Fabulous Bodies, everyone’s going to be talking about it.
Should you read it?
If you like your horror bloody and gross but with an emotional, beating, bleeding heart, you can’t do much better than Fabulous Bodies. You should absolutely read this one.
