Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology

For this refreshing anthology, Bell (Beyond the Creek) and Taylor (Please Give) bring together 12 horror shorts centering fat protagonists. Sometimes the characters’ weight is central, while in other entries it’s only briefly mentioned and the stories themselves explore entirely unrelated plots. E.E.W. Christman finds a way to make the Spice Girls song “Spice Up Your Life” unnerving in “A Curious Garden,” which is set at a fat camp. In Stephanie Rabig’s “Cinderella and Her Demon Godmother,” a teenage girl calls upon dark forces to exact revenge against her fatphobic tormentor. “Waterfall” by Christi Nogle follows a high schooler whose blossoming friendship with a beautiful and enigmatic couple turns sinister when she learns the secret behind their charmed lives. The London Underground employee central to Die Booth’s “Fluffers” finds a discarded camera filled with horrific footage of the subway system’s rats. In Nikki R. Leigh’s “The Floor Is Lava,” a women’s roller derby team faces a meteor strike that unleashes a flood of orange goo. That the stories vary so widely in tone and content will make some readers wish for more cohesion, but there’s no denying the joy in meeting larger characters whose bodies are neither treated as monstrous nor as punch lines. This is a step in the right direction. (Self-published)