I received an ARC of The Body Harvest by Michael J Seidlinger in exchange for my honest review. I was intrigued by the premise of two virus chasers and an online community promising to help them find their next fix.
J.G. Ballard’s Crash meets Albert Camus’s The Plague in a transgressive horror novel for the TikTok Generation.
Will is a fraud. Olivia is a wreck. They meet at a grief share group and quickly bond over their brokenness. They also have a peculiar hobby; they seek out sickness. Will hunts for the latest strain of flu. Olivia doesn’t feel comfortable in her body if she isn’t suffering from a fever. They become virus chasers, finding confidence in their ability to conquer every affliction they come across.
They soon discover an online community of chasers called The Source and realize that their hobby isn’t all that odd when seen from the right distance. And then the mysterious Zaff literally walks into their life, claiming that he has the goods, knows where the latest outbreak will drop. Intrigued, Will and Olivia decide to take their hobby to the point of obsession, believing that if they can conquer the newest strain, nobody can hurt them.
After Covid lockdowns and losing so many people to the virus, I picked up this book with the feeling that I was pressing on a bruise or picking a scab on a wound that was not far along enough in the healing. I felt that emotional bleeding was going to happen but I dove in anyways.
The Body Harvest is separated into three distinct acts or sections. The first one I loved. Getting to know Olivia and Will in their trauma, in their filth, in their addiction to being sick was intense. The vibe of the beginning of the book was a blend of Requiem for a Dream and Kathe Koja’s The Cipher (fantastic book btw). This section is just what the summary on the back of the book promised. Two broken people looking for their next viral fix and an online community promising just that. The thing is, the community is just as tricky and vicious as the viruses they promise.
Act two comes out of nowhere. Zaff, the man with the virus that he is determined Will and Olivia want reeks of Tyler Durden from Fight Club. He is full of violence and graffiti philosophy and infects Oliva and Will with that same drivel and rage along with his terminal illness.
The thing is, the story takes a turn for the supernatural with some fever dream weird shit at this point. I don’t think its spoiler to let people know that things like wounds healing in a blink of an eye and actions rewound as if they never happened but leaving scars on the brain as if they did, and magical Jedi mind trick moments fill the book from the introduction of Zaff onward.
The supernatural aspects of the book felt jarring after the first act and it was definitely something I had to sit with as a reader with no warning as to what subgenre this book was in.
The third act is where things get really existential with the social commentary and the devolution of the characters – think the opposite of character growth. I believe the author’s points about media, viruses going viral, and “success” culture are very clear as well as the ongoing idea of people feeding on each other with survival of the fittest is certainly evident.
I think I would have enjoyed The Body Harvest more if the second and third sections were more like the first. I get the vibe that supernatural, high speed weirdness is reflective of a fever dream hallucination when sick. I can appreciate that for what it is. However, I came into the book thinking this would be a grim tale of two people investigating an online forum and group of organ harvesters set on making the world sick for their own goal(s).
It is however a great book for people who enjoy reading existentialist literature and are wanting a horror novel that hits that philosophy of disconnectedness in this world of viral media connection. This is, admittedly, not my jam as I prefer horror where characters grow and bond and that yea the world is harsh but not everyone in it is awful – but that the horrors in it prevail even when you do try to help. That to me hits harder than depressive commentary of everyone is out for themselves and no one cares.
I do recommend The Body Harvest for fans not only of existentialist literature but also of weird horror like The Cipher. The grungy real world setting for something wholly unreal that keeps you on your toes and turning the pages to try and make sense of it is why i couldn’t put this book down until the very end.
