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A review by bisexualbookshelf
Oddbody by Rose Keating
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book was released in the US on July 1, 2025.
Rose Keating’s Oddbody is a strange, visceral little beast of a book—unapologetically fleshy and, at times, tender in its grotesquery. These stories exist in the liminal spaces between pain and pleasure, autonomy and distortion, shame and self-recognition. With unflinching prose that’s almost clinical in its attention to corporeal detail, Keating writes about bodies—women’s bodies, queer bodies, monstrous bodies—as sites of both horror and possibility.
Rose Keating’s Oddbody is a strange, visceral little beast of a book—unapologetically fleshy and, at times, tender in its grotesquery. These stories exist in the liminal spaces between pain and pleasure, autonomy and distortion, shame and self-recognition. With unflinching prose that’s almost clinical in its attention to corporeal detail, Keating writes about bodies—women’s bodies, queer bodies, monstrous bodies—as sites of both horror and possibility.
There are ghosts and parasites, girls sewing fur onto their bodies, and a worm-dad who rots in the bathtub. In one standout, a woman spirals into consumption—eating phones, napkins, even her sister’s face—because being “too much” is safer than being seen. In another, an artist cuts and reattaches animal parts to human skin in a perverse but oddly affirming act of self-discovery. These stories ask: What does it mean to live in a body that’s been punished for wanting? What does it cost to stay?
Keating’s language is lush and unsettling, dancing between poetic longing and blunt horror. The early stories land hardest—they’re sharp, emotionally charged, and deliciously strange. While some of the later pieces lose momentum and coherence, the overall collection still thrums with a haunting, unforgettable energy. Oddbody doesn’t offer answers. Instead, it invites you to sit with your discomfort, cradle your contradictions, and maybe—just maybe—find a kind of raw, unpretty grace in the mess.
If you’ve ever felt like your skin didn’t fit right, or like your own desire might consume you, this collection might just hold a mirror up to your monstrous little heart. It won’t make you feel safe—but it might make you feel seen.
📖 Recommended for: Fans of body horror with a feminist bent, messy protagonists, and stories that feel like peeling a scab you shouldn’t touch.
🔑 Key Themes: Body and Transformation, Shame and Desire, Monstrosity and Liberation, Feminism and Becoming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gore, Murder
Minor: Animal death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism