Acquired Taste

Clay McLeod Chapman has this uncanny ability to say the most disturbing, revolting things and make them sound completely reasonable. I believe - and I mean this in the most complimentary way possible - there are alternate realities where he’s a cult leader, a serial killer, or U.S. president.

Acquired Taste is Clay McLeod Chapman’s most nefarious work yet. He’s telling us right in the title what his diabolical plan is. We may not like that first sip of - I was going to say “beer”, but when you see his opening sentence, it’s something more like a dirty gin martini - but by the end of 25 stories, we’ll be slurring “shaken, not stirred” with the best of them, even though by then, we’ll know you want to stir it for better flavor. 

Story collections by their nature are a bit of a mixed bag, and while this was overall a strong one, there were a few highlights for me.

• who brings a baby?  - My enjoyment of this may be due, at least in part, to the hilarious recitation I saw the author perform at the Chattanooga Film Festival. But, seriously, who brings a baby to a horror movie?

• fairy ring and stay on the line are both stories that deal with loss; the former, losing a parent to dementia, the latter, a coastal town dealing with the loss of several to a hurricane, including the narrator’s husband, and how their grief makes them lose themselves 

• Nathan Balingrud’s haunting horror recs was my favorite for a couple of reasons, 1. I love a road trip for almost no reason and 2. The imagery evoked in the final paragraphs of being completely wrapped up in a book, because don’t all the best ones do that? I know it’ll take me some time to get all the bits of Acquired Taste out of my hair. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the advance copy. Pub date 9/9/25

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