Partners in Chyme

Rating:
Summary: The Title Couldn't Be More Appropriate
Review: First, a warning: if you're easily offended or disgusted, then this book isn't for you. If, however, you've read The Bighead and can still eat solid food, why haven't you bought this yet?

This is a high quality chapbook with stories by two masters of the gross out. I laughed my way through the book, finding it more hilarious than horrorific, but always enjoyable. Since it's a book of two short stories rather than a novel, I won't give anything away plotwise. Suffice it to say that if you're a fan of either of these guys, don't miss out on this book. Otherwise you'll always wonder what the hell a dritiphilist really is and what happens when Von and Greg find damaged goods.

Rating:
Summary: Sick, sick, sick
Review: If you're looking for that perfect book to make yourself completely sick, this is it!

Partners in Chyme (pronounced KIME) is a 34-page chapbook, containing two stories by these masters of gross. When I first heard about it, I thought, "Two stories? Why only two?" Then I read it and understood. Anything else would have been overkill. Ed Lee and Ryan Harding achieve in these two stories a complete gross-out, enough to make you reconsider eating anything the rest of the day.

We start off with Ed Lee's "The Dritiphilist", a story about fetishes. You're wondering what a dritiphilist is, and what the fetish entails, aren't you? So was I at first. Now I'm kind of wishing I still didn't know. And I'm not going to tell you in this review. You wanna find out, order the book.

The last time I read anything that grossed me out, I was reading Ed Lee's "Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman," and here he is doing it again.

See, this is why I don't even bother trying to write this hardcore gross-out stuff anymore, because I know nothing I can come up with is going to equal Ed Lee's mind. He's a sick, sick man. He's also, from what I've been able to glean online, a very nice, intelligent, approachable guy. But he's still a sick, sick man.

And Ryan Harding's "Damaged Goods" is no better.

Great stuff if you like it gross.

Rating:
Summary: HOW TWO PHILOSOPHIZE IN THE VOMITORIUM
Review: Ok, this may seem incredibly biased because I wrote one of the stories in this book, but the option for the author to separately write something about his own work is not available anymore (or not on this listing anyway). The 4 stars in this review is entirely based on Lee's story and not my own, though. I was a huge Lee fan before I ever got the opportunity to do this chapbook with him, and I thought his story here was a riot. Like his other hardcore work, there are unfathomable depravities backed up by a very strong sense of characterization which generally goes ignored by his critics. He's one of the most entertaining writers out there, able to pull off the sickening delights of works like THE PIG or THE BIGHEAD alongside extremely layered stories like "The Ushers." Anyone who enjoys Lee's work will not be disappointed by his outing in PARTNERS IN CHYME...I wanted to say in defense of my own story that it was written for the Gross Out competition for the World Horror Convention in 1999. The brevity of the story -- a valid criticism -- was a result of trying to present a whole story in under five minutes. I disagree that it is "far from being memorable," however. I base this on the grounds that I read this story to an audience in 1999 and although the chapbook was proposed less than a week later, it was not published until December of 2001; despite this, I still had people quoting lines from the story to me a couple years later, so I think it has a way of staying with you. There's a very good chance you'll think of my story next time you go to Subway.

I've also heard of a few people who refused to finish reading the chapbook after my story because it was too sick, so it's at least made an impression.

This is definitely a hardcore horror collection, written with fiends for disgusting fiction in mind. It was written for the fun of the art of repulsion (hence the title) with no attempt to frighten anyone (though we might have done that involuntarily; we probably don't seem like the kind of guys you're dying to go to the opera with, to paraphrase Lee's story).

"Both authors are capable of better." This I agree with. You'll still have fun with PARTNERS IN CHYME, though, if you believe the gore, the merrier...

Ryan Harding ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Gross-Out Horror
Review: Partners in Chyme collects two new short stories from two of the masters of the gross-out horror, Edward Lee and Ryan Harding. And judging from those two stories (although both are slightly entertaining) you get very little chills or frights. Just a lot of gross-out writing, and a lot of shocking-just-for-the-fun-of-shocking writing.

Harding is obviously the least practiced author of the two. His story is very short and it could have benefitted from a little more work. We have two men with a dead female body who have less than honorable intentions in mind for it. The story is a fun read though it is far from being memorable.

Eward Lee is a miss-or-hit writer. He can write amazing stories (some of his short stuff is the best stuff I've read in the fields of horror and sci-fi) but he can also often be pretentious and overought. But this time, surprisingly enough, Lee falls right in the middle. His story is entertaining, original but it often relies too much on the cheap gross-outs instead of the more frightening and darkly disturbing stuff Lee is capable of.

So all in all, we have two unmemorable stories brought together. The book is nicely bound and is a nice addition to your Lee or Harding collection. But overall, it won't make the ground under your feet shake with frights or cheap thrills. Both authors are capable of better.

Rating:
Summary: NECRO'S NAUGHTY BOYS
Review: What a pair of naughty boys Edward and Ryan have been. I like it. I ordered this chapbook on the strength of reading some of Lee's other works and not realizing that Harding was a co-author (co-contributor?) (and not the illustrator). My gain. While I'm already on the prowl for more works by Ed, I've now added Ryan to the hit list. I can't seem to get enough of a good thing.