Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath by Moses Yuriyvich Mikheyev

Moses Yuriyvich Mikheye delivers a thrilling and gruesome slice of techno fiction with his newest novel, Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath.

Driven to the edge of madness by rejection, Vince Nilsson cooks up a deviant and deadly scheme – to clone his ex-lover and genetically tweak her into the perfect partner. This story is like Pygmalion meets American Psycho, and as the scope of this villainous protagonist’s power grows, so too do the ominous undertones of the story. From a twisted high school experiment to a globe-spanning crisis that threatens to topple royal empires, this futuristic thriller is unforgettable, but undeniably dark.

While some small storytelling slips can be overlooked, this wild yarn often requires too much suspension of disbelief. The plot is rife with loose holes and sloppy oversights, from the bullet holes in the window during the first of many murders, to the idea that an Adderall-fueled 18-year-old heir to billions would be able to pull off the perfect “disappearance of the decade” of his own ex-girlfriend, and somehow hide his clone-making setup and abilities from the authorities. It is also difficult to feel sympathy or fondness for the protagonist, given his impulsivity, misogyny, cruelty, and privilege to enact his darkest sexual and genetic fantasies.

Overall, Bodies is a provocative and potentially controversial read that shines a disturbing light on the dangers of superficiality, gender dynamics, and our modern obsession with perfection, in a twisted techno tale of lust and power.