The Midwest Has Never Felt So Terrifying - The Deliciously Disturbed Worlds of Chloe Spencer

As I mentioned in my Best of 2023 piece, I knew there were going to be many books that unfortunately went unmentioned because I got so exhausted by working on that behemoth. Very shortly after posting it, I remembered a crucial title that rocked my brain cells last year, so I figured I would write a feature post, as I recently completed her two upcoming novellas and want to give credit where it's due.

I met Chloe Spencer through the horror Twitter community and received a review copy of her then upcoming novella Vicarious, a dark and earnestly beautiful story of a woman seeking to enact revenge on her high school bully, yet falling in love with her in the process. It's an extreme horror tale that I did not expect to feel genuine love toward, so I was excited to learn that she had two upcoming novellas in the chamber. In this review, I plan to gush about all three and convince you that Chloe's is an important voice in the future of extreme horror.

Vicarious

Ah, high school...that precarious time when gendered expectations are reinforced with near authoritarian gusto. A social hell for queer and neurodivergent kids who are simply attempting to survive under bizarre teachings and reinforced corporeal punishment when they don't snap into the rank-n-file. Great place for mental health.

It is in high school where we first meet our central characters, Gertie and Bea. Gertie is the kind of straight-laced teen who never seems to fit into the right boundaries to be accepted, but does capture the ire of Bea, the outcast who bullies and torments her with reckless abandon. It is one of such acts (content warning for sexual assault) where Gertie finally vows to take revenge upon Bea and make her life a living hell. However, Bea disappears and Gertie meets a kind young man who would go on to be her husband.

Fast forward a couple decades later, Gertie's husband has tragically passed away, yet Gertie takes the newfound independence in stride, raising their teenage daughter, fronting the PTA, and finding her own forms of control. Her destiny becomes intertwined with Bea's yet again when she defends the woman at a grocery store, not recognizing it is her former arch-nemesis. This Bea, however, is a far cry from the tortured soul who made Gertie's life miserable, but Gertie is already seeing red, trying to figure out how to finally enact her revenge on this dreadful and pathetic woman.

Learning that Bea has embraced her queerness over the ensuing years, Gertie decides to enter into a relationship with her former tormenter, hoping to invade Bea's life, destroying it from the inside. Besides, Gertie's not queer...right?

Part of what makes Chloe Spencer's work exciting and enticing is how she tackles the morally complex. As opposed to good versus evil, we are presented with characters whose actions and motivations exist on an ever shifting spectrum of human experience and morality. Victimhood becomes reversed, murder feels justified, love is given space to blossom despite long-harbored hatred. Nothing about this novella, or its characters, is black and white.

In many ways, Gertie becomes the character to fear as she commits unspeakable acts to seemingly inch closer to her revenge, but those acts increasingly become more of a way of defending this woman she finds herself falling in love with. While the beginning would have us believe that Bea is an unredeemable monster, her adult self experiences the immense grief and sobriety that can come with not only aging, but putting in the work to hold yourself accountable, despite the harm that may have been thrust upon you by those you're meant to trust.

There's also the pronounced role that queerness plays in this story, as well as the dynamic of someone coming to terms with their queerness dating someone who is already firm into their identity. There are truly gorgeous moments in this book, especially when Gertie finds her larger body appreciated an loved by Bea in one of my favorite scenes. It shows that we can realize and actualize our queerness as late in life as we need. Gertie initially views this as a means to an end, but unlike the most evil characters in the history of horror, she suddenly finds herself falling into deep and genuine love, all while committing unspeakable acts in the name of said love.

Vicarious is a horrifying book, make no mistake, but it is the genuine empathy that Spencer extends to her characters that turns this from a standard extreme horror premise into something truly extraordinary. It perfectly sets the stage for her continuing work, introducing you to a voice you may not have realized you needed in your horror repertoire.

An Affinity for Formaldehyde

Sometimes going home as a queer person is a tricky and dreadful thing. Some folks have intensely strained relationships with their family and loved ones, depending on where you come from and the ideals ingrained within your pedigree.

This is, in part, what Lou experiences when she returns to her small town to learn that her childhood best friend, Max, is planning to marry her grandmother. Regardless of how you feel toward folks who enjoy dating older folks once you've entered your 20's, this book is not here to besmirch that. It's the fact that Lou's grandmother Paula has developed an obsession with formaldehyde and has been doing experimentations on animals to transmit consciousness. Her plan is to transmit her own into Lou's body so that she may continue to live on, pursuing the dreams she was never able to.

There are many conversations going on in this novella, but one that feels like it would be glaring is ageism. This is not the case at all within Formaldehyde, which shows the lengths with which Paula not only dehumanizes Lou, but anyone who seeks to get in her way. We even receive glimpses of the ways her grandmother would verbally, emotionally, and physically abuse Lou, plus an incident that occurred with Max's sister, who died many years before.

Imagine the aged Pearl we meet in Ti West's X; that's pretty much on the nose here.

Compared with the troubled but consensual romance between Gertie and Bea in Vicarious, this story is far darker, providing imagery that you may not forget for quite some time after its explosive finale. Paula is ruthless in her pursuit for youth and power, killing just about anyone who attempts to stand in her way. Ultimately, An Affinity for Formaldehyde is a story about grief and the ways it can twist and distort the ways we view and support each other, or how facing said grief head on can grant us power.

Mewing

I learned something about the title of this book, which I assumed had something to do with cats or felines. In the world of cosmetics, mewing is a form of altering the shape of your jaw by placing and holding your tongue on the roof of your mouth. The cover certainly made way more sense to me at that point.

After the absolutely bonkers ride that was An Affinity for Formaldehyde, it seemed a rational decision to dive right into this slice of beauty-focused horror. What was the worst that could happen?

There are descriptions in these pages that will live on with me forever. I expected a hell of a lot more gruesome shenanigans in Formaldehyde, considering it will be released through the infamous Grindhouse Press, but man...the punches pulled in this book.

Vixen is an influencer who needs to find her big break. With money dwindling and brands refusing to pay her for her work, she receives a massive tip from a colleague by means of a secretive co-op run by highly successful names in the beauty industry. With very few options left, Vix decides to take a leap of faith and apply to live with the Bleach Babes.

Upon her arrival, she can already tell that things are not much what they seem, with the houses ecosystem very strictly revolving around the head of the household, Margo. After an uncomfortably invasive initial meeting with Margo, Vix finds herself falling head over heels for Margo, however, the beautiful and enigmatic woman has some rather dark secrets up her sleeve.

Much like genre faves such as Suspiria, The Neon Demon, and many more, this novella explores the pernicious and disturbingly transactional world of beauty, showing the lengths that folks will go to to attain the sort of beauty you need to survive in this industry. What this novella additionally includes are conversations of class and how that ultimately effects the decisions these characters make, including the one roommate of color who ultimately leaves the house, sparking the jealous ire of Vix, who justly receives a tongue lashing for her ridiculousness.

It's once the supernatural card is played where the wheel gets thrust in the other direction, dropping the characters into a disturbing spiral downward, leading not only to Vix's darkest desires, but her darkest vices as well, ramping up to another heart-racing finale that, while dark, feels intensely cathartic, while also leaving readers with enduring questions as they close it's final page.

Chloe Spencer refuses to shy away from the muddier concepts within these dark morality stories. There is a class horror at the center of each story that reveals a Midwest vastly different than one readers may anticipate, considering general ideas of the region. No matter where you are, class can unearth the most craven desires and impulses inherent in a human experience under capitalism. Whether it's suburbia, more impoverished rural areas, or a den of beauty influencers, these themes are constantly underlying much of contemporary horror, and Spencer has a keen finger on that very pulse.

Vicarious is currently available via Slashic Horror Press, An Affinity for Formaldehyde releases 01/19, and Mewing will release on 02/27 (my birthday!!). I highly suggest all three of these titles if you are looking for fast, frightening, and fun reads.

You can follow and support Chloe on Instagram @heyitschloespencer, Twitter @chloespencerdev, and on Bluesky @heyitschloespencer.bsky.social