I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman Published by Titan Books on April 7 2026
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 176
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Full of gorgeous, disturbing imagery and ambitious in scope, Bodies of Work is a unsettling peek into the mind of a killer.
Clay McLeod Chapman always comes up with unique ideas, and in Bodies of Work, he’s taken the story of real life artist Henry Darger and built a fictional tale inspired by his life. He melds art, literature and war into a fever dream about a serial killer who is driven to create and kills young women as part of that creation. For the most part, this is a lush, evocative piece of writing with vivid imagery, but as a story, I’m not sure how successful it is. The author expects the reader to work a bit to put all the pieces together, and the fractured format is confusing at first. Ultimately, though, I was impressed with the way Chapman tied so many pieces of Winston’s terrible childhood into his art, as upsetting as it was.
Winston Kemper is mostly invisible. He works as a handyman at a church, lives by himself in an apartment above a garage, and only interacts with others when necessary. But Winston is keeping many secrets, including the fact that he’s killed five women and is about to kill again. Winston keeps the bodies in old steel drums in back of the church, and his kills, which he calls his “butterflies,” are tied into his life’s work: a wall-to-wall mural in his apartment made up of magazine clippings and feverish sketches. What Winston doesn’t know, but will soon find out, is that the dead women’s ghosts are tied to him and they are trying to find a way to end his rein of terror once and for all.
The story is narrated by the ghosts of Winston’s victims, a group of women who believe they have been reborn as butterflies and are fighting in a war to free child slaves. We see most of the action from their point of view, as they hover around Winston, knowing that a “sixth sister” will soon be joining them. The main chapters are interspersed with pages from what appears to be a book, and these fanciful sections describe a terrible, bloody war that takes place in the Nether Realm, obviously a place pulled from Winston’s imagination. This group of women serve as a Greek chorus, hovering above the action and recording their impressions, and I thought it was a clever way to tell the story.
We also dip into Winston’s childhood, which not surprisingly was full of trauma and heartache. Each of these events imprinted on young Winston’s psyche, turning him into a very disturbed man who is driven to bury that trauma in an epic piece of art. The dead women act as his muses, but in death they are transformed into something fantastical. McLeod uses recurring themes, like Winston’s mother’s seamstress sheers, that add a menacing element to the story. I loved the way some of these objects and memories carry through and build tension, and as much as I loathed Winston for what’s he’s done, I couldn’t help but sympathize with him because of his upbringing: living with two very disturbed parents who had no idea how to raise a happy, mentally healthy child.
Bodies of Work isn’t a straight forward narrative, though, so don’t go in expecting a traditional story. I find most of McLeod’s recent work to be like this, and I have to admit I miss his older books that focus more on plot than style. In the end, I appreciate what he’s done here, and I did love the emotional punch from both the plight of the dead women and Winston’s sad childhood, but these days I’m more interested in a Really Good Story™, and this didn’t quite scratch that itch.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
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