Review of The Big Meat by Carlton Mellick III

A fever dream.

A journey into a superorganism. Mellick delivers another disturbing post-apocalyptic scenario with fantastic imagery and survival tale constraints. The sheepish main character joins a crew in charge of excavating the remains of a kaiju. It might remind you of Kaiju No. 8. But unlike the manga, this is focused on the detrimental effects of the beast upon the characters’ health and peace of mind. The scenes of destruction and escape are riveting and the mysterious, claustrophobic tunneling is unforgettable.

This author produces some of the most memorable books around, without relying solely on splatter or shock value. He provides ample backstory and investigates the consequences of his premise with careful exactitude. Aside from a handful of typos, I was impressed by the surprising clarity of his writing. He typically writes his books in a very short 2-3 week period, he says, but one would think he had dwelt in this dreamlike alternate reality for months. The imaginative use of setting and forcing his characters into intense and escalating situations means you will have trouble putting this one down. It ranks in the S-tier of Mellick’s works in my opinion.
Now on to the next one.