Diabolical Plots #111, May 2024

“Ketchōkuma” by Mason Yeater

“How to Kill the Giant Living Brain You Found in Your Mother’s Basement After She Died: An Interactive Guide” by Alex Sobel

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

Two stories with bizarre premises and very mixed moods appear in this issue. Both also feature beings that seem to be inspired by B movies.

“Ketchōkuma” by Mason Yeater takes place in a future world where people have their minds stored as computer data and their biological bodies replaced by plastic. The narrator works as an employment agent, finding jobs for those who need them. Meanwhile, the mascot of an organ transplantation company, a cartoon-like bear, has grown to the size of a giant monster and is destroying the city.

I hope I have given you some idea of the story’s weird mixture of premises. The intent may be to contrast the narrator’s mundane activities with the outrageous menace, reminiscent of the huge creatures found in Japanese kaiju movies. Adding themes similar to those in cyberpunk may be one too many levels of oddness for the reader to accept.

The title of “How to Kill the Giant Living Brain You Found in Your Mother’s Basement After She Died: An Interactive Guide” by Alex Sobel supplies the story’s premise. In online conversation with the guide, a woman not only receives information on possible ways to destroy the monster, but reveals her relationship with her late parent.

The combination of a creature straight out of a campy 1950’s science fiction movie with the theme of a dysfunctional family is disconcerting. The story seems to be trying to be a goofy black comedy as well as a moving tale of the daughter’s complicated feelings about her mother. These two aspects do not always work smoothly together.

Victoria Silverwolf is working extra days this weekend.