cover image Meat Puppet Cabaret

Meat Puppet Cabaret

Steve Beard. Raw Dog Screaming Press, $29.95 (236pp) ISBN 978-1-933293-16-5

This horrific farrago of British politics and cultural malaise takes off from the urban legend of Princess Diana's rumored pregnancy at the time of her death in 1997. In Beard's weird alternate England, ""King Charles"" is in orbital exile, while Diana's lost child, Allegra, wanders about, wondering who she truly is. Allegra resulted from an embryo stolen from Diana at the scene of the fatal car crash by a demonic Jack the Mack (aka Jack the Ripper). How? The clever machinations of John Dee, a hideously wicked black magician. Beard (Digital Leatherette) uses dream sequences, interviews, reality TV/game scripts, net-influenced formats and more to deliver a perverse nightmare of jolting, surreal rhythms and dark despair. His more lurid imagery is sure to repulse some readers.