The Haunted Vagina by Carlton Mellick III (2011)

Carlton Mellick III's "The Haunted Vagina" is a very bizarre and experimental fantasy-horror novella. The American author is known for controversial, grotesque and strange novels and novellas such as "Adolf in Wonderland", "Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen, Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes" and "The Cannibals of Candyland". The titles are already quite revealing and the content certainly is an acquired taste. The author's creative, descriptive and unpredictable style is however quite memorable and he has won numerous renowned awards.

This novella revolves around an emotional young man named Steve and his quirky Asian girlfriend Stacy. Since her childhood, Stacy can hear voices inside her vagina and even claims her weird childhood friend is living there and not imaginary at all. Steve nevertheless falls for the unique lady but is quite surprised when a skeleton emerges from her vagina. He manages to kill the monster but sees a strange light in his girlfriend's body. She instructs him to penetrate her with his entire body to discover what's inside of her. As a matter of fact, her vagina is a doorway to a strange world with armies of skeletons, cremated houses and an odd mansion with humanoid creatures with colourful plastic skin. Steve gets pressured by his girlfriend to discover this world but he soon gets in danger and starts to wonder whether he will be able to return to his real world at all.

As you can read, the novella's plot isn't like anything you have aver heard of and quite interesting to read. The detailed decsriptions of the strange world inside Stacy's body are quite intriguing. The story is unpredictable and includes an interesting side character with emotive plastic girl Fig who turns out to be Stacy's estranged, lonesome and twisted childhood friend.

On the other side, the novella doesn't answer the questions you might have on your mind while reading its summary. It's only just about one hundred pages of length and fails to end on a remarkable note. The lead character isn't particularly charismatic either as he always follows his girlfriend's instructions blindly, constantly makes very odd decisions but nevertheless seems to be a rather ordinary person in his everyday life.

Carlton Mellick III's "The Haunted Vagina" is strangely entertaining and might make you raise your eyebrows on multiple occasions. This fantasy tale is equally funny and horrifying. However, it never penetrates beyond its weird premise and fails to leave a deeper impression. This novella is recommended to readers of experimental fantasy novels who are sick and tired of conventional plots. This novel isn't recommended for anyone else and especially not for children or even teenagers.

Final rating: 67%