The Cannibal Within

By Stefan Isaksson

The Cannibal Within
Mark Mirabello
Mandrake of Oxford
136 pages
ISBN: 186992827X

The Cannibal Within is a, to say the least, bizarre book. But it’s not very long, it’s easy to read, and written in a way which makes it almost impossible to put it down once you’ve picked it up. In other words: don’t be surprised if you finish it all in one go.

The narrator of the book, a professor who teaches among other things about alternative religions, is one day visited in his office by a strange woman. This woman looks like she had had to undergo all the torments in Hell, and after having told him her story it becomes clear that she actually has had to undergo all the torments in Hell. She brings with her a document telling the story about a macabre race living under ground, so-called “trancehumans”, and she’s spent half her life as a prisoner with them. Once as a curious teenager she and a friend held a ritual in a clearing, trying to make contact with Satan, but when she came to again she realized that she had become a prisoner. The book is the story about her life as a prisoner, her escape, and the history of this weird underground race.

It’s a grotesque story filled with extreme violence, ritualistic sex, macabre rites, and horrible acts of cruelty. However, it’s also erotic in a bizarre way; even the most horrible of cruelties are portrayed in a way that doesn’t make them very repulsive, and you can whatever you want about the author’s perverse fantasy, Mirabello sure knows how to express himself, and I found myself drawn into the story right from the start. Myths about underground people can be found in most cultures throughout history, and The Cannibal Within is a very interesting interpretation of these myths.

But the book is definitely for everybody, due to its hardcore x-rated content. On the back it says that it’s a “cult fiction”, and even though I strongly doubt that it’ll be a cult classic I’m sure it’ll offer an interesting read to anyone who wants to experience a story as macabre as it is gory.