The Flesh Remembers – Richard Wright

Richard Wright’s The Flesh Remembers is a horror sci-fi novella and I enjoyed reading it. The concept of alien life forms has been intriguing to  us humans from time immemorial. We often hear stories about alien abductions and then doing experiments on the vicitims. Most of the times they are just considerd as  the fantasy of the people who have reported expereincing it. But what if it’s true? We know that we can’t be the only life forms that may be living in this vast universe and most of the times we view alien life forms as someone who are more intelligent and technologically advanced than us. This one takes the similar tones.

The protagonist Dextex lomax is a hack reporter who works for a news paper who panders conspiracy theory to his readers. They give the readers some thing that will titillate them. He knows he’s selling sensationlism to its readers and he’s okay with it. It’s his job.


I just report it. People don’t have to go around believing it all over the place.


Scarce facts and the most intersting speculation possible remember? I’ll leave the plausiblity and crediblity to journos from New Scientist and National Geographic.


Hey that’s my job. I don’t expose hoaxes. I propogate them.. It’s all in good fun.

As far as other characters are concerned they were well written according to the story and medium. You don’t get much time to develop a character in a novella.
The story was fast paced and intriguing. I was hooked to it and didn’t felt bored at any time. The plot has many layers and i kept reading to find out how it will turn out in the end. And i wasn’t disappointed.

There was one thing though that struck me odd. Dexter’s room is burgled during his stay at the hotel.Then he gets attacked by the same guy who had been involved in the break in. But after all that he doesn’t think that he should change the hotel. Any rational person would have changed his hotel after the incident. I know I would even if there may not be many hotels in New Castle but I would feel more secure in a different place.

Second thing, that struck me odd was that when police officer comes to meet him at the hotel he runs away without meeting them. This may look a lot suspicious to a police man. Why did he do it? He was shot at. If he could just give them his statement, he would have been in the clear. By running away and that too after talking to the police officer he may have antagonised her.
These were the only two things that didn’t gel with me.

This was the first novella in the Dexter Lomax series and other one is out there too. I would love to read it some day. I’m curious to know how this experience has changed Dexter. What happens between him and Kirsteen?

Some quotes from the book:

While the whole world’s so busy reporting stuff, who’s left go get their hands dirty and fix things? You gossip, point fingers, share memes about cats and call it activism.

Kids are as good as a compass where shit hits the fan.

In the gleaming shower I scrubbed myself down,but it wasn’t vomit and dirt I was trying to wash away. It turns out that shame is impervious to shower gel.

I think the impression that I took away from the encounter, more than anything else, was of eyes. Kind eyes, cruel eyes, crying eyes, mad eyes, and empty vaccant eyes that looked through me and made me die a little.

Knowledege may sometimes be Power, but at other times it’s dread, panic and helplessness all rolled into one.

The soul is not an organ. It’s much like a liquid and the flesh is a sponge. Your soul is throughout you, and it remembers Mr Lomax. It remembers everything.

I wept for the person I used to be, who could look at the world and belive he understood it.

Writeres are their own best therapists

You’d think familiarity would breed contempt, but for my readership the opposite is true. If anything it promotes a sense of conviction. The more you say something the closer it gets to being real. Repetition as evidence works scary well.

If you have read this book then do tell me how do you feel about it? If you have read the second book in the series than tell me your views about that too. If you haven’t then you can get the novella from the following link:

Kindle