A Treatise on Martian Chiropractic Manipulation and Other Satirical Tales - Lisa Fox - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Lisa Fox
GENRE: Satirical Story Collection
PUBLICATION DATE: 7th December 2025
RATING: 3.6 stars.


In a Nutshell: A short story collection that takes a satirical look at several relevant topics. Varied in genres and protagonists. The humour is somewhat dark. Entertaining enough, as long as you expect the OTT tone common to satire. 

Author Lisa Fox has penned two short story collections prior to this one: ‘Core Truths’  and ‘Passageways’. I had enjoyed both of these speculative collections and hence looked forward to her latest set of stories. This one is slightly different from the earlier two, in that it doesn’t contain a unifying theme. 

The stories in both “Core Truths” and “Passageways” were embodiments of their respective titles, with every story containing a “core truth”/“passageway” as applicable. I think that helped me appreciate the author’s cleverness and creativity better. This time, there was no thread connecting the stories beyond the satirical tone, which itself isn’t prominent in every story. I was a bit disappointed at this because the author’s multi-pronged exploration of a simple-sounding theme was fantastic in her first two collections. Still, this is just a minor setback. 

Fox’s third short story collection with its jumbo-sized title contains twenty-one stories. The number might sound like a lot, but the book is only about 220 pages long (paperback edition). The author’s writing is as fast-paced as ever, with no extraneous fillers. So every story goes by quickly and it is possible to complete this collection within two hours. 

This collection begins with an author's note, which I truly appreciate as I love reading these in story collections. It is an excellent, honest statement about the tone of the included stories and about how she struggled to put a label on them until she finally hit upon the right word. She calls these stories "big and weird and... satirical", and that’s what quite a few of them are. I agree with her that ‘satirical’ is the best tag for this collection and also that this doesn’t represent every single story of the book. 

The title of this book sounds quite interesting, but it is also a bit too long to remember easily. While it indicates the humorous tone of the content well, it is quite a mouthful when we have to recommend the collection to others. 

That said, the titles of the individual stories are actually impressive. The moment I read each story’s title, my interest in it was spurred upwards and I became eager to know how the story justified such a wacky title. Fox is one of the few authors who has nailed the art of labelling her short stories correctly. (Thinking of the right nomenclature is easier said than done!)

In this collection, the author uses situations that are fairly common in contemporary life, and then twists the knob upwards on the bizarre quotient. At first glance, the stories don’t seem as introspective as her earlier works, but if you dig under the surface level, you will discover the stark comments it makes on the present state of our world. Several explore the scariest quality of human nature: apathy.
 
This, in fact, is the author’s greatest strength as a writer. Though she always writes speculative fiction, her stories contain a hefty dose of realistic and relatable human emotions. This makes us connect with the characters even when we haven’t ever been in the same situation and even if we don’t agree with their mode of action. Furthermore, even though she writes speculative stories, her content is always character-oriented without compromising on world-building. I don’t know how she achieves this balance, but she somehow does!

Given the promise of satire, there is a strong undertone of absurdity to many of the stories. This might come through weird characters or OTT situations or exaggerated reaction; only the hyperbole of the satire stays constant. At the same time, I cannot call these stories ‘humorous’, though satire often is accompanied by hilarity. The pattern is more like dark humour, and most of the times, it was so dark that I couldn’t even crack a smile. Only one story made me laugh in mirth. A few made me titter in nervous helplessness at our current global affairs.

The author’s approach in terms of genres is as multifaceted as before. She covers fantasy, science fiction, apocalypse, horror, and speculative. Her lead characters are also varied in age and gender (and species.) The stories are written either in first person or third person, and none of the entries create a feeling of déjà vu. I love how she always manages to create variety within her collections even while sticking to a core concept. 

The book could have worked better for me mainly in the endings. In many of the stories, just as I finally understood where I wanted the story to go, it came to an abrupt stop. A few more paragraphs sealing the conclusion would have worked wonders for me. 

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the twenty-one stories, a good chunk of the stories received 3.5 stars, which means I liked them enough but wasn’t blown away by them. Quite a few of these would have scored more had the endings been more to my liking. My favourite stories were these eight, each reaching 4+ stars: 

👾A Treatise on Proper Chiropractic Manipulation: A deserving titular story. Took me a while to understand what was happening. Enjoyed its unpredictability. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🏃🏻‍♀️ Population Management: The only story that gave me the chills! This was horror without being from the horror genre, and sadly, this horror is a reality for many US citizens these days. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🐸 Crazy for Coqui: A crazy story filled with coqui frogs, but highlights how obsessions can ruin the best intentions. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

💝 The Problem With Women's Hearts: The satire was especially strong in this one. We all know the problem with women's hearts and what can be a solution, but the story's literal approach was fun, and a bit heartbreaking (pun unintended.) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🐟 Fish Special: I somewhat guessed during the first scene itself what direction this would take, but it still ended up surprising me. The only psych horror story in the book. I wish there had been more of this genre. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🛣 He's in the Dead Center: Honestly, this story is so bizarre and yet I can see it happening in today's world filled with bureaucratic oafs. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

☕ Not My Coffee, You Alien Bitch!: Well, if aliens come to take my coffee, I might yell the same thing at them! I loved this story all the more because I couldn't predict where it was going. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🚗 Elite AutoSpa: The only story that actually made me laugh. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐


On the whole, while this might not be my favourite Lisa Fox collection, I still found it containing an interesting exploration of our present world through a dark and speculative lens. The uniqueness of each tale and its characters and the cleverness with which it highlights human responses to  not-so-savoury situations makes this a good collection for those who enjoy speculative fiction written in a literary style. 

Recommended to readers of speculative fiction and satire who enjoy short fiction. 

3.6 stars, based on the average of my rating for each tale. 

My thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and author Lisa Fox for a complimentary copy of “A Treatise on Martian Chiropractic Manipulation and Other Satirical Tales”, and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

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Blurb:

Human beings are flawed creatures, and humor is the perfect means to exploit the endless fodder of our shortcomings. This multi-genre collection of twenty-one short satirical stories will leave you smirking, chuckling, scratching your head, and maybe even muttering to yourself "WTF is this?"

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed short story collections "Core Truths" and "Passageways: Short Speculative Fiction" comes something a little bit irreverent and a whole lot of weird.
 
Ketchup-covered chiropractors on Mars. Wealthy vigilante housewives battling coffee-addicted aliens. Cheerleaders protesting unrestricted access to cupcakes. Canine doulas. Hallucinating marine biologists. No one is immune from the absurdity.

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Author Lisa Fox:

Lisa Fox loves to ask questions. By day, she’s a pharmaceutical market researcher. By night, she channels that same inquisitive spirit into writing short fiction, building worlds and characters that explore the meaning of life, the universe, and everything in between. 

She survives, and sometimes thrives, in the chaos of suburban New Jersey with her husband, two sons, and quirky Double-Doodle dog. 

Lisa is an award-winning author of two short story collections: Core Truths and Passageways: Short Speculative Fiction.  

Connect with her on:

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Check out this book:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244904728-a-treatise-on-martian-chiropractic-manipulation

Purchase from:
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Treatise-Martian-Chiropractic-Manipulation-Satirical-ebook/dp/B0G5K8XG2W/

Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Martian-Chiropractic-Manipulation-Satirical-ebook/dp/B0G5K8XG2W/

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This has been a stop on the #ATreatiseOnMartianChiropracticManipulationAndOtherSatiricalTales blog tour conducted by Rachel's Random Resources. (@rararesources) Thanks for stopping by!



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