You Will Speak for the Dead

by R.A. Busby

Paul Simard’s life is a mess. When his mother dies, and his boyfriend moves out, the only thing Paul has left is his hoarder house cleaning business, and that’s not exactly a recipe for dating success. But after Paul gets a call to clean out the home of some elderly biologist, nothing will ever be the same. You see, 928 Avirosa isn’t just your normal cleanout. Something in the house is…alive. It’s not just the fungal carpet or the mushrooms growing over every surface, or even the disturbing smell. It’s the woman’s voice he hears inside his head. The creeping sense he’s been invaded. The powerful connections to memories and people he’s never seen. Yes. Something in that house is alive. And it wants to speak to him. Before long, Paul understands the house hoards more than just secrets – and Paul’s life depends upon uncovering its answers.

Genres: Horror, Novella, Fiction, Short Stories, LGBT, Queer, Adult

82 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2024

About the author

Winner of the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction for her story "Not the Man I Married" (Black Petals, Issue #93), R.A. Busby has published a number of stories, including "Bits" (Demain Publishing), "Holes" (Kandisha Press), "Cactusland" (34 Orchard) and others. Check out Creepy Podcast for "A Short Happy Life" and Pseudopod Episode 809, "A Pearl Red as Sin." When she's not writing, R.A. Busby is probably out in the wilderness somewhere.

Reviews

[Ruxandra Grrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ghastly body horror tale that... um... fruits into something startlingly emotional and amazing, You Will Speak for the Dead was a great surprise as a reading experience. I don't want to say anything more about the vibes, really, just want people to experience it for themselves. Because after a gruesome visceral midpoint (when I was genuinely wondering how much more body horror I can take), it was so good to end up where we ended up.

I've read quite a few 'fungal horror' books for the past few years, but somehow R.A. Busby found a very fresh take on the genre. I've also read quite a few 'person has to clean up a hoarder's place' horror books, but the take on the that is fresh as well and the two tropes dovetail nicely into each other, offering a different perspective.

But, of course, horror is such a personal experience. Everyone has their own deeply rooted fears and so it was vital for this one that I was able to connect deeply with it emotionally. The main character, Paul, is a bit of a disaster queer living in a state of precariousness (the kind where you're doing poverty math and know you can't afford to get things checked out) and has a penchant for ignoring issues - maybe they'll go away. He owns half of a business that deals in clearing out houses and that has left him just a bit tainted. He's also extremely hung up on his ex and yeah... This was all extremely relatable to me in this very moment of my life. My life where I've kinda called myself a trash person for the past few years, trying to embrace it, and I have a little cleaning gig and stuff.

Which is to say, this was great! I loved the language, the icky descriptions and how fucking emotional I got over this. I adored the ending and it got me emotional (and I won't say which emotions I felt, because that would give it all away). So, for a visceral, goosebumpy ride, I'd absolutely recommend this.

///
Well well well, this was an awesome surprise. It got me extremely emotional by the end, so I need some processing time. Just until tomorrow (hopefully).

Thank you to the publisher for giving me an ARC of this novella.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

R. A. Busby is my favorite body horror and other specific phobias, author. I've read a few of Busby's short, body horror stories in various anthologies and my first reading experience was "Bits" a short, sharp, shocks story about losing teeth and other "bits".
HOLES by R. A. Busby- deals with a fairly well-known fear, trypophobia (of which I am a sufferer). This is the tale of a woman who suffers a fear of holes. She embarks on a series of therapeutic attempts to lessen or eliminate her fear but to no avail. This has a great ending.
And of course, Corporate Body is part of the line of novellas I curated for Cemetary Gates called My Dark Library. It's medical body horror--scientific lab experiments.

You Will Speak for the Dead is about a man named Paul who professionally cleans hoarder houses. I loved all the conversation in the narrative surrounding hoarding and its connection to mental health, grieving, and loss. The last house Paul cleans is a real doozy...filled with SPORROR and I do NOT want to tell you anything else but prepare to:
Read the whole thing in one sitting
make cringing faces and gagging noises
and never want to be around mushrooms ever again!
I LOVED IT

[JaymeO · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Gothic novella of 2024!

“Cleaning is a profoundly intimate act. Clean someone's house and you will learn them. You will touch what they touched, learn what they read, what they ate, what they concealed. What they gave up. What they could never let go."

Paul Simard has recently lost his mother and broken up with his boyfriend. The only thing he has left is his Junkitt business, cleaning out hoarder houses. He claims to feel a kindred connection with the hoarders’ psychological inability to let go of their things. However, Paul has met his match when he is given the task of cleaning out an elderly biologist’s house at 982 Avirosa Avenue. Something in the house is alive and it’s not just the fungi that cover every inch of the space. Something is communicating with him. What secrets is the house hoarding? Paul must figure out the mystery in order to save himself.

I found this novella while perusing the Goodreads list of Gothic novels written in 2024. I had never heard of this author before, but the premise caught my attention. Two of my favorite Gothic novels are Lisa Jewell’s The House We Grew Up In and T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead. You Will Speak For the Dead seemed to be the BEST mashup I could imagine of these two great books!

It did not disappoint! I absolutely loved everything about this novella! It’s long enough at 101 pages to really explore the themes of loneliness, grief, and loss, while also exploring extreme body horror. Please take note if you are squeamish that this novella explores the grotesque. The first person narrative uses humor to deflect from the seriously disturbing events and assuages the reader’s fear. I loved the overall message and learned a lot along the journey.

Fun facts: Humans share 30-50% of our DNA with fungi
Fungi are intelligent - they reason, make choices,
communicate, and seek connection

Trigger warning: 🍄🍆🍒🫣

4.5/5 stars rounded up

[Latasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story! This story is about the things we can't let go of, the things we keep and hang on to and mushrooms. I don't want to say anymore but if you're a fan of mycology like me, you will know what's going on pretty early in the story. I still enjoyed it very much. It's sad, and sure a little scary. The writing is wonderful, the setting could be anywhere (one of the multiple storage units my dad and his girlfriend have, full of stuff they don't need), the characters felt real. You do need to stretch your ability to believe a little but just go with it, it's worth it.

[Vana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You Will Speak For The Dead" is a strangely comforting read. This novella packs a big punch in so few pages. It is balanced with horror and humor. After finishing it, I have a new outlook on life and death. I highly recommend that readers dive into this book with little to no context. It is a perfect example of what Sporror is and should be. I cannot advocate for this book enough!

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterward return again.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Explore the world of hoarding cleanup & mushrooms with our narrator Paul. He is a bit of a lost soul, alone and lonely in the world. The latest house he cleans begins to change Paul, drawing him into a network of connection unlike any other.

“Cancer, coronaries, Covid, or cholesterol may claim your family and friends, but throughout this turmoil the pile remains, year after year, decade after decade, a stable point in a swiftly turning world. Nothing is ever lost. The pile preserves everything intact.”

I loved the author’s prose; examining loss, clutter, and body horror in such poetic ways. I felt the other characters were a bit static, I would’ve loved to know more about them. Also why they didn’t seem to be affected by the same influences/biological factors as Paul.

“Most wept and wept, clinging to discarded water bottles, unpaid electric bills, plastic FroYo spoons, a dead dog’s collar, HBO Guides, flannel shirts, clay pots. Little china cups. Trash, maybe, but sometimes trash is all you have to cling to. All you have left to love.”

While I did overall find this book fairly sad and depressing, the ending brought peace to the narrator and closure to the reader. I definitely appreciated that.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Stelliform Press for a copy.

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I found a lot to love in You Will Speak for the Dead — just enough fungal research to feel authentic without being overwhelming, combined with smart pacing choices made this a quick and entertaining read. While Paul and his coworkers’ characterization felt weak at times, perhaps this is appropriate given that one of the book’s primary themes is subsumption, loss of selfhood, gain of something beyond.

While this subsumption was reflected increasingly toward the end of the novella, it lost a star for the internal monologue moments toward the first half especially. These were chatty, Paul nudging and winking at the reader, and really shook me out of the story. Why do I need Paul explaining implied themes to me, and why can’t I experience the creeping and deliciously icky vibes of the story on my own?

Overall, this book was at its best when it simply let its slimy strangeness run wild, explaining nothing, letting the carpet be carpet until the horrifying alternative is made manifest. Though i think this could have been a great book were it not handing information to readers on a platter, it is still a very good book, especially if you’re looking for a one-sitting spooky read.

[Michelle Godard-Richer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick, unique, and slightly creepy read perfect for October reading. I liked the premise of Paul's character struggling with grief and guilt associated with disposing of things belonging to someone who has passed away. His character had a great backstory and baggage, but the plotting just didn't completely come together for me towards the end.

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.A. Busby's short novella, 'You Will Speak For The Dead,' is a heart-breaking and deeply moving meditation on loss and memory, mediated through some well-crafted horrifying imagery of body horror. Centrally placed is the cleaning of a hoarder's house, a task that proves to be the beginning of a radical yet mysterious transformation for one of the cleaners: 928 Avirosa is more than a house; the home of an old female expert on mushrooms, yet a home hosting a massive and rapidly growing structure of branched, tubular filaments of fungi - the air carrying fungal spores, the floor covered by a fungal carpet. Enter Paul and his cleaning team. Paul starts hearing voices. He's growing "body carrots." Things seem to change and the changes progress quickly. But this is not a standard fungal infection: it's an infection of memory, of life, of sentience.

Thankfully, the author kept the botanical context at a minimum, avoiding long-winded explanations of scientific jargon. Instead, she goes deep into Paul's mind, almost unfolding his brain network for all to see and appreciate, turning the story into a travelogue of memory corridors which reach deep into the fungal sentience. And what Paul finds there complicates things, but also provides relief, compassionate understanding, empathy. A meeting of minds and souls and lives.

I would unreservedly recommend to everyone giving this a read. It won't resonate with horror readers only. The prose is gorgeous, the visuals sweetly nightmarish, the story's ambition fully realized with expertise and confidence.

Thank you to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the chance of an early read. All opinions are my own.

[Sam Rock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was a novella when I first started reading and this isn't what I usually read, but I really enjoyed the story!! The writing is excellent. I found the story relatable - yes, even though I'm not a hoarder or a gay man - while also being funny and creepy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our main character Paul clears out houses for a living. His mother died, his boyfriend left him, he is a bit of a mess. It quickly becomes obvious that the newest clearing of a hoarder house is not the usual job. They walk on a fungal carpet, mushrooms grow everywhere inside of the house. The elderly lady who lived in the house has disappeared.

You probably guessed it by now, we have a bit of a sporror story on our hands.

Considering that this story is only 85 pages, it took its sweet time to get going. It started off as a very slowly moving look into the world of hoarding. It was a little boring. Until about a third into the story it turned to sporror and briefly to creepy body horror. It mellowed out again after those „yuck“ moments.

The blurb mentions a creeping sense of Paul feeling invaded, of powerful connections to foreign memories, of the house being alive… all that fell flat for me. Paul was much too complacent and accepting for any of it to have much of an impact on me. He wasn’t worried much or inquisitive and neither was I. I finished the book last night and barely remember how it ended.

There were some charming bits in between, about Paul keeping mementos from houses he cleaned, about dealing with loosing his mother and boyfriend, but overall this was just ok.
🍄‍🟫🍄🍄‍🟫

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

[Mother Suspiria]

YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD by R.A. Busby is an examination of what drives our compulsions, effective (& horrifying) body horror, & a moving, life-affirming rumination on loss. This is a fantastic novella that is ultimately a deeply felt and fun(gi) story of connections. HIGHLY recommend.

[Kay Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Busby is a new author for me, but immediately became a favorite. I've already started a collection of her other works on my TBR list.

This was a unique story and so disturbing. It could have been a great story, but it needs to be fleshed out a lot more. There is clearly severe talent here, but a much better editor is needed to guide it.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really liked the idea of writing about grief and hoarding, how even the most random or insignificant objects can be linked to memories. how grief changes one’s perception of what is important. and why not talking about interconnectivity and how we never lose anyone because everyone and everything is linked (a bit overdone - but why not)


HOWEVER i think i would’ve enjoyed the book if there was less fungus growing on someone’s balls. i mean maybe its just me but i don’t think fungus and dicks should 1 - go together 2 - be such a big part of the book. the descriptions were focused on the physical sensation of fungus on paul’s body, which i feel didn’t serve the story that much.

the book had very touching and well written moments of the story but they were interrupted with octopussy, and descriptions of paul’s balls ; "my guys" "down there" "christ i hope my nuts didn’t explode or something" i mean what? some descriptions of the house as well as the sensation of being in that environment were really well thought out and worked really well - but i was always taken out of the story by the fungus on paul’s body ("skin carrots")

i had high hopes at the start of this book, i thought this would be a dark, intense reflection on what place objects hold in our lives. instead i got mushrooms or octopus tentacles growing out of a guy’s balls, and quoting ‘love is strange’ by mickey and sylvia (come here loverboy, oooooh loverboy - yes i’m being serious)

direct quote from the book "my dick and balls we’re still hanging around like always, and the relief felt so palpable i cried. Good boys. Good staying." 🫥

another quote from the book : "Cleaning is a profoundly intimate act. Clean someone’s house and you will learn them. You will touch what they touched, learn what they read, what they ate, what they showed, what they concealed. What they gave up. What they could never quite let go."

it almost feels like two different writers worked on this book, that’s how weird the difference is between the well-written parts of the book, and the moldy, ball-obsessed parts of it.

[Finn (on hiatus)]

Hmm I don't think I'll rate this one. This was my first time reading an ebook in a long time, which really impacted my experience. I really struggle with the format for some reason (which sucks because it would be so much more convenient to carry around an e-reader than massive books), so it's hard for me to tell if what I disliked are true issues or if it's just from me being unable to fully pay attention because I find reading on a screen very distracting 😅
There were some really cool and gross parts in this novella. I felt like the tone was really strange at times (in a bad way). But yeah, I don't feel impartial enough to fully review and rate this so check it out for yourself! It's a very short read!

[NerdMuffin (Regina) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book! I have been loving the fungal horror that has been popping up lately (such as What Moves the Dead) and You Will Speak for the Dead did not disappoint. Along with the creeping horror of finding out you are no longer alone in your body, there is the crushing loneliness so prevalent in today's society. Despite the original feelings of disgust and alarm, Busby provides us with a surprisingly uplifting and hopeful message.

ARC received from Netgalley.com

[Cam · Rating 2 out of 5]

PLEASE STOP REFERENCING TIKTOK IN BOOKS!!
While this had the opportunity to be an incredible botanical body horror short story , unfortunately this book was the epitome of telling instead of showing. Making it impossible to become immersed in the world, which is disappointing considering it's potential. Not only that, but the writing was like a 50 year old man intensely telling me a story about something that happened at work, and so it also *felt* like I was listening to a 50 year old man intensely telling me a story about something that happened at work, and not like a horror story.
To be honest, this book lost me at the first mention of TikTok.

[Just Another Final Girl Review (Brittany) Levely-Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When someone leaves or dies, we say we lost them, but in the pile, nothing is lost. Things will never leave you, never abandon you, never die. The pile isn’t going anywhere you see, most folks cord for one big reason: response to major trauma. Every hoard, like every human is unique and each one is a monument loss.”

Paul is a co-owner in small local house cleaning company that specializes in cleaning the homes of hoarders, and is about to find out that the hoarding in 928 Avirosa will make this clean unlike any other home he’s ever worked before. The elderly biologist who owned the home seems to have taken the idea of bringing her work home with her literally, and literally seems to have lived with it as the entire home is infested with mushrooms and fungus and the team has just one week to clean it up well she’s off visiting relatives. digging through the house Paul reflects on why we hoard, how trauma can cause us to replace people who leave us with things, and how he struggles with letting things go.
He begins to take things home with him from the house but unfortunately doesn’t know just how much he is keeping and just exactly the extent of what he’s keeping. In addition, the biologist missed her flight and seems to have disappeared. Can they find the clues in the house to where she may be?

“This Thank you story, you understand is a sort of spore, a tiny living thing shed out into the world. And maybe it will light on you, and you will breathe it in, and you will make it part of who you are. And you will speak for the dead.”

Genre:
General adult fiction
Horror
Novella

Loved the way that R.A. busby wrote this novella. By choosing to use first person narration, we see the story unfold through the eyes of Paul as he personally struggles with some of the issues that he believes leads to hoardering. How we are affected by grief and our inability to let go of the past can lead to our memories and belongings becoming personal jail cells.

Themes:
-loss
-memories
-letting go vs hoarding/keeping things
-death
-grief
-love
-family

“ She’d built a fortress of possessions…and all of it a monument to memory, a testament to grief. So much grief. So many things, and everything an absence.”

For fans of:
House of Rot by Danger Slater
The Last of Us

Thank you at Stelliform Press for sending me an arc copy of this book. I love it, definitely would recommend this read and it’s a book I will definitely end up reading again!

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though short, YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD packs so much feeling into its tiny body. I knew I had come across something special when I picked this up at an Indie bookstore, but I wasn't expecting the writing style that it offered.

Busby uses her expert writing to create an eerie atmosphere that was both immediately captivating and horrifying. Hoarding has always been something that has grabbed my attention, which I'm pretty sure was born from years of watching those 2010s shows of hoarders being buried alive. But Busby took this already difficult topic and added a bit of a "what-if" gruesomeness to it. You never know what you will come across when you enter a hoard and this book truly reminds you of that.

I wasn't expecting the body horror. When it first started, I had to put the book down for a bit. It made me so deeply uncomfortable and I'll be honest, I haven't read a lot of horror books that have done that to me. But seeing the MC grow things on his body was an experience.

And the way it was all written? Poetry. Honestly, I am a fan of authors who use the power of words and syntax to portray the distress of a situation, or a deterioration of someone's mental health. This experimentation is something I love to see in horror because it really helps (me) feel the distress of the situation. It takes me out of what I was previously falling into the story and plunges me into a moment where I start to question what I'm reading--this lack of cohesion in what I'm used to reading worked super well in this book.

Anyway, read this book if you love horror--especially if you like horror novellas that have the power to really twist you up. It's such a wonderful little hidden gem of a book. 🍄

Happy reading!

[Jessica (Read book. Repeat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can find this review and all my others over at Read Book. Repeat

Paul Simard's life isn't what he dreamt it would be. After his mother dies and his partner leaves, all that he has left is his hoarder house cleaning business. When he gets a job to clean out the house of an elderly biologist, it's not the fungal carpet or the mushrooms growing around the place that weird him out. It's the voice in his head. There's something alive and it's trying to tell him something...

This one sounded so interesting, and I was right, it was. I loved that it had the slow building dread of horroresque themes, but it was also bittersweet as well. This was more than just one genre and trying to put into words exactly what it is, isn't working for me. There was body horror, grief horror, and a feeling of paranormal horror as well. But there was also bittersweetness, hope and connection too.

Apparently, body horror gets to me. The body horror in this isn't even that bad, but it did make me a bit ewwwwwwww, at times haha. I found the story took a turn I wasn't expecting, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I wasn't expecting grief horror, the horror elements in the story weren't super in your face, but I feel that worked perfectly for what it is.

I really enjoyed the characters; Busby endeared every single character to me in a story that was 80 odd pages long. That is nothing to sneeze at, some authors can't do that in a full-length novel let alone a book of less than 100 pages. I really felt for Paul, and I also really felt for the biologist. I loved that we got to learn about her and have her present as a character in the way that she was.

I honestly don't want to say too much more about this because I feel that it's a story best experienced with what you are given from the blurb. Just know, this tale surprised me in a few different ways, and I recommend it. I'm off to find more of Busby's work now.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In You Will Speak for the Dead, all Paul Simard really has going for him is his hoarder house cleaning business, and even that gets turned upside down when he arrives at 928 Avirosa, the home of an aging biologist. Beyond the typical hoard, 928 Avirosa is filled with fungi. In the carpet, in containers, in books, and, quite possibly, in Paul himself.

I've never read R.A. Busby before, but was quickly drawn into Paul's world by her prose. Given that this is such a short novella, I don't want to give too much away. But I do want to share that, while this novella contains some pretty gnarly body horror and utterly creepy depictions of mushrooms, it also captures a really profound sense of love and also grief.

Overall, this little novella packs a real punch on a surprising number of themes, and I enjoyed digging into Paul's psyche. Thank you to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the eArc of this one!

[ladybreww · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wild ride. I went in somewhat blind. It was short and gross and so incredibly unique. There's a fun combo of psychological horror and body horror (my fave) so if you're into that definitely pick this up. At times I was like what the heck am I even reading and what is this about - but the journey was so fun. I loved the interludes of.... we will call them voices. Added to the creep factor. Plus the hoarding house concept is an automatic ick. I kind of knew where it was going but the ride to get there was nuts. I took an extra long and scrubby shower after this. I definitely need to check out more by this author. It's been a while since a horror really hooked me and this one did for sure.

Thank you for the advance copy! 🍄‍🟫

[Dr CG · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You Will Speak For the Dead” by R.A. Busby was definitely a strange read. Right from the start, there’s this surreal vibe with mushrooms and some pretty unsettling body horror that left me a bit uncomfortable. It’s not a genre I usually go for, but I stuck with it because the heavy, sad undertones of the story really drew me in. There’s this emotional weight to it that kept me intrigued, but honestly, the overall weirdness was a bit much for me. The mushrooms and the way they were tied into the plot just made it too bizarre for my taste. Still, it had an interesting, if haunting, depth.

Thank you, NetGalley, for a chance to read this short story in exchange for an honest review.

[Reia Pande · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️ This was such a strange, disturbing, nasty and absolutely addictive read! The writing was spectacular, hooked me from page 1 and never let go. I devoured it in less than an hour and would happily have continued reading more. This is a very bizarre story with disgusting body horror, but I also laughed out loud multiple times. Highly recommend!

[Madison Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars. Wow. What even…. this book deals with hoarding, grief, loneliness, change and evolution in unexpected ways. Yet it manages to be heartbreakingly horrid and grossly funny. Oh and it scatters a bunch of random movie references throughout the book.

[Ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC!

I will forever be haunted by the phrase "skin carrots". I love plant horror and body horror, so combining them into such a surprisingly emotional story was a huge win for me.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mushroom horror just hits different.

[︎​𓆩Shawnee𓆪 · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Nothing is created or destroyed, Paul. Only changed.”

Was expecting this to be more nasty than what it was.
Still a decent read.

[LeAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Mike Wenzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is horror at its best. Creepy and scary but life-affirming. I loved it so much.