Decomposition Book

by Sara van Os

"A slippery page-turner that's as profoundly beautiful as it is totally unhinged."
—Rachel Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Play Nice and So Thirsty

"Intense, irreverent, surprising, raw."
—Natalia Theodoridou, author of Sour Cherry

An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost, for fans of Mona Awad, Yellowjackets, and weird girl fiction.

Spiraling from a disastrous falling-out with her best friend, Savannah retreats to her parents’ empty lake house in upstate New York to tend her wounds. Isolated and reeling from rejection, she spends her days in a fog, drinking and overthinking in equal worrisome measure. Until she wakes up one morning in the woods behind the house—next to a dead body.

Instead of calling the police, Savannah reads the journal she finds nearby, reliving the last desperate months of this woman’s life lost in the wilderness, fighting for survival. Ava, as it turns out, is more than just a cold, lonely corpse. She was funny. She was smart. And Savannah has finally found someone she can talk to…

As she pushes deeper into Ava’s harrowing story, Savannah notices a change, a shift in her reality. Each page brings her closer to the Ava from the journal…and the ghost before her now. Before long, Savannah feels something for Ava she hasn’t felt for anyone else—and there’s a good chance letting go would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Is Savannah finally losing her grip? Or has she found the friend she’s needed all along?

Genres: Horror, Queer, LGBT, Adult, Fiction, Lesbian, Horror Thriller

Audible Audio

Expected publication May 19, 2026

Reviews

[luceski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing says “self‑care” like waking up beside a corpse and accidentally gaining a free therapist.

Decomposition Book is one of those stories that sneaks up on you - darkly funny, deliciously descriptive and quietly devastating. It opens with a hike gone wrong and spirals into a reality‑bending duet between Ava (who is very much decomposing) and Savannah - who is very much not okay.

Two POVs, two unraveling minds and one emotional‑support corpse she definitely didn’t sign up for.

Savannah’s intrusive thoughts? Relatable. The way their realities start to blur and intertwine? Chef’s kiss chaos.

If you like your fiction a little weird, a little tender, and a little decomposing around the edges… this one’s for you!

[Nikki Lee (Nikkileethrillseeker) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️ RTC. Audio is great

[Clara Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is THE novel for fans of Yellowjackets, especially if you’re looking for homoerotic hauntings, a compelling survival narrative, lesbian repression, and mentally ill young woman coping.

Von Os’s stunning debut follows Savannah, a 21 year old on a semester off collage due to a dramatic fall out with her manipulative ex-best friend currently staying at her mom’s house in the woods. Her days consist of her waning away the hours until she can take her Ambien at midnight, usually by self-medicating with wine, until after one night of mixing the two when she wakes up next to a dead girl, Ava, in the forest. However, Savannah can’t make herself report the body. She makes herself a promise: she’ll call the cops about the body when it is fully decomposed, taking the time in between to read the mysterious journal left behind.

I was obsessed with both perspectives in this novel, especially Ava’s. Van Os’s prose is spectacular and she conveys such feeling in her imagery. This novel also has lots of brilliant lesbian feelings, both sad and sweet, that just really made me love it all the more. Definitely more atmospheric than scary, but not a bad thing when done well, which this one definitely does! I can’t wait for May when I can shove the physical version into everyone’s hands. Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!!

[LX · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for the E-ARC

4.5 ⭐ Rounded up!

This was a wild ride from start to finish. I was enthralled, confused, invested, wondering, laughing, grimacing you name it!

Honestly, best thing to do is go in blind! LOOOOOL unhinged but also with heartfelt, relatable moments.

The way that I felt Savannah was written throughout her story was great because the struggle felt real as well as the spiral we go on. As well as reading about Ava and Megan's development. One part got me just looking away from my phone like oof okay.

The blur further on in the story is really one that just leaves you wondering wtf is going on in the best way!

Some parts I preferred than others and I do sort of wish there was more to help me settle my questions but that's just me!!!

Truly a weird, wild and a great ride of a debut!!

[Erin Larson-Burnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

To put it as eloquently as I can, this book is a major cringefest and not the good kind

[Casey Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book blind, all I knew was that the cover had me sold. I didn't know what to expect, but what I didn't expect was such an emotionally intense story. It's really weird, and simultaneously really sad. It has occasional humorous moments with some of the references to Twilight and Finding Nemo and such, which means it will land with some and not with others. At its core, this is really about loneliness, trauma, and mental health. Savannah is in such a low place and so desperate for a friend, that when she discovers a corpse in the woods, instead of reporting it, she befriends it. Ava will listen without judgement. I am not going to say much, the book actually leaves me feeling bereft and not wanting to write a lot. While Savannah might be an extreme case, it does make me sad to know that people feel this lonely and this despondent. I did really enjoy it, because I like weird and sad things, but it won't be for everyone. Major TW on grape, btw.

Thanks to The Hive for providing an early ALC. The audio was well done with dual narration. Book releases 5/19/26.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to be devastated… this is the one! Def one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. So if weird + sad is your vibe, this is gonna be an easy 5/5.

The author’s writing is funny and reads like talking to an old friend. The plot is beautiful enough and will break your heart without the need for fluff or purple prose. I think most of the target audience will see themselves in either Ava or Savannah, which makes the book even more painful to get through. Yet another recent read with fantastic OCD rep!

So, what would you do if you stumbled across a corpse in the woods? Inspect it? Report it to the authorities?? Bury it?! Run away and pretend you never saw it!!? Our MC is so lonely that she decides to befriend and deeply bond with it. That’s the plot, enjoy.

Thank you so much to the author, Sara van Os, for sending me a digital copy! It will become widely available on 05.19.26 and is one that I’ll be constantly ruminating on until I receive a physical copy for reread<3

[saturnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’ve been given the opportunity to receive this arc in exchange of an honest review: i planned to dnf this however i wanted to see it out and i ended up reading it all

honestly at first i was hooked and then it got fever dream heavy. i liked savannah and there were certain lines that hit home especially when she’s kind of announcing how lonely she feels, however she annoyed me really quick i didn’t really see a point in her perspective anymore after a few chapters she just felt so annoying & pointless.

i enjoyed the writing within Ava’s story and how she wrote her life within the journal it was an interesting plot line that i don’t think i’ve seen done before.

the writing was not bad but it also was not the best…why are we mentioning “looking at the solar eclipse like trump”, “scrolling on Tiktok” “WAP by cardi B” and so much more it just felt disappointing reading i literally couldn’t do anything other than eye roll it did not belong in the book whatsoever there are so many analogies that could’ve been used also trigger warning a phrase using the word “r*pist” was used when michelle had put her legs on savannah early on no idea why ?? but was uncomfortable after there was like no reason what so ever to put that line there.

the writing with ava though again was good! she was the only plot and character i liked in the sense of writing it flowed it was fast & it didn’t feel like a bore to get through.

the story then just got weird out of nowhere, it felt like one of those horror lit fic books kinda like bunny..but the opposite where you literally don’t know what you’re reading anymore because so much is happening and so much rambling is going on.

savannah has some sort of illness and sees her ex bestfriend michelle someway somehow? she’s obsessed with death and at some point starts talking to you the reader (i really got confused here bc it happened outta nowhere). i honestly don’t even know how to explain her character 3

i’m sad this book wasn’t as good as i hoped the plot had so much potential but i hope others enjoy it more than i did & wishing the author best of luck in their next !!

thank you to harper collins / harlequin trade publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review !

[Lorin (paperbackbish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Sara and Hanover Square for my free copy of Decomposition Book by Sara van Os — out May 19!

» READ IF YOU «
🪲 have a high tolerance for visceral body horror (yummy)
🌲 love a queer survival story with some emotional gut-punch
👻 prefer your trauma healing to be deeply weird

» SYNOPSIS «
Spiraling after a brutal fight with her bestie, Savannah wakes up in the woods literally NEXT TO a dead body—so she calls the police, right? Right?! Well. First she's got to read the body's journal, of course. According to it, Ava got lost in the wilderness with some friends and she's ended up right here. Ava, it turns out, is much better company than anyone Savannah has left.

» REVIEW «
The audacity!! DE-composition book?! Sara. I think I love you. The alternating structure—Savannah's increasingly unhinged reality, alongside Ava's journal entries from her final days in the Adirondacks—is so brilliantly executed. Both women are grieving and falling apart in wildly different ways, but it's so compelling to watch their pain become a transformative force.

The body horror does not hold back, and I mean that as a compliment. The truly grotesque details of decomposition have some real weight, especially when you actually sit and think about what this would look/smell/feel like. Savannah's attachment to Ava as her corpse gradually rots is uncomfortable, but kind of beautiful? It really says so much about what healing from trauma looks like when you feel you've no one safe to do it with. A wildly confident, wholly original debut—Sara, you've got me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Kendall Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decomposition Book surprised me in the best way. Truthfully, I was so annoyed with our main character at first that I wasn’t sure if I was even going to like this one at all. Her choices seemed beyond wild, her internal monologue was a bit childish, and she was just unlikable in general at first. However, as the story progressed, what she did and her actions really started to make sense.

This gorgeous, raw, profound novel is hard to characterize, but the best way I can think of is grief horror with LGBTQ themes and a tinge of weird girl lit. We have multiple POVs with two heart wrenching and tragic stories weaved together, aligning perfectly to have you gutted by the end.

The audiobook was done flawlessly. The narrators Jess Nahikan and Gail Shalan performed this story incredibly well, and I would absolutely recommend consuming this book in an audio format.

Thank you @netgalley & Harlequin Audio for this ALC!

[thatmillenialbookgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this one sounded interesting to me.
Morbid but interesting! Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of this book.

Savannah's parts were very repetitive and honestly not much happens so you're in her head a lot, which is quite exhausting. She has OCD so I understand the repetition, l really do. It just wasn't very interesting being in her head so much and I wasn't invested in her chapters. There are a lot of pop culture references that really made me cringe and took me out of the story. I wasn't a fan of the humor.

I would have DNFed if not for Ava's chapters (Ava is the woman whose body Savannah discovers). Ava's chapters are excerpts from a journal she had been writing about what happened after she and some coworkers got lost in the forest and are trying to survive. I felt more invested in Ava's story as I do tend to have an interest in wilderness survival stories (even though in this case we learn very early on that Ava obviously doesn't survive).

The story is entertaining and mostly held my interest (at least Ava's chapters did). I was hoping for a few big twists but honestly it mostly played out the way I expected. This one does have lots of rave reviews so far though so take my review with a grain of salt! I do think a specific type of reader may really enjoy this story especially if you appreciate weird girl lit and pop culture references.

[Amanda Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

This is a funny, freaky little book that I did very much enjoy. It just had some issues that I thought maybe weren’t issues and were going to turn into a twist. And I was a little disappointed when that didn’t happen. The ending falls a little flat instead. But overall, this is still very entertaining, extremely millennial coded, and a great debut.

[Anni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one, a blend of survival thriller, mental health suspense and pop culture humour. I listened to the audiobook and loved the narrators, Jess Nahikian and Gail Shalan.

Ava’s chapters were my favourite; I loved how she was portrayed in the face of horror, and I was desperate to hear more of her story. Savannah, on the other hand, was a truly insufferable nepo baby, but the humour carried her through.

I genuinely couldn’t put this book down. It’s perfect ‘weird girl fiction,’ and I’m already looking forward to finding more books like this.

[Shae Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

5⭐️

[Lorrie Ness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Isolated in her family’s cabin, Savannah takes leave from college to care for her mental health following a traumatic event with a friend. Plagued by guilt, betrayal and OCD (made even worse by the trauma), Savannah seeks relief through alcohol and Ambien and wakes up in the woods next to a corpse. After reading the journal she finds with the body, she learns about Ava’s months-long fight for survival, lost in the woods.

Standard protocol for finding a dead body usually involves calling the police. But the thing about Ava is, her personality leaps off the page as Savannah reads her journal. And she quietly listens. No judgement. With Ava, Savannah is safe to bear her soul and connect with another woman in a way that never risks rejection or pain.

So…no cops. Savannah is in too fragile a state to let the opportunity to connect with Ava go. She needs all the friends she can get, even if it’s a corpse. But after a couple of weeks reading the journal and visiting Ava’s body, something happens that causes her to deeply question her own reality and the plot becomes tightly anchored around this.

This story is a unique blend of survival horror and weird girl lit that fans of Bunny by Mona Awad and Hysteria by Jessica Gross would adore. Personally, I felt this leaned more heavily toward weird girl lit than horror. Check this one out if you are drawn to stories with messy characters who society might consider “unhinged,” but who have personal wounds driving their decisions, which you will come to understand and empathize with as the novel progresses.

Don’t go into this novel expecting heart-pounding action. It’s a slow-burn, psychological story rooted in just two locations, Savannah’s cabin and the woods behind the property. The plot progresses through reading Ava’s survival journal and through Savannah’s interiority and flashbacks related to trauma. The story features incredible depictions of OCD, and an amazing author’s note about this and other topics that should not be skipped!

It very much feels like a story anchored in the pressures of our times and the toll our modern world takes on mental health and wellbeing. It feels adjacent to the experience of younger generations and maybe not one that’s as recognizable to someone who grew up decades ago.
This debut grabbed me by the throat and shook! I will absolutely be looking for the next work by Sara van Os!

This story explores sensitive topics. Some characters use slurs that could be triggering. There are also frank discussions of assault, death, grief and scenes involving body horror.

[Danielle Strona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Audio, for the ALC in exchange for an honest review!

Savannah is reeling after the devastating fallout with her best friend, so she retreats to her parents’ remote lake house to pick up the pieces. Along and untethered, she fills her days nursing the wounds left and wandering around the property and into the woods, until she wakes up one morning in the woods next to a dead body. Panicked and unsure of what to do, Savannah doesn’t call the police. Instead, she finds a journal lying next to the girl, Ava, and begins to read it. Through its pages, Ava comes back to life: not just as a body in the woods, but a fully realized person with fears, desires, and a story that led her to that final moment. As Savannah becomes consumed by Ava’s words, she feels an unexpected connection growing between them. But the deeper she dives into the journal, the more her reality begins to shift. Each page pulls her close to Ava, until Ava is no longer on paper, but a presence Savannah can’t escape. As the lines between grief, obsession, and something supernatural begin to blur, Savannah is left questioning whether she’s unraveling or finally finding the connection she’s been searching for all along.

I couldn’t put this story down once it picked up momentum. The dual perspectives, Savannah’s in the present and Ava’s through the journal, were great. It showed a whole new perspective that helped to understand why characters made the decisions that they did. If you’re a fan of Yellowjackets, you’ll likely find a similar appeal in this story, with its mix of psychological tension, complex female relationships, and creeping unease. The audiobook experience also added another dimension entirely. Both narrators delivered great performances that captured the raw emotion and sadness in each character, making the tension feel immediate and real.

I love Savannah and feel deeply sympathetic towards her character. She’s isolated, grieving, and clearly searching for a connection in a world where she feels abandoned. Her attachment to Ava is unsettling, but also understandable in its own way. The story explores themes of loss and mental health with care, even when it leans into ambiguous territory. But by the end, I felt both satisfied and heartbroken. It closes on a note that feels fitting for Savannah’s journey, and it’s one that lingers long after the final word. Overall, I highly recommend this book!

[Sammantha (its_a_literary_life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one completely caught me off guard in the best way! This debut left me feeling somber and empty and I think speaks volumes for mental health, trauma, grief, and surviving yourself.

Van Os dives headfirst into the morbid and the metaphorical. Savannah, staying at her parents isolated vacation home and healing from personal trauma, wakes up beside a dead body in the woods, and instead of reporting it, she proceeds to read the departed woman’s journal while the corpse literally decomposes in the forest. What ensues is a strange, uneasy blend of psychological introspection, queer longing, and creeping unreality.

Healing is not linear and I think this book shows that. It’s cyclical and messy.

I will say in the beginning I was more intrigued with Ava's story but as the story developed I kept thinking about what was real and not through Savannah's perspective. The blurb says this is "darkly humorous" and I find the eggshell sharp humor here to be far and few.

The lake front setting is both isolated but seemingly beautiful in spite of the decaying corpse in the woods. Idk but the cover is even beautiful in a morbid way in my opinion. I was both creeped out and emotionally moved with the story by the end.

The queer representation and self destruction is seen from both perspectives. I found Savannah to be almost wallowing in self pity until I found out what happened between her and Michelle.

It's told in alternating perspectives from Savannah in the present to Ava's past and what led her to her death and I think it kept the story moving forward nicely.

There’s something genuinely affecting about the way loneliness, grief, and queer desire get woven through surreal horror.

If you are a fan of weird girl fiction, Yellowjackets, and Mona Awad’s brand of unsettling, genre-blurring storytelling, you HAVE to pick this up.

4.5 stars

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written from 2 different POVs, our narrators break our hearts while stripping down to the ugly, gruesome, and manic truth that lies inside of our minds. Reading this felt voyeuristic at times as we delve deep into the mind of Savannah who is ravaged with grief, OCD, paranoia, and a longing to be loved.

As an audiobook, this was top-notch in every way possible. The dual narrators did an exquisite job of differentiating between the 2 characters both in tone and overall personalities. The deeper, slower paced voice of Ava paired next to the higher-pitched, franticly chaotic voice of Savannah gave a depth to each character that I truly feel made this a superb listen.

Savannah has taken a break from school to spend time focusing on healing from a traumatic experience, staying in a family cabin by herself in upstate New York. One night after some drinking and taking an Ambien, she wakes up the next morning in the woods next to a body. What unravels next is the story of the body, Ava, as told through her journal entries of what happened to her and her co-workers to ventured out camping and ultimately did not survive.

Part gruesome and boldly horrific, part devastating and gut-wrenchingly beautiful, Van Os explores love, loss, and mental illness in a raw and unrelenting way. A bold new voice that will forever be an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Audio for this advanced listener’s copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are left voluntarily.

[Frankie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

Decomposition Book by Sara van Os has such an interesting premise and on the surface seems like my exact kind of book, but unfortunately this one just really didn’t work for me. It’s split into two perspectives - Ava, who’s trying survive in the wilderness after getting lost while camping, and Savannah, who’s discovered Ava’s dead body.

Unfortunately, I was WAY more invested in Ava’s story than Savannah’s, but at the same time, neither had the emotional pay off that I wanted because I didn’t get time to feel super connected to either of them. Their character voices were both quite similar and read so much younger than they were supposed to be. There was also a tone shift at some point - I won’t spoil the specifics of it but if you know you know - but it felt so wildly out of place from the rest of the novel that it fully caught me off-guard and I don’t think had the emotional impact it was supposed to.

Overall I just felt this was a little flat. There were a lot of good ideas and the potential for interesting twists but it just needed refining. Savannah is dealing with trauma and in the middle of a mental health crisis, and I think there was a lot of good and important discussion there, and if the book was more focused I think it could have hit me really hard. I don’t think this was a bad book at all and I think a lot of people will love it, sadly it just wasn’t for me.

If you enjoy survival stories, weird girl horror, and and explorations of grief/trauma/mental illness through magical realism I think you should give Decomposition Book a go!

Thanks so much to Sara van Os, Dead Ink Books, and NetGalley for providing an arc of the book!

[The Morbid Mama ☠︎︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I have something real, for once, in a world where everything unpleasant can just be scrolled past.”

This book was as hilariously unhinged as it was tragically beautiful. I felt like my emotions were put into a soda bottle, shaken up, and exploded all over the place. I seriously relate to Savannah so much. I constantly feel like I need to be/act normal and win everyone’s approval and be loved. You feel like you have to conform and adjust to everyone else’s palettes, when in reality being yourself truly is enough. And if people don’t like it? Fuck them. As for Ava? Omfg 😭 reading about her everything her and her friends endured completely WRECKED ME. I couldn’t even IMAGINE trying to survive for months in the wilderness. Were there also some parts making me wonder if I was gay and should leave my husband? Yes absolutely there was.

Finally, I want to give a HUGE thank you to the beautiful @saramcclairnet for quite literally the most beautiful book I’ve ever owned! I still have not recovered from being able to have this opportunity in the first place. I am so SO grateful for you 🥹

Decomposition Book will be released on MAY 19TH!!! So if you haven’t already, PRE-ORDER THE DAMN BOOK, FOOL!

[Brittany K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darkly hilarious, entirely too relatable (besides the corpse hoarding, of course) and utterly heart wrenching- Decomposition Book is for those of us who can’t resist some weird girl fiction!
Oh, the corpse hoarding? Yea, I guess I should explain that part.
I didn’t expect a story about a girl who wakes up next to the body of a deceased hiker and does *not* call the cops but instead chooses to visit the dead body while reading the said hiker’s journal to tug my heartstrings so much. But alas, this book has wormed its way right into my heart.
Now I know that sentence sounded insane, but our main character Savannah is precious to me. She’s incredibly lonely, a little lost, probably losing it, and has the most relatable OCD intrusive thoughts and inner monologue I’ve ever read.
As Savannah reads Ava’s Decomposition Book detailing her time lost in the woods, Ava becomes more than just a corpse and almost like the friend she so desperately needed; making it even harder to let her go.
I love this book with my whole heart and totally understand it won’t be for everyone, but it was definitely meant for me 🫶🏻

[Christy]

This was set to be one of my favorites of 2026, I was loving the initial chapters, especially Ava's POV. BUT let's not mention DT in books because WTF? Completely out of place and made me not want to finish this book at all.

[Shelby Bubenchik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come after I’ve recovered 🥲

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like the show Yellowjackets, you should definitely give Decomposition Book a read!
Savannah is taking time off from college for a mental health reset - time with nothing to do but watch movies, avoid the obsessive compulsive thoughts, and take a walk in the woods.
One morning she wakes outside with no recollection of how she got there - or how the deceased body next to her is there. After deciding to allow decomposition to take place before reporting the body, Ava begins to investigate. What she’s unsure of throughout the novel is: has she officially lost ties to reality?

I really enjoyed the premise of the book since it’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever read. Savannah and Ava were both strong characters so I didn’t find myself rushing through either POV to get back to the other as soon as possible. A strange, unique, heartfelt, and humorous- a psychological thriller addressing themes much deeper than “who dunnit“?

[fiona ☁️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

🫀 soundtrack 🫀

adrianne lenker - zombie girl
radiohead - climbing up the walls
placebo - meds
pj harvey - rid of me
bugsy - recluse
marika hackman - violet
spill tab - angie
daughter - party
palehound - flytrap
hayley williams - my limb
mitski - francis forever
chokecherry - ripe fruit rots and falls
museum mouth - bugeyed
fiona apple - i want you to love me
viagra boys - worms
shoe - evie
hole - miss world
paramore - (one of those) crazy girls
spiritualized - all of my thoughts
anna waronker, craig wedren - no return

🌿 my thoughts 🌿

if you like the show yellowjackets, this book is for you. if you like the show yellowjackets and there's at least a tiny bit of a shauna shipman apologist slumbering inside you (yes, even after season 3), this book definitely is for you. if you like the show yellowjackets and have clocked the vibes between jackie and shauna from the first time they even looked at each other, this book might just become your latest obsession.

i have read my fair share of books that are pitched as "for fans of yellowjackets!!!!", and out of all of them, this one is genuinely the closest to the show in terms of vibes and feeling and all-about sapphic messiness - and i mean this as the biggest-possible compliment. we follow savannah,  who's taking a "mental-health break" from college, completely alone, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, spiraling on and on about a mysterious falling-out she's had with her former best friend. which already sounds like the worst time ever tbh, but it takes a turn for the completely unhinged when she wakes up in the woods next to a random girl's corpse, with no recollection of how she or the corpse got there. with the dead girl, however, is a notebook, and inside the notebook is the story of what happened to her. and savannah, already extremely unstable, not only starts getting invested in this story, but also begins to grow concerningly attached to the corpse..

🫀 what i loved 🫀

• this book really nails the underlying sense of dread and impending doom that especially the first season of yellowjackets excels at. for the longest time you have only a very vague idea where things could be going, but no matter what will happen, you know it will be gloriously fucked up.

• DOOMED YURI DOOMED YURI DOOMED YURI. and also unhinged yuri. the dynamics between savannah, her ex-best friend michelle, ava the corpse and her work crush megan who got lost in the woods with her are all SO jackieshauna coded it's not even funny. naturally i ate it all up (pun very much intended).

• savannah, the protagonist, has OCD - as have i. personally i'm always a bit wary when comes to its representation in media, because many people still have no clue how this disorder works, how many different shapes it can take and how deeply it can affect one's quality of life. however, over the past couple of years i've come across a handful of books that unexpectedly have really good OCD rep, and this is one of those books. it really delves into how OCD can completely mess up your perception of what's real - as well as your entire concept and understanding of self -, and savannah's trains of thought really resonated with me.


🌿 some criticisms 🌿

• the tone was very millennial/elder gen-z humor and full of random pop culture references, which sometimes worked for me and sometimes didn't. i also fear this part of the book can only resonate with people who have been on a very specific side of the internet when they were teenagers - which i was, fortunately, but some of it still made me cringe or completely took me out of the story. example: there's a literal line that goes "i was panicking at the disco", which is something i might've unironically said in 9th grade, but reading it in the big 2026 was a bit jarring ngl.

• i wanted more out of the ending. it builds and builds and builds only for things to just.. end ?? i'm all for open endings, if they feel fitting, but here it just seemed like something was missing.

• i have absolutely nothing against spicy scenes in books, but here they kinda came out of nowhere for me and took me off guard a bit. idk, it just didn't really fit with the vibe of the rest of the book for things to get this level of sexy all of a sudden (imo !!).

these things aside, i still had a tremendously good time with this book, and i think the right audience of sapphic weird girls will feel the same. consider the hole that yellowjackets s3 has left in me at least a little more filled.

🫀

big thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. all thoughts are my own.

[Annelise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Suffering from crippling OCD and a brutal end of a childhood friendship, Savannah is spending this semester at her family's lake house upstate until she feels ready to return to college. She encounters the corpse of a woman in the woods, along with a composition book where she recorded the events leading to her demise. Savannah makes a routine out of visiting the woman's body and reading her journal, learning that her name was Ava, and the corpse's presence becomes therapeutic, being one of the only things to stave off the haunting images of Savannah's ex friend Michelle. Savannah promises to alert the authorities of Ava's body by the time her flesh rots away and she's just bones, but her spiraling mental health leads her into darker places.

'Decomposition Book' has a great title, some great ideas, and a questionable execution. The chapters alternate from Savannah's point of view to what she's reading in Ava's notes. Ava and two work friends, Chad and Megan, went on a camping trip in upstate New York, where they became lost in the woods and stranded for months. It's definitely the more interesting of the stories, with higher stakes and characters speaking to each other, but you might notice early on that something's a bit weird about what Ava is writing--it isn't a journal she writes in daily to recount the events of their lives surviving in the wilderness, but something she has written a while after getting lost and the situation has taken a turn for the worst. It's not a spoiler that her time in the woods ends with her death--we meet her as a corpse first, after all--but it takes away from the 'survival' aspect when we're getting these updates with quips about how things will only get worse.

While Ava's chapters have the ongoing story of her survival in the woods, Savannah's chapters lack much momentum other than her growing obsession with Ava. This isn't a terrible idea, as Savannah has some trauma she's trying to heal from, but the downtime in her chapters leads to either annoying pop culture references or, and I hate to say this about someone who is dealing with a serious mental illness, whining. I've had abusive friendships before, so I'm sympathetic to what when down between her and Michelle, but her constant ignoring of any methods to improve her condition makes me more frustrated with her than sympathetic to her current state.

I hate to be that person, but was it really necessary to drop a hard r slur in this book? Sure, it was a quote from Savannah's abusive ex-friend, but I still flinched hearing it in the audio book. I know that word is seeing an unfortunate comeback, but anyone who says it just sounds like some edgy republican to me. Also, Savannah makes a joke about JK Rowling being transphobic, but then spends the rest of the book being ridiculously gender essentialist! Penises are gross things that gross men have, unlike women who have beautiful vaginas, and also thinking women are attractive makes Savannah feel like a gross penis man instead of a beautiful vagina woman. Again, Savannah has some pretty specific sexual trauma that is revealed later, but it's unfortunate for a book from a queer perspective to equate genitals with gender.

I'm willing to admit that this book is aggressively not for me--it's being compared favorably to Mona Awad's 'Bunny', of which I also wasn't a fan--but I think there are some admirable risks taken. The main character is a weird freak, and I can see that being a draw even if I found her more frustrating than appealing. Still, I found there were too many unfortunate decisions that made me uncomfortable... and it was nothing to do with the corpse-hoarding.

[FaithfulReviewer (Jacqueline) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Bolinda Audio, the author and NetGalley for an LRC in return for an honest review.

Sara van Os has managed to produce a haunting, unhinged debut novel elevated by phenomenal narration. This is one of those rare books where the prose, the structure and the narration all come together to create something completely immersive - and slightly destabilising in the best possible way.

Jess Nahikian and Gail Shalan deliver exceptional performances. They don’t just narrate the story - they embody it. Every shift in tone, every fragment of thought, every moment of emotional intensity is delivered with precision. This is one of those audiobooks where the narration genuinely elevates the entire experience.

The story itself is strange, dark and deeply unsettling. Savannah, reeling after a traumatic betrayal and assault, retreats into isolation - only to discover a dead woman in the woods. Instead of reporting it, she begins reading the woman’s journal, forming a connection that becomes increasingly intense and unhinged as reality begins to blur.

This is not a plot-driven novel. It asks for a certain suspension of disbelief - not in the traditional sense, but in the sense that you have to accept that reality is unstable here. Time stretches, distances collapse and the boundaries between characters begin to dissolve. If you try to read this literally, parts of it won’t make any sense at all. But if you lean into the emotional logic, everything clicks into place.

The wilderness timeline, for example, feels deliberately distorted - less about physical survival and more about psychological disorientation. Likewise, the relationship between Savannah and Ava can be read both literally and symbolically, which adds another layer of depth to an already complex narrative.

What really anchors the novel is its exploration of trauma, loneliness and the desperate need for connection. Savannah’s behaviour is extreme, but it’s rooted in something painfully real. The novel doesn’t handhold or over-explain - it trusts the reader to sit with discomfort and draw their own conclusions.

This is very much a marmite book. If you need tight plotting, clear answers and realism, then this will definitely not work for you. But, if you love voice-driven, emotionally intense and slightly unhinged fiction, this is absolutely one to experience.

A bold, confident debut with unforgettable prose - and one of the best audiobook performances I’ve listened to this year.

#DecompositionBook #NetGalley

[Christi Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 2 sittings- and only put it down the first time because I had to… I would have read it straight through- it’s incredible.

We start with Ava and her composition book- and she starts by telling us about a camping trip gone horribly wrong. She goes out on a “work” trip with Chad and Megan, they wander off the path (because Chad’s an idiot) and get lost in the woods- she’s recording their experience because she wants to make sure someone knows what happened to them in case they aren’t found-

Then we have Savannah, and she’s done exactly that- found Ava. She wakes up next to her body in the woods behind her family’s cabin. With no idea how Ava got there and no idea how she did either, she decides to read the notebook Ava has deemed the “DEcomposition book” and as Savannah learns what happened to Ava and her friends, we also learn about Savannah and the trauma that brought her to the cabin in the first place.

I think this book opened a door for me. After dealing with my share of grief and trauma, I had never thought about how others dealt with theirs. Ana is dealing with loss- so much of it from so many different directions. She’s making decisions to save her life. Savannah is trying to figure out who she is, come to terms with what’s been done to her, and work through her mental health. You sit with her and her intrusive thoughts, you feel how damaging they are for her, and you recognize the unhealthy way you’ve spoken to yourself in the past- but the beautiful thing about this book- you realize you’re not alone. As we sit with Savannah and Ava, we understand how they’ve coped with their varying levels of grief- we see the extreme measures they take to do so- but for me, it held a mirror in front of me, and gave me some space to forgive myself for the choices I made while trying to heal myself from a heart I didn’t break.

I think we all live with trauma, heartbreak, loss- and we all do things to try and heal ourselves. Those decisions are not always “healthy” or even sane, but we heal in our own way. Remember, you’re not alone. We’re all just trying to figure out who we are in this crazy world.

This is an exceptionally well written, expertly executed, and painfully beautiful story- definitely my favorite of the year so far.

Thank you NetGalley, Sara van Os, and HTP Hive for the privilege of reading this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decomposition Book is a novel about two young women brought together when one of them finds the dead body of the other. Ava went on a camping trip with two coworkers that didn't go as planned, and never came back. Savannah is staying in her parents' lake house in Upstate New York, reeling from a mental breakdown caused by an incident with her best friend and trying to treat her OCD with not always ideal coping mechanisms. When Savannah mixes a bottle of wine with Ambien, she wakes up next to a dead body: Ava's. And next to Ava's body is a notebook filled with the story of her trip, so Savannah starts to read, and realises Ava might be the girl of her dreams.

This novel is definitely the sort of weird fiction that will work for some people and not for others. Personally, I didn't really know what to expect from it going in, so I was pleasantly surprised by how dark it got. It is a novel that is both a queer survival in the wilderness story and a literary fiction exploration of someone with OCD, brought together through the wild plot line of finding a dead body in the woods and wanting to spend more time with that person.

The narrative is split between Ava's notebook recounting her time in the wilderness and Savannah's perspective, carefully timed so you find out things about Ava around the same time Savannah does in the story. This means that it feels fairly well balanced between them, though initially Ava's story is more gripping so I did find myself looking forward to those sections. However, as Savannah's side develops and you see more of how OCD is affecting her in different ways (for example, in her exploration of her sexuality), then that also becomes more engrossing. I wondered how the book could end given Savannah's fears about what would happen to her when it is discovered that she is hoarding a dead body, but I think that the ending is probably an effective way to focus more on the characters than having a narrative with lots of twists and turns.

I didn't know that this book was about queer characters and OCD before going into it, and that would 've been even more of a selling point for me. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I did choose to read Decomposition Book, for the fascinating way it combines its two narratives and how it makes them weird in a satisfying way.

[Stephanie B. •literaryland_livin• · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a devastating fallout with her best friend, a young woman retreats to an isolated lake house, hoping distance will quiet the noise in her mind. Instead, she wakes in the woods beside a dead body she doesn’t recognize and rather than run from it, she leans in. Through a journal left behind, she begins to piece together the life of the girl who died there, blurring the line between observer and participant. As the days pass, grief, obsession, and something far stranger begin to take root, until reality itself feels unstable like something softening, decaying, and slipping through her fingers.

This book feels like sinking into something you know you shouldn’t touch… and not being able to pull away. There’s a raw, almost feral intimacy to the way this story unfolds. It lives in that liminal space between loneliness and longing, where connection can become obsession before you even realize what’s happening. Watching Savannah attach herself to Ava through memory, through imagination, through something that almost feels like haunting was equal parts mesmerizing and deeply unsettling. The atmosphere is thick with decay in more ways than one. Not just physical, though that’s there in quiet, creeping detail but rather emotional decay too. Grief that lingers too long. Thoughts that spiral too far. Identity that begins to blur at the edges. It’s the kind of story where you’re constantly asking: is this real? but also… does it even matter if it is? The dual POV structure works beautifully layering past and present in a way that slowly tightens the tension. Ava’s voice pulls you in with a haunting clarity, while Savannah’s feels fragmented. Together, they create this eerie, intimate echo of each other that’s hard to look away from. And beneath all the strangeness, there’s something achingly human about it. A craving to be seen. To be understood. To hold onto someone even if it costs you your grip on reality.If you love emotionally driven horror, blurred lines between grief and obsession, and stories that feel a little unhinged in the best way… you’ll want to pick this one up. Just don’t expect to walk away from it untouched.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review. Decomposition Book releases May 19th, 2026.