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Grief Eater
Not yet published
Expected 1 Jun 26Visceral, gritty, and unforgiving, GRIEF EATER is a zombie story like you’ve never read before.
When Kristina rises from her violent death, she’s not the same fragile woman her family once abandoned. She’s rageful, powerful, and hungry—for the blood of the ones who were supposed to love her. With a newfound craving to see vengeance and grief served, she launches into a once-in-an-undead-lifetime journey across blood-slicked highways to the scorched Australian bush and her hometown. As her body fails and her mind fractures, she’s left with one final question: Is she here to forgive, or to feed?
A transgressive, gory examination of queer identity and found family, GRIEF EATER sinks its teeth into trauma and what it means to be devoured by grief.
Advance Praise for Grief Eater
“Grief Eater is a scathing rebuke. And yet it has so much heart. Every line of Osborne’s gorgeous prose is a knife that cuts like a balm. Lyrical, constantly surprising, essential—Grief Eater takes a familiar genre and transforms it into something entirely new.” —Cadwell Turnbull, award-winning author of the Convergence Saga
“This story will not spare you. It will reach into your chest and eat your heart. Osborne writes with brutal clarity about abuse and betrayal, about the queer joy and chosen family that will help you survive it. About how love and a quest for vengeance can be strong enough to move the dead. I’ve never read anything like it.” —K Tidbeck, author of Amatka and Jagannath.
“Grief Eater is an embodied, sensory experience: screaming, snarling grief; monstrous hunger; the desire for answers that can only be found in blood. Horror at its finest, as glorious, gory relief and release.” —Angela Meyer, author of Moon Sugar
“Soaked in blood and loss, Grief Eater is a bittersweet tale that is redolent with the transformative closure that comes after confronting painful trauma. A visceral and unflinching read!” —Suzan Palumbo, author of Skin Thief: Stories and Countess
When Kristina rises from her violent death, she’s not the same fragile woman her family once abandoned. She’s rageful, powerful, and hungry—for the blood of the ones who were supposed to love her. With a newfound craving to see vengeance and grief served, she launches into a once-in-an-undead-lifetime journey across blood-slicked highways to the scorched Australian bush and her hometown. As her body fails and her mind fractures, she’s left with one final question: Is she here to forgive, or to feed?
A transgressive, gory examination of queer identity and found family, GRIEF EATER sinks its teeth into trauma and what it means to be devoured by grief.
Advance Praise for Grief Eater
“Grief Eater is a scathing rebuke. And yet it has so much heart. Every line of Osborne’s gorgeous prose is a knife that cuts like a balm. Lyrical, constantly surprising, essential—Grief Eater takes a familiar genre and transforms it into something entirely new.” —Cadwell Turnbull, award-winning author of the Convergence Saga
“This story will not spare you. It will reach into your chest and eat your heart. Osborne writes with brutal clarity about abuse and betrayal, about the queer joy and chosen family that will help you survive it. About how love and a quest for vengeance can be strong enough to move the dead. I’ve never read anything like it.” —K Tidbeck, author of Amatka and Jagannath.
“Grief Eater is an embodied, sensory experience: screaming, snarling grief; monstrous hunger; the desire for answers that can only be found in blood. Horror at its finest, as glorious, gory relief and release.” —Angela Meyer, author of Moon Sugar
“Soaked in blood and loss, Grief Eater is a bittersweet tale that is redolent with the transformative closure that comes after confronting painful trauma. A visceral and unflinching read!” —Suzan Palumbo, author of Skin Thief: Stories and Countess
94 pages, ebook
Expected publication June 1, 2026
1 person want to read
About the author
Emma Osborne
11 books12 followersEmma Osborne is a queer fiction writer and poet from Naarm Melbourne, Australia. Emma’s writing has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Shock Totem, Apex Magazine, Queers Destroy Science Fiction, Pseudopod, the Review of Australian Fiction, the Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, GlitterShip and WASTELANDS 3 edited by John Joseph Adams.
Emma is a graduate of the 2016 Clarion West Writers Workshop and are an Aurealis and Australian Shadows Award finalist.
Their debut novella “Grief Eater” is forthcoming at Interstellar Flight Press. They currently live in Sunbury with their girlfriend and three wonderful cats. You can find Emma on BlueSky at @redscribe.
Emma is a graduate of the 2016 Clarion West Writers Workshop and are an Aurealis and Australian Shadows Award finalist.
Their debut novella “Grief Eater” is forthcoming at Interstellar Flight Press. They currently live in Sunbury with their girlfriend and three wonderful cats. You can find Emma on BlueSky at @redscribe.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Wow, a lot of this was quite painful to read.
This story is sad, tragic and dark.
But not in a typical thrilling zombie apocalypse fashion. It is way heavier psychologically, honestly to the point where I ended up being mostly un-phased by the physical, gorey elements.
Which is strange for me to say about something like this!
I am intrigued by the concept of death system here.
Books about zombies that are self-aware, remember their past life, and have real emotionality are few and far between- but will always be something I can get behind.
Kristina is just so incredibly easy to root for from the very beginning. I mean, given her story- I think you basically have to be somewhat invested in her journey.
I am leaving this story feeling… sad. and also kind of empty.
Partially from the overall mood of the story, and partially because there isn;t a super-defined “happy” ending, where all is well. (but, really, why would there be? It isn’t in the nature of what’s happening here)
But I am not dissatisfied with that experience… if that makes any sense!
I think the feeling I received is well-aligned with the intention.
So that is a job well-done.
Thank you to Netgalley, Interstellar Flight Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Members’ Titles and author Emma Osborne for providing me with the eARC of “Grief Eater”, in exchange for my honest review!
Publication date: June 01, 2026
This story is sad, tragic and dark.
But not in a typical thrilling zombie apocalypse fashion. It is way heavier psychologically, honestly to the point where I ended up being mostly un-phased by the physical, gorey elements.
Which is strange for me to say about something like this!
I am intrigued by the concept of death system here.
Books about zombies that are self-aware, remember their past life, and have real emotionality are few and far between- but will always be something I can get behind.
Kristina is just so incredibly easy to root for from the very beginning. I mean, given her story- I think you basically have to be somewhat invested in her journey.
I am leaving this story feeling… sad. and also kind of empty.
Partially from the overall mood of the story, and partially because there isn;t a super-defined “happy” ending, where all is well. (but, really, why would there be? It isn’t in the nature of what’s happening here)
But I am not dissatisfied with that experience… if that makes any sense!
I think the feeling I received is well-aligned with the intention.
So that is a job well-done.
Thank you to Netgalley, Interstellar Flight Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Members’ Titles and author Emma Osborne for providing me with the eARC of “Grief Eater”, in exchange for my honest review!
Publication date: June 01, 2026
Displaying 1 of 1 review