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Needlemouth
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Expected 20 Oct 26Win a free print copy of this book!
13 days and 09:02:48
5 copies available
U.S. only
From the award-winning author of Bestiary, three cousins are forced to complete an impossible and violent task set by a vengeful demon.
Cousins Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy’s hot, tedious summer unfolds in their grandmother’s hauntingly familiar house. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online and exchanges emails with a stranger. Yangyang, the youngest, retreats into her own imagination in search of meaning. But every morning Cindy wakes with strange objects in her mouth: a button, a berry, a coin.
One night, a starved figure with a mouth the size of a needle-tip appears at Cindy’s bedside. She is hunger-afflicted, a demon with no descendants to feed from: she is Needlemouth. Part vampire, part hungry ghost, Needlemouth forces the girls into a grim task to end a man’s life.
Cindy, Yangyang, and Mindy are plunged in and out of the demon realm, where they are called to break out of the indifference and numbness of their claustrophobic worlds, and where they are met with the most rageful and resistant parts of themselves. In a quest to satisfy the demon’s hunger, they unravel their shared grief and reckon with the cyclical violence that shaped their family. For readers of Akwaeke Emezi and Carmen Maria Machado, K-Ming Chang has crafted a reimagined coming of age novel that asks: what does it mean to become the monster instead of slaying it?
Cousins Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy’s hot, tedious summer unfolds in their grandmother’s hauntingly familiar house. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online and exchanges emails with a stranger. Yangyang, the youngest, retreats into her own imagination in search of meaning. But every morning Cindy wakes with strange objects in her mouth: a button, a berry, a coin.
One night, a starved figure with a mouth the size of a needle-tip appears at Cindy’s bedside. She is hunger-afflicted, a demon with no descendants to feed from: she is Needlemouth. Part vampire, part hungry ghost, Needlemouth forces the girls into a grim task to end a man’s life.
Cindy, Yangyang, and Mindy are plunged in and out of the demon realm, where they are called to break out of the indifference and numbness of their claustrophobic worlds, and where they are met with the most rageful and resistant parts of themselves. In a quest to satisfy the demon’s hunger, they unravel their shared grief and reckon with the cyclical violence that shaped their family. For readers of Akwaeke Emezi and Carmen Maria Machado, K-Ming Chang has crafted a reimagined coming of age novel that asks: what does it mean to become the monster instead of slaying it?
288 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication October 20, 2026
About the author
K-Ming Chang
18 books717 followersK-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She is the author of the debut novel BESTIARY (One World/Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her short story collection, GODS OF WANT, is forthcoming from One World.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 21, 2026
My fellow weirdos, this one’s for you. The writing was wildly imaginative, and the female vampiric rage was such a killer concept.
There’s a lot here that feels strange, visceral, and completely unique in a hit or miss kind of way.
That said, there is a lot of talk about shit. And I mean a lot.
Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
There’s a lot here that feels strange, visceral, and completely unique in a hit or miss kind of way.
That said, there is a lot of talk about shit. And I mean a lot.
Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 13, 2026
An absolute fever dream of female rage.
Cindy, Mandy, and Yangyang have been dealt the same hand all the girls in their family have been dealt: a cultural history of misogynistic violence and only one option for a respectable life course, which is to align with men and continue the cycle of violence. This manifests in different ways for each of our characters - in Mandy its anger, in Cindy loneliness, in Yangyang surrender. Enter Needlemouth, who asks the girls, why are you willing to slowly kill yourself in this trap, but aren’t willing to kill to free yourself from it? Who asks us, what if the only way to escape patriarchal violence is to become a monster?
Now, when I say I read this book I mean my eyes looked at all the words in order. The writing is extremely abstract, more poem than novel, and I was often left feeling confused and unable to tell if what was happening was imagination, vision, dream, metaphor, or straight up lie (Needlemouth is kind of a trickster). It was hard for me to stay in the narrative when the shape of it was constantly shifting and there were some long, meandering stories in here where I fully forgot who was telling the story and why. I wish I could crawl into the author’s brain because whatever’s happening in there is really really interesting and innovative, but I’m not sure it translated. Instead, most of this book felt like an ayahuasca hallucination, just a flood of raw images and primitive symbology and violence. Also it was very gross. Like, smearing diarrhea on faces, skinning someone alive to wear their skin gross. I really loved the last 15% of this book where the narrative did come together well, but it was an act of perseverance to get there.
If this all sounds cool to you, definitely pick this one up. But maybe hire a shaman first.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!
TW: violence against children
Cindy, Mandy, and Yangyang have been dealt the same hand all the girls in their family have been dealt: a cultural history of misogynistic violence and only one option for a respectable life course, which is to align with men and continue the cycle of violence. This manifests in different ways for each of our characters - in Mandy its anger, in Cindy loneliness, in Yangyang surrender. Enter Needlemouth, who asks the girls, why are you willing to slowly kill yourself in this trap, but aren’t willing to kill to free yourself from it? Who asks us, what if the only way to escape patriarchal violence is to become a monster?
Now, when I say I read this book I mean my eyes looked at all the words in order. The writing is extremely abstract, more poem than novel, and I was often left feeling confused and unable to tell if what was happening was imagination, vision, dream, metaphor, or straight up lie (Needlemouth is kind of a trickster). It was hard for me to stay in the narrative when the shape of it was constantly shifting and there were some long, meandering stories in here where I fully forgot who was telling the story and why. I wish I could crawl into the author’s brain because whatever’s happening in there is really really interesting and innovative, but I’m not sure it translated. Instead, most of this book felt like an ayahuasca hallucination, just a flood of raw images and primitive symbology and violence. Also it was very gross. Like, smearing diarrhea on faces, skinning someone alive to wear their skin gross. I really loved the last 15% of this book where the narrative did come together well, but it was an act of perseverance to get there.
If this all sounds cool to you, definitely pick this one up. But maybe hire a shaman first.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!
TW: violence against children
Want to Read
April 4, 2026I used to pray for days like this (now let's hope my ARC request gets approved soon)
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Did Not Finish
June 7, 2026DNF,
i couldn’t handle the one character talking explicitly about shit
*ARC courtesy of netgalley*
i couldn’t handle the one character talking explicitly about shit
*ARC courtesy of netgalley*
June 20, 2026
Thank you to #NetGalley and #SimonBooks for the ARC of Needlemouth in exchange for my honest review.
I was very excited to read this take on a vampire/demon folklore story. Three young girls are approached by a vampiric demon, a “hungry ghost” looking for descendants to attach to and feed it. The premise sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me. If you’re good with unlikable characters, lots of body horror, very dark themes and immature fixations on feces- this may be a read for you.
Now, what I did like- the prose was often lyrical and poetic, even with its dark, macabre and disgusting tone. It often introduced a new perspective or a unique comparison or way of seeing/expressing something that I hadn’t seen before and appreciated. I also did like the evolution and trajectory of the character arcs (but it took a long time for me to get there).
What I didn’t like: Personally, I found all the characters to be unlikable; that in and of itself doesn’t mean I won’t like the book, but it does mean I need a good hook- something to invest me in what is going to happen to those characters. I just didn’t get that in this book. For being only 238 pages, it was just such a slog. For the first 30% I’d push myself to stay engaged and when I put it down I really had to convince myself to pick it back up again. The story is told through the POV of three main characters - young girls. Their age isn’t specifically defined but their voices/maturity levels are inconsistent - sometimes they seem like they are 8-10, sometimes they seem like their late teens early 20s with the language, topics and awareness. Plus- there’s a lot of sexualization of the girls, a lot of talk/knowledge about sex that just feels really icky. Perhaps it’s part of the built in horror of the story- but sexualizing children is a hard no for me. Also, in the beginning of the book, there is an unnecessary intense focus on feces- Mindy is obsessed with thinking about eating it, smearing it all over herself and doing other things with it. It’s distracting, and added to the challenges I had with remaining engaged.
I like horror with layered and /or nuanced themes. The book does get better as you progress through it and the end is satisfying but unfortunately, for me, I think a lot of what was presented in the first third of the book overshadowed the book’s deeper themes- how this culture viewed and valued women and the misogyny, dysfunctional families, loss of self and autonomy as a result of marriage, generational traumas, mental health/ suicidal ideation, loneliness and the need to connect/fit in/be accepted.
I was very excited to read this take on a vampire/demon folklore story. Three young girls are approached by a vampiric demon, a “hungry ghost” looking for descendants to attach to and feed it. The premise sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me. If you’re good with unlikable characters, lots of body horror, very dark themes and immature fixations on feces- this may be a read for you.
Now, what I did like- the prose was often lyrical and poetic, even with its dark, macabre and disgusting tone. It often introduced a new perspective or a unique comparison or way of seeing/expressing something that I hadn’t seen before and appreciated. I also did like the evolution and trajectory of the character arcs (but it took a long time for me to get there).
What I didn’t like: Personally, I found all the characters to be unlikable; that in and of itself doesn’t mean I won’t like the book, but it does mean I need a good hook- something to invest me in what is going to happen to those characters. I just didn’t get that in this book. For being only 238 pages, it was just such a slog. For the first 30% I’d push myself to stay engaged and when I put it down I really had to convince myself to pick it back up again. The story is told through the POV of three main characters - young girls. Their age isn’t specifically defined but their voices/maturity levels are inconsistent - sometimes they seem like they are 8-10, sometimes they seem like their late teens early 20s with the language, topics and awareness. Plus- there’s a lot of sexualization of the girls, a lot of talk/knowledge about sex that just feels really icky. Perhaps it’s part of the built in horror of the story- but sexualizing children is a hard no for me. Also, in the beginning of the book, there is an unnecessary intense focus on feces- Mindy is obsessed with thinking about eating it, smearing it all over herself and doing other things with it. It’s distracting, and added to the challenges I had with remaining engaged.
I like horror with layered and /or nuanced themes. The book does get better as you progress through it and the end is satisfying but unfortunately, for me, I think a lot of what was presented in the first third of the book overshadowed the book’s deeper themes- how this culture viewed and valued women and the misogyny, dysfunctional families, loss of self and autonomy as a result of marriage, generational traumas, mental health/ suicidal ideation, loneliness and the need to connect/fit in/be accepted.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Cindy wakes each morning with something in her mouth such as a needle, a coin, or a bird. It's delightfully weird. Just the sort of thing I like. She is living with her aunts and her cousins Mandy and Yangyang.
Cindy doesn't remember her parents or where she came from. She comes to this house every summer, but doesn't remember any previous summers. She discovers a room in the house she's never noticed before. I have dreams like this, so this felt very dreamlike to me. Being in the room gives her the urge to hurt herself.
Her cousin Mandy once covered herself in excrement to repel other people. There's actually a lot of scatological references throughout this novel, so if that sort of thing grosses you out, you probably should avoid this. Also, don't read this if you want to avoid references to self-harm.
The novel alternates between the viewpoints of Cindy and Mandy and also includes sections told by the demon Needlemouth who has a needle for a mouth and leeches for lips. Yangyang rarely gets a viewpoint chapter and doesn't have much of a personality. She's rather passive and content to just follow others. Her worst nightmare is never dying, which is actually my worst nightmare as well.
When they were younger, Mandy would give Cindy impossible tasks such as picking up her shadow to test her loyalty. Like Mandy, Needlemouth gives Cindy an impossible task: to kill her father who's already dead. It's interesting that demons appear in the form of seagulls and live at a dump, rather than the fiery Hell demons typically dwell in.
There's occasional alliteration and sing-songy rhyme throughout which gives the novel a playful feel, even though it's horror. Too much of this would have gotten annoying, but I don't think the author overdid it. There are also a few funny lines here and there, although the humor is mostly people misunderstanding one word for another such as confusing patricide with pesticide. I did enjoy the wordplay when the characters are told instead of leaving something behind, they should leave something ahead.
It feels like the novel was written with a female audience in mind. Castration is played for laughs. Mandy believes all men deserve to die. She says she would kill any boy just for existing. Cindy also says she's always despised men. Needlemouth wants her father to die seemingly just because he's a man. Needlemouth also thinks her mother is weak because she refused to torture an innocent boy to death. Simply being born male seems to be a crime worthy of death in the world of this novel.
To be fair, the novel takes place in a culture that considers daughters worthless, so it makes sense women in this world would hate men. However, completely reversing things and promoting the message that all men are worthless doesn't feel like a corrective so much as a mirror image that's just as bad as what it's trying to critique.
Cindy doesn't remember her parents or where she came from. She comes to this house every summer, but doesn't remember any previous summers. She discovers a room in the house she's never noticed before. I have dreams like this, so this felt very dreamlike to me. Being in the room gives her the urge to hurt herself.
Her cousin Mandy once covered herself in excrement to repel other people. There's actually a lot of scatological references throughout this novel, so if that sort of thing grosses you out, you probably should avoid this. Also, don't read this if you want to avoid references to self-harm.
The novel alternates between the viewpoints of Cindy and Mandy and also includes sections told by the demon Needlemouth who has a needle for a mouth and leeches for lips. Yangyang rarely gets a viewpoint chapter and doesn't have much of a personality. She's rather passive and content to just follow others. Her worst nightmare is never dying, which is actually my worst nightmare as well.
When they were younger, Mandy would give Cindy impossible tasks such as picking up her shadow to test her loyalty. Like Mandy, Needlemouth gives Cindy an impossible task: to kill her father who's already dead. It's interesting that demons appear in the form of seagulls and live at a dump, rather than the fiery Hell demons typically dwell in.
There's occasional alliteration and sing-songy rhyme throughout which gives the novel a playful feel, even though it's horror. Too much of this would have gotten annoying, but I don't think the author overdid it. There are also a few funny lines here and there, although the humor is mostly people misunderstanding one word for another such as confusing patricide with pesticide. I did enjoy the wordplay when the characters are told instead of leaving something behind, they should leave something ahead.
It feels like the novel was written with a female audience in mind. Castration is played for laughs. Mandy believes all men deserve to die. She says she would kill any boy just for existing. Cindy also says she's always despised men. Needlemouth wants her father to die seemingly just because he's a man. Needlemouth also thinks her mother is weak because she refused to torture an innocent boy to death. Simply being born male seems to be a crime worthy of death in the world of this novel.
To be fair, the novel takes place in a culture that considers daughters worthless, so it makes sense women in this world would hate men. However, completely reversing things and promoting the message that all men are worthless doesn't feel like a corrective so much as a mirror image that's just as bad as what it's trying to critique.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you,Simon & Schuster and NetGalley, for the chance to read this book early in exchange of an honest review.
Cindy, Yangyang and Mandy are spending their summer at their grandmother's house, with their aunts. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online with strangers, Yangyang takes refuge in her fantasy and Cindy in her loneliness. But every morning, Cindy finds in her mouth something weird: a coin, a bird, a button. Until one night a demon called Needlemouth appears at her bedside. She hungers for blood and connections and Cindu gives them to her, bonding herself to the demon and forcing her and her cousin into a quest to satisfy the demon's request: find and kill her father. Between nightmares and kindnappings, puppeteers and wishes, stories told by Needlemouth and the POVs of the three cousins, the story develops itself. A story about violence and womanhood, cycle of violence in the family and how to break it, grief and a coming of age.
Needlemouth's prose is the most peculiar I've ever read. Hypnotic, bold, lyrical, something hard to follow and understand, filled with metaphors and similes. The story follows Cindy, Mandy and Yangyang in their quest and the demon's presence in their lives and it's a story of motherhood, what it means to be a woman in a world ruled by men, cyclical violence in their family, shared grief, loss and rage. It's a story about rage and loneliness, it's a coming of age, it's a story about a strong bond between cousins and what they would do for one another.
Needlemouth is very, very graphic. Blood, poop, bones, skinning people alive and so on, are all present in this book.
It's not an easy read. The prose is too flowery, too convoluted and the plot complicated, so it was hard understanding the story and following the characters between nightmares, realities and alternative dimensions.
It was hard for me to read, but that's my personal opinion. I struggled and for that I won't give a high rating. This book wasn't for me, but I'm sure many will love it.
Cindy, Yangyang and Mandy are spending their summer at their grandmother's house, with their aunts. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online with strangers, Yangyang takes refuge in her fantasy and Cindy in her loneliness. But every morning, Cindy finds in her mouth something weird: a coin, a bird, a button. Until one night a demon called Needlemouth appears at her bedside. She hungers for blood and connections and Cindu gives them to her, bonding herself to the demon and forcing her and her cousin into a quest to satisfy the demon's request: find and kill her father. Between nightmares and kindnappings, puppeteers and wishes, stories told by Needlemouth and the POVs of the three cousins, the story develops itself. A story about violence and womanhood, cycle of violence in the family and how to break it, grief and a coming of age.
Needlemouth's prose is the most peculiar I've ever read. Hypnotic, bold, lyrical, something hard to follow and understand, filled with metaphors and similes. The story follows Cindy, Mandy and Yangyang in their quest and the demon's presence in their lives and it's a story of motherhood, what it means to be a woman in a world ruled by men, cyclical violence in their family, shared grief, loss and rage. It's a story about rage and loneliness, it's a coming of age, it's a story about a strong bond between cousins and what they would do for one another.
Needlemouth is very, very graphic. Blood, poop, bones, skinning people alive and so on, are all present in this book.
It's not an easy read. The prose is too flowery, too convoluted and the plot complicated, so it was hard understanding the story and following the characters between nightmares, realities and alternative dimensions.
It was hard for me to read, but that's my personal opinion. I struggled and for that I won't give a high rating. This book wasn't for me, but I'm sure many will love it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Needlemouth contains all the elements I typically love in a book: surreal body horror, claustrophobic tension, family violence, and a hazy folktale atmosphere. I approached it expecting full immersion, but instead I found myself kept at a distance. K-Ming Chang has a talent for crafting vivid, unsettling imagery, and there are moments where the grotesque and lyrical merge in a way that’s genuinely striking. However, for me, those moments never coalesced into something emotionally or narratively satisfying.
I don’t require literary horror to be neat or traditional, but I do need it to feel purposeful and to progress toward something meaningful, and this book never quite achieved that. The atmosphere is dense, strange, and sensory-rich, which I can see appealing to certain readers. If you’re interested in symbolism, body horror, and dreamlike abstraction, there’s plenty here to admire. Still, I found myself wanting more from the story, more from the characters, and a stronger emotional payoff than the book ultimately provided.
Ultimately, Needlemouth struck me as a work I could appreciate more in theory than in practice. Its lush, surreal style veered from evocative to overwhelming, and what should have felt dreamlike often felt shapeless. I wanted this book to resonate more deeply, but instead I found myself admiring its parts more than truly enjoying the reading experience.
I don’t require literary horror to be neat or traditional, but I do need it to feel purposeful and to progress toward something meaningful, and this book never quite achieved that. The atmosphere is dense, strange, and sensory-rich, which I can see appealing to certain readers. If you’re interested in symbolism, body horror, and dreamlike abstraction, there’s plenty here to admire. Still, I found myself wanting more from the story, more from the characters, and a stronger emotional payoff than the book ultimately provided.
Ultimately, Needlemouth struck me as a work I could appreciate more in theory than in practice. Its lush, surreal style veered from evocative to overwhelming, and what should have felt dreamlike often felt shapeless. I wanted this book to resonate more deeply, but instead I found myself admiring its parts more than truly enjoying the reading experience.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Needlemouth is disturbing, surreal, and impossible to stop thinking about. The writing feels more like a fever dream than a traditional novel. It's poetic, messy, violent, and deeply emotional. Cindy, Mandy, and Yangyang each grapple with identity, loneliness, anger, and the expectations forced onto women, and their struggles felt painfully human even through all the horror and abstraction.
This book will absolutely not work for everyone. It’s graphic, confusing at times, and intentionally disorienting, but that’s part of what made it so effective for me.
Needlemouth herself is both monstrous and sympathetic, and the final reveal completely changed the way I viewed the entire story. Strange, haunting, and genuinely unforgettable.this. I love the psychological mind fuck that is Asian horror. The end wrapper up SO insanely well it had me staring at the wall. I'm not going to lie, it lost me for a little bit towards the end but once you hit the twist it brings everything together and makes so much sense and made the long cheaper/side story absolutely worth it.
Thank you to NetGalley the ARC!
This book will absolutely not work for everyone. It’s graphic, confusing at times, and intentionally disorienting, but that’s part of what made it so effective for me.
Needlemouth herself is both monstrous and sympathetic, and the final reveal completely changed the way I viewed the entire story. Strange, haunting, and genuinely unforgettable.this. I love the psychological mind fuck that is Asian horror. The end wrapper up SO insanely well it had me staring at the wall. I'm not going to lie, it lost me for a little bit towards the end but once you hit the twist it brings everything together and makes so much sense and made the long cheaper/side story absolutely worth it.
Thank you to NetGalley the ARC!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Needlemouth is the story of three girls, all cousins, and the ghost/vampire that haunts them, aptly named Needlemouth. This ghost needs these girls to become her descendants in order to free her from her everlasting hunger; she must eat through a mouth the size of a needle and is never satiated.
I really loved the premise of this, Needlemouth was such an eerie character. However I felt it hard to feel attached to the girls, and the story felt excessively long and slow. I also felt like there was a lot of sexual or just weird scenes (I say this as a weird lover) that would take me out of the books plot.
However, the prose was also lyrical and beautiful, there are so many quotes I wish I could share (a lot about family/ancestry, girlhood, loss) but since this is an ARC I cannot.
If you are a weird girl who loves lyrical, nightmare-like reads, I would definitely recommend this! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eArc.
Needlemouth is the story of three girls, all cousins, and the ghost/vampire that haunts them, aptly named Needlemouth. This ghost needs these girls to become her descendants in order to free her from her everlasting hunger; she must eat through a mouth the size of a needle and is never satiated.
I really loved the premise of this, Needlemouth was such an eerie character. However I felt it hard to feel attached to the girls, and the story felt excessively long and slow. I also felt like there was a lot of sexual or just weird scenes (I say this as a weird lover) that would take me out of the books plot.
However, the prose was also lyrical and beautiful, there are so many quotes I wish I could share (a lot about family/ancestry, girlhood, loss) but since this is an ARC I cannot.
If you are a weird girl who loves lyrical, nightmare-like reads, I would definitely recommend this! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eArc.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
*Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the e-ARC!*
This book is so many things - the writing is poetic and haunting, the story gripping and twisting, and the characters are relatable in ways I didn’t expect. Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy are struggling to find themselves and their purpose, and I found the way their conflict, their confusion about the world, was written to be easy to connect with, especially if you look at yourself in the mirror some days and think “what even is that?” Needlemouth herself is fascinating, both horrible and easy to empathize with. Her testimonies are easily my favorite parts of the book. There were some moments where I had to reread to fully follow, but in general, I think Needlemouth is well written and a great read for any woman frustrated by the assigned roles of women in this world.
This book is so many things - the writing is poetic and haunting, the story gripping and twisting, and the characters are relatable in ways I didn’t expect. Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy are struggling to find themselves and their purpose, and I found the way their conflict, their confusion about the world, was written to be easy to connect with, especially if you look at yourself in the mirror some days and think “what even is that?” Needlemouth herself is fascinating, both horrible and easy to empathize with. Her testimonies are easily my favorite parts of the book. There were some moments where I had to reread to fully follow, but in general, I think Needlemouth is well written and a great read for any woman frustrated by the assigned roles of women in this world.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
violent imagery blended with a slow-moving, reflective plot. really enjoyed the eerie, elongated feel to the writing, and it made the scenes with Needlemouth/the mother more exciting compared to just the inner thoughts of the girls.
I didn't particularly love the storyline, but i loved the main themes of family trauma, resentment within a family, and the way that we are all connected in a family whether we want to be or not!
the writing was really good, but again it was just a little too slow/long to hold my attention for longer than an hour at a time. this definitely falls within the realm of "introspective horror" rather than the usual horror subgenres i read, so this was a great book outside my comfort zone.
would recommend to those who enjoy toxic family dynamics, creepy imagery and slight body horror.
thank you to Simon Books for the arc 🖤
I didn't particularly love the storyline, but i loved the main themes of family trauma, resentment within a family, and the way that we are all connected in a family whether we want to be or not!
the writing was really good, but again it was just a little too slow/long to hold my attention for longer than an hour at a time. this definitely falls within the realm of "introspective horror" rather than the usual horror subgenres i read, so this was a great book outside my comfort zone.
would recommend to those who enjoy toxic family dynamics, creepy imagery and slight body horror.
thank you to Simon Books for the arc 🖤
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I'm really not sure what to think of thos book. It was written quite poetically which is lovely but also didn't keep my interest considering I thought this was a horror novel. There certainly are horrific things and gruesome descriptions which were done well, yet I felt detached from the scenes. Other reviews say this reads like a fever dream and I have to agree. I think that can work sometimes but I just don't think it worked for this story. I should have been unsettled and disturbed by the Needlemouth character but the writing seemed to lessen her affect.
Maybe I just didn't "get it"
Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy
Maybe I just didn't "get it"
Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
if you enjoyed "organ meats" then this will have you in the same type of chokehold. honestly knew i'd be doomed (in a good way) from the entry page's clarice lispector quote, as well as the first line of the story - "i wake up every morning with my mouth broken into."
excuse meeee? gosh 🩶
truly enjoyed this rage-filled novel by one of the best current authors out there. many thanks to simon & schuster for the early eARC.
excuse meeee? gosh 🩶
truly enjoyed this rage-filled novel by one of the best current authors out there. many thanks to simon & schuster for the early eARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
what a strange fever dream of a book. this book really exemplifies female rage, generational trauma and the horrors of being a woman. the book had many uncomfortable moments and thought provoking writing but story itself was very strange and slow. I had a really hard time reading this at the end of the day because I kept falling asleep.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3.5 stars - ARC from NetGalley
Fever dreamy, rage against the patriarchy, trauma filled, unsettling
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBFRT8QJ/
Fever dreamy, rage against the patriarchy, trauma filled, unsettling
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBFRT8QJ/
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A visceral and unsettling horror novel that blends body horror with a powerful exploration of womanhood, memory, and generational trauma.
I will be posting my full review on Release Day!
I will be posting my full review on Release Day!
Did Not Finish
June 26, 2026DNF. Couldn't get into this at all.
July 6, 2026
Initial review, full one to come.
Why did they take a perfectly good horror novel and literally ruin it with literal shit?? Y’all there’s so much poop in this book. So much.
Why did they take a perfectly good horror novel and literally ruin it with literal shit?? Y’all there’s so much poop in this book. So much.
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